My aim with Jack has always been to event but after this event in 2012 I found out I was pregnant so it was put on the back burner while I had my little boy then, thanks to Kissing Spines, when I brought him back into work in 2013 he was never able to jump properly so it has never happened.
After surgery I hoped he would recover enough to event but I have really taken my time with him building his confidence and strength slowly to a point where I felt we were ready. He has been fab this year getting placed at every competition we have entered and only had 1 pole down all year in competition so I had pretty high hopes we could do this. He is jumping confidently at home and his flat work and jumping is the best it has ever been so a prelim test and 80cm sj/xc should be well within our capabilities.
I felt we were ready and walking the course Saturday afternoon I felt quite confident in our ability to complete the course. The only fence that worried me slightly was the step into water as I felt for an unaffiliated 80cm course that was a big ask when you are not expected to jump into water at BE until Novice level! We had however practiced jumping into water and not had any issues so although I was expecting Jack to have a look I though if I approach in a nice slow trot so he could have time to work it out we could do it.
The show jumping course looked nice and flowing with plenty of space and nothing scary with 1 double and a skinny to finish. I was confident walking it that this would be no trouble for us.
I bathed Jack ready the day before but decided to keep to his usual routine and turn him out over night so as not to upset him, I did however put a full neck lightweight rug on to keep him as clean as possible! We had very acceptable times of 1pm dressage 1.42pm SJ and 2.12pm XC so no silly early start which is always nice! I arrived at the farm with what I thought would be plenty of time to plait and load the car, load up Jack and be nice and early to take my time warming up for the dressage. As I turned into the farm drive my heart dropped, there was Jack grazing in the field with no rug on and absolutely covered in mud!! It had poured over night and he had had a good roll on both sides. Nightmare! He has never in 6years taken a rug off so of all the times to do it it had to be the night before a competition! For a moment I questioned my sanity, had I only imagined putting his rug on? Had someone thinking they were being helpful removed it as it was warming up? Had it been stolen off his back in the field? I couldn't see it anywhere and really didn't have time to go hunting for it so I grabbed Jack out of the field and set about trying to get him clean (again!) plaited and ready in record time. What should have been quite a leisurely morning with no stress from rushing soon turned into quite the opposite but in the end we got underway only about 15minutes later than planned so it wasn't to bad. On arriving my other half went off to get me booked in while I quickly tacked up and got myself ready for Dressage. Jack was being very well behaved and quiet to say we were out in a strange place but I didn't think anything of it. I was pleased I still had around half and hour to warm up as it takes this long to usually get Jack working well. I headed off to the Dressage warm up and let them know I was there, found which arena I was in and where to warm up. It was on grass which I wasn't expecting, I thought it would be in their indoor school! The ground was very slippery and quite churned up by the time I arrived and Jack wasn't warming up well, he felt lazy and was going against my hand not taking me forward and very hard work to get anything decent from him. I thought it was due to the ground as he did slip a few times. Just before my time I headed over to my arena only to find they were running late so I had to walk round for 10minutes until it was my turn. Jack perked up a bit as we trotted around the arena and in we went. I didn't have a caller so I had memorised the test, we performed an accurate test with all the transitions and movements in the right place and in the right pace etc. but I felt the whole test was far below par for what I know we can do and I was really disappointed and felt like we had gone back 2years although he was in no way naughty just not wanting to go forward and falling on his forehand.
Putting it behind us I quickly got ready to show jump and took him to warm up. The SJ was in the arena so I hoped he would feel more confident without the slippery ground to worry about but as I warmed him up he still didn't really seem to want to go, he was jumping but had no enthusiasm and if I had given him half a chance he would have just stood and gone to sleep! As we entered the arena and the bell went I was determined to get him moving, he wasn't bad and jumped everything but he was getting very close to most of the jumps and we had 1 down, he did improve as the round progressed and we finished with just 4 faults but again I felt disappointed, the course was easy and well within our capabilities. Was it just the fillers backing him off? He has been jumping far better than that both at home and at competition so why was he suddenly so negative today?
I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it as needed to change and get warmed up for XC in 30minutes. Again in the warm up Jack felt very flat and would quite happily of stood and grazed or slept rather then gallop and jump! I tried my best to wind him up a bit and get his blood up but he was struggling, had I majorly misjudged his fitness?? He really should have been able to complete a prelim dressage test a 8 jump showjumping course and still do XC so what was going wrong? I wasn't feeling very confident but I knew I had to ride positively to have any hope of getting round. The course started out quite intensively with 16 fences in 1 field so it was very twisty and turning with not much time between each fence. We set off out of the start box and with plenty of leg and a bit of whip we got over the first 2 fences but by the 3rd Jack was stalling and he stopped completely argh! I was so frustrated but circled and cleared it the 2nd time, then we got into a bit of a rhythm and made it to fence 13 a skinny without major issue but 13 turned out to be unlucky for us and we had another stop again clearing it on the 2nd attempt. 14 and 15 were no problem and then we got to 16 which was the fence I was most concerned about the step down into water! I slowed to a trot then Jack slowed to a walk but we managed to keep moving forwards and popped down nicely hurrah!! That was the end of the timed section but there were still 5 fences left these were spread out round the outside of 4 adjoining fields with much more space between them and room to get a decent pace up. We were a bit wobbly over the first which was a double but then we got moving and jumped the last 4 fences well with Jack actually taking me into the fences and feeling like he was actually starting to enjoy it so finished on a better note and wasn't too disappointed in the end. So lots to work on but its a start!
I went to look at my score and collect my dressage sheet to discover I had actually been in the lead after dressage with a great score of 27.7% over 3 marks ahead of 2nd place! So what I thought was an awful test obviously didn't look as bad as it felt! Just think what we could have scored on a good day!
On arrival home I discovered a possible reason for his sudden loss of performance, he had a big cut on the inside of the front of his mouth. It wouldn't have been affected by the bit but it was probably pretty sore. I then found his rug in the field with the leg straps torn but the chest and belly straps still done up. I don't know exactly what happened but it looks like the poor guy had managed to get caught up in the rug somehow had it round his front legs and neck/head, panicked and tried to run, tripped himself up and put his teeth through his lip! He must have been feeling pretty bashed up the next day and I made him event! So as you can imagine I felt pretty awful after finding out. Luckily his mouth is healing well and after a couple of days off I lunged him and he was fine. I've hacked him a couple of times and he felt like his usual self again and I jumped him yesterday and he was clearing 90cm no problem with his usual enthusiasm, he even looked after my friend who's terrified of jumping nursing her over 60cm which she hasn't jumped in years!
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