Scotts of Thrapston

I even began to enjoy myself

Posted on 24. Jun, 2010 by Janet in Janet Hammond, Rider Development Programme

As mentioned last week, I was lucky enough to get a training session on Wednesday with Nick Turner at Carlton. Sara Tusting kindly helped organise this after I had bemoaned my inability to ride fast enough cross country!

As I have mentioned before, Nick is a very calm and laid back instructor. He keeps things simple, quietly suggesting small changes in technique and approach. Before you know it, you’ve speeded up significantly but never at the expense of losing balance or control. It was a fantastic training session and I came away feeling fired up and fully prepared for my event on Saturday.

This was the inaugural one day event at Bury Farm, and they had made a fantastic effort – the jumps were beautifully made, and the ground had been aerated and watered. The location is flat – very different from the Carlton hills – but there were enough questions around the track to make it challenging. My course included a wide ditch and log combination, a skinny, a corner, a number of up-to-height tables, and a water splash with duck house combination.

I walked the course twice, and with Nick’s advice from Wednesday in mind I concentrated on the exact line that I planned to ride and considered all possible short cuts.

Saturday morning was quite chilly and windy, and Tara didn’t settle particularly well in the warm up. However we rode a reasonable dressage test, scoring 39 penalties, and I set my target on a double clear around the jumps.

Unfortunately that was not to be. Despite a very calm warm-up for the show jumping, with Tara feeling really good, we didn’t get off to the best of starts. She backed off the first jump, then made an awkward cat leap, knocking the pole, and I lost a stirrup. We carried on over the second, but my stirrup was caught in front of the saddle and I couldn’t get it back. I decided it was better to turn away and reorganise myself before I continued, a good plan as we completed with just those 8 penalties.

I felt hugely disappointed as our show jumping had been going so well. I also began to feel quite nervous about the cross country; it is dangerous to jump over the solid obstacles without enough impulsion and Tara needed to be reacting to my leg much faster. However I gathered myself together and in the start box I felt utterly determined to have a clear round.

The first couple of jumps were a little sticky, but a number of taps with the stick focussed Tara’s attention and she skipped through the ditch and log and over the skinny. We then had a lovely run through a complex of banks and logs, and were really in our stride. The rest of the course went brilliantly – I even began to enjoy myself – what a buzz! And at last we finished an event with zero time penalties! A big thank you to Nick Turner as not only had I increased my speed from the Carlton hunter trials (435mpm), I had achieved the 450mpm required for the 90cm class.

In the end our strong performance across country brought us into 9th position, which was a big surprise and a real thrill.

Entries for the Carlton event open this week, and following this performance I will definitely be entering the BE90 class.

Tags: Bury Farm, Carlton, Nick Turner