Royal Windsor Qualifier - rubbish day

Went to do the RC dressage royal windsor qualifier today. Deanna warmed up really nicely, had our tack check (which we passed..) and did our test. It was a riding test so marked purely on the rider, not the horse

Checked the scores and was very excited to see that I was 3rd and so would qualify for the second rounds (winner of the second round goes to windsor).

Waited around a bit for everything to get processed, wandered passed the board again and saw "Eliminated" next to my name :( :( Found the organisers and they told me it was due to me wearing earrings?! They went to query it but "rules are rules" and "its the riders responsibility to check the rules"..

but 1) whats the point in even doing a tack check if its "the riders responsibility" and 2) the rules arent readily available. You have to buy the rulebook and as I was told there was a new print coming out in April I didnt order one. There are no real rules available online, and surely if I were breaking rules I should have been told so during my tack check

Two other people were eliminated for wearing spurs (they too "passed" the tack check) so what was going on I dont know. Just so disappointed as we didnt get to do the 2nd rounds or collect our rosette for the first round (as technically we weren't placed). Rubbish day really.

Will upload the photos later

Area 7 Indoor Showjumping Qualifier.

Wooo what a day, had to arrive at 8:30am (which involved getting up at 6am!) to declare and have my passport checked. Then waited around for an hour or so as I was 59th to jump!

The competition works over 2 rounds and possible jump off. First round is 75cm and second round 85cm. Theres four in a team but one score can be discarded.

First round my first 3 team members all jumped clear! Woop! Which meant I could be the discard..which Deanna gladly made us by stopping at number 8 >:( Lots of horses had problems and I think the tinyness of the fence didnt help (she's been competing over a foot bigger recently!)

Onto the second round, other team members had got 4 faults, clear then 8faults so I really needed to go clear so we could discard our 8faults...which Deanna gladly did :D

With 4 other teams all finishing on four falts it was time for a jump off! All members of the team jumped off, again best 3 scores and times were taken. First of our riders sadly had two down, next two riders had clears so it was just me left. With only me and one other rider left in the jump off we knew I could have one fence down, anymore and we'd loose. Went in and unforunately knocked the first part of the double down :(:( Kicked on to the next, the "scary" filler from before, and flew it round to the last to end on 4 faults....

Which meant our team won out of 16 teams!! :D :D :D So now we're all qualified and off to the finals at hartpury at the end of march!! WOOOP

Also, this means Deanna has been placed at every show this month so far - started with a 4th, then 3rd, came 2nd last weekend and this week 1st! Probably means we have to come last next week right?! hehehe

BSJA Manor Farm 15th Feb

AMAZING day today! Started with the clear round, more to warm her up then anything as the warm up arena was packed! Jumped a super clear!!

Then onto the British novice, run as a single phase so everyone jumps the whole course - 2nd half is timed. I like this idea, means if you have a few down you can carry on and get your moneys worth + gain valuable experience.

Deanna jumped super, but unfortunately I let her run a little flat into a spread on the jump off part and we had it down. Would have been 3rd if we'd left that up as we were quite quick! Ended up 7th as the fastest 4 faulter!

Then onto the best bit, our 2nd ever discovery. In our first attempt at a disco we had one down, today we jumped double clear!!!! I walked the course and thought it looked huge! But a nice inviting spread to start, and then a few fences down related distances got us going and Deanna was just amazing! Jump off fences were a good 1.05m and Deanna was flying round so easily! Ended up in 2nd place and pocketed a nice £20! So brought some gorgeous pro piccies!!

So so pleased with her! She just jumped fantastically, Im hoping...if we can work on our canter more we might be able to jump a newcomers but the end of the year!! :D

Oh almost forgot...my pride and joy(s)!!!

Jumping lesson today! Super Dee is back!

Gave her quite a break off jumping during january and we had our first proper jumping session two weeks ago where D was a bit wild!! Toady however she was amazing!!!

Ill let the pictures do most of the talking, sorry the qualities a bit dodgy. Its from the video camera and obviously its a bit dark! Worked through a grid, then linked up with two fences across the diagonal to work on getting straight as I turn, then just one fence to help make it more of a course. Fences all between 1.05 - 1.10m :D

Hopefully she'll jump this well at the show tomorrow!

Trailblazer Dressage 7th Feb

Thankfully the roads didnt freeze quite like the weathermen said it would so we were able to make it to our dressage show today! D's only been worked a few times this week so both tests very pretty rubbish!! Tense and stiff but managed 61% and 4th in the P4 and then 60.75% and 7th in the P10 so not totally rubbish.

Also, we've now qualified at prelim and novice level for the trailblazer 2nd rounds! yay!!

Snow day!!

I know this was going to be a competition record but with brother now living in san Francisco I just had to show him the snow we've had!!