Mixed results after a very busy weekend with the 2012 event season kicking off and Milli doing her first ever dressage......

Well after not having much to Blog about recently, things are about to change as the 2012 Event Season has officially started for Sarah Gadd Eventing!!!

My alarm went off at 5am, Friday 9th March and I jumped out of bed with excitement....we were off to Tweseldown for our first event :) I got the yard done and everything loaded (although I was convinced I would have forgotten something!) and off we went. It was our first outing in the Trailer which was one of my purchases after selling Sabrina as I have already got a 4x4 so, why not?!? I was interested to see if Roxie was going to travel any better as she didn't like it in our lorry as it is slightly narrower than some others.

On arrival I took Roxie for a walk around and then set off to walk my XC course. It looked a decent course to start the season off with. There were plently of questions asked throughout the course and the ground was good with the odd deep patch on some take offs but thankfully the fence judges were armed with rakes to sort out the ground in between horses.
I then went a looked at the show jumping which again was well built but nothing too scary, and all the distances looked like they were riding well.
 

I went and got Roxie ready for the Dressage and started warming her up. She was rather excited to start with but after a canter about the warm-up she soon knuckled down and concentrated on what was being asked of her. In the arena she remained calm throughout the test and didn't jog in her free walk which can  sometimes be her downfall. She did some good medium trot and canter steps too and scored 38.0. I was pleased with the test and with more work on getting her working through her back more whilst remaining calm and collected hopefully this mark will improve.
 

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With a quick change of tack we went to warm-up for the show jumping. She had started to realise that we were eventing now as she could see others out on the
XC course. She was jumping well so, in we went. She jumped a very good round and I actually rode her the whole way round which is something we have been working on such a lot since my accident. Unfortunately we did have 3 down, but when looking at the video it was more her just being slightly excited to be out on the grass again and not picking her feet up in time! With more work on her way of jumping as opposed to my position this should soon be sorted.
 

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Putting our show jumping faults behind us and remembering it is our first event of the season and we have gone straight in at Novice level we changed tack and set off for the XC. Excitement got the better of her in the warm up and she was squeaking and putting in lots of little bucks! We set off and she flew around at a great speed! We did pick up 20 penalties though at 9b which was the second part of a double of angled skinnies. This was more rider error really, I'm going
to be honest, I didn't really set her up in time for 9a and just let her run on a bit too fast into it so couldn't make the dog-leg turn to 9b! I was furiors with myself and as I circled back

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round I could hear Marietta's (Fox-Pitt) voice in my head saying where was your outside rein and leg?!! After this I just let her go on at her own speed and she jumped the rest of the course without any hesitation. Because of our circles at fence 9 we did pick up 11.6 time faults but when looking back at the results I think that was quite quick as only one person made it inside the time in my arena, and as William Fox-Pitt said "I  think the course must have been wheeled with one or two short cuts!"
 

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Saturday was relatively quiet day at home, I worked Milli and did some teaching whilst Roxie spent the day out in the field, enjoying the sunshine.
 

On Sunday (the 11th) I was taking Milli back to Limes Farm, this time to do some Dressage. It was going to be her first EVER time in an arena so my main aims were to stay in the arena and maintain a consistant rhythm! Milli, once again showed us what a cracking little horse she is and finished on 58.8% in 3rd place out of 13 other competitors!! We were all chuffed that's for sure. Lets just all keep our fingers crossed that she continues to improve ready for the young horse classes, which start in June :)
 

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Once I got back from Limes Farm I took Roxie out for a quiet hack, which she found incredibly exciting so she is definately pleased to be ack eventing that's for sure.....in fact so am I :)

As the eventing season has started, everything has really stepped up a gear now so there will be more regular Blogs after competitions, events and training sessions, so please keep checking out my website for the very latest news and results.

Until next time,

Keep Calm & Canter On
~X~

(For more pictures and videos taken at competitions please check out my Gallery)