Catching Up

After the interschools showjumping at Moreton Morrell, Smem's now decided that she wants to do more showjumping on Ruby. This is NOT going to happen as Ruby is due to go back to stud in April. Fingers crossed for a successful outcome this time.

The day wasn't an unqualified success but we went home happy. Zorya went clear in the first class then put Smem off in the next, although they did re-unite to finish the course. Ruby, on the other hand, decided it was all a bit of a lark and knocked the smallest fence down both times, but apart from that went clear. She has a huge jump and in a bigger class I'm sure she'd concentrate better. Given that she'd never done any showjumping before or competed indoors, she didn't do too badly.

The team pulled out of last weekend's team chase because of the snow, but this weekend nothing could stop them. It was a very early start because the clocks went forward last night and I had to pick Smem up at 7:30 so she could wash Zorya. She has the knack of getting absolutely filthy and is really difficult to get clean. Fortunately she doesn't object to being hosed down so by 8:30 we were all ready to go.

Cait got a new horse recently, a really sweet Gelderlander called Georgie. This was their first team chase. Here she is after their round with Zorya.

As usual Charlie took the lead. As I think I've said before, as an ex-racehorse, Charlie isn't the easiest horse in the world but he has really taken to team chasing. Second horse was Jet, another thoroughbred but only 15 hands, then Zorya (another thoroughbred) with Georgie bringing up the rear. The biggest problem was keeping a reasonable pace so that the team kept together. Apparently Smem spent most of the course shouting at the others to slow down!

About halfway round there was a section where they had to jump into and out of a pen, with the additional test that three of them had to be inside the pen at one time. A real test of control. They did it brilliantly.

The commentator commented on how well they took the final fence and they managed to finish in a reasonably compact group, with the hallmark whoop from each as they cleared it. I'm sure their time would have been five seconds slower if they didn't do this as it makes the horses put on an extra spurt to the finish!

Now we're waiting to see how they got on. Because some of the team members are juniors they have to compete in competitions that are decided on an optimum time rather than first past the post. They managed to come in 10 seconds under time so they should come somewhere. I'm not relishing the time when they start to compete in the big classes!