FIRLE INTERNATIONAL

 One of my very favourite events of the year, not only because (until this year) it has been just 10 minutes away from home, but also because the atmosphere there gives the event a BIG event feel with thousands of spectators, especially on the Sunday, it’s like being at a big 3-day! Saturday was again an early start (I really must have words with whoever it is that gives me all these 8am dressage times…..) But on the plus side it meant that Jamesson had a lovely peaceful park in which to do his dressage in the BE 90. It was worth the effort as he scored 26. He swiftly followed this with perfect rounds in both the sj and the xc phases, adding nothing to this score. Although competing HC he would have been placed 2^nd. A super start to the weekend and a very confident run from which James will now move up to tackle a BE100, probably at SoE.

Next out was First Impression for his dressage test in the CIC*. It was Bruce’s first attempt at an International and for a brief moment I thought it might have been our last as whilst walking around the warm-up I bent down to tighten my girth, neglecting to look where I was going. For some reason known only to himself Bruce decided to veer sharply right to walk under an extremely low tree which he then found utterly terrifying and proceeded to gallop out from it as fast as possible with me unceremoniously trying to keep hold of my reins/hat/whip etc. About 5 laps of the warm up later I finally regained control, apologised to everyone else trying to calmly warm up their own  horses and got down to the business of riding a dressage test, which actually turned out rather well.  We scored 48.3 which put us in a very respectable 3^rd position. But we had to go back the following day to jump, so more in a minute………………..

Also out on Saturday was Burntwood Sorrel (Ginger) and Northern Territory (NT) in the BE100 and 5yo classes respectively. Ginger as usual gave a solid performance in the dressage for a mark of 27. He then added nothing to this to finish 3^rd in section F. NT’s dressage is still not quite back to where he was earlier in the year but he is definitely improving and I was a little disappointed with his mark of 31.5. However he showjumped really well and felt great across the country until a very unexpected and rather naughty stop at the penultimate fence, an innocuous looking log to step, blotted our otherwise clean scoresheet from the day.

We returned (again rather earlier than I would have liked) on Sunday morning, kicking off with the CIC* showjumping. After a less than stellar performance last time out at Chilham, Bruce and I have been working hard on this phase with lots of gridwork (and a little bit of help from the physio…). But the efforts paid off and Bruce jumped one of the best rounds he has ever given me, never even looking like touching a pole and so the pressure was on for the xc. The course this year certainly posed its fair share of questions, most notably at the water with a skinny although inviting brush in, followed by a step down, 1 stride, step up, 2 strides to an angled brush cut away on the left side then 2 strides to another angled brush cut away on the right. This was the first time I have really put the pressure on Bruce to make the time but he absolutely delivered on every level. He gave me a fantastic round, making it feel easy, particularly at the water where he was as straight as an arrow, and finishing 1 second inside the optimum. One of only 2 horses in the section to finish on their dressage. It put him at the top of the leaderboard with no=one else to touch him, giving us our first ever International win!

To finish off a fantastic weekend Gloris Flight made his first attempt at stepping up to Novice level. A dressage mark of 31.5 was entirely reasonable, but I was over the moon with his double clear which followed. A rather steady round gained us 14.4 time faults, although a significant amount of those were picked up at the water as having been held there for some time I opted to take the long route after being re-started. So although Flight finished out of the ribbons I was thrilled with his performance and am very excited for his future.

I also need to say an ENORMOUS Thank You to the girls who stepped in to groom for me this weekend, Kym Doherty, Hannah Pannell and Abby Lloyd, you were all amazing and I could not have done it without your help.

Next it’s off to Hickstead to play showjumpers’ and then our next proper outing is a nice long trek up to Burnham Market with Squid, Bruce and Flight having a big boys outing!