BRC Arena Eventing Champs
Swindon & District Riding Club, BRC Arena Eventing Championships
Gosh, it feels like a lifetime ago that I posted anything on the website. Sorry, guys! It all feels like a bit of a whirlwind these days.
We qualified for our riding club’s ‘Swindon & District Riding Club Champs’ back in October at West Wilts. Up until the week before the event, I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it! What was the reason for this, you ask?
In April, we went to the lovely Stockland Lovell for a three-day camp. I was keen to get out and do some cross-country, as due to the appalling weather here in the UK, most schooling places had remained closed, and many events were being cancelled.
Joey was fab at camp. The only weakness that stood out was on skinny combinations and running out to the left. He’s very left-shoulder dominant, and I’m pretty weak on my left leg. But we worked through it and got there in the end. On the last day of camp, I was due for another show-jumping session but thought it a good idea to switch to another XC session, as we had Pontispool coming up in the next three weeks for our first event.
Upon our return from camp, I noticed Joey had some filling in his right foreleg but seemed happy and sound. After two weeks, it was still pretty much the same, so the vet was booked to investigate. I won’t bore you with everything we did to investigate, but after two weeks of box/walk rest, he wasn’t 100% on his left fore (yes, the opposite leg). The vet, Chloe, was due back out, and we decided to X-ray as she was convinced it wasn’t anything to do with tendons, etc. Upon X-raying his left fore, it was noted that he had a broken back hoof-pastern axis! Yes, this was slightly disappointing; however, it shows that he always had it, and we just need to make him more comfortable by adding some heel pads with dental impressions. So far, so good!
I was happy with Joey’s fitness, as he was at the top of his form before all this.
Anyway, on with the blog
The week before the event, I crammed in two jump sessions with one of my trainers, ‘Diana Burgess Equestrian,’ I said I’d decide after the two sessions and make sure Joey was okay and happy. Joey jumped beautifully in these two sessions, and Di worked on me. Joey is a super sensitive pony, so I have to do my best at keeping quiet but whilst still supporting him. We worked on our 12ft canter stride to help us get in the right rhythm for jumping, straightness, me looking up, keeping my right shoulder level, and my left leg being effective. I know, a lot to think about!
The event itself!
The Championship was held at Aston le Walls. I was the 7th to go at 8:44 am, which meant an early departure time of 5 am from the yard. My good old faithful groomy, ‘Tanya,’ came along with me. We love Tanya coming along to our events, and I am so grateful for her giving up her time. Thank you, Tan! x
The course walk went well, and I was pleased with how the jumps were looking. There was a corner with the skinny side on the left; this was the only jump I was a little worried about.
On to the warm-up
After the first couple of sticky jumps, we felt good, although I was already struggling not to look at the bottom of the jumps.
As I was only 7th to go, I didn’t really have a chance to watch anyone’s full round. They did, however, look as if they were going quite slow, I asked a fellow competitor, and she advised that many were getting faults for going too fast the day before. With this in mind and Joey’s current vet situation, I was happy to go a little slower, but I never thought I’d be 20 seconds too slow!!!
The course rode really well. Fence 4 was just a shallow open ditch which we both looked straight into the bottom of. Luckily, with a kick and growl, Joey went over it. To be honest, that gave me a little kick up the backside to crack on a bit and more ‘ride it like you stole it’! Joey was epic at the corner; I really felt that we were very straight and equal in both reins, and he popped it beautifully.
The last fence was a Joker fence. Apparently, many were having it down. I already had in my head from walking the course that I’d make sure I was straight to the jump and give ourselves time to rebalance. He jumped it perfectly. Happy days, a lovely clear round! x
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed about being over on time. Twenty seconds gave us 7 time faults, which knocked us down the placings.
We came 28th out of 132 competitors! So on the whole, I was super pleased, and the best thing of all is that Joey loved it and came away with lovely cool, clean legs.
Where to next? I think I’ll have to pay off my vet bill before planning much else! 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to read, I’d love to know if you like these blogs or not 🙂
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