Norton Disney - BE100 Eventing Report
Mega report from Norton Disney, the last event of the British Eventing season.
Dressage was best forgotten - unfortunately the cross country loudspeaker was located next to the warm-up and we could see horses going cross country in the distance - this resulted in lots of bucking, general misbehaviour and total lack of concentration. Test itself was an exercise in damage limitation, certainly not 'dressage' per se, and scored a 42.5 which was probably even generous in the circumstances. Next season, despite my misgivings, I might have to try a tube of calmer before the stressage - he is much better schooled than his scores ever show, and he is such a lazy dobbin at home it is like having a jekyll and hyde horse.
Showjumping - a nice fluent round, sadly he was lazy behind over a parallel at 3 and had the front rail, then I rode a horrific line into another parallel at 7 jumping into bright sunshine and caused him to have that one. So one concentration lapse apiece meant a score of 8.0 for a round that felt better than the score.
XC was awesome. Walking the course I was impressed by how well presented the fences were and how good the ground was considering we have had so much rain in the last few weeks. Here are a few course pictures;
I was pleased there was nothing I thought wouldn't suit Pete in the course, but there were a few nice questions and some lovely big bold oxers mixed in too. He flew around, probably the most confident he has ever felt, and finished well within the time. My super-groom Patsy took this video of him through the water complex.
So that's the season over! Now to a winter of lots of showjumping competitions and dressage lessons so that we can come out and be more competitive next year.
