A great but very busy weekend out eventing at Eridge.....

Well the weather is finally staring to pick up a bit and we had another good weekend out eventing with both Roxie and Milli and once again came back with lots of positives and plenty to work on.....

First it was Milli's turn on the Saturday and she was entered in the 5yo qualifier class which runs at BE100 level. Her dressage just keeps getting better and better since we were given some pointers at Little Downham and she scored plenty of 8's for her trot and canter work but then also scored 3's for some movements as she is being a bit cheeky and is finding it easier to do a ice collected canter instead of trotting properly!! She scored 42, which in comparison to some wasn't bad at all but it is just frustrating when I now it could be so much better, but I've got to remember she is still only 5 years old!!

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We had a nice break between dressage and SJ so had plenty of time to walk both the SJ and XC courses. The SJ looked a nice flowing track which wasn't too big, I think because the arena was surrounded with trades stands and they 
didn't want to over face the young horses. Milli jumped brilliantly and didn't bother by all the people watching or the trade stands and she jumped a lovely  clear round!

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The XC looked a nice track too, there were a few questions but nothing that bothered me too much! The time is always tight at Eridge so I knew I had to be fast to move us up to board......Milli flew round the XC, taking all the direct routes and was clear well inside the time, in fact she was joint fastest in the whole section which I was really pleased with as there still felt like there was plenty left in the tank as it were :) We finished in 12th place!

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For more pictures of Milli at the event and a video please check out her Gallery page.....

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We were back there again on the Sunday, his time with Roxie for our 3rd Intermediate run.....The dressage this time wasn't test 117 thankfully so Roxie didn't know what was up next and she behaved much better doing some lovely movements to score 38.2. She had to have one slight explosion after the medium walk where she was supposed to trot but Roxie thought canter was much better! She was incredibly fresh yet again and as mum pointed out she did look like, if for any reason I suddenly wanted her to gallop across the dressage arena she was
ready!!!!!

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Again we had a lovely break between dressage and the SJ so I persuaded mum to walk the XC course with me as she hasn't walked an Intermediate one yet.....

It looked a good sized track and I couldn't wait to get out there! The SJ was causing havoc on the Sunday as there was a children's play ground right next to the SJ warm up!! It didn't help that Roxie was petrified of the carousels and merry-go-rounds, which was then made worse as a horse behind her freaked out at the children screaming on the merry-go-round and got it's front leg tangled in the wire fencing off the warm up which then en-tangled Roxie and I as well!! I managed to persuade her to jump one SJ warm up and then had to brave it and go in. She started jumping a lovely round but the last 5 fences were all along the ring ropes and she was convinced they were going to jump out and get her so she just rushed over these and we picked up 20 penalties, which wasn't too bad as some people were collecting 50+ SJ faults due to the warm up chaos!

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Putting this behind us as she has been jumping so well recently and knowing
Roxie so well really helps as she is a real worrier! XC was causing a few problems but nothing Roxie and I couldn't handle and I had an amazing ride! She flew round clear and picked up some lovely moments from the commentator saying how professional we looked and were making some of the more difficult combinations look like a walk in the park! We were second fastest in our section too with only 8.4 time faults which moved us up into 13th place out of
over 30 so I was very pleased with how it all went :)

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For more pictures and a video of Roxie's day at Eridge please check out her Gallery page.....

So, all in all it was a great weekend away with both horses! We now have a few weekends at home with lots going on to keep us busy that's for sure so keep checking back for updates...

SG Eventing
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Keep Calm & Canter On