After our first event of the season at Munstead was cancelled, Larkhill became Humbugs much needed first run! I had fairly late times so we arrived after lunch in plenty of time so I could walk my courses before I needed to tack up and jump on for dressage. The XC was lovely; very open and flowing and Humbug very much enjoyed standing in the trailer on the top of the hill watching all of the action! I warmed up for dressage in my usual fashion and Bug was feeling great however as I entered the arena for my test, somebody cantered past the boards behind me and Humbug suddenly decided she would rather hunt her way through the test... Well this resulted in some very poor movements to say the least! We ended up on a mark of 39.
Unfortunately, this little mishap set the tone for the day and she got very strong SJ which resulted in a couple down; the course wasn't best suited to her with riders in the warm up saying it was more similar to a BS track than a BE track. But I couldn't be too disappointed as there were some real cricket scores going up on the board.
By the time we reached XC warm up, Humbug had decided she was almost certainly going hunting! I only did a couple of warm up fences as, frankly, I couldn't actually hold her inside the ropes! We set off on our way and she was absolutely flying round, answering every question we came across, until we arrived at the water where she dragged me down the hill a little too fast for my liking and saw the water on the landing side of the first of three elements a little too late. This resulted in a frustrating 20 penalties and a handful of time but I wasn't too dissatisfied considering it was her first time back on a XC course since October last year!
So a fairly disappointing day result wise but it was great to be back in the game with a healthy, happy horse and I am very much looking forward to the rest of the season!
Unfortunately, this little mishap set the tone for the day and she got very strong SJ which resulted in a couple down; the course wasn't best suited to her with riders in the warm up saying it was more similar to a BS track than a BE track. But I couldn't be too disappointed as there were some real cricket scores going up on the board.
By the time we reached XC warm up, Humbug had decided she was almost certainly going hunting! I only did a couple of warm up fences as, frankly, I couldn't actually hold her inside the ropes! We set off on our way and she was absolutely flying round, answering every question we came across, until we arrived at the water where she dragged me down the hill a little too fast for my liking and saw the water on the landing side of the first of three elements a little too late. This resulted in a frustrating 20 penalties and a handful of time but I wasn't too dissatisfied considering it was her first time back on a XC course since October last year!
So a fairly disappointing day result wise but it was great to be back in the game with a healthy, happy horse and I am very much looking forward to the rest of the season!