The first big thing was that I drove the truck, its a 9ton tare weight, so add three horses, and enough stock to get us through 3 days... and it wasn't light, nor small! So I didn't sleep much with nerves - about driving the truck... worst part was the george...
Its a georgeous drive, absolutly stunning to go through - but I didn't see a thing - I was just watching the road... its about 8km from start to finish and I didn't change a single gear the whole way through LOL, 4th Low was sufficient to cruise through calmly.
A few massive hills to drive up as well, and I've never driven a High/low transmission so that took some getting used to, and a couple of stops on hill (lucky they were passing lanes so I wasnt holding up traffic) I did however blush enough that my face was permanatly red the whole drive (from either stopping on hills, or crunching gears ouch!)
But we made it safe and sound!!! 6-1/2 hours later we arrived at the event grounds, had a quick hack on Pencil around the place and camped out overnight for the first time in the truck, one of the friends (owner of truck) made a fantastic meal!!!
This is the truck and Pencil the next morning just before our dressage test
So all this time in the truck, Pencil made some girlfreinds, and he got a wee bit upset when we started warming up for dressage, so I wasn't expecting much at ALL! But he was actually FANTASTIC, a lovely dressage test (few minor mistakes), and we ended up on 64.74% or 35.3 penalties and 5th place!
During the test:
And a very happy end to the test:
A hour later we had SJ, and it wasn't as successful as it could have been. No rails, but time faults. He was off in lala land looking for his girlfriend the whole course... so turning wasn't very sucessful... and we got very flat/strung out, annd it just wasnt pretty! But we stayed in 5th placing
Next day was XC, and we had a excellent time to ride (10am was the start of our class) which is fantastic!!
Pencil warmed up really well, he was very forward, and even slightly pulling which he hasn't been like before! Did the practice fences really well, and wasn't to distracted by other horses/the GF not being by his side.
We started out exceptionally pokey! But no stopping at fence 1 like the first couple last season (hoorah), and a crack with the whip at fence 2 and he started bowling along, which in a way is kinda unfortunate, and or a really poorly place fence 3, a compulsary road crossing in trot, then 3 stride to get over a curving ling one strided double brush (a/b).. Pencil tried REALLY REALLY hard, but it was a little to much for the first HT/ODE of the season, he wigged out a little at the mat across the road (picked his feet up very high!) and didn't see the fence in front, he did get one leg over.. but we just didn't have enough GO. So a circle and a pop with the whip and he went straight through the combo! Fence 3 and 4 are the photo's below.. and from that point on in the xc, pencil could not have done better! There are a few photo's below that are the last couple of fences and the water jump ( he is having a good look, but we didn't get faulted at the water), so ended up 8th, with the 20 faults for the stop.
The next event we drove North... which is a far more horrible drive than south... so again, NERVES over driving the truck.. a BIG hill called Mt Messenger
That is a series of 25km - 35km corners the whole way up, and the whole way down again.. roughly a total of 10km up then down again... elevation of 139m above sea level, we start off at 20m above sea level, and get back there in the 10km.
Then not shortly after that is the Awakino George! 15km plus of windy roads!
Thankfully though, this trip was much shorter (4 hours), and I had working exhaust breaks (they weren't working the week before)... so a better drive with being used to the trucks gears as well (no crunching).
Come dressage this weekend, I made a near fatal error - I got on far too early. A hour to early. I must remember this. Because the other horse was two riders ahead that Pencil is in love with, I got on when she did, or Pencil is near impossible to tack up while calling out and dancing around... which only frustrates me and I get a wee bit angry with the dancing and stepped on toes
So Pencil had completly had enough when it was finallly my turn to ride... and what does he do.... flips the tounge over the bit.
When I get the video of the test, I'll post it.. I really didn't know what to do at the time. Rules are that I can't get off (to fix it) once the bell rings... or I'm eliminated. So I rode the test on my finger tips, just enough to guide him around.. and we got 57% 
I was not expecting that kind... it really rode like a much worse test... but most shocking was that the judge didn't pick up on what he did, despite tounge out the side of his mouth going around in circles. I decided after, I should have retired from dressage, that way I still could have ridden the rest of the event. SJ - well, with 80 something riders to get through, I understand the way the judges ran the ring... however its not fun for green horses. It was windy... very windy... all the fillers had blown over and were on the ground.. so as soon as I trotted in the ring, he shyed at a filler on the ground.. as he shyed.. the bell rang to go. So from entering the ring to the bell was less than 10 seconds... I know that I have a minute to go through the flags, but I never use it, and its time I did. So I picked up my canter and headed for the first fence straight away. No circle, nothing.. so he shyed again at the start "flags" which were giant horse heads... blown over... and we went straight past fence number 1... whoops.
Circle around... and popped the fence, and went around the rest of the course well. He tipped the back rail of a oxer on a double... not entirely sure why, at the time I remember thinking to flat - so that is likely the reason.
So for what ever reason.. the judge was very kind to me, and I only got given 4 faults. Maybe because I was in last place anyway, or they were aware of the short time frame they gave, or they weren't even ready for me to start... who knows. But I am very grateful to them for it. It moved my up to 20th.... out of 21
2nd at the wrong end, oh yea!I was at the time very very frustrated with the way the day went... but a phone call to trusty Dad reminded me a) this is his 5th competition EVER. Its his 2nd trip away EVER, and 2 weeks in a row is a big ask. So I drank some beer and came to terms with my day
not a great idea.Mildly hungover the next morning....
XC actually isn't much to write about. I won't be parking the truck near the start box again. Pencil started calling out as soon as he saw it... Fence 1 we trotted, fence 2 I only just got him over after all the eyebawling at the metal on the ground, and patches of mud (i really think he was just looking for a excuses to play up). But after that he rocked on wickedly! Until.... we faced back at the trucks... and we got distracted again... so run off on fence # ten
Much better at the water fence this week, no hesitation... flew straight in, and very nearly ended up on his face in the water LOL
over enthusisatic! (sorry on sp)Just about bowled over a pedestrian wandering on course... so I hollered a rude comment at her... that really irks me... and we finished up with just the 20 faults. He was blowing much harder this week, than last, so either the heat (it was warmer) or more up/down hills was taxing. So I need to up his wind fitness.. have rung a local training track to go interval training on
I'll post photo's from this event once I've purchase the prof ones...
Professional ones from this event:
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