BRC Arena Eventing
British Riding Club Arena Eventing Qualifier
On Sunday 15th October we headed off to represent Swindon District Riding Club as an Individual at the Area 9 Arena Eventing Qualifier. The Championship for this event would take place in May 2024.
We were entered into the 90cm. The course was based on half being showjumps, followed by cross country style jumps show jumps with a joker fence as the final fence. It seemed we were first to go and a course walk had to take place before the class started. That meant we didn’t have a much time as we’d hoped for a warm up and Joey was particularly jolly and on his toes, a little more so than usual.
We warmed up over a cross to trot jump, then an upright to canter jump and then an oxer, of which the first 3 attempts weren’t the best but we were 4th time lucky and he jumped it beautifully. I then had a minute to compose myself and go through the course, which was very twisty and turny and fairly difficult to remember.
The round
We headed in the arena and tried to have a canter circle before we started as Joey was particularly looky. Going into fence one I could feel him slowing his rhythm to look at the fence, looking is fine but he’s not allowed to stop (which has happened on the odd occasion), I had to ride quite positively to 1 and 2, 3 was a little more settled. 7 marked the start of the cross country section. Fence 9 was an open rail corner that most people were saying they were going to turn in front of the planks to get to the corner at the right angle. I knew doing this would upset Joey as he’d get annoyed that I turned him away from the planks, so I always knew I was going to turn tight after the planks around the outside, this worked well for the corner and we jumped it beautifully. The skinny at 10 was nice, to 11 Joey decided to rocket launch, which meant we were in a bit of a heap for 11b but we got it. Around to 14 and again Joey decided to take a flyer over a and b. The remaining jumps jumped well but I know I was getting a little puffed around this never ending course of jumps. 16 seemed to catch quite a few horses out, it was an upright white style, followed by the Joker which was also another style type jump. I don’t think many people actually got around clear in the time allowed.
After thoughts
After the round I was super pleased with the boy who was very puffy just like me, I actually felt physically sick afterwards, I can’t remember the last time I felt like that. It was a long course of twists and turns and using my little brain to remember where I was going was hard work!
* above is fence 15, the wall to the white skinny style.
Below are the points from my previous lesson that I had to try and implement more into our jumping;
- Allow Joey his head in front of the jump – did I achieve this, yes but only more as the course went on and Joey became less spooky and I settled into the rhythm.
- Put extra weight in my left stirrup to make us more equal in the saddle – there was definitely a moment were I remembered this but it wasn’t consistent at all. More practice required.
- Try to use square turns on approach to fence- I could have been better at this in the ring but I do recall using my outside leg and hand to help with those turns. TBF my brain does go a bit to mush in the arena as I have too much to think about.
Here's the full round!
Back to the day..
Thanks to my super groom Tanya, we have the round filmed. Tanya is always great to have at an event, she helps ease the pressure and its so nice to share the highs and lows of competing with a friend.
We got Joey sorted and popped him back in the van whilst we went and watched the remainder of the class with a hot chocolate and a chocolate bar. It was nice to be able to sit and watch some of the competition.
The results were in, we’d qualified for the Championships at Aston le Walls in May 2024 and came home with a lovely rosette for 2nd place. Super chuffed with that.
Joey will now have a quiet week and will have the week off the following week, a little mini break till late October, possibly start of November.
What next?
That’s it we have no competitions booked and I need to put my Winter aims together and start planning a programme to help us achieve. I will put them together and let you all know what they are, which will help me stay on track.
Enjoy the rest of October and I’ll be back in November with an update.
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