This blog is slightly more truncated as we were focused on one particular class given only one of the horses was running
NBR actually had six horses running over the two days, withdrawing Rare Hero from the Intermediate on Sunday.
Our particular interest was in Trig Point, as he effectively the last to run over the weekend, we will briefly cover the others
On day one, which was sunny, the boys, namely Fiddlewood and Sky Rhode both came in the places being 6th and 3rd respectively in their classes.
The girls were less than sparkling, both have a number of fences down showjumping, and neither featured (Swanslaw and Fleur)
We attended on the second day, which was wet, very wet. We had been wanting rain and we certainly got it. We had brought along some extra moral support with a schoolfriend of Iona’s, and turned up around 10.00 well into the competition, and left around 16.00 just after the intermediates had got going.
The main tents provided reasonable shelter and were congregated around the showjumping ring.
The cross country provides reasonable viewing and one can see around 10 fences on the Novice track despite the hills and wood. The ground was somewhat slippy and gave as the day wore on. The cross country going was good on the Saturday, and took a bit of a battering on the Sunday, but held up very well.
The scoring updates were frustratingly pedestrian and had to be one of the slowest I have come across.
I had visited the event last year, and there were a similar number of trade stands, of a similar size and scale to
Others attending. A good spread of top riders. Oliver Townend. Nicola Wilson (including the ride on the recently purchased Fair Trade, which had been ridden by Nicky), Ruth Edge, Angus Smales, Amy Young, Emily Galbraith, Olivia Haddow, and Charlotte Agnew who on this occasion was donning her reporters hat amongst others. Also congratulations to another local rider Georgina Agnew who was placed on Elina, and Emily Galbraith who placed with a couple of her younger horses.
We arrived in time to catch the end of Cherry law’s clear showjumping. As it turned out clears were few and far between, both there, and on the cross country. The course setters had set a fairly stiff challenge but not necessarily an unfair one, and there were alternatives available at a couple of the trickier fences. There were a steady trail of retirements and refusals, which gave us much to think about, before Trig Point commenced competition, and I had already thought the longer route was the right option, even before he had begun. Cherry Law had an uncharacteristic refusal at the coffin, which perhaps had influenced Nicky on her route choice for Trig Point .
Dressage
Trig Point had already been showing distinct improvement as the season has progressed, but he certainly stepped up to the plate.
Apart from a momentary lapse in concentration caused by a distant alarm which had caused him to trip slightly, he had looked very assured and his recovery was excellent. I said to Nicky afterwards that I thought this had been his best test yet, but wasn’t sure how the trip would be seen. Les Smith had also seen some of the test and had commented favourably.
We had to wait until he was actually doing his showjumping before the score was announced, and he was awarded a 16.5 ( equivalent to 83.5%) which was absolutely sensational and way ahead of anything else in the four novice classes (three had different judges). The dressage sheet made astonishing reading, filled with 8’s and 9’s and one seven. Carine, our trainer, will be delighted.
ShowJumping
Not being content with a good dressage score he then went on to complete his first novice clear round with an almost faultless display in ground that was clearly slippy and causing problems.
Cross Country
With the pedestrian nature of the scoring it was difficult to know what was required even with a late start number, but Nicky went with the original decision to go long and take some time faults, as there were very few who got inside the time anyway. I wasn’t able to see the sixth, but from the 9th on Jerry looked perfectly at home, jumped well and made up a lot of the lost ground as he flowed round the course . He ended up with 9.2 time faults, and a score of 25.4 (I think), almost 10 point clear of his nearest in his class.
This was the day he came of age as a competitor. I missed his previous win at Pre Novice at Kirriemuir, but this was a proper win and brought a lot of well deserved praise for both rider and horse. He gets 6 points for winning the class, and has been promoted to Grade 3. The prize money just scraping into 3 figures, didn’t set the world on fire, but his time will come in that area too. He also qualifies for a Novice Area Final, not for this season, but for next season.
We had to leave before seeing any of the Intermediate Cross Country, but eh Show Jumping also had its fair share of thrills and spills.
The Eventing Blog will take a well deserved rest reappearing at Aske at the end of June.
NBR Eventing doesn’t stop though, Young Event Horses at Bramham, the BE 5 and 6 Year old classes at Catton ,including Trig Point, (but at 4.5 hours for a day that just looks a step too far for me), and Skipton with the younger horses. Aske is another matter with 8 horses entered including Freddy, Mistral and Trig Point. Roll on the end of the month…
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