There was also the Scottish Novice Championships which Nicky was in with Cherry Law
All three of my horses were running with Trig Point in a Novice and Freddy and Mistral in the Intermediate
Having expected the worst I was pleasantly surprised when we turned up to find the ground was actually in pretty good condition considering the rain that had bombarded the Scottish Borders over the previous week and a half. The decision to move the showjumping arena from its location in front of the Castle onto higher ground was a major success as the ground was much drier, and the two and three star dressage being moved down to the Eagle Haugh to join the others also worked well. The cross country held up well though did get a bit slippy in places, and the Cross Country and Showjumping courses certainly provided a fitting championship challenge. The weather did deteriorate a bit on Sunday with some very heavy after a drying Saturday. Altogether it could have been a lot worse.
There were also as many trade stands this year as last year though the first two days of the four had been exceptionally quiet and overall it seemed a bit of a struggle from some of the regulars I have been seeing over the season. I am due to catch up with a number of them at Blair, so it will be interesting to get the comparison between the two.
The only minor grumps this time round
The timetable was thrown severely out of kilter on Sunday as the Junior Europeans overran, and the Prize Giving took longer than originally anticipated, which provided a bit of a logistical nightmare for the three star and advanced classes. (fortunately we weren’t involved), and the dressage scoring across the two Novice classes was very different (more below).
Both the cross country and the Showjumping provided a fair challenge across all classes, but reflected the championship nature of the event as a whole.
European Junior Championships
The major honours went to the British European Juniors with an impressive Team Gold, and Individual first and Second for Sienna Myson Davies and Libby Soley.
Libby Soley moved up from 10th with a clear round and Sienna Myson Davies clear show jumping round was a perfect way to capture the Gold.
The Irish moved up to Silver which perhaps was a vindication for the team battle bus which pursued each rider round the cross country with loud cheering.
The other feature was the Scottish Championships where the Cross Country riders faced the worst of the weather conditions and put in some excellent performances.
Oliver Townend won by 10 points on Carousel Quest whose Showjumping display was absolutely tremendous, and followed by a very good cross country round.
He beat himself into second with Flint Curtis knocking down one pole and losing a shoe on the cross country but still putting in an impressive time.
I had left before Oliver had also managed to win the Advanced class (and come Second)
NBR Eventing
It was case of what might have been for the NBR horses on Saturday and Sunday, with some good individual disciplines, without quite putting it all together, for one reason or another to get to the top of the leaderboard. Cherry law came Seventh in the Scottish Novice championship. After a 32.6 dressage, she had 0.4 of a time fault for being under the time cross country and had a pole down showjumping in a challenging course.
Trig Point
Trig Point, in what is his last novice again showed his potential but this wasn’t reflected this time in the final result.
He got a 35.2 in the dressage, which looked ludicrous given the way his test actually went and how it compared with a whole string of tests I have seen this season
This was much more like a 25. It was clear that the judge was marketing high which affected all the competitors but it looks out of line on his record.
First novice class vs Second Novice class
33 dressage competitors vs 29
Range 21.9 to 48.6 with six under 30. Average 34.5 vs Range 29.5 to 42.9 with only one under 30. Average 36.8
Seemed to be two entirely different techniques here.
His showjumping looked very good apart for the one he knocked off behind, which was a slightly green error.
He was looking very impressive on the cross country and in line for a good time, but slipped down the slope on the mud coming into the 15th which was the coffin. He got very close but did a huge leap angled to the left to escape what could have been quite nasty. That line took him outside the white flag for the middle section which was very close, and there was nothing that really could have retrieved it. He actually had got himself out of quite a difficult situation without damaging either himself or the rider. He then completed the rest of the round without a problem and despite the detour had only incurred 10 time penalties on top of the 20 jumping. He is definitely ready to move up a grade which will come at Gatcombe in two weeks time
Freddy Curtis, Mistral, and Rare Hero
In the Intermediate Rare Hero, Mistral and Freddy Curtis all were in the same class
The dressage scores were mid 30’s or above with none really shining, and were all quite well down.
The showjumping was better with rare Hero only having one down. Freddy also only had one down, but also incurred 4 time faults. This was a much much better display than at Gatcombe tow weeks ago.
Mistrals display wasn’t as good with two down and one time fault, just flicking one off and then simply not concentrating at the second last. There were only six clear amongst the 31 finishers.
The put Freddy just ahead of Mistral but we decided not to put Mistral over the cross country with Blair’s trot up looming on Wednesday, substituting some flat work, and there may be some focus on his dressage in the next few days.
Freddy and Rare Hero both went round the cross country clear with Rare Hero incurring 10.4 time faults and Freddy 13.6. This left Rare Hero in 9th and Freddy 11th out of 45 starters and 31 finishers.
This was a good performance by Freddy and his best placing at Intermediate, bettering that at Belton. He was also eleventh quickest cross country with none inside the time. There are definite signs of progress and more regular activity this season may well help, as long as ballots and weather don’t get in the way/
Points.
Another 4 points for the NBR team
Freddy gets to 17 in total and four for the year, and Rare Hero opens his account for the year with 2 bringing his all time total to 36.
The yard is now at 59 for the year bettering 2004, with the 79 for 2003 hoving into view.
Next stop is Blair for Cherry law and Mistral, followed by Gatcombe for Freddy, Trig Point and Rare Hero
Thirlestane is over for another year and it did feel like a bit of an endurance test as we managed to get through 10.5 hours of competition on Saturday. However this did feel a significant improvement on last year for a number of the reasons mentioned above, and for
There was a significant BE presence, with a number having made it back from
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