Equestriad Hunter Trials

Sunday morning dawned foggy and soggy after a tyorrential storm the afternoon before. The dressage competition held at Camden was cancelled due to the footing - but not the hunter trials!

As I was pulling in with Allie in the float, I saw how busy it was. The grounds were PACKED and I saw all the beautiful horses heading over to the cross country phase. Instantly I started to feel the sadness and jealousy that I've always felt since Allie broke her leg - but after a moment it turned to happiness and nervousness and excitement because today, I was going to be one of those riders.

Natalie came with her camera and she got some great shots.

First up was cross country.

Just before warming up

First warm up log. We ended up jumping the big log on the left of this one too, no photographic evidence of this though!

She looked awesome

Apparently this fence bites?

I was a little intimidated by this fence but it was near the end so she was really happy to jump anything by this stage.

Through the water, no problems there!

Aaaaaand the last log.

Cross country was an absolute blast!! I got so lost because I didn't have time to walk the course, and poor Allie ended up galloping up the hill and then had to come straight back down again. Whoops!

She didnt refuse or stop at anything, and we even did the intro stairs (whoops again) which was super fun. It was too sloppy to do more than a slow trot down hill and I rode around a slightly scary brush jump that had a downhill after it. Other than that, it was a great ride.

After a cool down and a bit of a rest, was 2 showjumping rounds. Here's video of the first round.

It was a 60cm course and she took it all in her stride, no problems. The second round we had one rail down, she put in an extra stride and got too close to the jump, plus I think she was tired by this point (I know I was!!!).

Warm up jump

This fence was probably the most intimidating, but she wasn't worried at all.

So, the whole day was a dream come true.

Lessons learned:

• Be more organised!
• Leave myself more time especially to walk the xc so I know where the hell I'm going
• Work on my own fitness
• Bring carrots for the superstar horse next time!

So, we have entered an eva60 at Sydney International Equestrian Centre on the 20th February. I can't wait!