Southview and a first attempt at Foxhunter

Well today I achieved a lifelong ambition of jumping a Foxhunter. We took Pete to Southview and did the Newcomers in which he has a lazy fence down, he was feeling keen and it was quite quiet so I decided today would be a good day to enter the Foxhunter.

I was quite nervous as I have never believed I would have the ability or a horse with enough jump to attempt this level. However I know Pete is my best chance at jumping this height as he has the ability, its just whether he has the brain to carry me around!!

Well we jumped it, it was not pretty in parts but I was super pleased with Pete as for the first time I really felt him try for me and got me out of a couple of sticky situations, which would of upset him in the past. We had a couple of fences down but he made it feel fairly easy on the whole and has boosted my confidence for trying a few more 1.20 classes in 2012

Bold Heath Blue Chip Star Qualifier

Today we took Pete to Bold Heath for our second attempt at qualifying for the Blue Chip Championships. We arrived just in time to jump the 1.10 A4 warm up, which unfortunately resulted in us parting company in the double due to a communication error - the less said about that the better!
Well I pulled myself together and went into the qualifier, Pete just had the fence down coming out of the double down but jumped the rest of the course well to finish on 4 faults. So again no qualification for us, but one more attempt to go before the Christmas break.

First Blue Chip Qualifer

Today we went to Aintree to jump the Blue Chip Power Qualifier.

I decided to jump the 1.05 as a warm up and Pete jumped clear in the first round although he was a little bit idle, then in the jump off i decided to try and test his against the clock. Unfortunately he lost his jump and became careless and had 2 fences down on a related distance.

I then went in the Power qualifer, which was quite a full up 1.10. Unfortunately I made a mistake at fence 3 and added a stride and put him a bit deep into the oxer so he had it down. Was cross with myself because it was totally my fault. Ah well never mind we have another couple of chances to qualify yet.

Pete's on Fire!!

Today we took Pete to Southview our local venue to jump the Newcomers in preparation for the Blue Chip qualifiers starting. Pete and I haven't jumped for 3 weeks due to Mums holiday and me suffering from a bout of Sinusitis.

We arrived just in time as the Discovery was finishing. I stupidly thought it was going to be quite quiet as I was only the 24th entry at this time. However, by the time I had gone to declare it had got much busier, and I put my name to jump 17th, giving me enough time to warm Pete up as Mum had got him ready for me whilst I walked the course (super groom!).

The course was straightforward and the only fence I was a little worried about was a rustic square oxer as I thought he was most likely to have it down. This is because of the way horses see colour, it is much easier for them to distinguish black and white, other colours merge and are not clear for them to see. This type of fence or any pole that doesnt have 'bands' of colour, i.e blue and white, red and white etc need to be treated with a little more care so the horse can see what he is jumoing better..

Anyway, Pete warmed up really well and was pinging his fences. We went in the ring and he was jumping great and I gave him an extra squeeze over the rustic, and as he is so sensitive he did a cheeky little kick back and had a little argument with me on the corner! He is so cheeky. He got a little bit buzzy down the last line of fences but he held his concentration to jump CLEAR! I was so pleased he is really getting consistant at 1.10m level now.

After hours of waiting for the jump off (the entries had reached 60 by this point!) Pete and I were drawn 9th of the 17 clears to jump off. I decided to gamble on a steady clear as there had not been many clears before me. Pete jumped his little socks off over the 1.20 course for a double clear!!! I was made up with him. He went into 2nd at that point but I had a lot of pro riders to follow us. In the end we finished 7th, there was 8 double clears and 10 prizes so we won £17 and we were about the only amatuers in the line up!

Kelsall Hill BE90

Today Pete and I completed our second BE90 event, at Kelsall Hill. Today has been a day of mixed fortunes, but on the whole I am very pleased with the improvement Pete has made in such a short time in the croos country.

We had a very early start as we were the second to go in our section, with our dressage being at 8.06am. Pete was a little uptight warming up and unfortunately it didnt get much better in the test! Despite usually being very un-spooky usually, he took a dislike to the judges car and for the first half of the test he was very tense. He improved as the test went on to score 37.5 and gaining the comment 'a varied test' from the judge!

Onto the showjumping, and although it was much smaller than we are used to jumping, I was worried that Pete would not try and knock some down! He got a bit stressed in the warm up today and decided to run sideways then backwards until I could calm him down. Im not sure what upset him but he is very sensitive so the best way of dealing with it is to give him time and walk him round to allow him to settle then I took him in the ring. He jumped well although Hhe did give two fences a tap but luckily the poles stayed in place to give us a clear round.to the

Onto the cross country, which was a beautifully built course. I had decided to go the direct routes at the trackhener and corner if all was going well. After a little paddy in the start box when Pete again decided to run backwards, we set off.

He felt much more confident over the first part of the course, and flew the trackhener which I was pleased about. He was fantastic through the water this time, had barely a hesitation, and was straight as a dye over the corner. As we headed toward home he jumped the large hedge really well and onto the last question on the course, a hanging log down a dip and over an open ditch. I steadied up to jump the log to give him time to see the ditch so it didnt take him by surprise. Despite my best effort, he saw the ditch 3 strides out and dived to the left giving us 20 penalties right at the end of the course :( he jumped it on the second attempt and finished confidently. I was a little disappointed although he was much, much more confident than our first cross country at Bold in August.

So all in all, a good day. That was the last event of the season so next year hopefully we can built on our experience and become more competitive!

WE ARE OFF TO THE NATIONAL AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPS!!

Today I achieved an ambition by qualifying for the Amateur Championships at Aintree in November.

We went to Maelor to jump our 2nd round today. Pete and I were last to go, and I must admit this is not one of my favourite venues as it is quite a narrow arena and I find it difficult to get into a nice rythmn round the course.

The first round was a tricky course with unusual turns, set at 1.05m. Pete tried hard in the first round and went clear to join 15 others. This meant that with 12 to qualify for the final, 4 horses would miss out. Fortunately we were last to go in the jump off so I had chance to see how the others were going.

There was not too many clears so I decided to gamble on a steady clear as I knew this would be enough for us to take a qualifying place. Luckily, Pete tried hard again and left all the fences up. We finished 6th to easily go through to the final. I was over the moon with him!!

As an added bonus we won 2 lovely rossetes and £15 prize money. The most important thing is the ticket to the final which is held at the end of November at one of my favourite venues, Aintree Equestrian Centre. This gives us a real focus with points to work on before the final. I'm hoping to afford some lessons to improve our jump off turns in the next few weeks as the Finals get very competitive! This means we do not need to attend the other second round qualifier at Bold Heath at the end of October.

Next week we look forward to our next Event together at Kelsall Hill BE 90, so this week its back to focusing on dressage to improve his scores!

MIDWEEK SHOW AT AINTREE

This week I have a weeks holiday from work, so I decided to make the most of it and go to Aintree to jump the Newcomers on Wednesday.

It was a lot busier than I expected, and there was 60+ in the class. The majority of the riders were professionals bringing out their young horses. I really appreciate the opportunities to ride against these people as I learn a lot from watching them and competing against them.

Pete was fabulous and jumped a clear in the first round to join 17 others into the jump off. After a long wait Pete and I went into the ring to face the 1.20m course. Pete jumped fantastically for just 4 faults at the water tray. I was thrilled with him over one of the biggest courses we have done to date.

Pete will now have a 3 week rest before tackling his 1m Amateur second rounds.