The beginning of the month saw a nice turn in the weather which meant the eventing season could finally get off to a good start. Riley and I had entered for the BE80T at Moreton. After a sleepless night of panicking about not being able to remember my dressage test I had some sensible times for Moreton so set off mid morning with my partner, Paul, and friend, Jean. I always finds it helps to have some people with you to take the edge off pre competition nerves.
I’d never been to Moreton so wasn’t sure what to expect so after a 2 hour drive we arrived to a very chilly and busy lorry park. Instantly I was star stuck as Mary King’s infamous giant green lorry was parked at the front of the lorry park, my other half just didn’t get what I getting so excited but that’s what comes of having a non horsey partner. I went and got my number and walked the XC course. The course was lovely, if a bit hilly so I was unsure about Riley’s fitness level for it. 98% of the course was very straightforward however there were a couple of questions on the course and also a fairly sizeable roll top with brush half way round.
Riley came off the trailer with steam off his heels so I gave myself plenty of time to settle and warm him up for dressage only to find they were running 20mins early. Anyhow BE being ever professional and organised didn’t put any pressure on me to go in for my test before my time so I did get a good warm up and then was called for my test. Riley found the whole moving from the warm up field to the dressage field all very exciting so he was a little tense and spooky at the start of his test. Our test got better as we went through it but it certainly was not one of our better efforts, however Riley and I have not been in a dressage arena since September so I really could not expect any more.
Show jumping was next and Riley was still full of himself and clearing the warm up fences with plenty of room. Nothing too scary was in the show jumping arena other than the pole picker uppers who were hidden in a shed and Riley did do a sideways detour past them but other them that we had a very bouncy clear round. XC times were pretty much after the show jumping so we went quickly to the XC warm up. Last year Riley was very green with XC and was quite hesitant when it came to his rounds as he’s a bit of a “thinker” when it comes to his jumping. However we got to the XC warm up and it was like the light bulb was firmly switched on in Riley’s head and he just wanted to get on with the Job. I only jumped a couple of warm up fences because Riley was just getting more and more excitable and I wanted him to focus and understand that he still had to listen to me. We got called to the start box and set off like a rocket. Last year’s hesitations in front of a fence were gone and Riley was ears pricked and he was taking me to every fence on the XC instead of me coaxing him towards the fences. The course rode really well and I let Riley settle into his own pace and we had a great clear round ride.
Having a long way to travel home I didn’t wait for the final results but saw that I has a dressage of 36, DC show jumping and XC but 7.2 XC time faults so was well chuffed but did ponder where I got the time faults from as thought we went round at a good consistent pace.
Having got home and BE being ultra organised the full results were online and then I realised the pain of time faults. We came a respectable 12th overall but if we’d gone inside the time we would have been 5th – and that’s eventing for you!
So that was a good start and we have our BE90 debut at Howick looming but there is now a grey cloud over this as since Moreton Riley seems to have lost his spark. He’s been working ok but has been quite lethargic about everything and just hasn’t been his normal “jolly” self. I also went XC schooling a week after Moreton and Riley felt not quite right and we had a small incident where we fell up and over a bank. And since then Riley’s been a little stiff in both hind legs and has been showing signs of being tucked up. His blood tests have come back inconclusive and there is no obvious point of pain in his hind anywhere. So for now he’s on a week’s rest and is going to have some “red bull” tonic for horses so we shall have to see what happens before I make a decision on whether to go to Howick or not.
Horses and eventing go hand in hand, the joy of riding or competing can give you so much joy but if anything goes slightly wrong it can feel so disappointing and always leaves you questioning everything. I hand it to those professional riders as I do this as a hobby but for those who livelihoods depend on horses being fit and sound and getting good results, when things don’t go to plan the stress and pressure must be something so difficult to deal with.
Hopefully my next blog will be full of much better news and I hope to god it stops raining !!!!
Claire
