Little Downham

It was a very successful trip to Little Downham today and I think for the first time ever I managed to win two advanced sections in the same day, with the added bonus of not having to go too fast either!

Navigator led from the start to win his section.  He did a lovely test to score 24 and jumped double clear, picking up 11 time faults across country but still winning comfortably.  He felt superb and gave me a really good round which is very exciting and bodes well for Pau in three weeks.

Chilli Morning also won his section.  He also led the dressage in his section on a score of 27, he did some very good work but was a little on his toes.  He then had one show jump down and he gave me another good ride across country.  He was quite lit up today and a little strong at times but really enjoyed himself and feels full of confidence.

Bay My Hero finished 5^th in his section with a very good test and a double clear.  He got a few more time faults than the others but I was happy to let him go a little slower after his big run at Blenheim a couple of weeks ago.  He made the course feel nice and easy and finished with 18 time faults.

Before Time was having his first advanced run and on walking the course I was fairly worried that it didn’t look like a first time advanced track with some decent questions, including two imposing corners and two big waters.  He scored 38 in the dressage and put in great effort for his first advanced test.  He had one show jump down and coped really well with the questions across country.  Annoyingly though he picked up 20 penalties when I missed a turn through one of the corner combinations.  It was excellent to have finally got an advanced run into him and he now heads to Weston Park CCI** making for a very busy week.

It is great to have an advanced event at this time of the year to prepare the horse for the Autumn three-days and the organisers did a fantastic job fitting three full days of competition in.  The advanced course did seem to cause a fair bit of trouble today and could perhaps have benefitted from a  couple of softer long routes.