ShowjumpingShire enjoys a rest

Well our weekend away was very mixed and the great British Weather didn't disappoint, on the first night there were points when I thought the lorry was going to get blown over and woke up several times to howling wind and heavy downpours worrying about whether the stable roofs would still be on!  Thankfully they were but walking past the rings on the way to the stables a definate delayed start would be on the cards as all the jumps had been blown down and in need of a course rebuild.  This was the theme for the whole weekend really but the sun did make an appearance every now and then between showers.  Class one was the most intersting course I've ever ridden, we entered the 1.05m adventurer Scope Qualifer and the course kept moving due to boggy patches of ground and when I left to warm up there was a straight line combination to a two stride double but when we were on route jumping the combination was now a dog leg to a one stride double, which took me by surprise as on approach the jumps we were expecting were not there so added a circle to reorganise as was on completely the wrong stride and angle for the dog leg, at which point she jumped round the rest of the course well albeit a bit slow as she was finding the boggy ground quite hard going, the jumps felt 10cm bigger after sinking so deep on take off :)  Putting that behind us we had a good round in the Regonal Final warm up class jumping double clear and placing 6th but unfortunately had a pole in the main class at the penultimate fence running down hill.  More rain and wind meant jumping was quite demanding, the ground was now very soft and slightly slippery and I was very proud of Picnic still jumping boldly in these conditions, once again we were plagued by 4 faults but she jumped so well I couldn't complain - at least know I know we can jump in all conditions!  Picnic is now having a few days rest to recover and enjoy herself in the field.  

Just woken up!!!