What an epic return to the eventing scene! It feels like just yesterday that Dave and I were getting home from Thailand, yet so much has happened since then!
Having not competed since Melbourne 3DE, 2013, we have hit the ground running, backing up South West Horse Trials at Camperdown and Geelong Horse Trials the last two weeks. The last month has been a busy one, getting the horses prepped and ready to go out for the first time in a while, lots of fitness hills, show jumping training and cross country schooling!
In there, I also spent a weekend in South Australia at a mindset workshop, and managed to squeeze in a day back up in my old stomping grounds of the Adelaide Hills, where I absolutely love it! Dave and I caught the bus up the hill to Hahndorf and spent the day eating a selection of the delicious foods available there, including Otto’s Bakery and Udder Delights, the cheese cellar!
Yum yum!!
Three days out from South West Horse Trials, Archie decided that he didn’t want to go eventing, and trod on a nail in his paddock. Fortunately he was never lame on it, and it only went in at a very shallow angle and only a short way. I’ve seen some ugly nails in hooves before, and when I saw this one it only made me think ‘Oh bugger…’ rather than ‘OH CRAP CALL THE VET!’ Even so, with all of the delicate structures underneath their frog, I knew it wasn’t worth the risk, so he got poulticed up, put on Penicillin and stuck in the paddock for a week. This was not ideal in the run up to his first event start, and he was certainly feeling fresh as a daisy when I hopped back on!
So Nemo, my groom’s horse, known as Flying Fish out at an event, flew solo to South West Horse Trials where he was in the preliminary class. He produced a very kind test, with a few tense moments, as he gets a bit tight and horse shy in the warm ups. Despite this he scored a 60% in his test, with some nice comments from the judges. Second we show jumped, unfortunately the show jumping warm up was very small and overcrowded at South West, and he ended up getting quite hot in the warm up, as a result he wasn't as relaxed as I would have liked him, and he had a stop in the show jumping. He jumped around clear other than one stop though, so not too bad a result. Watching the video later, I could see that even though he felt very tense and hot, he wasn’t forwards enough, so I took that away to work on during the week.
On Sunday he cross countried like a star, eating the course up and coming through the finish flags bang on optimum time. He finished up 5th in the Prelim class overall, which I was very happy with.
So we got home from South West, and Nemo had some show jumping homework before Geelong, and I had a week to get Archie ready to do his first 1* since Melbourne 3DE. We also managed to squeeze a cross country session in there, where both the boys felt good.
In the past, Archie’s weakest phase has easily been the show jumping, he is bold and strong as a jumping horse, but has never been overly careful (I recall his first preliminary start at Albury Horse Trials in 2011, where he left three rails up….) So it was the phase that I was most concerned about after he’d had so much time ‘out’ so to speak going into Geelong.
Our Geelong weekend started at 4am on Saturday. Nemo’s dressage was at 9:05, so we were up and pulling out at 5:30am with the two horses loaded. He was quite tense for his test, and although he felt like he had made an improvement on the previous weekend, I was not expecting a spectacular score. To my equal surprise and satisfaction, I discovered after dressage I was tied with two other riders for first place, having scored a 70% in my test!!
Next up I hopped on Archie for a quick first ride, he wasn’t dressaging until 2:30 that afternoon, but having not been out in a competition environment for many months, I decided it was a good idea…and GOOD thing I did too! Archie has always been a bit tense and tricky at the best of times, and with the new found strength we have helped him build on the flat in the last 8 months, he can be quite athletic when he wants to be!
Yeehaa Archie! Photo: Jenelle Christopher
He spent about 40 minutes trying to buck me off, in between giving me some lovely work. We finished up and I made sure I gave myself heaps of time to warm up for dressage that afternoon - I’d rather he was tired and quiet than flashy and bucking!
When his test rolled around, he was definitely much more relaxed than that morning, but was still not convinced that we should be doing dressage! On the whole, his test improved dramatically from Melbourne 3DE and his previous 1* starts last year, with one judge awarding him a 60%! :-) He still had a little buck in one of my canters, but nothing compared to what he’d done in the warm up earlier! He managed some 7’s & 8’s in his scores, and got a funny comment from Barry Roycroft at the bottom of his test, which I loved: “Handsome horse who will one day do a very nice test, but not in the mood for dressage today.” This made me laugh a lot - very well put, Barry! This also made me feel good though, with his years of experience, Barry can see a nice horse in there somewhere! :-)
After Archie’s dressage, it was back on board for Nemo’s show jumping. The course was nice and open and suited Nemo well, so I was feeling confident going in with all of the suppling and relaxation work I’d done through the week. I was also very relieved to see the warm up area was big and open and they were limiting the number of horses in there at any given time! Phew! Our homework came through and Nemo jumped a relaxed, clear round, helping him hold on to first place after the show jumping phase.
Sunday morning, and first up Nemo was to cross country. The course was open and flat, and Nemo warmed up well! He had a little spook at a couple of fences, but jumped clear and under time to finish in first place overall. I was very proud of the little man, and all the hard work we’d put in to make it happen. I started competing in EFA eventing in 2007, with about 18 months of Pony Club prior to that, so compared with a lot of riders, I came to the sport quite late. Since starting my eventing journey, the best placing I’d received prior to this was second, so I was very proud to win my first ever rug at Geelong, and looking forward to many more where that came from! :-)
Next it was time to show jump Archie! I decided seeing as this was our very first outing in a while, that this round was all about having some fun, no pressure! Whilst warming up, I learned one thing right away! At home, we have a 20X40 arena, which is a bit tricky to jump in at the best of times. In the big open space of the warm up area, I realised that part of the reason I was lacking a little bit of confidence in the show jumping, was because I simply don’t have the space to do a good job of it at home! In the open warm up space, I was able to make wide turns, and be patient, taking my time down to each fence. Archie wanted to hurry a little bit, but I think that is because of how I am riding him at home - great learning - as well as being excited to be jumping again.
With the extra space to do a great job of my warm up, he was jumping like a stag, and being super careful! I was very impressed with how he felt, and very happy that the months of hard work we’ve put in to strengthen him have paid off in the jumping as well! He had two down in the show jumping, both of them verticals that he just got a bit deep to, but for the most part he jumped the pants off the course, giving me a super feeling over many of the big oxers! I was very pleased with him!
Archie in the Show Jumping phase at Geelong Photo: Jenelle Christopher
Last but not least, I got to stretch Archie’s legs out on cross country! He was a bit spooky at the things in between the fences - fence lines, bunting, jump judges - but the fences themselves were of absolutely no drama! He jumped a clear round, with a little bit of time, I just let him cruise around as he hasn’t done a heap of fitness. We got a couple of deep, sticky distances when he just towed me past the distance I’d seen a few times, but on the whole had a fun, confidence building experience!
Looking forward to Ballarat Hickstead in three weeks’ time, where Nemo will do another Prelim and Archie will do another 1*. So very happy to be back out and eventing again, it makes my heart happy! :-)
In other horsey news, Poppy has got the big green light! She is in foal to Grande Farnese, and is due between the 29th of December and January 13th. Very excited to see what kind of baby they cook together! In her normal fertile fashion, she went in foal first go, and even managed to have twins, so we reduced the smaller foetus and all seems to be going well with the other. In the back of my mind I’m thinking about which other stallions I’d like to use over her while she’s still loving being a mum…she’s going to be 17 this year! Old girl now! :-) Muz and Fanny are both going well at the moment too, and I’ll be starting to think about eventing starts for them both in the coming months.
Hope everyone else is having an equally successful start to the season!
Till next time!
Best Riding,
Nicole
