I headed to Weston Park at the weekend for my last event of 2013 and it was a soggy day to say the least.
I had Florence in the Open BE100, she did a fab dressage to lie third on a 31. Then she jumped a really clever clear round show jumping in very testing conditions, she's a bit like me and doesn't really like mud, she did really well to get a clear. I said before I headed off on the cross country that if she found it as hard work as the show jumping I would probably pull her up as I didn't want to push her out of her comfort zone in the bog but actually we took it fence by fence, jumping all the direct routes and came home safely. Unfortunately we did pick up 5.6 time penalties which cost us 1st place but we were happy with 6th, I felt like I couldn't really have asked her to go any faster in such boggy conditions. What a great way to finish her 2013 season.
Dudley was in the BE90, he did a fabulous dressage test, his best yet, although the judges mark didn't reflect how well he'd gone, scoring us 36. The showjumping is still our down fall, I don't think it helped having to hang around for an hour before we got to jump but its no excuse to have 3 down. He warmed up fantastically well, he was really pinging but when he gets in the ring the stage freight kicks in and he can't maintain a nice bouncy canter, he either drops off my leg and trots or rushes and flattens. He will get the hang of it because he shows so much talent outside the ring and at home, he just needs ring time and plenty of practise. He is a different horse on the cross country and just floated across the bog and cruised round not looking at a thing. Once we've got his showjumping sorted out he's going to be an awesome horse. Looking back he's come a long way in the 6 months I've had him, he only ran his last race 7 months ago.
They will both join Frankie and Percy on holiday now for a good month or two, depending on the weather. They've all deserved it and I'm quite looking forward to having a bit of a break, but I'm also looking forward to getting back out on the eventing circuit in 2014 :-)