Bicton

We were at Bicton on Friday and had a very good day with Yes I Can winning his Intermediate section.  He did some lovely work in the dressage to score 26.  It is really coming together now, there are still things that aren’t quite there but his overall picture is looking good.  He then jumped an excellent double clear.  The ground was excellent and I pushed on a bit and although he got 10 time faults he won by a comfortable 5 marks.  I have applied for Lion d’Angers so hopefully this win will stand him in good stead.

I also had Seventh Heaven in the Intermediate again.  His dressage was a bit better this time and so was his show jumping, he just had one unlucky pole down.  He was his usual good self on the cross country, but he just missed out on the placings.

Georgisaurous very happily got his Lion d'Angers qualification in the bag.  He got 44 in the dressage which was very good considering we almost got struck by lightning in the warm up.  It was the luckiest moment I think I have had as I was standing in the corner by the Judges box in the warm up, and the lightning struck a metal stand 1 metre from where I was, and sounded like a gunshot.  George was then very unsettled by everything and did well to contain himself to score any sort of mark.  He then did a great double clear, as the ground was so good I moved him on a fair bit cross country and considering it was only 1* speed I was very surprised to get 10 time faults.  However no-one got the time all day and there were over 80 in the class.  He finished a very creditable 12th and was 4th out of all the 6 year olds.

Shannondale Percy was also there and got his CIC2* Lion qualification with a very solid double clear.  I was very pleased with his dressage which was problem free and I was very surprised that he only got a very stingy mark of 50.  It is a long time since I have had such a disappointing mark in a 2*.  However he had a very good event with a top class clear show jumping and he gave me a lovely ride cross country, but I obviously put him under no pressure.  However he still won the prize for the best 7 year old, which was a very generous prize from Exeter Racecourse, recognising our up-and-coming young horses.  

To round off the weekend I had a Novice horse Cafre Lunar Eclipse who also had a good day.  He did a nice happy test to score 28, he had one fence down show jumping which was totally my fault, and then jumped an easy steady clear cross country.  

Andrew was riding the Guinness’s Annaliese in the Novice and she went very happily.  Her dressage was a bit tense, she show jumped well and was unlucky to have one down, and then popped round the cross country easily.  

Helen and her team had done a brilliant job as usual at Bicton, and we had been so lucky with all the rain giving such good going.  The courses flowed very well, were very educational and very well thought out.  Everyone, particularly Miranda, was very helpful and friendly, and I hope they will now get a chance to recover.