Pontispool horse trials 2nd July 2015

This was our first outing of the season where we were to endure plenty of wind and rain.  The 1st of June felt more like the 1st November before the winter kicks in!  It was definitely not an event for the fair weather rider.

Pontispool had once again presented a well built cross country course across all of the levels.  They have many features across the estate, which they utilise really well making it very interesting riding.  There were jumping efforts both entering, and exiting the water complexes, and would require a confident horse and accurate riding to get through them smoothly.  Everyone loves watching at the water jump, and I think these would provide a few sticky rides that would entertain the spectators.

My first ride of the weekend was our very own, Bloomfield Tiger Two.  After his first competition at Millfield, we felt he needed to compete fairly soon so to establish what was expected of him in his new sport.

This started off really well with a huge improvement in the dressage.  Tiger was really relaxed, and stayed focused throughout, allowing us to perform a smooth and accurate test.  He was well rewarded with a score of 28.3 which it was safe to say, we were very pleased with.

Show jumping was going well, but being last to go in our class, the arena party were a bit eager to alter the course and started changing the fences as we were half way through our round.  This included a gentleman in a bright yellow jacket walking across the back of a fence as we were approaching it.  He was half an advert for road safety, he was dressed in bright clothing so was easy to see, but he definitely forget to look left and right before crossing to avoid traffic!  This was a shame for us, as Tiger got a little unnerved by this and lost his concentration.  He began to be more concerned about the people rattling about with the other fences around him than the ones he was  jumping, you can’t blame him I suppose.  This resulted in him having a couple down, but I was pleased with how he began his round which is promising for his next events.

The cross country on the whole went well.  He jumped with more confidence, and tackled the water fences well.  I had one blip, where he had a spook while approaching a fence, and unfortunately, I had fractured my hand only the day before, and I was unable to organise my reins quickly enough to compensate.  Once I’d got myself sorted we were back on track, and he flew home.

Kelsons Limited Edition put in a very consistent performance.  His dressage was good and had a super show jumping round.  He did unfortunately lower one rail, but only through over jumping with exuberance, so we can forgive him that.

Once again, he cruised around the cross country effortlessly.  He coped really well with all of the combinations and popped around the course in a beautiful rhythm.  Another solid result!!

Duke of Axbridge made a minor misjudgement in the show jumping.  I think he misread the final upright which was a rustic fence with no ground line.  He half thought about putting in an extra stride, which left us in a bit of disarray.  On second presentation, he popped over it effortlessly, but unfortunately this spoilt what was up to then a fab round.

With the weather really deteriorating, we decided to canter round the cross country in a safe rhythm, ignoring the time.  This plan paid off, as we had a super clear!  The course took many victims, and even with our time penalties we still had a placing.  This proves this horses reliability at Intermediate level.

Storm Blue was doing his first horse trial event of the season.  He’s had a successful stint show jumping, but we feel he will be a great junior event horse when he has a bit more experience, so his eventing career begins.

With the wind howling, and the intermittent heavy rain showers, it probably wasn’t the best conditions for his first dressage test, but Blue stayed focussed and posted a very respectable 29.3.  Not bad for his debut.

We shot straight down to the show jumping, where he jumped a great round.  I rode into the first fence sooo relaxed, he jumped about four foot high, but clipped the back rail of the oxer on the way down.  This woke us up, and we jumped cleanly around the rest of the course.

This proves, theres a fine line between confidence, and complacency.  Blame the rider, oops!

Cross country was a training exercise, and its safe to say, it went well.  He popped around like a pro.  We were very happy!