Event owners Blog From Cumwhinton

Arctic Soul sees Red, and Nicky's in Pink - and would do well as a Rodeo Star..

Not perhaps one of the most successful weekends but certainly one will have learnt a lot…(and thanks to the officials for making that possible)

Cumwhinton went ahead this year, after two years of being rained off.
There must have been fears of something similar with the heavy rain on Friday, and apparently there was still water coming off the fields on Saturday morning.
But the event was able to proceed according to plan and by the time we turned up late morning on Sunday the ground seemed absolutely fine, a credit to all involved.
For reasons that will become clear below, I dint have the normal more detailed examination of Show Jumping and Cross Country but both seemed to provide good challenges for the levels involved.

NBR had two runners this time.
Javelot D’Or had his first, and only, outing for NBR before heading off to Mary Grant to act as a schoolmaster.
An encouraging dressage of 30.5 (marred by an error of course) was followed by one down in the showjumping, a flick off behind at an easy fence.
He then went comfortably round the cross country showing lots of class. A good return to the circuit finishing 11th in his class, and lots of potential for Mary going forward.

This was Arctic Soul’s second outing and again we could say that we learnt a lot.
The normal form for NBR is to assess the performance after four events to see what we have.
Burgie was an undoubted success but the preparation for Cumwhinton was entirely different, (not being stabled on site, not being able to lunge near dressage etc)
We obviously cannot expect these at every event, but we learnt considerably more as the Dressage warm up area, with a considerable amount of horses being worked in because of a delay, with loudspeakers nearby, and the cross country within view, was considerable different to that at Burgie. It must have seemed like a return to racing.
He simply wasn’t as composed as at Burgie, and was very unsettled at the start of the warm up. After considerable effort he became calmer and it looked as so we were reasonably composed heading into the test itself. However half way down the centre line his composure broke, and he became crosser and crosser, with pirouettes, rearing and a spectacular jump (without much warning) that would have graced Badminton Cross Country. Quite wisely after 1 minute 20 seconds Nicky sensibly dismounted (when she had an opportunity) and it was clear form the video playback how extraordinarily well she did to stay in the saddle, without giving Spike any excuse to get crosser.


I havent quite mastered the Video to Stills transfer, and I was also slightly more concerned about where the dressage might go next. Fortunately the dismount came immediately after.

Somewhat shaken Nicky headed away, but I must thank the judge and stewards for their help in suggesting and permitting a retest at the close of the competition.
The judge categorically suggested that the horse shouldn’t be permitted to get away with such a display, and suggested to Nicky he be brought back in at the end of the class to redo the test outside of competition. This was agreed both by the stewards and The BE Technical adviser Iain Graham. This proved to be extremely helpful, as he hadn’t really managed to get half way down the centre line before losing his composure, and he was really quite cross by the time he exited the arena.
As it was only his second test and perhaps we had been lulled into a false sense of security as to what he might be able to do, it was important to see what he could do if he allowed us. We are very grateful to all involved for allowing the exercise to be undertaken.

Crash helmet donned Nicky made her way back firstly into the warm up area for a long period of lunging, and the was ridden as per normal preparation, and again with clearance from the stewards and judge Nicky slotted in just after the last competitor had exited, as though in a competition. Although wearing a competitors number it was clear that some of the other dress items may not be appearing on the competitors roster straight away, notably the bright pink fleece, and horse boots.

He looked balanced and composed (thankfully) and the judge was kind enough to score much of the test, and she would have for the rest of the competition.

There was no score given for the halt or the rider or the collective, but the 113 out of the 150 (75.3%) that were awarded was an encouraging improvement on what we had seen at Burgie. It was also invaluable to see how he was able to recover his composure and produce a very good test, after not being able to handle the situation earlier.
A very important extra piece of information that we might otherwise not have had. So thanks again to all who helped.

We now move to Auchinleck a plan to run all of Trig Point, Freddy Curtis and Arctic Soul, though we intend to switch him from the BE100 to BE90. This should give him more time to get used to the event and be worked in more. Hopefully my daughter the joint owner will be able to see slightly more of him in competition in the showjumping and cross country.

A word of congratulation too for Joanna Walton on completing here first BE Event. She only lives a mile down the road, and I was happy to see her flow round the cross country, though she did manage to incur 8 reverse time faults (not a s quick as some considerably more experienced riders clocked up). It is all a learning process and she coped with her first outing very well, and I look forward to seeing her progress further.