A spot of pairs jumping fun

Last week one of our liveries, Jordan, asked if I wanted to go to the local Pony Clubs Hunter Trial with her and do the pairs class as she has never done a cross country event with her new pony. Plus, it is always nice to go and support local events and see friends you haven't seen in a while! I managed to catch up with a few and have a good chat after not seeing them all summer!

I prefer cross-country to show jumping and always enjoy the annual autumn and spring hunter trials in the area. Also, it is always nice to give Ceaser a chance to have a mixture of dressage and jumping throughout the winter to keep him fresh and to ensure he does not get bored of just schooling all the time.

I don't jump him often enough in my opinion so when we do go to do some jumping he absolutely loves it. So, on Sunday morning the alarm was set for 6.30am and off we traveled to West Ashby in Horncastle to do the first class of the day, which was pairs. It is the first time in what feels like a very long time I have only had to travel 20 minutes to a competition.

I don't think Ceaser realised what he was doing when I tacked up and in stead of applying all the posh gear, we dressed for cross-country. He warmed up lovely and apart from a couple of bucks when I asked for the first canter (I think this will always happen, whatever competition we are doing!) he felt fantastic and very keen after I had popped a few jumps.

Rebel, Jordan's pony turned out to be a really good pair for Ceaser. They are both very similar in height and way of going so they went well together. I didn't think Ceaser would go over the coffin without a little trouble as he hates them, but with Rebel in front he absolutely flew over it and didn't even give it a second thought. Now I know he's not scared and has just been having me on!!

I know from having done cross-country before that in the timed section we needed to go in a relatively collected canter and not too fast, but also not too slow to be in with a chance of being placed. However once we were out on the course this didn't happen and both of us sped round! With Rebel in front Ceaser got rather excited and spent some time on two legs rather than four in-between a couple of fences. I also think my brakes 'failed' half way round and it was easier to let him get on with it than me fighting with him, trying to ask him to slow down a little. Probably not the best idea, but he hasn't had a good gallop for a while and he felt like he needed it so I let him stretch in-between fences and only asked him to collect again a few strides before them to ensure he jumped safely.

The jumps were just a nice height for Jordan's first time and Ceaser as he hasn't jumped in a while. It was a refreshing change to not be at a competition all day as well; it isn't very often I'm home before lunch time!

All too quickly we were flying through the finishing flags having gone clear and wishing we could go and do it all over again! Well done to Rebel and Jordan who were fantastic for their first cross-country event, I am sure these two will be in the much bigger classes next year now they have the bug for it!

I didn't think we had been placed for fear of being too fast in the timed section but we stayed for the prize giving 'just in case' because we were one of few pairs to go clear. They started reading the results from 8th place and when they got to 5th and hadn't read our names I didn't think we would be in with a chance. BUT, to our delight they announced we were overall 4th place which we were thrilled with!

My plan now is for some more dressage in a couple of weeks and maybe a spot of hunting throughout the winter to keep Ceaser fresh and allow him to have a good stretch of his legs. I'm hoping that we aren't snowed in this winter as living in the middle of no-where isn't brilliant when the snow hits. It means being snowed in and usually we can't get anywhere for weeks!

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Labels: british eventing , cross-country , dressage , equestrian , eventing , Hunter Trials , show jumping , snowed in , timed section , winter