Aston Le Walls BE90 8th March

So the 2015 eventing season has officially started!!

 

I spent last Saturday running around getting things organised and walking the XC course and then went to bed early with an alarm set for 4am! With the lorry packed and Toy plaited we set off out of the yard in the dark and arrived at Aston Le Walls just after dawn. Team Toy was down the bare minimum as it was just Lynne and I in the lorry and then Hicksy and Hamilton met us there.

 

The dressage warm up is cramped at Aston and despite the small number of lorries there seemed to be hundreds of horses. It was difficult to do the warm up I normally plan due to lack of space and I barely managed to canter a circle. However, Toy went into the arena like a pro and performed brilliantly. I tried not to rush the trot work and took my time performing each movement. I was pleased to see on the video that he is stretching forwards more into the bridle and only came back with a slightly shorter neck in some of the canter work. The last centre line was a bit wobbly but our halt was square and I thought the test had felt good. I scored 33.8 which I was a bit disappointed with to be honest, the test felt better than that but I could have written the test sheet myself as the comments are all things I already know and have just mentioned above. With hindsight I probably played it a bit safe and for such a simple test it then had no wow factor, plan for next time is to give it a bit more oomph!

 

Onto the show jumping and the all too familiar nerves returned...that horrible nauseous feeling cannot be mistaken for anything else and I think it will plague me forever! Toy was very relaxed in the warm up and jumped beautifully, not touching a pole. The show jumping course was straight forward, a few tight turns for a big horse but I know that he can loose impulsion on the turns in canter so I just kept me leg on and tried to remember everything I have been practicing at home. We went clear but I was a little disappointed with myself as it felt disorganised and a bit fraught....having watched the video it looks a lot better than it felt and I actually think we may have improved over the winter!

With a huge feeling of relief that the show jumping was over, I actually managed to eat something and we got changed ready for the XC. The course was what I had expected...the ground at Aston is flat so I was not concerned about fitness and there were no jumps that I was particularly worried about. Having said all that Toy and I haven't been XC schooling yet this year so I did wonder what he would make of it all.

 

By the time I had walked to the start and had a canter round it was clear that Toy remembered what to do! We had a little wobble going out of the start box but he saw the first fence and we were off! The ditch was early in the course at fence 3 and I was undecided before hand whether to bring him back to trot or just kick on...he was feeling bold so I just collected the canter slightly, let him have a brief look and before I knew it we were over. He jumped the rest of the course easily and even leapt into the water causing a huge splash, it was all over so quickly and he made it all feel so easy.

So we finished our first event of the season on 33.8 and a double clear! Over the moon that he has just come out after the winter, 6 months since his last event and just picked up where we left off. Cannot wait for Swalcliffe, our first BE100!