I'm not even sure how we've got to this point!? How is the first BE fixture of the year only 27 days away? I feel like we only wrapped things up mere weeks ago, but here we are and it's all about to start again! The plan is to head to Tweseldown (1) for our first run this year which gives me an additional 9 days to panic/prepare but i'm still dithering about entering tonight. The thought of actually getting through a whole XC course seems impossible at the moment, our last few events last year knocked me for six and I feel quite fragile about getting back to that point again.
It holds so many amazing memories for me; Pip and I did our first event there nearly 5 years ago, I got my first eventing rosette there on Ruby in the UA 80 (3rd, Oct 2016), got round our first UA90 double clear (April, 2017), and got our first BE90 win (July 2017) and also finished 7th in the first AT classic series this year. It's a fabulous venue, the team are amazing and the courses are just beautiful, i'm still just as excited when we pull up at the gates as the very first time. But I digress, back to Saturday and, funnily enough, back to Tweseldown! With 5 weeks to go, it was time to face some demons and get back on the XC course, Ruby was wild . . .there's not much else that can be said. We survived and managed to jump some fences, and I didn't have to go to the office and buy more air canisters - win win! I know our XC issues at the moment are mainly down to me, but it's hard to be confident when the horse underneath you feels like its going explode any second, brakes were also somewhat lacking too! Eventually we composed ourself enough to do some civilized jumping and I made myself jump the duck out the water as my 'one brave thing'. With Ruby thoroughly worn out from that episode I thought today would be a good day to go out showjumping! We headed to Crofton for the unaffiliated, just to have a pop round the 90 & 100, our RC areas are there in a couple of weeks and we somehow find ourselves on the 95 and 105 teams so it was perfect practice. The warm up started a bit hairy but after a canter she settled down and jumped really well and I didn't ride like a plum, yay! In the 90, she felt a bit more 'backwards' than in the warm up so we met things a little further away than was probably necessary but she jumped really well and we kept the poles in the cups. Quick turn around for the 100, and she was much more 'on it' this time pulling me round like the keen bean she is and we still managed to keep all the fences up - yay. You have to know where to pick your battles, and unaffiliated SJ'ing is not the place to pick up the frillies unless your on a 13.2 speed demon! I've spent some time chatting with Hack-up and we've come up with a 'calming' blend to hopefully take the edge off these slightly more 'exciting' situations, apparently its not advised for human consumption otherwise i'd be taking that too!
5 weeks to go . . .
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