Eventing in the rain isn’t something that we have done for a while and it was quite the shock at Aston this morning to arrive in proper heavy rain which was unrelenting for the first few hours and made us realise yet again what fun it has been eventing in the sun!
If you are going to run at any event in the wet then Aston is your pick as it has all weather dressage and show jumping and allot of all weather tracks to and from as well! Aston had watered this week which was good as that amount of rain on rock hard ground would have been lethally slippery.
Tim had the early start with an 8.30 am dressage and his OI rides, Happy Boy and Global Quest (George) both did smart tests for 31 and 30 apiece. Happy is generally right up there on the flat and he was today, it just happened that his judge only deemed 2 horses in that section worthy of a sub 20 score. Maybe the view through the windscreen was obscured by the sideways rain somewhat.
Show jumping at Aston is very grown up on a massive all weather with one third for the warm up and a generous main jumping area. The size of it lulls riders into picking up time faults and it is always pretty technical as well as up to size. George warmed up well, had to sit out an annoying course walk just as he was ready to go and then cantered into the arena looking all business. No one was as surprised as Tim when he went spooky, had his eyes on the treble as he approached fence 1 and ground to a halt! They re grouped for a nice enough round which jumped clear but added 4 time which was inevitable with a stop but it was a bit odd for a horse of George’s experience. Tim was quick to give him the benefit of the doubt and it’s true that this is just his second start since Boekelo and it was interesting that the show jump steward told me it was the second horse to have done that in the last hour.
Happy can store anything up his sleeves but he seems on cracking form at the moment. Maybe intermediate feels easy peasy after Kentucky 5 star but he jumped his best round, careful, athletic, scopey and looked the consummate professional.
Meanwhile Jonelle had the relatively relaxed 9.30 start and with just Chilli’s Midnight Star (Ollie) and I Like it de Rohan (Kiki) a very cruisey day compared to the normal 5 rides. She too got drenched in the dressage with Ollie scoring a 33 in the OI and Kiki a very credible 29 in the intermediate. Ollie jumped a very professional clear round over the poles but it was quite an ask for Kiki and a very different track to the agricultural Upton House. Fillers galore, lots of poles and more technical but with a treble to end like last week. Kiki jumped her white socks off and Jonelle rode into the treble strongly as she didn’t want Kiki to add at the C and fault like she did last week. Kiki jumped in well and then was kind of like, “dude, there are three elements here, back off a bit hey…….” and came out with a really good clear under her belt. Jonelle mentioned she over rode the treble and she thinks that is all fixed up now!
Both Tim and Jonelle were squelching around in ruined white breeches at this point as although the rain eased off the damage of saddle soaped leather and white synthetic fabric was done! Tim had a fun round on George for a clear with 15 time and was delighted with Happy’s superb attitude for a clear adding 7 time for 2nd place. When Happy is in a good mood he really is the ultimate dude.
Jonelle had a good solid round on Ollie for 15 time and a successful trial of yet another new bit. There was plenty enough for Kiki to do and she was a late entry here as Jonelle felt she could do with one more run before Burgham 3*Short this coming week. It was a great call as Kiki jumped clean and confident and ended up in 5th place with some good intermediate points added to her tally.
Tim had Garcon (Tibo) in the advanced 8/9 year olds and quite why the OC picked one of the most difficult advanced tests is anyone guess! The flying changes come on the boards out of counter canter and as it is generally the first time allot of these horses have done a change in the arena quite the ask! Tibo gave it his best crack but a 41 shows he is genuinely green at this level but he is nothing if not a generous individual. The showjumping was tough and took its toll on the young horses but he jumped a neat and careful clear and then jumped around his first advanced with aplomb for a double clear. You can’t ask for much more than that for a first crack at the level and Tibo is certainly heading in the right direction.
And a family day as well….both Otis and Abel were in attendance and Abel decided to dress up in Tim’s gear for fun. Credit for the photo goes to Mel Halstead who took a much better one than me!