Scotts of Thrapston

We jumped a lovely clear round, the first of the day!

Posted on 09. Jun, 2011 by Julia Berrie in Rider Development Programme, Sarah Orr

With our first affiliated event approaching I decided to enter the 90cm ODE at MKEC and put all the training and top tips from Nick into action.

We made our way down to the dressage arenas to warm up. Bugsy was fantastic and worked in beautifully. This was only our second dressage test of the year so I was pleased with how smoothly the test went and our score of 64%.

Next I was off to walk the SJ course. There were a few dog legs, a combination and lots of spreads. The arena was a nice size and pretty flat. I planned to take it steady and to give him plenty of room on approach to the fences. I made sure I had the energy in the canter and that I had him listening so I was able to adjust the stride – which is what we concentrated on with Nick. Much to my delight the course rode very smoothly, it didn’t feel big and we jumped a lovely clear round, the first of the day!

We set off well on the XC and popped the first five fences of the course. Fence six was a hedge with a pole which gave the impression of a ditch in front, it was situated between the hedge line and the landing was downhill. I rode confidently towards it as he’d been a bit sticky over it a few weeks back but we got in too deep and he stopped. I collected him back up, re-presented the fence and rode positively – he backed off but then did a massive jump and I lost my stirrup in the process. I didn’t have time to worry about that though as there was a log, water complex and flower bed coming up! We sailed over them and thankfully I got my stirrup back as the next fence was a full up brush fence at the top of the hill. I rode with lots of enthusiasm and he flew it. Next were two skinny roll tops one in front of the other, they were side by side but positioned one in front of the other. I remembered the advice from Nick ‘give the horse time to assess the situation.’ I’m not sure what happened but we hit the fence, luckily we were both ok. I trotted him away and just gave him a moment to calm down. He was fine so I attempted it again and he seemed to understand this time around and jumped it confidently. He picked up over the next few fences so I took my chances and rode the direct route over the big corner. Again he flew it and the rest of the course went smoothly and we enjoyed a good gallop to the finish.

All in all it was a great day. I was really pleased with both the SJ & dressage. Unfortunately the XC on this occasion didn’t quite go to plan but we have other opportunities coming up to go out, regain some confidence and have some well deserved fun.

I have some flat training lined up at home, three XC sessions with Nick Turner, one XC session with Piggy French and a SJ lesson with Nick at Waresley Park all in preparation for our first affiliated event which is at the end of June at MKEC.

Sarah Orr

Tags: Dressage, MKEC, Nick Turner, Piggy French, Sarah Orr