Having missed out on the entries for Tonimbuk HT but still keen to get a run in, we made the road trip to Canberra Horse Trials instead. With just Geisha and Hughie going, we took the car and float and drove there through the night on Friday, arriving at 3am in the morning! Luckily for me Andy did the driving and I got to sleep!
Saturday was dressage day, and with just two horses competing it was very relaxing compared to what I am used to! Hughie did a nice test to start off, I was very happy with him and some of the work he did. Geisha was a little tense, but still did do some nice work in her 1* test. I was pleased that she scored above 60%, the goal with her at the moment! She actually got a 7.5 for her first centre line so we just have to work on getting the rest of the test to continue on that streak!
Once dressage was done, we had time for a nap to recover from the late night, walked both cross country courses in one go, and then explored Canberra a little! It felt like we were on holidays, not at a horse event!
Sunday was all the jumping phases, which started off with Hughie’s show jumping. I thought I had a lovely and relaxed canter to the first jump, but it proved to be a little too relaxed when he had it down! That is his first ever eventing rail and he wasn’t impressed, jumping super cleanly around the rest of the course! He was super confident around the cross country course, though still a little green at moments and being his first 105 I didn’t push him for time. We came home clear with some time penalties, and this along with the rail cost us the win! However, I am thrilled with how he went, and he finished a respectable 8th place.
Geisha jumped well in the show jumping, but just got a bit flat at one jump and had it down which was a shame! IT was a good round though and I was looking forward to cross country. She gave me a super ride around the undulating track, absolutely eating up the course until the third last jump, a narrow in between the trees. I think perhaps I was going a little quick and with the light adjustment from light to dark she didn’t quite lock on properly and glanced off it the first time. Unfortunately once Geisha has run out at something, she gets a little worried and we had another two glance offs resulting in the big E! It was a shame, but at least I got to jump the majority of the course without any trouble, and I have learnt how I need to tackle that particular type of jump with her for future events!
All in all we had a fun weekend away, and it as a great opportunity to see what we need to work on for the rest of the season! Looking forward to Wandin next weekend!