Gatcombe

We had a very enjoyable day at the last little Gatcombe ever.   The weather was perfect, we had two personal bests in dressage. 

 

Summer At Fernhill was having his first run since Tokyo and he did a very nice steady test to score 25.6. He did a very genuine good test, it wasn’t flashy but it was very solid.  He then jumped a pretty good round show jumping and just had one vertical down gaining too much ground in the related distance.  The cross country was quite exciting, he was very on his toes, he gave me a lovely round and felt very confident.  We got quite a few time faults, the ground wasn’t bad but it certainly wasn’t soft and there was no need to rush today.

 

Emerald Spirit II was having his second Intermediate outing and did a very nice calm test to score 26.  He made no mistakes and I really think there is more to come so I was more than happy with how he felt.  In the Show jumping he just had one down, overall he jumped a very decent round and threw in some very good shapes.  On the Cross country he was very happy and gave me a good ride, once or twice he was a bit green but I would expect that from only a 7yo. 

 

Sadly this will be my last ever day at Little Gatcombe as I am not here at the weekend, and next year only the festival is going to run at Gatcombe.  We will certainly miss the event but as is often the case it is probably a good time for the whole Gatcombe team to move on.