Hello everyone!
Well, we’ve had time to settle back into the swing of things now, and with the weather being a little more helpful we are getting plenty done.
I headed up to Hexham Horse Trials on Saturday with Gentel Lux and Crunchie (Kilcannon Credit Crunch), as Crunchie was contesting her first ever intermediate before Balcarres CCI*. It’s a long way up to Hexham from my base in the Midlands, but it is a lovely old-fashioned track and the organising committee are so helpful that it makes it worth the trip.
Both of the mares were fabulous and went as well as I would hope for right now. Lux had a very silly 20 penalties late in the course, but we were still struggling to find the perfect bit for her cross-country.
So off we headed to Little Downham on Tuesday, with both mares again to give them another intermediate run. Little Downham put on an amazing couple of days sport this week, considering that this event was put on last minute to make up for the runs we lost to the British weather. Both girls went brilliantly and I put Lux in a small tom thumb gag, which ended up being the perfect bit. It meant I could push her on and she flew round the cross-country.
Crunchie had her first ever 20 penalties, which was genuinely a baby mistake. After the first 10 fences, you had to canter in between the showjumping and the cross country warm-up and she basically just got slightly distracted going round a corner to a skinny. As she is six years old and so straight cross-country I am really not worried at her first blip. She feels more than ready for her CCI debut next week.
This weekend is a teaching one with students competing at Draycott, so I’m looking forward to what I describe as an easy weekend!
Lauren
