Today we have our latest update from our amateur rider turning Pro Becky Woolven
Eventing in August concluded for me at Wellington Horse Trials in Hampshire. I had two horses in the Intermediate, my Gatcombe ride LB The Phantom (Otto) and the seven year-old Charlton Down Riverdance (aka Socks) who was making his return to Intermediate level after having a few confidence runs at Novice. Both horses finished in 9th place in their respective sections so it was a good day out. Having produced two fairly mediocre dressage tests and not quite faultless show jumping rounds, both horses clawed their way back into the top ten by allowing me to chase them around the cross country course sufficiently fast enough to get inside the time! I am very fortunate in that neither of these two horses are particularly strong to ride across country, despite both being giants (in the 17hh + region) which not only makes them very enjoyable rides across country but also means it’s much easier to ride them quickly as less pulling and pushing is necessary.
Socks showing his enormous stride!
Socks must be 17.2hh (I deliberately avoid measuring him as he is ridiculously tall and I’d rather not know what the 16.3, 4 year old I purchased has grown into!) and he has a gallop stride to match. I have no idea how many strides the average horse takes around an intermediate track, but I bet Socks’ only takes half that number. He is the fastest horse I have ever ridden across country and I can’t imagine I could ever ride anything quicker. He finds it easy to run and jump and I think this is such an important quality in an event horse – they have to be comfortable jumping at speed in order to be competitive at the higher levels. I feel that you have to trust them to be careful and straight to a fence and also to come back to you quickly when you need them to.
I know I’m not the only one to idolise Andrew Nicholson’s ability to ride a horse quickly, yet make it look like he’s just cruising. I feel there’s so much to be learnt by watching riders like him – he clearly trusts his horses to jump the fences and they quite obviously trust him and so are confident to run and jump at a decent pace. There is clearly a difference between riding in a forward, rhythmic pace and riding too fast and scaring a horse and I think Nicholson is a genius beacuse his horses look so confident.
I got another opportunity to put the accelerator down on Otto in the CIC 2* at Gatcombe (20-22 September) which is a very local event for me as I’m based just a few miles away in Tetbury. The format was slightly unusual as we had to show jump after the cross country, but on the same day and with a trot up in between! The cross country caused carnage and of the 100 starters, only 37 went clear. There were tests all over the place and quite a few involved drops. Otto was fantastic and jumped a great round, although we had a tricky moment at the water where we had to circle before the final element which was fortunately allowed due to it being separately numbered to the first two elements. This wasted quite a bit of time so we picked up 7.2 time penalties which actually turned out to be pretty quick so I think we could have had a good crack at time if we hadn’t had to circle.
Otto couldn’t believe his eyes when I reappeared with his tack a few hours later ready for the show jumping. Fortunately he came round to the idea pretty quickly and jumped a super clear round to finish 14th overall which I was pretty chuffed with seeing as he was lying in 56th place after the dressage!
Jelly and Bruce – new field buddies!
My father came along to “help” me at Gatcombe on the Sunday as by then my friends who had come to watch on the Saturday were slowly trickling off back home (I have some very loyal supports who come from the other side of the country) and seeing as I didn’t show jump until 5pm, it was always going to be a long day. It turns out that some people have normal jobs they need to get back to. It’s funny because, as everyone who works with horses can probably appreciate, there is very little to distinguish a weekday from a weekend, or a bank holiday – the concept of a “long weekend” is a distant memory from my school days.
Anyway, so my father is “non-horsey” as you will know from my previous blogs so it’s always entertaining when he is called in as a last (very last) resort to be my “groom.” If you ever see a man walking a horse off around the lorry park with his arm stretched out as far away from him as possible to keep the horse and its hooves well away from his feet, then that is my father. Similarly, if you ever see a man standing in the middle of the show jumping warm-up looking confused whilst his daughter tries to explain which jump the “oxer” is, then that could well be my father. However the best way to identify Nigel Woolven is by looking around the lorry park for a man sat on a fold-up chair (probably completely inappropriately placed such as at the bottom of the horsebox ramp, or even more embarrassingly, at the bottom of someone else’s ramp) reading the sports section of The Sunday Times as if he were sat at home in his slippers, completely oblivious to what’s going on around him. Occasionally he may glance up and say, “Is there anything I can do to help?” Despite his best efforts, you can tell he is praying for the reply to be “No thanks” (and unless I’m quite desperate, it always is) so that he may return to finding out how England are getting on in the test match.
As entertaining as it may be when my father is called in to help, (or not, if help is in fact required or if there’s simply not time to explain which jump the oxer is and how to put it up as I’m actually next in to jump) I hopefully won’t be requiring his assistance in the near future, although it is always lovely when my parents come to watch events and they are pretty useful on the picnic front – even if they do expect me to eat two rounds of egg sandwiches and a handful of chocolate brownies ten minutes before I’m about to go cross country.
The end of the eventing season is in sight which is always very strange. As nice as it is for the horses to have a break and to not be out in the lorry every weekend, I really do miss it in the winter. The 2014 eventing calendar will be eagerly awaited but in the meantime I will have to rely on hunting for my adrenaline fix. However, I still have a handful of events left which I will be updating you on next month. If all goes to plan Otto will be having a crack at his first advanced at Little Downham and Smoking (aka Joey, the little ex-race horse) will be making his BE100 debut at Moreton Morrell this weekend. Exciting stuff! Cooley Jelly concluded his season with the novice at Gatcombe but sadly didn’t quite make it four out of four novice placings, he made a rare mistake in the show jumping but stormed round the cross country to finish his season on a positive note. He is now enjoying his holiday out in the field with Bruce, the rescued Miniature Shetland. A very cute sight….
