H&C

24
Mar
2010

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Breaking the 70% barrier with Delboy

Delboy out for his first 'proper' Advanced Medium test

"With the Winter Championships looming ever closer, we took Delboy (Headmore Delegate) out for a final outing. We left for Merrist Wood at 8:30 on a very rainy Saturday morning, with my Mum threatening to come and watch for the first time in months.

Our first test was a medium and considering Del’s lack of work due to a break following the regionals - the test was quite good. We had a couple of mistakes, as usual they were my fault, but the test flowed well and he stayed soft. I was a little disappointed with a score of 66.5% but it was good enough for a win in a very low scoring class.

His second test was an advanced medium, his first ‘proper’ one. He warmed up better than in the medium and, again, the test flowed well although I didn’t ask for too much power as it was Delboy’s first attempt at the level. The changes happened correctly, in the right place and at the right time, although they were still understandably a bit green, so I was very pleased with that. We scored 70.88% and also won this class, so not a bad effort for his first advanced medium!

We also took Wizard (Wurlizer) to do the Prix St George so we had run through a test before our Young rider season begins. Wizard was very pleased to be out competing again but, thankfully, he managed to keep calm in the test. His way of going was much better and, although we had a few mistakes due to lack of ring practice recently, me and Mum (who had managed to make it) were very pleased with the test. We scored 67.89% and finished second so very pleasing for our first outing of the year."