Event Report: Bovington UA90cm - 02.06.19

I was very excited to take Savannah to her first 90cm today at Bovington, she was putting very little effort into going round the 80 tracks and she just jumps better when the fences are slightly higher.

Having felt very stressed and tense for the dressage the last couple of times I was determined not to let it affect her this time, so I purchased some Rescue Remedy to try and calm myself down. Whether or not it actually works or just has the placebo effect, I definitely felt much happier about things and this was completely transferred to Savs. She warmed up beautifully, really stretching into the contact and letting me ride her rather than flying off my leg and leaning on my hands. Personally, I thought this carried on into our test and was extremely pleased with the whole thing (I think it was the first time I've actually come out of a test smiling!), very hopeful for a low 30's score if we were lucky. Unfortunately the judge obviously didn't agree, scoring us a slightly harsh 37.7. However, I was still very happy with her as she was relaxed and happy throughout the whole test.

In the Show Jumping they were running slightly ahead of time, meaning I only managed to jump a cross rail and a (very rushed) oxer before I was called - although luckily this actually worked in our favor as I don't usually jump many fences in the warm up anyway. I was hoping the step up to 90 would back Savs off the fences a little as she was getting slightly over confident at 80, and it did just that. She really let me place her meaning we had a much better stride and take off point to most fences, and the whole round felt much easier on her. I was very happy with our round, I just held her slightly too much into the double meaning she just clipped the back rail of the oxer jumping in, but we finished with just those 4 faults.

For the first time every I had time between my Dressage and SJ to walk the XC (which meant a later start this morning, yippee!) so I headed off while Savs had a chill out for an hour or so. Fence 1 and 2 were simple enough, a pheasant feeder to a wide box which she popped over easily. Unfortunately coming into fence 3, a sunken rolled fence covered in brush within a very dark alley way, we just had a bit of a baby blip resulting in a 20 as she was too busy looking at the horse coming out of the water the other way. However she popped straight over it second time around and then went on to storm round the rest of the course, including some more technical lines than she's used to and some much bigger fences than she's seen before.

Today was another day that doesn't sound so great on paper, but I am so proud of how she jumped everything, making it feel effortless and easy. We have plenty to work on but she is such a talented little horse and I cannot wait to now see how she improves!