The Blaston Agricultural Show was held at the end of June; this is my local show back home and when we were children we always entered as many classes as we could. Many an adventure has been had on the Blaston showground! This year I wasn’t intending to ride but to go along as groom for Mum with her new pony, Lulu. However, plans changed on Sunday morning which left me searching the house for old riding gear in an attempt to create an acceptable outfit. I discovered that my sister’s old hat fitted, Mum found a shirt and tie and my old jodhpur boots were also tracked down. Unfortunately the sole of the boots had nearly fallen off so after a liberal application of super glue, a few elastic bands and a clothes peg were used to hold the sole in place whilst the glue set. Thankfully it did indeed set in time as I didn’t fancy warming up with a clothes peg hanging off my toe!
We went to Blaston with the intention of giving Mum and her new pony, Lulu, some more experience but Mum had suffered a fall earlier in the week so I was drafted in as reserve jockey. This was the first time I’d ridden Lulu but with my knees around my ears (she’s only 14.1hh and I’m 5’ 9"!) we completed two good clear rounds of the Working Hunter course. Wiz had a last minute entry into the Open section but two poles down put us out of contention.
During the week I took Wiz to Aston le Walls for a Riding Club cross country lesson. Despite the heat Wiz went well and I was pleased with the majority of his jumping; we just had a couple of sticky moments. The worst was on the approach to the water complex; Wiz nearly stopped so jumped from a standstill which sent me into orbit. I landed half out of the side door but somehow clung on like a limpet with my arms around his head/neck (I think I was holding a cheek piece!) and my left ankle hooked around the cantle until he’d cantered through the water at which point I could fall onto dry land. The rest of the group were highly entertained by my trick but I refused to provide an encore, there was no way I was driving home in wet underwear!
The training session was in preparation for the Area Riding Club one day event at Solihull. I’d entered Wiz in the Novice section and this was my first ever ODE so I was surprisingly nervous. We made it through the dressage test in acceptable style although I was mostly concentrating on keeping Wiz on his feet as on the hard ground the going was pretty slippery. The show jumping was on a surface so that was a big relief and Wiz put in an excellent clear round which I was extremely pleased with.
When walking the cross country course I’d identified a few jumps that I expected to cause us problems but the first, a very innocent roll top, was certainly not on that list. However Wiz approached it like it was the scariest thing he’d ever seen, I think he might have even snorted at it! Not a good start! We got over it on a second attempt but dread was building for what the rest of the course held in store. Refusals at fence three and five were expected although I must confess I stopped Wiz attempting to jump five from a standstill - I decided a wide, square, sloping jump wouldn’t be the most forgiving!
Fence five was my biggest concern and once that was out of the way we sprouted wings. He jumped the related double at an angle beautifully, listening to my aids to not jump the second element in front of him but to angle to the one alongside. He was unsure about the log where the landing dropped away but jumped it sensibly. I was keeping up the impulsion on approach to the trakehner but why did I worry? He flew it with style! A skinny two strides after a short hill on a turn posed no concern as again he responded to my request to stay straight and I was thankful for the schooling round we’d had at Solihull a few months previously, as I was sure he remembered the spooky mushroom jumps.
We crossed the finish line with a huge amount of penalties both from stops and exceeding the time but the massive grin on my face more than made up for it! I had an excellent day so I’m sure I’ll enter another ODE event next summer, if only this season wasn’t already filled with TRECs!