Last time I wrote we were trying to get the last bit of
harvesting done and I wasn’t allowed to put the heating on until we were done.
Well, I’m pleased to say we got finished and I’ve now got the heating whacked
up on full blast and I’m happily cooking away!
In my last blog I talked about the build up to our
penultimate event of the season, the novice at Allerton Park and our final
event of the season, the CIC1* at Aske. I’m pleased to say that both went
pretty well!
Having moved Herbie up to novice earlier in the season, he
took a couple of events to establish himself but he really came into his own
towards the end. He was second at Richmond and then followed that up with a 6th
at Allerton Park. This proved great preparation for the 1* and we headed up to
Aske knowing we’d done all we could. It was my first event under international
rules and was a mixture of being both exciting and daunting! We decided to
stable up at Aske so as to take off the pressure and give Herbie a nice easy
night without having to travel back and forth. We did our dressage on the
Friday and it was truly fabulous to ride in a long arena in my tailcoat! We did
a good test, I managed all of the sitting trot and Herbie really stayed with
me. I loved riding up the centre line in all my gear and breathing it all in.
My aim was to post a score in the 40’s so a 48.4 to leave us in 10th
place was great.
Mum and I then made Herbie comfy for the night, grabbed some
tea and bedded down for the night, knowing we had a busy day ahead of us!
Saturday started with showjumping and the tricky course on undulating ground
was causing plenty of problems. Herbie jumped his little socks off but
unfortunately managed to lower two poles (one of them being the last fence
which I’m taking full responsibility for!), this said, it was a tough course
and 2 down round our first track of that size was a good result. Then for the
cross country!
I’d walked the course with my long time trainer (and general
mentor!), Zoe Rymer. She had given me a clear idea of what I needed to do
although I do admit to a quick dash to her lorry for some last minute advice
when I heard the course was causing so many problems! Fences 4 and 17 were
proving particularly influential so it was nice to leave the start box knowing
exactly what I needed to do. Herbie was brilliant! He flew round, listening to
me when he needed to and giving me lots of confidence that he knew the job. He
found the increase in height, technicality and distance well within his
capabilities and I’m not ashamed to say I had a lump in my throat when we
crossed the finish line!
This solid performance meant we squeezed into the top 10 (in
10th place!). A top 10 finish in our first competition under
international rules gave me a great end to a great season.
We then quickly slotted in a visit to a dressage competition
to secure our qualification for the winter regionals (not till Feb 2016) before
he had his shoes taken off. He is now enjoying time in the field, telling our
little foal, Ginny Rumber all about his eventing adventures….I hope she’s
listening carefully!
Thank you to Nick Gill for the photographs.
Lucie
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