Recent Competition Overview (Lincomb Arena Eventing)

In this post I will be doing a quick overview of my most recent competition. This blog will include a run through of the day and how each class went.

I started off the day with a late start of 10 o'clock this was because I was in the two highest classes at this event so my first round started at 3:30. After that I watched a bit of stranger things, ate breakfast, cleaned my teeth and then at 11:00 I went and got dressed and did my hair.

Once I was ready I bought down all of my things ready to be packed up in the car. This included all of Buddy's tack and things like my boots and hat and then lots of other spare things like hoof oil. Once this was packed up we drove down to the yard ready to get Buddy ready. The first thing I did was groom him and brush out his mane and tail. Once his mane a tail where clean I plaited up his forelock so that it was hidden under his ear bonnet when I put it on. After this I put on his hoof oil and his travel boots, tail bandage and show rug so that he was all ready to go. We then took everything out of the car and put it outside Buddy's stable so that it was all ready to get packed up into the truck (we also filled his haynet and placed this with everything else).

Once the truck had arrived we loaded all of mine and Buddy's things into it and tied the haynet up in the trailer. Finally we collected Buddy from where he was tied up and loaded him onto the trailer.

We arrived at the competition just as the 70cm was finishing so while the last person completed their round we went and got my numbers and then walked the course - which was the hardest course I have seen this competition. Once I had decided my lines and felt as confident as I could with the complex course we went back to the trailer (where my friend was waiting) to unload Buddy. We then tied him up to the trailer and tacked him up. After that I took off my yard boots and the clothes I was wearing over the top of my competition clothes and put on my riding boots, helmet, body protector, gloves and spurs, grabbed my whip, got onto Buddy and made my way to the warm up arena.

I began warming Buddy up - we didn't do too many warm up jumps as we didn't want to tire him out and after he was warm I ran over the course in my head until we were called into the 80cm.

During the 80cm Buddy was very good and we kept at a good pace the whole way round. We had a few sticky moments in the two doubles as they were set so a horse could jump it and a small pony however Buddy fits between these two and so had to put in an extra stride (which we are used to as every competition we have been to this has happened). There was also one other moment at the water jump when he spooked and ran round the edge of the water but luckily we managed to just stay inside he flag. But despite all this he put in a perfect round and we came out with a clear!

After the round we both came out very tired so while we were waiting for the 90cm I just walked him around to keep him warm but not tire him out. However just as we were going to into the 90cm Buddy was still very tired and my friend asked whether it was worth pulling out and ending on the good note from the 80cm especially as it was Buddy's first competition since he had lost his confidence. However we decided to carry on and if I felt he was getting too tired I would retire.

So we carried on with the class however at the first two jumps I could feel him struggling to make it over the jumps then at jumps 3 and 4 I accidently put him on bad strides and he couldn't pick himself up enough to clear the fences. at this point it crossed my find to retire him but jump 5 was straight after jump 4 so I would have to jump it anyway and then retire, but he seemed to find some extra energy and cleared it by miles. Because of this I decided to finish the showjumping (4 jumps left) and if he was still struggling then I would retire him before we reached the cross country. However he managed to hold on through the showjumping and so we carried on with the cross country we once against had the sticky moment at the water jump where he spooked and ran around it but we once again stayed inside the flags. We finished the 90cm with 8 faults in the showjumping and a clear in the cross country which was good considering how tired he was and the complex course but he didn't stop trying.

Once I came out of the 90cm I cooled him off in the warm up arena and then took him back to the trailer where I untacked him, brushed him off, put all his travel things back on and loaded him back up and left him to chew on his haynet. I then took off my helmet, body protector, gloves and spurs and put them back into the truck along with all of Buddy's things and my whip. By this point my friend and my grandparents had come back to the trailer from getting food so Adam Witte Photography and I went over to the club house to get something to eat and look at the results. However when we got there we found out they had just stopped serving hot food so we each got a cake and a drink and then had a look at the results:

80cm = 1st in the juniors!

90cm = 1st in the juniors!

90cm = 9th overall!

Unfortunately they didn't put up where I came overall in the 80cm but we think it was 3rd! Because of my win the 80cm I got a feed bucket with a first place rosette, a bag of carrots for Buddy and lots of chocolates in!

As Adam and I were still very hungry I called my mum, when we got back to the trailer, to ask if she could bring some food when she picked us up from the yard (like a packet of biscuits or something). Then as Buddy was already loaded up we were able to just climb into the truck and drive back to the yard.

When we arrived my mum was already there (with a McDonald's!) We quickly unloaded Buddy and got him settled back in, put away all his tack that was staying at the yard and unloaded everything else from the truck and put it into the car to take home. Finally we took the haynet out of the trailer and then went home.

A big thank you to Adam Witte Photography for videoing my rounds (well the 80cm and half of the 90cm).

Thank you for reading this blog and I hope you enjoyed.

Liv and Buddy

MXLLS​