My season got underway at our local horse trials, Aldon, near Yeovil. After the abysmal winter we had, the going couldn’t have been better and a huge thanks has to go to Tessa Mackenzie Green and her family for putting on yet another fantastic event.
Myrtle (In Vogue II) was having her first run with me on board in the novice. She did a good test with a score of 31, but with lots of room for improvement having made a couple of mistakes. We had just one down showjumping, which was due more to rider error as she jumped very well for her first time out on grass this season.
I took her at a steady pace cross-country as she hasn’t run since 2012, but she flew round very confidently and I couldn’t have been happier with our first run together. We learnt more about each other and have lots to work on now. We ended up just out of the placings in 12th.
Sadly things with Kitkat (Another Breakfast) didn’t go quite to plan. He did a lovely test for 27.3, by far his best at intermediate level.
For some reason he managed to get himself in a real state in the showjumping warm-up, was in a muck sweat and very stressed, which is totally unlike him. He was jumping very big and exuberantly, which seemed to unsettle him. He began to run through the bridle so in the combinations was making up far too much ground, meaning we got to the next part on a very odd stride from which he couldn’t take off from.
After he did this a couple of times I decided something wasn’t quite right and it wasn’t worth carrying on so retired him. I was bitterly disappointed as he has been on flying form at home.
We have had his backed checked and found he was really tight and sore through his shoulders and the muscles over his back. He has had lots of massages this week, so hopefully he will be feeling better in himself and we can get our season back on track.
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Getting the babies ready
I have a new horse to report, a very exciting 7-year-old, Skippy, bought from Rupert Nuttall. He will be out eventing in no time and looks a very promising prospect. He, along with Archie and another young horse I have in for schooling, have been out for cross-country practice twice recently. We took them to Rosamund Green Farm for their first ever cross-country school (Archie pictured top) and in the main they were very well behaved.
We took them to Pontispool this week, as it is very good for them to go to lots of different places so they can see all sorts of things and jump in and out of different water jumps. There was a huge improvement in all of them and I was thrilled with how they went.
The young ones are nearly ready for their first events, but will have a couple more cross-country schooling sessions beforehand to give them more experience.
My next outing is Portman on 1 April with Myrtle in the novice, so I have some showjumping outings planned this week.
Rosie
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Rosie Fry has been blogging for Horse & Hound since shortly after she left university to concentrate on eventing full time in July 2013. She is the sister of National Hunt trainer Harry Fry and helps school and exercise his horses when time allows.