Showing, Showjumping and Success!
Time for a quick update on our successes over the past few months....
April:
The end of April saw me and Jake head over to Keysoe - our fantastic local
competition venue- for our first showing show of this season. Entered into the open ridden hunters, Jake performed amazingly ending with us taking 2nd place and qualifying for Equifest.
May:
We headed over to Keysoe again for something a little different mid May. One of my clients wanted a lesson around the cross-country course on her new pony, so Jake tagged along too and we had lots of fun being lead horse during the lesson. Both Jake and my clients pony jumped amazingly, and it was lovely to get out and do something a bit different!
I also competed in one of Dressage Riders Online class's at the end of May.
Not with Jake, but instead with the American Miniature stallion Costa in the charity in-hand class. Doing this class meant putting Costa through some intense training. No longer being a glorified lawn mower was a shock to the system for Costa, but he took to his new training regime of lunging and in hand work luck a duck to water! The day came to film our test and Costa was smartend-up complete with a mini set of white bandages. We ran (literally!) through the test, and Costa pulled it out the bag, winning our class! Costa is still training, and it now getting ready for his showing debut in July, at the Showcase of Champions show being held at Keysoe. I have no doubt that he will strut his stuff in-front of an adoring crowd and hopefully come back with some rosettes!
At 6AM on the 25th of May we headed off to Hertfordshire County Show. Having been for the first time last year, I was really looking forward to heading back, this time for the RIHS ridden hunters and SSADL Pre-senior first round qualifier. The ridden hunters took place in the main ring, a new experience for us, but Jake took it all in his stride and was wonderful in the
go-round and judge ride. We were very happy to be pulled in 3rd, against some very tough competition, missing out on the qualification by 1 place, but we will be back again next year to have another go. We also competed in the seniors qualifier. Again Jake behaved beautifully, with just a small blip in our individual show costing us a top 2 placing, but still very happy with another yellow rosette.
June:
The next weekend we went over to Rutland County Show for another crack at some RIHS qualifiers. we came away with two 4ths, not the placings we had hoped for, but still pretty good considering its our first proper season showing.
The following weekend (much to Jake's disgust i'm sure) he was plaited up and kept in over night again, ready for SEIB Search for a Star held at Bury Farm. We were pulled in 4th on the first line up, a really great position to be in going into the judge ride. Unfortunately Jake dropped behind the judges leg during the ride so didn't go as nicely as usual. This meant we came away without a placing, but still got a nice rosette. A bit of a disappointment, but its important to remember that things sometimes go wrong, but we live to fight another day.
We were out yet again on the 14th, this time back to Keysoe (we quite like it there!) for some showjumping, which was certainly a welcome change for the both of us! Jake jumped amazingly in the warm up, and then went on to produce an amazing round in the 1m open. Unfortunately we had a pole at the third fence, but a lightening fast time meant we still ended up winning our class!
