Wooo whooooow, we made it to our first BE event since Weston, although not with quite as many horses as planned.  Floors lost its first day of competition because of rain but they did manage to run all their Sunday classes, which meant that Duck and Elton both got an outing on great going.  William, Stan and Spike will have to wait for another week though, before they get to a party.

Duck was a super star, winning the OI.  He did a nice test for a 29 and then jumped a double clear.  It was a really great outing for him, just to have a blast round before moving on to Bramham.  He won the Intermediate at Floors a couple of years ago, so it was fab that on his return he has recaptured his crown!

Elton also went really nicely in the Novice Regional Final, which is an Intermediate dressage and show jumping with a novice cross country, to finish 5th.  He got a 25 in his Dressage with a little break in the canter, which was a shame.  Still a 9 for my riding and a 9 for one of the shoulder-ins, was nice, but not quite as good as the 17 he got there last year!!!!!!!  He then jumped a lovely double clear.  I have put him into Ducks bridle which has made a really big difference. Although we picked up a few time penalties on the XC, which was expensive, it was great to have my steering and brakes working, now he just needs to learn to gallop with this bit.

Last weekend wasn’t a complete wash out, instead of being at Badminton I managed to get an Entry at Scone for the Fife Hunt Pony Club One Day Event for William and Spike, not quite the same but better than nothing!  It is run round the British Eventing course so they have both added an extra BE100 run to their seasont!  They both did good tests with William getting a 30 for pole position at this point, a little rider detour with Spike meant he got a 33.   Spike then went on to jump a double clear to finish 3rd and William finished 5th after a pole SJ, but a nice clear XC.  It was really good of FHPC to fit me in as with all the cancellations and changes to plans I could have had a long wait for the next competition.

Duck has been entered at Bramham for the CCI***,  it took a while to decide were to go, as everyone felt a bit flat after Badmintons cancellation and I hadn’t been thinking of a Plan B option.  Bramham has always been a bit of jinxed event for me, a little bit like Badminton, one way or another, but I have always liked going there, so fingers crossed a nice big rosette this time!!!!!!

This weekend is the last quiet weekend for a while, as long as the weather stops interfering as we will then head to Floors, Scotsburn, Hexham, Bramham and then Balcarres.

Well my preparations for Badminton were going well but it seems that Badminton’s own preparations have not gone so well and due to the weather they had to cancel it for only the second time in their history, due to the flooding of the course and persistent rain.  Really gutting for everyone and don’t think Duck knows what has been going on, as he has gone from intensive everything to some quiet days! 

Maybe it will be fourth time lucky for the elusive Badminton run, I had two thwarted attempts with Kings Berry through balloting and then injury and now weather has been added to the list, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.