Princess Sparkie's eventing début and other successes!

Well, we only went and completed one of my life long goals didn't we? Last Sunday, 13th July me and Sparkie did our first ODE together at Eland Lodge. I booked us in for the 70cm class back at the end of April in a slight moment of madness/braveness. No, we didn't win or go double clear or go round the dressage in a perfect outline but I am SO happy with just how perfect he was. Before even taking into account how he behaved ridden wise, I have to give him a huge gold star for what a complete gentleman he was to be around all day. He has never been to such a busy event with so much going on and so many tack changes and breaks etc and I just can't give him enough credit for how well he handled everything!

Our dressage test left a lot to be desired as expected but taking into account the fact that it was our first ever dressage test, I was so so pleased to come out with a score of 38/62%. I have put a lot of work into his flatwork this year so I feel like this is proof of how much he's actually improved; I was expecting to get into the 50s! I really did not know what to expect with the showjumping as he's not a huge fan of jumping on a surface and there were some very scary fillers, to be honest I was expecting to have problems over the first fence! I had a few problems in the warm up ring as his saddle kept slipping and it made me really nervous so I wasn't in the best frame of mind before going in. He actually really surprised me and didn't even look at some of the scary fences and was going really well until four fences from home where he took a particular dislike to a nasty blue plank and just put the anchors on. Had 3 stops so elimination; he then jumped it the 4th time which was super frustrating but ah well, was just a case of a lack of confidence on both of our parts!

I was feeling a bit shook up after being eliminated show jumping and was so so nervous going down to cross country to the point where I almost withdrew him, but I'm so glad I didn't because he was amazing xc! One stop, which again is a confidence thing, but he looked after me so well and gave me on of the best rides of my life so I finished on a massive high! I had a really good day, for our first attempt I was more than happy with how it turned out; just need to get more confident and then we'll be flying round, so excited for the future! 

isn't he lovely? 

Lots of other little bits and bobs have been happening recently, but I really would bore you if I went into much detail. The week before the ODE, Sparkie went to Stafford Show where he won the 2ft6, putting him at overall reserve champion for the season and 1 point of being overall supreme champion which is fantastic! Jack went xc, where he was a bit of a green baby and rather challenging, but he jumped over some of the BE90 course which he made feel really easy so I can't be too cross with him!