Bricky horse trials 9th October 2015

This year, Bricky was bathed in sunshine and it was great to be able to enjoy the fantastic views surrounding the show ground.

As always, Michael had presented beautifully presented cross country courses across the levels, asking several technical questions throughout.  You can always count on your trip to Bricky being an educational one for either horse or rider.

My first ride of the day was Bloomfield Tiger Two.  We were full of confidence following his win the week before, and Tiger was certainly out to impress the dressage judges.  He performed an accurate test, producing a lovely picture throughout gaining him a super score of 26.5.

The show jumping is situated on a sloping area of the show ground, which can have a big influence on how the young horses perform.  The horses have to learn to open up their stride and use their power when jumping up the slope, then collect and balance themselves to control their momentum when travelling down hill.

Tiger jumped very well, coping well with the turns and undulations.  We had the final fence down, which I think could have been rider error.  I turned quite tight to the final fence and didn’t really respect it enough.  It was a case of maybe thinking we were home and dry with a clear a bit too early, grrr.

I set off on the cross country attacking the course from the beginning.  As with last week, Tiger was thriving with this positive attitude and he gave me a brilliant round.  He flew around inside the time and we were rewarded with 2nd place.

Another brilliant result on the bounce!!

The Night Traveller was first to go in his section.  He produced a consistent, accurate test which we were very pleased with.  I think the dressage judges were maybe being a bit cautious with their marks as we were first in, but never the less, we had a very competitive score.

You can not fault this guy in the show jumping.  He delivered another super clear round, making it all look so effortless.

The Novice course had an extremely busy section in the middle, and towards the end of the track you had to travel down a steep slope, and then you had to travel immediately back up it.  I thought this would make it very hard to achieve the time, especially as I’m always very cautious galloping down hill so to avoid injuring the horses.

We set off in a good rhythm and The Night Traveller was very enthusiastic, not wasting any time getting away from the fences well.  He skipped through the combinations and seemed to be having the time of his life.  I came through the hedge line and seen what can only be described as a ‘long shot’ to a decent log pile.  The Night Traveller is not the biggest horse but he spread his wings and stretched across the fence with confidence.  He gave me 100% and finished with a solid clear.

He was rewarded with 4th place.  Another rosette for this chap to add to his trophy cabinet.

All in all, an enjoyable show with some more super results!