I took him once before in 2011 but it was when I was still getting to grips with him and had a weekend of fourfaultitis, so now we're very consistent at this level I felt quite excited for a good weekend!
We arrived Thursday afternoon and Squirrel quickly settled in. He is so relaxed, he just settles anywhere which is always a relief. In fact I seemed to have spent a lot of time trying to get him to stop lying down opposed to anything else this weekend!
Friday morning dawned nice and early, I woke up way before my alarm at 6am (its sad when that becomes a lie in!) so got up, fed, mucked out and grazed Squirrel for a while. He was like a kid in a sweetshop - a lot more grass there than at home!
As I was in the 3 foot 3 I had quite a wait til my first warm up class (1 round against the clock) so took the oppertunity to relax and get stuck into the sweet shop.
I walked my course and picked my lines. I had already decided it was a "do or die" weekend - I had nothing to lose, I didn't want to go for steady clears and get a 5th, I wanted to push the boat out and go for a win, and if we had a pole, then nevermind.
about to go in
first fence
turning in the air
unfortunately had the back part of this double down which put us out the placings in that first class
taking a flier anyway
and over the last
We had a bit of a break then it was time for the teams! I have some good friends who I meet there time and time again and we formed a team. We were doing the 2 foot 6 as 1 of them rides a 27 year old pony who is a little cracker but generally taking things a bit easier. Behind my back they managed to come up with the team name "Polka Dot Polka Dot Afro Circus" which did give me a giggle when I heard!
I was jumping last - they decided I got to be the William Fox-Pitt "Mr Cool" of the team - not in my nature!
My friend and her OH managed to jump lovely clears, although her OH was a bit heart in mouth as he rides an enormous horse who just lollops over the fences and looks like he'll have each one down but they stayed! Our third member rode a super round but unfortunately had a fence down so it was down to us to get a clear to put us into the jump off.
I rode out to screams and shouts (which was hilarous) and Squirrel popped round sweetly without breathing on a fence. I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried he wouldn't respect them but he was a star.
I was nominated for the jump off along with another person from our team. Unfortunately my team member had a horse fall at the second fence. No real reason, he landed fine then rolled over! Luckily both were okay and went on to have a good weekend but it was a heart stopping moment! So me and Squirrel just hacked round as with an elimination we were last from the J/O teams. But we still scraped a 5th which was nice.
Suddenly I heard an announcement for an impromtu chase me charlie! Well, I thought why not?
17 were entered and it started at 2 foot 3.
Gradually got a bit bigger and Squirrel got rather excited! For some reason this was very exciting and he got very bouncy and even doing some of those "leaps" before the fence which made it tricky to ride him as he is normally very laid back.
I thought I was quite clever and got him nice and deep to the practise fence each time which he kept having down (it was very gappy too) which helped him pick up for the actual competition jump
unfortunately this failed when it got to 4 foot 6 and he cleared the
practise fence. I held him a stride too long and he clipped it behind,
but came a respectable third, with the two riders who cleared it
deciding to call it a draw.Also a token picture of my friend's 14hh 27 year old popping 4 foot
What a star!
Anyway we finished the day off with high spirits, looking forward to the rest of the weekend.
Saturday was STRESSFULL. They had changed the format of the warm up classes and champ classes (i.e. the warm ups and champ classes used to run in the same ring for each height but they had changed it) so my classes were heading for a head on collision course.
I managed to jump first inmy warm up and really went for a fast, tight round which Squirrel pulled out the bag.
I then ran down to walk my championship course (which was tricky and demanded respect on the corners!) then ran back to found we had won!
it was marred a bit that there weren't a huge amount of entries (not sure, more than 10 though as all the placings were taken) and with moving the format about, there was zero atmoshpere there..but he was fantastic.
We had just enough time to get him down to the championship class, where he jumped beautifully.
and went clear!
We were quite early in the jump off (5th I think) and 3 before us had gone clear and fast so I knew what we had to do.
our time was on par with the winner (I can't remember the .00s) but unfortunately we had 2 down which was rare for him. I just let him get too fast through the double (which was short) and then flat into the next fence but nevermind! He jumped his heart out.
Saturday night involved drinking and piggy back "Grand Nationals" which was great fun although I have bruises to show for it after a nasty "horse fall". Pleased to report my mount was a little stiff but sound in the morning and passed the trot up
Luckily my mum got up and fed Squirrel breakfast so I had a bit of a lie in. 2 mushroom and bacon burgers later I felt better although it was a long wait until my warm up class.
I was first in again as worried about classes clashing (although I had hours to spare this time) and it was a wiggley course. I decided to concentrate on turns - there were plenty to do! - and forget about letting him go fast as I didn't want any poles..
He was SUPERB. He jumped lines the ponies in the 2 foot 3 class struggled with, all with 1 eye and didn't bat an eyelid. He knew what I wanted and he delivered. I finished with a grin on my face, knowing the time would be hard to beat.
We held on to it and won the class! This actually felt like a win with lots of entries so I was thrilled.
Then we had a looooong wait until our championship class which wasn't until around 4pm. Knowing we still had to thoroughly clean out his stable and a 2 hour drive home (and a 5am start the next day) I was getting very tired.
Finally it was our turn. I was 17th to jump and there were only 4 clears so far. The two doubles were proving troublesome as it walked very short, so I knew I had to keep him short for these.
He jumped a super round again, really listened. Unfortunately at the last I relaxed thinking I was done and had it down! But he was super and I couldn't ask more of him.
All in all, it was a super weekend - best by far I've had there. I messed up the championship rounds but I can't complain. We'll just have to come back in August to crack it!
Excuse my face in this, Squirrel was not feeling co-operative and kept knocking his rosettes off instead of posing. And I have the make up on from the night before.
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