Wellington (and more…!)

Keeping with the hot, hot, hot theme, it was another scorcher at Wellington! Amelia and I ended up with one horse a piece here and took a bit of a gulp at the XC track – our green (at this level) 7 year olds were going to need to man up for the day! I had to withdraw Drombane Dassett, as a bang to his knee (in the stable we think) might have ended his season short and Dassett Code was also withdrawn as he is now sold.

I rode HHS Dassett Class around only his second Intermediate. He did a lovely test for 32. Our SJ round was a big improvement on recent rounds, but 2 rails still fell – each for very different reasons, but still, 8 penalties. I can not give this horse enough credit XC, as he was excellent. In May I was still battling to get him around BE100s and now he is cruising big and technical Intermediate tracks with ease. He jumped a great clear round and due to his strong rhythm, ended up inside the time too! He finished just outside the top ten.

Amelia was aboard the wonderful Boleybawn Dassett Cruise, and Hayley was in charge of training for the day. The pair had a few green mistakes in the dressage, but did a good test for a mark of 35. One very genuine rail fell on their way into the combination in the SJ, but the pair otherwise jumped a spot on round. On to the XC, and they had a great spin despite the most ridiculous of 20 penalties – he spooked and hung a bit left in the double of gates, so jumped over the white flag and adjacent railings rather then the actual gate itself – sooooo frustrating! But we don’t think Boleybawn Dassett Cruise is aware anything went wrong, and finished more experienced and confident for the round.

We were so pleased our young horses managed to step up and answer the questions so well and I think this pair have exciting futures ahead.

And I can’t sign off on our Bank Holiday’s action without a big shout out to my little Ella and Toshy, who knocked it out of the park at a local show winning no less than 5 rosettes! We won’t go into the technicalities of the classes, but some photos of the day are attached to this blog!