Quite a leisurely start to go Rackham is a fairly local event for us, approximately an hour away, horses plaited ready to go and I even had time to ride a couple before leaving just before 9am - bliss.

 

As we drove towards Rackham, the weather was slightly off putting, grey skies and rain, but, as we drove into the car park the sun came out to greet us and stayed with us most of the day.

 

I had three horses to ride here, Lucky Turn (Wesley), a new ride for me mid season due to Sarah having a broken ankle. This was his first event at BE90 and being a stallion who has served naturally this season we came here just wanting him to behave. Jim, Sarah's husband was on hand to stud up for me. Always nice to have an extra pair of hands. Wesley did a nice, relaxed dressage test and scored 27. Before sj him I had dressage on Foxs Castle (Cooper) who is owned by Brian Lear. Brian was at the event as course builder for the showjumping phase so was able to watch him in all three phases. Cooper also performed a nice test to get a sub 30 mark of 29.

 

last to dressage was Candide II (Candie) - she always produces a good dressage test, usually in the 20's, and Rackham was no exception. She worked correctly, rythmically and i was pleased with how she was performed, slightly disheartened when i saw she had been awarded 37 penalties!!!! Her worst ever dressage mark!!!! 

 

Onwards and upwards, you can't dwell on it and although I was very dissappointed I had to concentrate on the rest of the day.

 

Wesley showjumped very well, he gave the first half of the course plenty of room but unfortunately just rolled the last pole to add 4 faults onto his score, giving him a score of 31 going into the xc phase. I've only ridden him schooling cross country once before and unfortunately as we put our numbers on the board to warm up there was a 30 minute delay on the course. Not the ideal start for him as he can be quite clingy and not always want to leave the herd. We left the start box and he wasn't really thinking about the job in hand, after fence two, benefit of the doubt went out the window and he had a smack on his bottom, to which he massively overreacted to. I had two choices as the pocket rocket was galloping madly at being told off, take a circle around the perimeter of the field or just keep aiming, steering towards fence 3. We took the second option, he settled well and jumped his first BE90 confidently, coming home 20 seconds inside the time.

 

Wesley finished the competition coming 2nd - Well done Wesley!

 

Cooper warmed up very well for the showjumping, he can sometimes be a little bit worried in this situation, but today he was Mr Chilled, unfortunately he just didn't give the first fence enough room and had it down. The BE100 cross country course at Rackham is a very nice course for this level, it asks the right amount of questions, I walked the course very positively and was please I had practised skinnies on the turn / dog leg as the coffin had a skinny house as the final element. Cooper gave me a fantastic ride and stayed straight, focused and bold all the way round.

 

Cooper finished on a score of 33.0 and WON! Very pleased with Cooper......

 

Candie as always jumped a beautiful clear showjumping and I was looking forward to riding her cross country. And she didnt dissappoint, Candie enjoys life, she comes out the start box and looks for her fences, she is a straight forward mare, a pleasure to ride and is currently for sale. She will give someone a lot of fun in the future. if the dressage judge had given her a fair mark she would of had a top placing, but we had to be happy with 6th and look forward to another day.