If you manage to read through all of this - its not in vain LOL!! Skip down to the bolded "The event" if you wish to miss other musings

Pencil is my now 7yr old Irish x TB Gelding, whooo I've had for 2 years now - time flys!

This season, we have now competed in two Pre-training HT's (80cm) to get going - he hasn't done much, just the 3-4 ODE's we competed in last season (Feb/March 2013) I was going to do dressage and SJ over winter but it just didn't happen - so we have been schooling all winter.
The first two ODE's can be read about here:
First HT's of the season


So, I decided to move him up to training for this one, I know there will be plenty of people who disagree with that decision given we still have runoffs, and rails at the events. But I have my reasons and can go into them if people ask.

I've ridden this course a lot over the years with different horses, so I knew what most of it was going to entail... more on that later.

I'll start with the week prior because I've got time, and nothing else to fill in the afternoon hours at work.

Thursday evening I went for a ride, and the plan was to do a couple of rounds of SJ at 95cm or a smidge higher since we haven't actually done that before.. plenty of schooling over fences/exercises at height, but no courses.
And this is what happened:
I had a rather funny evening ride today. I wear a HR monitor every ride (trying to drop some weight/get healthy etc while TTC)... and my total time from pulling Pencil from the float (sorry trailer!) to putting him back in was 24mins, that included brush/saddle a quick 4 laps around the arena warm up, a course of 11 fences, 4 times through a simple (but large - squeals!!!) grid, and getting him back in the float. WHY you may ask, did it only take 24mins (and 193cals, av HR of 153bpm)... I got there in the SUN, bright happy sunny weather - lightweight T-shirt and jods - sparkly new boots on too.
By the time I climbed aboard (or was ready to lead him to the arena) I had rain sprinkles.. and saddle cover was thrown on, and I put a rain jacket on.
By the time I was on my third lap of the arena in trot - I had thunder overhead, In the 4th lap, I had the first lightening strike.
As I went over the first fence/jump, thunder struck and I swear I considered checking my undies it was that loud.
On the second time through the grid, I had hail hitting us (hence the big jump at 1.25m - done with ease, and no question about going over - knew he was ready, but I always chicken out, it just happened the grid was set up with it like that and I wasn't getting off to put it down a bit for the first few times through, for interest is was low bounce, one stride med verticle, one stride big ascending oxer) I can't just do it once, have to make sure a) its not a fluke and b) he is confident in it, and not just runnign scared through it
By the time I walked out of the arena (still on) I had thunder, hail, wind picking up and fork lightening hitting near by - I rode straight into my little float LOL
Unsaddled in there, and hefted out.. max speed of 60km/hr on the drive home on open road due to intense rain.
This is heading up my road, and shows that there was sun shining a mere 35mins earlier... if I plot the map on a direct line its 6.6km from home to the arena, and it wasn't raining at home - approx 3 km up this road:

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That was not taken in black and white - it was the shear difference in light where I was, to the sun on the Mt you can just make out!

I then went to ride on Sat, a gental hack up the road ready for the ODE the next day... and I could not catch the twerp!!! We had visitors coming for a BBQ in 2 hours and I couldn't catch him. So I though stuff, got the lungewhip out, and essentially free lunged him in the paddock - and he worked HARD.
I also decided it was due time, that I just shampoo'd him, he's never been washed before, I'm not big on washing horses at all (rather lazy), but decided if I'm not going to plait for the show, I should at least make sure he is clean and shiny. So the efforts began. It starts with standing about 4m back from him, getting the hose and just raining it on him. Then emptying a bottle of shampoo over his back and rubbing it in while dodging feet and teeth. Then standing back again with the hose, and having at him until I think all the suds are washed out! And the result - one very PO'd clean horse

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THE EVENT - start here if you want to skip the word vomit

Up early in the morning, booted up and on the float(trailer)at 6:30am - a lovely sunny day with a 2ish hour drive there to do
Leaving home:
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I snapped some pics on the drive, because its pretty slow going on a lot of it around the twisty turns and you should be able to see them here: http://s281.photobucket.com/user/Pip...PioPio%20drive

My fav from the drive:
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Got to the event fine, a little weary to be honest, and no traffic which was cool. And decided I had enough time to walk the XC... wizzed around that - found that they were running it backwards to every other year and didn't quite fill my nappy, but a couple of fences that I though were unfair and squeak worthy.


Rode the dressage, and while I didn't think it was spectacular, and his lack of balance showed (we just don't ride into the corners yet), it was decent. I was dissapointed that the judge wrote very very little in the comments. One comment on the entry, and the horses paces/submission were all that were filled in but a respectable score of 70% or 30 penalties, leaving us 4th out of the 6 rider in the class.

