Gatcombe Sunday

Day 2 at Gatcombe wasn’t quite as productive as Day 1, but overall it went pretty well.  

I started with Yes I Can in the OI and he did a very nice test, very early in the morning, to score 29.  He then show jumped a lovely round and was genuinely unlucky to have one down, I couldn’t believe it had come down.  However on the cross country things didn’t go to plan and it is one round I will be obliterating from the memory.  There was a very bad double corner fence that was on an unclear turn on the wrong distance, and I thought Yes would be fine to turn quietly and add a stride, I came too quickly and we got there all wrong and had a stupid runout.  I then sat too quietly at the water and he caught me by surprise and stopped dead, but that won’t happen again!

Fernhill Summer was having his first Intermediate run of his career and he actually had a very good day.  He did my best test of the day to score 27.  His show jumping was a little bit keen and he had the second fence down.  Cross country he coped well with all the twists and turns and that will have given him a good bit of experience.

Georgisaurous was out again and also did a nice test of 27.  He jumped a good show jumping round which I was very pleased with, and had one down looking at the crowds.  On the cross country he felt great and I have now got much better control, and apart from a huge jump over the dodgy corner he was very relaxed and within himself.

It was a beautiful day and the ground was nearly as good as it gets.  But I heard the very sad news that Land Rover are pulling out after this weekend, so the future of small Gatcombe is very much in the balance.  It will be a huge loss to no longer have Gatcombe on the calendar but I am sure there will be a list of sponsors waiting for this historic venue.