January - March 2011

Training
After our first attempt at eventing, we decided the winter would be our opportunity to brush up on each of the disciplines before the start of next season. I qualified for the Chiltern & Thames Dressage Champs at Patchetts in the Intro and Prelim which was a huge surprise! The extra practise really paid off and despite the finals only being the second time Guinness had ever been in an indoor arena, he was very grown up and didn’t spook too much at the banners. When I found out I came 3rd in the walk-trot I literally burst into tears as it was so unexpected and I was so happy!
 

The snow and cold weather in December meant many a dark, drab evening riding in the ménage after work but we managed to keep it as varied as possible with a bit of jumping, pole work or longing. 

Riding Club Team showjumping
On the 6th February our first outing for 2011 was as part of the Showjumping Team for Chalfont Heights Riding Club at BCA. Guinness was very pleased to be at a competition again, so much so that his behaviour in the warm up left a lot to be desired! However we managed a respectable 4 faults in the first round and then unfortunately got quite a few time penalties in the second round, as he was getting so quick I had to bring him back to walk to calm him down and keep it together. Overall though I was pleased.

Cross Country Training (in the rain!)
2 weeks later we made the journey to Tweseldown for our first Cross country training session of the year and this is when I discovered what my boy really excels at! He locked on to every fence and flew everything including some of the intro fences! The water took us a while though and I realised this was the area we needed to work on.

First One Day event of the season
We were entered into the first Aston le Walls unaffiliated One Day Event of the season, and I had entered the pre-intro class. This is smaller than intro (similar in height to a BE80) and was perfect for our first, confidence giving run.

Over the next 2 weeks I prayed for rain everyday and rode through the flooded part of the lane by my yard every morning before work. Then at weekends we hacked over to the Ford in Chalfont st Giles to get Guinness confident at getting his feet wet.

We left on the Saturday and stayed over night at Anna Ross Davies new yard which is only a couple of miles away from Aston. Anna teaches my friend Dawn and she very kindly invited us to her house for dinner. We had a lovely time (Anna is an amazing cook!) but when I had to get up early and platt the next morning I wished I hadn’t had so many glasses of wine!

I was so excited when we pulled up at Aston I could barely speak. I had been training and planning to attend this event for the past 3 months and didn’t really know what to expect from Guinness on the day so I was very nervous.

The dressage was no where near as good as we are capable of at home, but taking in to account the environment, large amount of open space, lots of other horses (some of which were also fresh and spooky so I didn’t feel so bad) and that every few minutes you could see a horse galloping cross country through the hedge, it wasn’t too bad. Note to self: drive my car into the arena at home and school around it!

He warmed up fantastically for the showjumping but that all went out the window after ten minutes of waiting to enter the showjumping arena as Guinness (like myself) can suffer from patience meltdown! This meant that by the time it was our turn he was so thoroughly fed up that he didn’t want to do the showjumping any more at all! Thankfully my friend Rob ran me in (and I mean ran!) and after that it was all a bit of a blur but we went clear and certainly didn’t get any time faults at the speed we were going (aside from the nappyness as we past the arena entrance!).

Now the all important Cross Country, all booted up and buckled in (I do feel like the Michelin man in by back protector and air jacket but safety first!). This followed straight on from the Showjumping so very little warm up required which suited us. I only jumped a couple of the warm up XC fences and then into the start box….. and we were off in a perfect fast but controlled canter over the first 2 fences…. Then halt, rear and try to run away from spectator stand/ flappy flags/ man in yellow vest???? No idea- but managed to waste a minute debating about how scary all these things were. Next over the log and a house and halt! The water!!!!! Guinness started to walk forward but I had to move out of the way for the next competitor (dais jar vu!). Once they were long gone we made our second attempt and…. Hallelujah! Into and out of the water (my expression on the photograph shows my exhilaration/ disbelief). The rest was just a pleasure, flying every fence without a worry, and seeing as I knew I was going to have hundreds of time penalties, I thought I’d really let him out on the home straight and boy did he deliver (too slow to be a racehorse?!? Not so sure…

We got back home around 8.30pm, thoroughly exhausted but all smiles!