With the winters over, we had a rather speedy turnaround to get the lorry packed ready to take Wiz (Wurlizer) and Del (Headmore Delegate) to Saumur CDI. Luckily for us (as we wouldn’t have been ready) we weren’t able to leave on Monday night due to the weather, so we had an extra few hours before we had to leave!
We arrived after a very straightforward journey, settled the boys in, and set up Natalie’s (who had offered to come and give us a hand) tent. We were hoping for lovely weather in Central France, so you can imagine our displeasure when we had a very wet and windy night, particularly Natalie in her tent!
Both boys passed the trot up, although some of the British competitors made it rather exciting as there were some horses that made a bid for freedom every now and then, but nonetheless every Brit was accepted. The weather had settled for my first class, the Under 25 Inter II on Wiz, and he had been quite nervous since arriving, so I just wanted to give him an easy ride round. We didn’t have any major mistakes; he was just a bit tense. Nonetheless we were still awarded nearly 64% (despite the judge at C really marking me down) and finished fifth and best of the Brits, so not a bad start to the week!
The following day was the Under 25 Grand Prix and Wiz was more settled so Erik helped me to get him much more powerful in the warm up. I knew going into the ring that it would either be amazing or he would blow up, and unfortunately it was the latter, but the rest of the work was much better. He then spent the rest of the week hacking and cantering around the showground, which we both thoroughly enjoyed!
Del started his competition after Wiz had finished. Our first test was the Prix St Georges and I just wanted him to have an easy ride round as he hadn’t done a test since the Nationals last September. We had a couple of little mistakes and I kept it underpowered, but he still finished fifthth and best of the Brits again, with over 67%, so we were thrilled with that result. The following day was Del’s Inter I and we awoke to a rather unpleasant day. Luckily Del was in the main arena so it meant that we could warm up in the indoor school, but by the time we got to do our test, it was chucking it down and the arena was like a quagmire. Our trot work was super and got really good marks, but he really struggled in the going in the canter work and kept missing the changes as he struggled to jump up out of the surface, which was very expensive. However he still scored nearly 67% and still finished 10th, so qualified for the freestyle despite the mistakes.
The freestyle was held in a different arena to the Inter I, so we decided to run Del although a few withdrew which meant that I had to go in first. Del was super and finished eightth with over 68%, so overall we were really pleased with him considering he hadn’t competed for months - and not forgetting my broken hand! Getting home was a bit of a mission, however, as most ferries weren’t letting horses on in the wind, so we had to stable at Calais to get the best chance, but we got home in the end. Overall we had a wonderful time with good results and laughed all the way through the week, despite the weather!
.JPG "William Kennedy")
