Blankney PC ODE -Norton Disney 26/4/15
Sunday was our first ODE of the season after the Belvoir ODE was cancelled. Over the past few weeks we had been doing plenty of showjumping trying to improve this phase and a quick trip to Grange de lings to remind Guy what XC fences are all about. With my mind at ease that we had done all the homework possible we headed off to Norton Disney to do level 2 PC (BE90). Typical my last event was cancelled due to the ground being too wet and now we had to contend with rock hard ground. Guy doesnt particularly like hard ground so my aim was to take it steady, any problems I would pull him out. The dressage went well, Guy always tries his best but he did hold back due to the ground on the corners but apart from this did feel forward going with great transitions to get score of 34.6.
Everytime I do showjumping I follow the warm up routine which John Steels taught me and Guy was flying -at times too much getting extremely enthusiastic! The showjumping course wasnt the best with a horrible line from 3 to 4 and some very tight turns with a quick optimum time. We set off from fence 1 like a rocket! just making the turn to 4 and quickly we were over the last fence-CLEAR!!!!! Wow our training had gone to plan so far with our best phase to come. My tactics for XC was not to get any time pens for going too fast!!! To say Guy hasnt been in a start box since last year he certainly knew what this all meant,trying to keep him calm to go through the box at the right time! The first few fences were a blur, at about fence 5 I was able to get Guy in a better rhythm and control with a combination fence at 7. The rest of ths course we maintained our steadiness but still took a flyer at some fences-Guy reminding me of his scope! Sailing over the last fence I was so pleased we had gone double clear I didnt care where we had been place just over the moon all the work we had put in over the past few weeks had paid off.Must have been the lucky XC boots I bought Guy from fellow Twittereventing member Suzie Claydon helping us on our way to coming 6th in our section, claiming a lovely purple frilly xxxx Guys next eventing outing will be Shelford unaff ODE at the end of May hoping that we have had some rain by then!!