Hey everybody,

Gosh it’s hard work eventing! If you’re not competing you’re training or schooling! Luckily we have had a bit of rest from eventing helping my Branch host Area Games! It’s always fun when our Branch hosts something because you feel part of the organisation. I got to add up tack and turnout scores but some of the scores were shocking. I think some Branches need to have a few tack cleaning lessons!

Foxy has come on so much it’s unbelievable! Unfortunately it didn’t happen overnight! We had a good few hours of training for it to have even started to change for the better.

We had another ODE this week and it was, if possible, more fun than the last one! The weather was horrendous but, luckily, when Foxy and I were actually competing it wasn’t too bad.

Dressage was much better. We achieved our aim, no squealing, bucking or jolly cantering off! Unfortunately I had Foxy going a bit too quietly so the judge thought her head carriage was too low. At least it was down!!

In between dressage and show jumping the rain was so heavy we had to get all the horses onto the box before they got drenched asap! Foxy wanted to stay outside and carry on munching the grass, even if the rain was lashing down! Show jumping was as good as usual. It was bad luck that I had the very last pole down to achieve four faults in total. It was a tricky fence, a short-strided double going downhill.

Showjumping in style!

(Photo thanks to fotograffs)

Cross-country was great fun as always. The course was neither big nor scary but posed a few technical questions. Seeing as this is only our third ODE together we did very well to finish with one stop at a very technical corner. It was sloping rails and about three sides on a tight dog-leg to a corner. Poor Foxy didn’t have enough time to see the fence and was confused about what she needed to do. We sailed over it second time and the rest of the course flowed beautifully.

Our favourite discipline - cross country.

(Photo thanks to fotograffs)

I have Novice event training this week. It’s for all those people who might want to be considered for the Novice teams later on in the year. Rallies continue and the fun never stops. We have camp pretty soon; it’s so exciting! Soon I have exams so I won’t be doing much but I always 'school' after school!

Keep riding,
Hilary