Mud, mud, glorious mud but a good start to the season...

So after a few days of nice warm sunshine we all thought spring had finally arrived but how wrong were we!!? As i'm sitting her doing this Blog now it's snowing outside!! Due to the rain we had just before the weekend I was undecided as to whether I should run Milli at Tweseldown as it's only her 5th ever evet, she's not even 5 years old yet and it was her first event of the season, so was it worth the risk if the ground was wet / boggy! It got to 7pm on saturday before I made my mind and decided to run her on the Sunday and i'm glad I did. Yes, it was muddy but the crew there did sucha great job of making the best of the ground and it was a very educational run for Milli!

Ater getting out the car on arrival I was starting to think maybe I should've stayed at home.....it was FREEZING!! I got my number and then stared to get Milli ready for our dressage before getting changed myself. With BIG mud studs in we set of to do our dressage and although she struggled to keep her balance at times in the mud, she's only rising 5! Milli performed a great test and we scored 36.5 which put us in the top 3rd after dressage so I was pleased with that.

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We had enough time between dressage and SJ to walk the XC course, so we wrapped up warm and set of to check out the course and the ground. It was all fine and it was a great course too! Before we got to run XC we had to SJ so back to the trailer we went and got ready for the SJ. Quite a fe people I watched were getting time faults so I knew I had to keep all my lines tight, but allow her enough tme and space with the ground being muddy! Milli responded really well and jumped a super clear inside the time so with it all to play for we quickly got ready for XC.....

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Fence 1 was incredily close to the start box so I knew I had to make sure Milli was awake as soon as we set off and she defintely was! She flew out the start and set into a rhythm straight away! The 4yo's Milli did last year aren't timed XC so I was keen to let her run at her own speed and she how she faired against the time and because the ground was slightly deeper than she's ever run in before I didn't want to puch her too much! She stayed in a great rhythm all the way round and jumped a great clear, I was chuffed! She did pick up 5.2 time penalties but that is only 13 seconds over the optimum so I was really pleased with that!

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The weather did start to turn and I ended up running XC in a light snow shower so we decided to get Milli sorted out quickly and make a move before it got any worse as we realy didn't want to be stranded in the snow!! I found out when we got home that she had finished in 10th place out of an arena of over 40 so I was realy pleased with how well she did at her first event. She has also picked up her first BE foundation point too :)

Milli is looking very fresh this morning so I am pleased she has recovered well as she is still only a baby horsey really and I can't ait to get her out again as we prepare for the 5 year old qualifiers!

Pictures and a video are now uploaded into my Gallery so please Click Here to check them out.....

So, until next time,

SG Eventing
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Keep Calm & Canter On