Elementary, my dear Watson......

I got back from Camphire motivated and ready to practice my new found knowledge. Fred was my trusty steed, as Cu Chulainn was still on holidays.

Holiday face!!

I entered Fred in the Spruce Lodge Classic the August bank holiday weekend. I had meant to do it the year before, but was on a break from competitions after a mega filled few months ( not much has changed there!!). We hadn't done any dressage since our Manic weekend, so it we had a lot of work to do.  Although, back in May/June time he felt great and collected, we were no longer at that point. I knew that we wouldn't be fully ready by the time the Classic came around, but we could be some of the way there.

He's not impressed.........

This year we had upgraded to Elementary and my god was it some jump.........it is in no way simple. The term collection really comes in to play for the first time when you get to this level. I, like many others, have read and looked at the Pyramid of Training, but my understanding of collection (I now realise) was minimal. Collection is hard. It is ridiculously hard. Well, with Fred it is. Poor Fred has never done anything like this before so between getting him to understand what I want and then asking him to do it, let's just say there were arguments and much frustration.......at both him and myself. But we persevered. I fitted in a few lessons and we put into practice what we did in training.


The times came out and I wasn't on until afternoon, which was great. That meant that I could go up on Saturday morning. I wasn't sure how long exactly it would take, but at least it was motorway all the way. Unfortunately my friend Miriam who was also entered couldn't go, so I didn't know anyone heading up from our region. My friend Helen entered her daughter for the trailblazers but wasn't sure if she was going to be doing it or not.

I had the jeep packed and ready to go, so when Saturday morning came around all I had to do was have breakfast and then lock 'n load. It took the guts of 3 hours to get there, but we got there with time to spare to have a look around and take it all in.

It was another scorcher of a weekend. I started getting him ready and we went down to the warm up. I could have done without my jacket, but everyone was wearing them so I said I better. That's the handy thing about having someone with you, you can give them any stuff including water. Unfortunately myself and Fred were up by ourselves. We went in and he started spooking at some jump fillers to the side of the arena. Such a drama queen sometimes. Luckily once we entered the dressage arena (his safe haven) he went back to normal. I was delighted with him in the test. It was by no means perfect, but it did highlight all of our hard work over the last few weeks. We were only doing the one test that day. So he went back to the box and had water and food. My Helen & Charlie had arrived in the mean time. So I went down to chat with them. Charlie did a great test on her lovely steed Joey.

Lots &lots of water.....

I picked up my test results and was so happy to find out that we'd gotten a qualifying score and were now fully qualified for Nationals!! He also scored a rosette for 6th!
Fred & myself headed off shortly after that. He had B&B down the road and I was back in Stillorgan with my aunt.

I was so tired that evening, between the driving and the heat, that when I got to my aunts I couldn't read my sisters terrible alarm instructions, so I set it off........last thing you want to hear after a long day!! Eventually I got it off.



Sunday morning I was up early as we were on in the morning. It wasn't as good as Saturday, but still a valiant effort. The heart wasn't really there though, for either of us. Both of us were tired. It was reflected in our score too. Once we got our result, we packed up and headed home. Another Galway game on the radio to keep me going for the drive.


I have to say Spruce Lodge was a fabulous venue and I would love the opportunity to train/compete there again another time. The Classic weekend though I felt was a bit lacking in atmosphere or something. I didn't really enjoy it. I was lucky I managed to meet a friend there, but bar that there was no incentive to stick around. I'm glad I went and it's something ticked off the list.