Not the start we had hoped for but there's lots of exciting things on the horizon.......

The sun has started to shine, the ground is drying out nicely, the days are getting longer and it was finally time for our first event of the season! After Goring Heath being cancelled at the beginning of April Milli and I were putting our ‘brave pants' on and going straight in at Novice level. We have done a lot of jumping over the winter and Milli schooled well XC a few weeks ago so I was confident she was prepared enough. Unfortunately it didn’t quite go as well as we had planned…..

The day started off well, with Milli performing a nice dressage test, she just about managed to contain her excitement that she was out at a party! There is a noticeable improvement in her medium trot strides this year which the judges liked and we scored 34.8 which put us in the top half after dressage! This was a great start for her first time competing back out on grass!

Next was the show jumping and after jumping such big tracks and fences in my lessons with David throughout the winter, the 1.10/1.15m course at the event looked very inviting, but it seemed to be causing a few problems with not many clears. Milli’s excitement got the better of her in the warm up and we were squeaking, buckin’ and bronkin’ all over the place……she definitely knew she was at an event now! In we went and Milli was on a mission, she knew exactly what she had to do and flew round jumping an amazing clear, I was chuffed!

Picture courtesy of Uptown Eventing. http://www.uptowneventingphotos.com/

Picture courtesy of Uptown Eventing. http://www.uptowneventingphotos.com/

With it all to play for now, I was very excited to get out on the cross country course and give it our best shot. It did seem a tougher track than usual at South of England’s spring event but there was nothing that looked too intimidating for our first run. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…On GO Milli jumped out the start box with huge excitement which resulted in me having to jump fences 1 and 2 with only one stirrup! On retrieving my stirrup we were off and over 3 and on to the first combination at 4 and 5.

Milli was eating the ground up and travelling at a very good speed as well. She seems to have found a few more gears ‘speed wise’ during the winter. We went straight routes through all the combinations and she was fyling, next was the water and the skinny house in was quite close to the water edge and, as most of your probably know I’m not a big fan of water jumps after my falls on Roxie, but Milli gave me nothing to worry about, flying in, splashing through the water and out over the skinny house to exit the water, staying as straight as ever! She was giving me a great feeling, well until we got two from home and unfortunately she just switched off, which was a big surprise as she was feeling great! Unfortunately this lead to our first big E on her record which is a bit disappointing but on the positive dressage was good a she jumped ace in the show jumping so we are both here fit and safe to fight another day.

There was a big positive from the day at South of England though as it was our first trip out in ‘Fiona The Ford’, the lorry that my boyfriend and his dad have been working on for me over the past few weekends and they’ve done an absolutely amazing job converting it…..check out the pictures below! There are more to follow as I've got stage by stage pictures throughout the whole conversion!

Milli came out of the stable the following morning 100% sound and full of beans so we are thinking perhaps she just ran out of energy, bless her! She did have a slightly ‘puffy’ fetlock joint in front so if she banged a fence she probably thought best to quit whilst she was ahead as she’s not the bravest when it comes to pain……think it’s that Arab in her blood!!

Roxie after a treat or two....!!

The following day, with Milli enjoying a day out in the field in the sun with Roxie, I was off XC schooling on a clients horse with my sister Sophie who was riding mum’s mare, ‘big’ Milli. We had a great time and the horses were jumping brilliantly. Sophie, having not done much XC before, coped very well with ‘big’ Milli and even jumped some of the Novice fences! Tintin, the horse I was riding was also jumping some of the novice fences, including the steps and the big jump into water and he felt great! We did unfortunately part company towards the end when he banked a fence and just ejected me out the saddle, thankfully my air jacket was fully inflated on landing so I did bounce! Unfortunately though I don’t bounce as well as I used to anymore so I was a little sore and stiff yesterday that’s for sure! So an evening of lunging the horses after work it was for me!

Anyway back to Sunday, and on returning from Chilham I got the rest of the yard finished and we were back out with ‘Fiona The Ford’ to pick up a new member of the ‘four-legged’ team! I have been very lucky to get the ride on a rising six year old mare who is a bit of a blank canvas really and hasn’t done too much. She was bred to SJ but is very brave and it is thought that she’d be much better suited in the event world. I can’t wait to get stuck in with her……….lots of pictures to follow on this lovely mare! To date though she is best known as ‘the mare’ so I will be after ideas for a stable name for her soon!

Next stop for Milli and I is Hambleden International in a few weeks time. I have only been to Hambleden once before and that was a few years ago with Roxie for the 1* and it was abandoned after dressage due to the snow! The XC course looks lovely and there is a lot in the woods, which when the weather is nice there is always lots of lovely bluebells which makes for some lovely pictures, luckily one of our fabulous Sponsors Ultimate Images is the photographer there so we'll have some crackers for you to look at! :)

Until next time,
SG Eventing
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***Keep Calm & Canter On***
***Eventing 2015***