Off to Eridge with Roxie and the 'magic' bit worked wonders......

After our control issues at Tweseldown I spent a small fortune on a new bit which I was hoping would answer all our questions.....and.....I am pleased to report that the 'magic' bit worked wonders!

We arrived and my mum and sister got Roxie unloaded whilst Max and I went to walk the XC course. The course looked good, it was up to height and very challenging! Particularly fences 11 and 12 which were two off set skinny houses, and I was going to wait and see how she was going as to whether I would go the direct route or circle in between, but more on that in a bit......

First we had to do our dressage, or stressage should I say! Roxie warmed up realy well and I was hoping to do a great test. Unfortunately the aren I was the furthest arena, nearer the XC and the SJ so as soon as she heard the tannoys and saw the XC she tensed up a bit, GREAT! She did settle down during the test but the judge had already taken a dis-like to Roxie! We thought her last medium track was great but the judge scored her 5 and commented "running" We scored 41.5 which put us mid-field.

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I have jumped her twice at home in her new bit and she seems to like it! After watching a few SJ I got Roxie tacked up and went to warm her up. She was jumping well, so in we went. Roxie jumped really well and listened to me, which is what she didn't do at Tweseldown, so this was a huge inprovement!!! We did pick up 4 faults, which I think might hve been the wind  as I didn't hear Roxie touch the pole!!

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With a quick change of clothes and boots on Roxie we set off for XC. I was really looking forward to this part as it would be a great test to see how well this bit would work. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO.....off we went at a great pace and Roxie was really responding well to everything I asked her. She came straight back when asked and popped through all the combinations making it feel incredibly easy :) I decided to go the direct route through the two skinny houses an fences 11 and 12 which rode really! Roxie listened to me and let me set her up on the perfect line and put in a forward one stride between the two skinnies! She finished well and took quite a bit of stopping....I think she could have gone round again!!

Once I had Roxie all sorted out we went to look at the scores, we got 6.4 time faults. This was one of the fastest rounds in my arena so I was pleased as I did a bit of testing with the new bit! Had I allowed her to gallop inbetween all the fences we would have made the time easily! The 'magic' bit works...YES :)

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I was chuffed with how well Roxie went at Eridge and I know she can go so much better in the Dressage, so i'm not too bothered about that! Our next run is Berkshire College and this will be our last Novice run before we make to move up to Intermediate!!

For more pictures and a video from Eridge please check out Still Learning's Gallery page.....

After Berkshire College we are at Barbury International on the 28th and 29th June with both Horses....Roxie will be doing the ROR IN Event and Milli will be doing her first BYEH $ year old class! So, so excited for this event that i'm counting down the days :)

So, until next time,

SGEventing
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Keep Calm & Canter On