After all the confusion of days and stabling and what-not, we decided to set off Friday evening after S left work, and joing the masses on the M25 and M4! Settled them in at the yard, then off to our B&B as S doesn't like roughing it in the lorry

.

Next day (Saturday) we trundled off to Gatcombe at a very civilised hour for our two boys to make their international debut

. William warmed up a little stiff, think I probably over-did it the day before, but did really quite a nice test for him, he actually managed to produce a reasonable medium trot all the way across a long diagonal

, his only little blips were in his first canter when we were supposed to do medium on a 20m circle and he didn't really go so I kicked him with the spur and he bounced a bit, then as we came back to the track in the counter canter he did a bound in preparation for a lovely flying change but managed to make him land on the same leg somehow! Some pics:

Down the centre line

Canter...

He scored 58.something, and like Boss got 15 marks more from one judge than the other (I asked around though and this was the case for everyone, so I don't mind in these cases).

Then Liberty. He warmed up beautifully, but once by the arena...

.... the flowers were out to eat him! He did some lovely bits of work, but marred it with some very big mistakes, a hideous rein-back, broke in the walk, and his canter. Anyway, some of the good bits:

The shock result of which was that the first time my two went against each other under the same judges William came out on top

, with Liberty on 60.something!

Went off to walk the course and though it was really nice, a lovely * test. Went back to yard, put them to bed, then off to pub and back to our cosy B&B!

Overnight our JRT Digby slept in the lorry, and found an unopened pack of Haribo, the really sour ones, ate the lot, then threw it all back up over the driver's seat and gear stick

. Nice.

Off again this morning and with all this time on our hands I got myself much more worked up and nervous than I've been in ages. Warming up William for the sj I gave myself a good talking too and it seemed to pass! I stole Holly off Boss to help me in the warm-up; as I have a very particular routine with him, and she was excellent - many thanks. He went in and I could tell last time out I'd ragged him round a speed class - every time I lent a bit one way he was diving off in that direction

! He jumped a cracking clear

, although admittedly the course didn't seem to be causing too many problems:

Fence 1

On to Liberty, he warmed up quite nicely, and didn't have a complete fit when we got in the ring at all the flowers etc, which is always good

. He too jumped a clear, probably not as pretty as William, but nonetheless a very pleasant surprise:

1

There followed more time in which to get nervous, and once I was on William almost 45 mins of walking round waiting for our turn

... Anyway, once we were off he gave me a superb ride, probably the best we've ever had. Had our only hairy moment when he made up too much ground at the combination at 10 and got very close to the 2nd element. Here's a sequence of us going through 4 and 5:

And then coming back through the water:

I had such a grin on my face when we finished, he really gave me the feeling he could go a fair old way.

On to Liberty, again a long wait, and we ended up being the last to run! He was a different horse than at Firle, much much braver, only got shouted at a couple times, and smacked just once going to the trakhener! His only hiccup was at the half coffin when he took off over the rails, saw the ditch and consequently forgot to actually bend his legs at all

, but happily he stayed upright! Again, 4 to 5:

And at the water:

He did give me a really good ride, and I am almost tempted to do an Intermediate on him before the end of the season, will have to think about it over the couple days. As it turned out he finished dead on the optimum time, whilst William was 10 seconds inside, so both finished on their dressage scores. In the end they split the 6 year olds from the non-6 year olds, and the latter was much less competitive so Liberty ended up 8th despite finishing on a worse score than William, who was 20th in his section (but 14th best GB 6yo

!).

Laura Collet won the 2*, here is a pic of her in the prize giving:

And one of me and HRH

So all in all a fantastic weekend and encouraging international debut from the two boys! Was also lovely to meet so many HHOers: Millbrooksong and her mum, Boss & Holly, and Irishcobs and her mum.



	Terms and Conditions About Us Contact Us Subscriptions Links Privacy Policy How to Advertise Jobs at IPC � Copyright Horse & Hound / IPC Media