Getting ready for XC:
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XC was next, and whoops - made my way down to that a bit late, got my gear checked and went across to see there were only 2 riders before me to go EEEEEEEK, so straight into canter and over the practice fence, I haven't done that in YEARS. I hate it, just pure HATE being rushed through warmup for xc. I have a very set in stone routine that I follow every single time. I guess I was just lucky the course was a short one, but not something I wanted to do on his first training xc grrr.
So off we went - jump one was a simple log, wiggle and pop that one - which is good, less sticky than the previous HT's YAY
Jump 2, stacked tyres, we were a bit distracted between fence 1 and 2, and keeping him straight was a bit of a task, and he looked at it at the last minute, so I gave a growl and we chipped in and popped it
Going better now, can't see the parking area anymore, fence 3 looked like it caused some issues, it was just tractor tyres cut in half and mounted on skids... he looked, wbacked off a little and then popped over it nicely though
Fence four was a bit of a ugly line... had to go around a bank that was in the way, and we got a little discombobulated by it, so we trotted the next fence - a simple hutch.
Fence 5 was the bank complex as was unfair as far as I was concerned. A hard turn onto it, almost a roll back from the fence line, up the bank, down the bank, one stride right hand 90deg turn two strides and over a skinny fence. We came back to a trot around the turn because it was to tight and he was a bit strung out, then cantered last stride before going up the bank. It was maybe two across the top, and I thought he was being bold and going for the down bank, but he pecked at the last minute before jumping down, I lost my iron, and dropped the reins - but CLEVER pony, I pulled him around the turn and SQUEEEZED hard and we got over the skinny on long reins and one iron
Fence 6 was a wide shallow ditch, this one, I didn't want to come back to a trot, which is what I've been doing previously to make sure he sees it and goes over confidently - mainly due to the width that its easier to jump it from a canter, and its time for him to be a bit bolder with ditches now. So a "sj" canter and he looked, chipped and popped over it - YAY.
Now we are bowling along between fences, but we got a bit unstuck here
Fence 7, was a sharks tooth or W fence of single rails... he hasn't seen one of these before, and they had big rocks under the points... so when walking, the goal was to line up on the rail on the far right hand side, so to jump it like a straight forward rail... but, but LOL, Pencil looked at it from quite a ways back, and instantly backed off and slowed up to have a good look, he really wasn't sure on it at all, so rather than pulling him of the line he was looking at, we headed into the point of the V to go straight over, a cluck and some leg - YAY
So now we have got a little sticky, the fence 8 was always going to be a big ask, it was a large bank, with a ditch at the base of the bank, and the landing carried away uphill further. Quite intimidating to the rider, horses normally jump banks better with the ground line brought forward from the base - which is what the ditch did (edged by a rail). But the uphill was the killer. We ran off it, the line wasn't direct, it was 8 strides exactly from fence 7, and we didn't get moving again inbetween. This sort of stop is not something I worry about or consider a "bad" thing - its dissapointing it happened, but when you know its a ask for your horse in the first place, and you rode the best you could to get the horse through it, you shrug your shoulders and carry on. We circled around and came again, and he popped up it.
The next fence I was really disspointed in, continue uphill for a bit of a hike, and Pencil still didn't get the rhythm back, and really truely get in front of my leg, its was a full sized roll top, so something that should have been a breeze over... and he quit on me on it maybe 5 strides back and I didn't catch him in time, so by the time I had the whip on him for the smack we were at the fence and not enough gumption/go to go over it, and probably a little big to trot it, so turned around and came again
Between fence 9 and 10 was quite long, so I had enough time to get pencil in front of the leg, it was also downhill which helped.
Fence 10a/b was a one stride, log to skinny log with a drop on landing, which was straight forward
Fence 11 was a pallisade, - quite large, big enough they had a O option fence beside it for the 5 penalties. But he flew it - YAY
Fence 12 was a lovely oxer - and where we got the photo: http://www.spotonphoto.co.nz/events/...watkins&page=1
Fence 13, I was questioning a little bit when walking, again - he hasn't seen a true brush fence, or anything resembling it was so little he jumped the entire thing, but we couldn't do that on this fence, and it had a top to it as well... so I got the expected look, fall back and pop over it
Fence 14a,b was the water, and JEEPERS, it had a massive drop into it - I stood in it and the drop was at my shoulder height, pretty sure that it wasn't legal height... and the had a time option to the side. I thought lets just see what he does and how he is feeling when I get there, he paused at the edge and then jumped on in - YAY Go PONY
Fence 15 was the last one, and a little ugly in that I don't like completely upright faces to xc fences, I like a good ground like otherwise they tend to rap them with the hinds... but because we jumped out of the water, we weren't moving along, but a slighlyt more compact canter, and essentially SJ it (it was also a corner) and through the flags.

Again, I felt unfair, I walked him back to the trailer after cooling down, got him hosed off and was about to just start chilling out before SJ, when they called us to SJ - he wasnt even dry yet and I started saddling up. Poor guy must have been rather tired.

SJ warmup at this place is terrible, its less than a 40 x 20m arena, and they Always put the two fences in the middle, so to canter around and onto them - its ride a wobbly line, or canter half a 10m circle - and thats just not in the realm of Pencils capabilities.
3 practice jumps, and in the arena.
No t to much to say, he clipped a rail with a front foot when he lost impulsion coming out of a corner (more my fault for letting him fall behind), and the combination was a bit ugly so he peaked at that and took a rail there too (that was really just plain naughty).

So I was right in the xc being a bit tough, only 3 of us weren't eliminated of the 6 in my class (the over 25ys) and no clears. I ended up second and I claimed it as Pencil's first ribbon. Never mind the score of 110 penalties LOL.