Craig’s Blog
After a holiday on the North Coast with family and friends which included surfing, skateboarding, shopping (Prue) and lots of relaxing, January 2014 is just about over and the Australian event season is rumbling into gear. January is the time I make plans for my horses, work out the calendar and most importantly work out how to improve my own performance at the big events on Sandhills Brillaire (Sparkle).
Over the last 12 months Sparkle’s results have been fantastic. It would be very easy to continue with this form and remain competitive. But, once you get to the pointy end of this level of competition, if you remain static, you’ll get left behind. Assessing your own performance at this point becomes critical and accepting reality is very important.
So, after analysing our Adelaide performance it is my goal to be able to complete these major CCIs without making a mental mistake from start to finish. Such mistakes would include not timing your dressage warm up, or riding a 9 metre circle instead of an 8 metre circle. In my dressage test at Adelaide there were four movements which I could have ridden more accurately. These mistakes cost me one mark each time.
On the XC, I had my 7min marker to early which put me 15 seconds down at 8 min so, in the end, I could only get back 10 seconds which led to our 2 time penalties.
In the show jumping at the last three major events I have had the last fence down which, on two occasions, meant I lost the event. At Adelaide I felt my position changed and I also let her drift to the right down the last line. Two more mistakes, bugger. I would suggest these mistakes cost me anything from 6 to 10 points over the 3 days of competition.
Now whilst we'll probably never complete a CCI perfectly, the very best riders in the world will go awfully close when they win the biggest events.
I truly believe if I can eliminate these riding errors from my three days of competition I can reduce my final score to the low 40's. The hard part is, it’s not as easy as it sounds! But it is something I need to do to put myself in contention for a spot on the Australian team for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy.
Cheers Craig
Oliver’s Blog
While Craig was in pensive mood, it appears that our other Barrett blogger Oliver was suffering from severe writer’s block (or from the look of the photos below, has been having too much fun to put pen to paper!) but has put together a photo diary of Christmas instead of words
XC schooling on Australia Day and looking forward to competing soon
Very pleased to have received some real backyard jumps
Who needs a pool when you have a dam?
Spent the Christmas money on a table tennis table
Surfing at Byron Bay
Played lots and lots of cricket
On holidays with friends Olivia and Jeremy Barton
More mini jumps
