Quite enjoying this jumping malarkey...!!

After a fortnight of keeping ourselves busy, me at work whilst Milli and Roxie were causing havoc in the fields, it was time to get ready for our next competition!!

In preparation for last weekend's competition I took Milli to my friends yard in Preston, Shotfield Farm Equestrian Centre, at the beginning of last week to have a jump. There was plenty of fences set up so I could practice a course. Milli was very fresh to start with and after having a treatment from Sofia the Saturday before she felt great!! We warmed up as normal and then got straight on with course practice, finishing off jumping a course of 1.20m plus!! Milli made it feel easy which is very exciting........unfortunately I was there on my own so couldn't get any pictures of videos of us training!

Last weekend it was the Area 45 Christmas show at Duckhurst Farm and I was lucky enough to get a lift with Alex again as she was just taking one. We went on the Saturday and it was a rather early start as we were jumping the first class.....this early start wasn't something I was looking for as I was out the night before for the office xmas party........!!!

I jumped Milli in the 1.05m Open class to start with and although it wasn't to up-to-height it seemed to be causing a few problems and not riding very well. Milli was her normal excited self in the warm up but felt good so in we went. She was jumping a very good round, well until the rider fluffed it to the second to last fence resulting in a very unlucky 4 faults! I think the stride I was going on was the sort of stride you'd want to the vicarage V at Badminton not a 1.05m upright.....clearly an eventer at heart?!

Putting this behind us, Milli had a bit of a rest on the lorry as there was LOADS of people there! Alex jumped her two rounds next and a 3+ hour wait Milli was back out again. I had hoped to do the WOW Saddles Qualifier on her but there was so many there she would have had to wait what looked like it would be another 2+ hours so I decided to jump her in the 1.10m Newcomers. Again Milli warmed up great so we went in and I was very pleased with the round we jumped. We did end up with 8 faults, which were two babyish mistakes and poles she just tapped behind. Although she has been jumping Novice h
eight this summer with British Eventing the courses are much more spread out and only 2 fences are up to the maximum height of 1.10m. This was by far the biggest track we have jumped together and although 8 faults isn't that good on paper I was very pleased with the round we jumped and it has given us plenty to work on over the next few weeks, in particular establishing a good rhythm in between the fences. After mainly jumping outside in open grass arenas, being in an indoor arena with 15+ fences is quite tight but it gives us something to work on and overall I couldn't have been more pleased with how she jumped even if she was convinced the water tray was going to eat her..........
For those of you who have met Milli and experienced / seen any of her slight quirky moments, this will definitely make you chuckle!!

On entering the arena, at a chilled walk on a loose contact, nice and relaxed, I was suddenly fishing for breastplate, mane anything!! Milli has seen the two round water trays under the upright fence by the door which were bright with the sun shining on them! They were clearly about to jump up and eat her so Milli's response, instead of snorting like most of the other horses did, was to do a quick 180 turn and run!! On re-entering the arena the closest I was going to get to the water trays was a 15m circle around them, how on earth was I going to persuade her to jump them?!?! I decided to just put that behind me and begin the round, hoping that by the time we made it to fence 6, the trays, she would have forgotten about them!! On landing after fence 5, a double I sat up tall and kept my leg close in the hope we would go over fence 6......thankfully, despite Milli jumping with her nostrils lower than her hooves, clearly checking there wasn't anything about to jump up at her, we made it over clear!!

I came out of the ring and looked at Alex who laughed and said she never would have let me forget that if my 'event ' horse refused to go over the water trays! I'm sure it was just another one of Milli's typical cheeky moments just checking the rider is 100% focused on board!!

For more pictures from our outing as well as a video of both our rounds, please Click Here!

With that hopefully putting a smile on your face, I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, which reminds me, I really should get on with some more of my wrapping......

Until next time,

SG Eventing
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***Keep Calm & Canter On***