Southview Amateur Show May 2011

After getting Pete back to full fitness, we took him to Southview on Saturday to see how he went.

I entered him in the 1m Amateur Grand Prix Qualifier, to allow us to compete in the 1m and 1.10m Grands Prix on the Sunday. The qualifer was a two phase and when I walked it I thought it looked rather large for 1m, but I reasoned that it was probably because neither of us has been out jumping for the best part of 2 months!

Anyway, he jumped a great round which was only marred by my mistake of adding one stride too many down a related distance, which made him too deep for the fence and he had it down. So despite rider error, Pete jumped very well and I was happy for us to take him back for the Sunday.


We returned to Southview on the Sunday to jump the 1m and the 1.10m Grands Prix. The 1m was actually more straightforward than yesterday, and Pete was jumping well until the double where he jumped in a little forward and had the second part down. He has such a big stride that I really must work on containing his canter into a double to stop him making up too much ground.

In the 1.10m, I was not riding at my best at all, I allowed Pete to get long and flat and he had the first fence down. I then unfortunately allowed my nerves to take over, stopping riding forwards and getting him in too deep at some of the fences. I decided to retire at fence 9 as I was not confident in the round. Hopefully, this is just a temporary blip and we will soon be back on track.