Offchurch 2007 HT Championships
We travelled up on Thursday and after a somewhat busy morning, loaded up the horses and set off. immediately our oil light came on, and after a detour to various garages, found the correct oil!. Next problem - no where to put it! We had to tilt the cab and it soon became apparent that the only way to do this was to drive to equicruiser. So we changed course again, and after 2 hours were finally on our way. Offchurch was in the midst of the recent flooding and the fact that the event was held, was somewhat of a miracle. We soon spotted Helen's lorry and drove on to the new lorry field, at which point we, along with everyone else sank! So we abandoned ship and got the horses settled in to the stables, which were a good distance away! That evening we erected the new meon flag and exercised the horses, before dinner and bed. Friday was our first day of competition.
Friday: Intermediate dressage and Show Jumping
Unfortunately Harmony was drawn first and managed to have a real dragon of a judge. She went ok and did a fair test, considering there was no one around when we warmed up and she got a little stressed with whinnying for Smurph. She scored 38 which is very bad in her books! Fortunately the judge was this horrible to everyone and the best score of the day was only 34! which left use 3rd. Helen did a good test from a good draw and got 34, whilst Julia arrived by the skin of her teeth and did a spectaular job to score the best dressage in her arena of 30.5! On to the show jumping. It was quite a stiff course with abrupt turns! Harmony was second to go and did a super clear, as the ground was fantastic for her. It was soon clear that clears were going to be thin on the ground, and there were only a handful before Julia jumped a good round to have just two down. Helen then had another unlucky two down, but jumped a good round. We only had three in our team as the fourth member dropped out, but overnight we were in a strong position going into the cross country. That night went to the XC briefing and walked the course, before having a BBQ with all the people who had arrived for the novice. I slept very badly as the new Meon flag which was tied to our lorry flapped continuously all night!
Intermediate results:
Luckily my busy day was over by 2pm on saturday and with the horses safely away, we went to watch the open XC and keep an eye on the scores. The provisional announcement was that we were 2nd by 0.1 of a mark, and we were slightly miffed to say the least. BUT they had not taken off Helen's time faults and this meant we had WON!!!!! We were ecstatic and did not fail to hide our joy! We ran to tell Rena and Sue and anyone else we could find! Prize giving was amazing and we once again plaited up to look our best. We got sashes and rossettes and voucher, as well as a trophy. We also got interviewed by Horse and ound and had to pose for various photos!!! This had to be the best part of the weekend!!!!! Harmony had also finished 3rd individually, as had Julia, whilst helen finished 8th. Well done everyone!
Offchurch Photo Gallery 2007
Saturday: Intermediate cross country and Novice dressage and SJ
We woke early on Saturday, as Harmony was 3rd to go in the endurance phase. We made our way over to the start of the roads and tracks and were soon underway. This year there was no steeplechase as the field was under water, so Phase A was set at a very brisk pace! Harmony as usual was a little OTT and very exciteable the whole way around. We arrived at the 10 minute box with a minute to spare, and after the vet check, got ourselves ready for phase D the XC. It was a stiff course with some tricky questions and combinations. From previous experience at Offchurch I knew it was a case of going flat out, and with no steeplechase we had to start with no real warm up. Harmony was a star XC and sped round all the direct routes to come home 1 second within the time. She was so keen to set off that she reared in the start box and I miss pressed my watch, and therefore had no idea how fast we were going! Luck was on our side! We quickly told Julia that is was a tight time, before going to get Smurph ready for his dressage. Julia also went well and came home with just two time penalties, after going all the direct routes. Helen followed this up with another super clear, but had an unfortunate incident with a dog who jumped out at her. This gave her 3 time faults, but an objection soon overruled this! We finished on a super score with just 3 riders! results later. A quick rush to the dressage field gave Smuprh the shock he needed and after only 15 minutes warm up, we went in to do our test with the very same dragon of a judge. Smurph went amazingly well for him and liked the big arena. he scored 34! Chrissy matched this score with another good test, whilst Anne evans did well to contain Jim to score a respectable 48, whilst Ony the dressage star got 29.5! SJ next, and once again there were lots of problems! Chrissy did a lovely clear, Smurph overcame the monsters that lurked beneath some of the jumps to jump a fantastic clear, as did Ony, whilst Anne had an unlucky 3 down. The novice team had also had a good day! Please see the reulst section for details of ntermediate victory! That night we had a fantastic celebration BBQ, as it was also Tom's birthday. He had been so busy grooming for my two horses that he had no time to even think about this! We also walked the novice XC and helped Sue and Rena to put their tent up. Julia went home and we all went to bed! Ready for tomorrow's early start.
Sunday Novice XC
It was a little less rushed this time as I only had one horse in one phase, but having said that, it was going to be a bit of a challenge! The cross country was it's usual technical self, and Smurph has only done 4 XC's to date!! The roads and tracks were a brand new experience for him, and he practise jumped brilliantly at the start, but became rather confused when he wasn't allowed to jump anything for the next 18 minutes! This obviously meant that there was a monster lurking somewhere in the bushes! He made the time easily and sauntered into the 10 minute box star gazing at the welcome committee of meon supporters and officials and vets. We were 1 m from the flag when he fell over his own feet and landed smack on his nose! How emabarrasing!!! The vet listened to his heart and said he was rather too relaxed!! I was not allowed to practice jump now before setting off on phase D, so quickly did some schooling to remind Smurph that we hadn't finished! We set off on the corss country in a determined manner, and found the first 7 jumps rather spooky! Soon after this we got our brain engaged and started to flow nicely, despite taking the long routes as sterring and jumping on angles are a little beyond us yet! We cleared everything and managed to finish the course, which was a suprise to most people including myself, considering he is so inexpereinced. We did unfortunatley clock up 28 time faults! but this was to be expected! It was a similar story for other members of the team, who all jumped really well and took most of the direct routes, but got between 5 and 12 time faults. This left us in 8th place, after a small stopping dispute that happened when Ony got stopped unfairly on the way home. Chrissy was 6th individually and Ony was 9th, so a good day was had by all! we went and brought photos, loaded up the lorry and then had to wait a while in order to be pulled out by the tractor, along with the rest of the lorry park! We arrived home at a respectable 8pm and I was very pleased with both my horses, who are now enjoying a short break! Well done Harmony and SMuprh you are super stars!
