What I thought to be a wise decision leaving entering for our first event for a few weeks hoping the weather would improve missing out on my local event BE Oasby, turned out to be 'never trust the weatherman!' saga.
Our first run of the season was BE Stafford (Saturday 5thApril) a recommended venue for a straight forward course which would suit both of us well. My times started at 12.06 dr, 14.30 sj and 15.14 xc which was great not to have to wake up at stupid o'clock! With a 2hr journey in front of us, Guy plaited and ready for the off 2014 eventing season had a started for us! Getting nearer to Stafford the rain started to fall. pulling into the venue to see two tractors ready to tow vehicles out we wished we had stayed in sunny Lincolnshire. But what a fantastic venue right beside the Staffordshire Showground, the layout was perfect with all arenas in easy walking distance and the organisers and volunteers where extremely welcoming. Unfortunately the dressage warm up was more like riding over a ploughed field and the actual arena did not get any better, Guy hated every minute but tried his best to get 37.5 -a little harshly marked.
As we had travelled so far instead of withdrawing we carried on to do the showjumping . The practise jumps had been moved but the ground was horrendous, doing as little as possible to get my eye in iIput my number down first hoping to get the better ground in the arena. Called in I trotted around only to find the arena was worse! If he didnt jump well I was going to retire but Guy surprisingly jumped better in this ground than the dressage for one down- my fault!
Our first run of the season was BE Stafford (Saturday 5thApril) a recommended venue for a straight forward course which would suit both of us well. My times started at 12.06 dr, 14.30 sj and 15.14 xc which was great not to have to wake up at stupid o'clock! With a 2hr journey in front of us, Guy plaited and ready for the off 2014 eventing season had a started for us! Getting nearer to Stafford the rain started to fall. pulling into the venue to see two tractors ready to tow vehicles out we wished we had stayed in sunny Lincolnshire. But what a fantastic venue right beside the Staffordshire Showground, the layout was perfect with all arenas in easy walking distance and the organisers and volunteers where extremely welcoming. Unfortunately the dressage warm up was more like riding over a ploughed field and the actual arena did not get any better, Guy hated every minute but tried his best to get 37.5 -a little harshly marked.
As we had travelled so far instead of withdrawing we carried on to do the showjumping . The practise jumps had been moved but the ground was horrendous, doing as little as possible to get my eye in iIput my number down first hoping to get the better ground in the arena. Called in I trotted around only to find the arena was worse! If he didnt jump well I was going to retire but Guy surprisingly jumped better in this ground than the dressage for one down- my fault!
The BE100 xc hadnt been jumped until today which made my decision to carry on, planning to get to the warm up to be one of the first to go- number down first on course!-no sliding into fences!! Guy was rather exciting he knew what the start box was all about and with his leaping about I just managed to get him through it-cheeky! First few fences where up to height, fence 4ab were two angled fences having to be ridden on a positive line, down to the water which i took an alternative route into but came out the straight route, up a steep hill to a pheasant feeder on to a trakehner-Guy gave this alot of air! Swinging around to a wood pile, fence 9 a steeplechase style fence to a log/step combination with a long run to a corner, next was the quarry which caused alot of problems BE90 but Guy sailed through the BE100 flags. Uphill again to a seat, roll top, house and finally a log trailer going clear only to get 3.6 time faults. Really pleased the way Guy went as in areas the ground was very wet, I would not have pushed him anymore so was very satisfied with our results coming 16th out of a large class of 42! Stafford was certainly not as recommended a first time course as it had some early questions and up to height fences not helped by ground conditions.Guys first event under our belt we willing be looking to our next event...... Be great to have less muddy ground!