Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted and quite a lot has happened. Dad and I have been out competing twice, with very different results.
Now Eland has bad memories for dad as he had a bad fall here (before I found him!) and broke both heels and an ankle, and every time he's been there it's been a problem.
So we went with a little bit of nerves, I did a good dressage test, and had a pole down show jumping, and then we moved on to the XC. The first 4 were fine although I did feel dad tense up a bit then we had a sharp left turn to a skinny with a ditch, and dad just froze, I thought he meant stop so went to but then he changed his mind and I had to scrabble over it, only just staying on my feet. Dad was still doing acrobatics in the saddle when we came to the next fence and I just couldn't do it so stopped, imagine my surprise when Dad flew over my head to land on his back on top of the jump. As there were a lot of people about he did a quick bow, got back on board and represented but I could tell he didn't want to continue so we retired. (the official photographer was next to us so it's all captured on the Eland Lodge website!-poor Dad)
The next day we did some jumping as Dad was quite tense about the whole thing. Because the ground is so hard we've not been cross country, just working on relaxing into a jump, a bit of galloping and some flat work, with a view to our next meeting at Withington.
Well it was a long drive down, but we had late times so didn't have to leave too early. We've been here before, last time we'd jumped clear showjumping and were going well XC til my martingale strap came off my stud girth and slapped me in the face, I was so surprised I stopped dead!!!!
Again Dad was a bit tense in the dressage, however we weren't too bad and finished on 39. The show jumping wasn't too big but there were a couple of lines that ran down hill so Dad had to work hard to hold me. We jumped a clear round so moved on to the XC. Withington is quite a strong track and hilly,
Well we set off quickly and jumped the first 4 with ease, then a bit of a hiccup before no.5 ...Dad had forgotten where it was!!! Once we found it, it was fine and continued round without any problem. The corner came at 8 and was an open corner. Dad slowed me right down until we both saw 3 good strides, and then it was easy as was the related skinny wishing well. We cleared the fence where my martingale unravelled without incidence then over a wall to the water, with consisted of a pallisade, 2 strides to a ski-jump into the water, 5 strides then step 1 stride to an angled skinny log. From here it was only 3 fences, a roll top with a drop a double on 1 stride with a skinny log to finish. We had 8 time penalties, but more importantly it was the best round dad had ridden, he told me where to go (mostly!) and when to take off and if he keeps riding like this there is some hope for him going up a level.
Well, I've got a couple of days off, then working back towards Aston le Walls. Sadly no photos as the official photographer failed to show!
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