West Wilts Jump X Combined Challenge
Jump X Combined Challenge 90cm
On Sunday 17th September we headed to West Wilts Equestrian Center for Jump X Combined Challenge.
This was a new type of event for us, show jumping and cross country with no stress of dressage, sounds like fun. Now we haven’t done a jump competition since June and we’ve only jumped a handful of times since then but jumping is Joey’s forte.
I met up with a friend to do the course walk on Saturday and there were 3 jumps that I had a little apprehension about, 3, 4 and 5. 3 was on an uphill incline and it was a bullfinch type jump between the hedgeline. I thought we need energy for this to take off. With a 90 degree left turn to quite a substantiation wall that we haven’t jumped before. Between 4 and 5 was a little rest up and good canter between. Fence 5 was another bullfinch on the top of a mound hill, again lots of energy required to get up and over. Joey wouldn’t know what lies ahead on landing. The remainder of the course was all good.
Sunday came and rain and thunderstorms were forecast for the afternoon and we were due on at 2.26pm. The rain started just as we were leaving the yard and it rained all the way to West Wilts and got heavier as soon as we got there.
On arrival, there were no riders insight. Apparently there had been a fall on the xc and the paramedic was waiting on an ambulance to arrive. This isn’t what you want to hear before you’ve competed. I hope the horse and rider were ok.
This is fence 6, our fence we nearly failed due to no.5, a great recovery.
There were about 10 horses and riders congregating in the indoor school trying to stay dry and waiting for the course to start again.
By this time I was feeling a little apprehensive, so I wanted to go and walk the xc again to check take off and landings and how the ground was holding up. I’m glad I did walk it again, the vast majority of take-off and landing were grit like stones and the fences didn’t seem quite as daunting on the 2nd walk.
Right decision made, if show jumping goes well and people are getting around the xc, we’ll go!
Off to the van where Joey was tucked up eating his hay in the dry to get myself dressed and Joey tacked up. So glad I pre did his stud holes before we left, it made studding up a breeze in the rain.
Even though there was around a 30 minute delay when we arrived, the organsiers soon got back on track and we had a 10 minute warm up before we went in.
The Show Jump Round
The show jump round was good, we worked on rhythm, equal legs and I was very aware I had to give more than I thought with my left leg and hand which can sometimes get tight and restrict Joey by not allowing him to stretch over the fence. We seemed to be pretty central to all the fences (we usually hang left but we have been working on this) however still quite disunited between fences. We produced a lovely clear round. Once you’ve finished the round you trot out the back on the arena and continue to trot down to the xc start. My watch was preset for the time allowed of 2 mins 36 sec. Off we went…
The Cross Country Round
Joey loves xc, 1 and 2 jumped lovely, 3 I remembered more energy, more energy, Joey launched over the jump, it felt as though we rocketed into orbit (that ain’t a lie). He did not want to touch the bull finch, nor could he see the other side at this point. We landed to a sharp left to the wall, lots of cuddling with my legs with encouragement and he popped it sweetly. This was a chance for us both to take a breath as there was a big question about to come. Fence 5!! Lots of cuddling, encouragement and energy in our canter, Joey nearly froze in front of the jump and we scrambled over it with his knees tucked as high as they possibly could. We landed in a head with no reins as I’d slipped them, right I thought, elbows back to keep the contact as we had 2 strides of level ground to a rather large box jump, I asked and Joey delivered. What a poppet he is. After all that 7abc, 8 and 9 were a breeze to the finish just 2 seconds over on time.
Wow I felt so pleased with us both, these bullfinch fences on inclines were new territory for him, as he didn’t fully understand the question but he gave it his best.
We got cooled off and cleaned up and thought we must be in the placings with 2 clear rounds. A lot of people were having problems, so off I went to check out the results and was super chuffed to get a 1st place as well as a Special for best effort, my heart melted. All 14.1hh of Joey is simply incredible and I am super lucky to have him as my riding partner.
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