But hold your horses……if you like a happy ending, press like amd move on to your next news feed 😅As we all know there are 2 sides to every story 🤔 I could just leave it there because it’s a truthful post but not entirely a full story. Yes we were 7th and yes we came home from xc inside the time but had it not have been for the most incredibly frustrating 20 penalties we would have had a near on perfect day!!! I am kicking myself beyond belief as I feel quite responsible for letting our 3rd place slip through our fingers, I won’t even acknowledge the fact we could have been 2nd and pocketed £100 if we had finished on our dressage score 🙄 On getting to my 2nd minute marker I realised we were covering the ground a little too well and were already 30 seconds up on the 6 minute long track, so I’ve backed off trying to lose some time, I don’t know if this is the entire reason for a silly stop but I know for sure it wasn’t the right thing to have done. Arrow is still relatively young and new to the game and having missed all of last year because of Covid and baby, needs confident forwards riding, I can’t just expect her to bob along on her own . Had I not have had a watch or known where my minute markers were I don’t think this would have been the same story, but I did have a watch and I did clock watch and i paid the price for letting it effect how I rode. Of course if I hadn’t had it I would have been too quick but it’s a lesson learnt, don’t worry about your time before the fences worry about it between fences.
I feel I’ve let us down, I had no words walking back to the lorry, am I ever going to get all 3 things right again on the same day. Really beating myself up about this but I know I need to put it down as a rider error, learn from it and move on!!
On the plus side though amazing to have still finished 7th and what a stunning rosette from Perrys Field to Fork, the owner on which is quite possibly the jolliest cross country warm up steward I’ve ever met 🤣
Tank you Nigel Pugh for some more super photos 🙏🏼