EEek Nationals!!

The work continued for Fred. Simple. Bloody. Changes......my arch nemesis. There are days when we get it and days when we don't. It's a constant battle. There is improvement though. CC is taking a brief sabbatical while I work on my flatwork with Sir Fred.

The weekend before Nationals, Ballinasloe show was on. It's literally 5 mins away from me, sure be rude not to enter! the sun was splitting the rocks, although it wasn't overly warm. Fred was looking smashing ( I am imagining an Enid Blyton character saying that) and he was lovely and fit, so he went in the lightweight hunter. There were only 3 in it, so nice and easy class for him. The judges loved him. He was an absolute gent and he got himself a nice blue rosette for his efforts. CC was entered in the Working hunter classes, novice and open. I got him tacked up and warming up a bit too early. The pony class was still on. Ah sure more time to let him chill........he was chilled in the warm up and jumped everything, but he was a little firey in the arena. The course was very tight, you were only over one jump and on to the next one. I didn't line him up right for one as we were still in the air when we should have landed (big jump for a spread) and so he had that one down.  We'd another one down in the open which was really unfortunate, it was more my rustiness coming through. He was a bit on edge though and wouldn't relax in the show piece part of it. However, he came 3rd in the Novice class, not last!! And second in the Open class. So rosettes all round 😀

Fab Fred

I had my final lesson with Vida on Tuesday. That gave me more time to work on a few final things. This year I only entered the elementary class, no dressage to music, so I knew I'd only be on Friday and Saturday. I planned on going up the Friday morning, staying that night and back down Saturday. I had a very special social engagement to go to Saturday night ( my best friend got engaged after 12 years !!) so it was important to get back that night. Wednesday and Thursday evenings I spent packing and making lists. Oh and cleaning himself......

Ready for road

I had put my name down for scribing, I love scribing usually, but this year I was feeling the pressure of doing it along with competing. It didn't help that I was down to do it for 7am Friday. I managed to get my friend Miriam to cover the first part of it for me. I left home after 6 and we were up there and unloaded and ready to rock (me) for half 9. I scribed the preliminary class with an English judge. I got to know the things he like and the things he didn't like, although I thought he was pretty generous in his marking. There were a lot of nervous rider and horses, which I can totally empathise with. Nothing worse than when you're both nervous....... Cavan can be quite intimidating and in the large indoor arena it can be very scary as they keep the shutters down so the horses can't see what's making the noise behind them, making them more edgy. Lots of spooky horses came into that arena. But everyone did their best and that showed. I had remembered my snackage; water, bananas and cereal bars. Best things to keep you going. In between horses I kept an eye on the arena next to us which had the medium in it. I was curious to see what movements were in those tests and how well the riders were doing. If we get the hang of this elementary, that would be next level up for us........all in good time.

The warm up arena...

Some grass time

I finished up my scribing and checked on himself. He was fine, not a bother on him. We were down in the main stables this year. I really liked being up the top last year, much quieter up there and the stables were nicer. I got some food and set up getting him ready; plaiting him and grooming him. I had him all ready and a thought suddenly dawned on me. I remembered packing the jeep and I couldn't remember putting in my jodphurs. But surely I did............nah I couldn't have left them at home. So I went up to go get ready. NO BLOODY JODPHURS. They were sitting on the chair at home, waiting to be packed in the jeep. Queue severe panic. I ran to the tack shop there that only has the bets of the best; €200 jodphurs. I couldn't justify it. I tried to find someone I knew that I could borrow them off. NO ONE!! Until I bumped into Ginger Nina & Co blogger!! We'd be chatting during the week about our preparation and how we were getting on, as well as packing etc. I told her my predicament and she gallantly came to my rescue and gave me one of her pairs!! I'm not gonna lie, she is a lot tinier than me so it was a tight squeeze!! As well as the fact that being stressed did not help trying to get the zip up but up it did go. Ok, so now I'm good to go but have way less warm up time then I had planned. So between the stress of the whole forgetting the jods and the stress of having less time, I did not give him a great warm up.  Which lead to a not great test. It was definitely not our best work and was reflected in our result. But I had to brush myself off and tomorrow was another day.

Sunset on Day One

Sunrise 

I didn't bother booking a B & B this year as last year I booked one for 3 nights and literally just slept there. I was scribing at 7am and had to feed first, so I said I'd go old school and sleep in the jeep. Sure Serena did it, it'll be grand, right?! Well, it turns out my jeep is not as long as I thought and I couldn't really get comfortable..... I couldn't stretch my legs out the way I wanted. But I had a duvet under me and a duvet over me, and soon enough I was warm enough to nod off. I had no trouble sleeping at all. When I woke up and got out, there was frost everywhere, I hadn't even noticed!! So it was semi successful. I had managed to score a pair of jods off Miriam, so I was more prepared today! My test was in the morning which was great. Get it all over and done with early. I warmed him up as much as I could, but he was feeling a bit lethargic. I think I over did it the last while and he was sick of flatwork. He wasn't being bold, he was just a bit meh and if I'm truthful, so was I. My heart wasn't in it. We were both tired. When I went in to the arena, I saw that one of the judges was Les Smith who I'd scribed with the day before. Gulp. As I was doing the tests I was thinking about the parts he'd not like, it was a funny way to be thinking while I was doing the test. In the end they judges were kind and fair, as usual. We managed to get a 63% which I was very happy with. We could leave with our heads held high at least. I gave him lots of carrots and brought him over to the grass. There were hugs and kisses for my champ. He does his best and that's all I can ask. I put him back in the stable and went off to get some grub. I met up with my friend Helen and her daughter Charlie, the Trail Blazer champ from the Winter Nationals.  We chatted and had a lovely catch up. They left some carrots in with Fred, they're definitely in the Fred Fan Club.
I was scribing in the afternoon again. This time I was judging with Sarah Leitch. The classes weren't running to schedule and the poor judge didn't get any breaks in 3 classes. I ended up finishing my turn at scribing and she still hadn't gotten a break. Scribing is such a great way to get an inside look at dressage and you look at each horse and rider more intensely. Something I've found whilst scribing is that the fanciest looking horses are rarely as good as they look outside the arena. The best riders use the whole of the arena and the space they have so that they have more time. There is a definite harmony between horse and rider for the best performing ones.

Ready to go home?

One last look....

I packed up all my gear and myself and Fred took one last look around. We took it all in. Then locked and loaded. It was time to go home and celebrate Sinéads engagement!!