I felt very grateful to get a run at Larkhill on Sunday after every other BE event in the country fell foul to the weather.
Getting ready was a major faff as I had an early time and was working until 9pm the night before but Lexi’s mudfever was bothering her again so it was fairly good timing really as I could keep her in once she was bathed and plaited!
She warmed up a little tense for her dressage and stiff to the right but came softer as we went. When we went to do our test she froze in horror at the sight of some flowers by the arena. She got over it and did a decent test. It wasn’t as soft as some of the tests she’s done but good enough. I was happy with a 29.8 given the vast majority of the scores were in the 40s!
Show jumping was on the side of the hill and on the soft side. Lexi jumped well but unfortunately pecked in a muddy spot from the day before and we got a digger of a stride and had an uncharacteristic pole down.
Then off for the cross country! She surged out of the start box and stormed over the first fence fences. It was a fair course with all the questions. She was a little spooky through the bright farmyard complex but I kicked and she went. Stormed through the coffin then leapt off the drop a bit too boldly.
At this stage I realised I had to slow down as we were going far too fast. The next few fences were simple and she jumped well, before splashing boldly through the water and the corner combination. Despite my best efforts to slow down, we were still looking at coming in about about 30 seconds too fast. Unfortunately the last fence was a big owl hole and we ground to a halt a few strides out.
Owlholes are Lexi’s nemesis and she was good to jump it second time and still finished within the time!
I have now come up with an idea of how to build one. Apologies for the late post, life gets crammed a bit full sometimes!
