Evenlode Riding Club

EVENLODE IN THE RIBBONS AGAIN !!!!!!

THE TEAM :    Lucy Graham - Lovable Aristocrat

Tamzin Schultz - Rosanna

Miranda Seldon-Truss – Baldungan  &   Kate Elliott - Fallon

Lucy and I (Miranda) had arranged to meet at Aston Le Walls at 8am.  We love these early starts! Tamzin was not far behind us with Kate in hot pursuit!! As there was nearly two hours between the 1st and the last Kate did not need to be there so early. As I had only phoned her at 6 pm the evening before, she was  a complete star to be there at all. Very sadly for Serena she had to withdraw as Moomie had shifted his shoe and trodden on the toe clip. Poultice for 3 days!

I had mentioned to Kate about being reserve, but had not thought I would be phoning her 16 hours before she was due on course. Only a week earlier her poor horse was going through a bad bout of colic, very nearly resulting in surgery.

The format has changed this year.  Rather than just a XC course with nearest the optimum time as the winner, it was decided by BRC to run it as a 2 phase with a round of show jumps against the clock and a gallop out of the arena and straight onto the XC course.   The show jumping was not quite up to height, but with a double of parallels in the middle with brightly coloured fillers, (anybody who knows me will know how much I love these fences!)  also quite twisty with short cuts at the risk of a pole down and alternatives that were time consuming,  It did cause a fair amount of trouble - some never got any further.

We did not think that the XC was as big as last year.  It had 11 fences, with the water as the 2nd fence followed by the first combination question with a hedge to a skinny. The next few fences consisted of logs up and down banks, a parallel, tyres, trekaener, table and the last which was a corner followed by a skinny hedge on a 3 stride dogleg turn. This did have a very time consuming alternative.

Lucy was first to go  =  Clear in the show jumping & clear XC within 1 second of the optimum time  =  total 0

Tamzin was next  =  1 down in the show jumping & a very fast time XC 12 seconds inside to get 2 penalties too fast!    =  total of 6

Miranda was 3rd to go  =  Clear & fast SJ. Clear & fast XC, 10 seconds inside the time  = total 0

Kate was the 4^th =  Clear show jumping & a lovely clear XC with 3 time penalties for a slower time = total 3

So the team ended up on 3 penalties.  The winners were on 0.   2nd on 2.   EVENLODE WERE  3rd.

Bally (Baldungan) and I were 5th Individuals. This was based purely on the time in the show jumping and clear SJ and XC.

We all had a great time and are looking forward to trying to qualify at Horse Trials in June.

Miranda. Chef d'equipe