Quirindi 3DE was not part of my plan of events for the year, but as happens with horses, sometimes things don’t go to plan and after Hughie having a bit of bad luck at Melbourne 3DE he has missed out on a qualifying run. This is what lead us to road trip 12 hours into the drought affected northern NSW! We took Geisha as well, seeing as we were going so far it made sense to try and make it more worthwhile! Hughie passed trot up no worries; we were off to a flying start! He then put in a great dressage test. Unfortunately I made a few small mistakes in the final movements of the test costing us some precious points, but Hughie had tried super hard and done some of his best test work to date so I was happy. He scored 61% and was sitting 9th. He then began the climb up the leaderboard, jumping clear and under time cross country, backed up with a clear show jumping round. It was a sigh of relief to finish on a qualifying result having driven so far! To top it off his finished in 4th place – unfortunately we couldn’t beat Shane Rose who took out 1st, 2nd and 3rd! We also won the award for best performed Young Rider.
Geisha also had a super event, as always lots to work on in the dressage with her, but a qualifying score of 57%, backed up with double clear jumping in the CNC 2** to finish in 5th place, and once again, best performed Young Rider. It is my last year as a Young Rider so it is nice to make the most of it! Now both horses are going to have a well earned rest!