We got there quite early as I was ready early and it was a good thing I did - Cobs took a while to settle in. Was okay when we got there but they had a loud speaker so it took him a while to get used to that. After an hour he was okay with the whole thing.
I decided to do what I did last season and rode him round for a while before going back to the float to get ready. He was okay to ride round - had a few spooks but on a whole was pretty good. By the time I got back over there to do my test the other rings had finished so I warmed up round one of the arenas - seemed to work! He warmed up beautifully & I even asked Mum if he looked as nice as he felt - she agreed with me so all we had to do was get it nice in the test!
I was REALLY happy with the test - I came out and said it was the best HE had done so was super stoked with him. Well I never expected the result to be quite as good.....we ended up on 16.3 and won by 7 points!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!! SO proud of him!! I knew it felt nice but definitely wasn't expecting that kind of mark!
The SJ was done on the sand arena & the course was quite twisty but nice. Cobs warmed up okay - the warm up area left a lot to be desired but you were allowed to warm up in the arena when the horse before you was jumping so that was good. I wanted a chance to trot Cobs past the crowd & mirror but they rang the bell as soon as I went in so that didn't go quite to plan.
First four jumps were pretty good then came the double. Not to make an excuse for him as he should have jumped it but on the video it looked like he just didn't see it as he was looking at the people/club room that suddenly appeared on his right side LOL! So he got a smack for that stop and then my counting went out the window so we took a rail on number 7. Was happy with him though - if I had ridden a bit more postively it wouldn't have happened. The counting definitely worked - just have to keep it up next time & not get distracted!!!
We had to wait a while for the XC so went & walked it again. I felt there were a few bogey jumps on the course - unfortunately I should have made more use of doing their practice day but too late for that now! The first question was jump 5 which was a bank two stride to a small oxer. They actually changed it so you didn't have to jump up the bank which was nice as it was a big ask for PT. Then the next jump was a pallisade - tiny but we still hadn't done one before. The next ask was the ditch combo I had the meltdown about a few weeks back. They had flagged it so you could do the small log, ditch & then the upright but on a slight left angle. Right round to jump 15 which was a corner or A/B which we did at the practice day. I decided to see how he was going and make my mind up on the course. Then the water was just jump in/out.
So I got a tad nervous before the XC....Cobs was a fruit to warm up with all the horses galloping round him! The first jump was offset from the start flags & to be honest I just sat there like a dick and what do you know - he went past it. UM thats what happens when you don't commit!!!! So I got angry with myself and off we went!!!!
He did everything so nicely! I trotted into a few of them to give him a look etc but on a whole was absolutely stoked with our round. We are never going to be fast so we got some time faults - more important to me is that we did all "my" hard stuff perfectly. We did the corner rather than A/B and he flew it.
So yeah - we didn't get a place overall. I never thought I would be able to do an ODE on him again let alone EVER win the dressage so overall it was a brilliant day :)
The dressage sheet:
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