Lauren Shannon’s blog: that’s the last time I do that…
Hi everyone,
I hope everyone had a good Easter – we were at Burnham Market before the weekend so it was nice to have a Sunday at home.
Burnham went well with all the horses. Kilcannon Credit Crunch (Crunchie) flew round the novice, as did Auburn Diamond Jet (Thomas) in the BE100. Our only issue was that when results went up on Thursday evening, I was listed as eliminated on him.
I hadn’t checked the results during the day and that’s the last time I do that! I queried it the next day, when I was back there for the intermediate, but as the officials were busy with that day’s competition, my argument didn’t hold much sway.
I was told I missed out the coffin, but the coffin at Burnham is strung tightly so it’s fairly impossible to miss. I do remember jumping it as well, but obviously after the day there is very little the organisers and officials can do – otherwise they’d be inundated with people making false claims. I understand the situation, but it’s still annoying.
Badminton final scores
Luckily, everyone at Burnham is amenable and helpful and I definitely got the good karma with the bad as they managed to move my dressage times on Friday when I got stuck in terrible bank holiday traffic on the way to the event. You win some, you lose some.
A few braking problems
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Gentel Lux and McFly (Mikey) competed in the open intermediate (OI) and luckily Lux was much more rideable this weekend and did a nice test and jumped well. Unfortunately, the lack of brakes on the cross-country we had last week happened again this week, but luckily not until the end of the course so a quick circle – which resulted in a 20 penalties – meant we got home safely. A change of bit next week should solve that problem!
Mikey’s first run went well. He did a good test and jumped nicely, as well as flying round the cross-country. Here’s where my good karma ran out, as my curb chain managed to fly off just before the water! Luckily, after the fence I pulled up and hooked it back on to finish. It was a good first run for us and I’m looking forward to taking him advanced this weekend.
Nearly off to Badminton
Zero Flight (Louie) also came along to do the guinea pig three-star test and he was very good. His score was 10 marks better than at Belton, so I’m glad we are making progress there! His last run before the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials is this weekend at Weston, although he will do the dressage and possibly showjump at Withington. Exciting how quickly it’s coming up – I sent my accepted entry in today and we leave in less than three weeks!
Lauren
Full report from Burnham Marketing in H&H out today (12 April).
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Event rider Lauren Shannon blogged on Horseandhound.co.uk from June 2011 until September 2014. Born in Brighton, she lived in America from the age of three to 16, returning to the UK to go to university after she finished school. After university she worked for Mark and Tanya Kyle before setting up her own yard in Leicestershire. Her best result to date was finishing 9th at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials with her top horse, Zero Flight.