After Savannah found the step up to 90cm at the start of the month so easy, I couldn't wait to get her back out at this height and so was very much looking forward to West Wilts this weekend.
Now she's done a few events Savs is much more relaxed about everything, and so for the first time in the dressage warm up she was completely relaxed. This allowed me to really ride her forward and show off her paces best. She warmed up beautifully and I felt very happy going into the arena. Unfortunately because of this I got overexcited and slightly over rode her at times because she was so rideable, which resulted in some of the movements being slightly rushed. However, I still felt that it was her best test yet and was over the moon with how she went.
Again in the Show Jumping warm up Savannah was very very relaxed. Her canter was the strongest it has ever been, and she came into each warm up fence perfectly at a slow, steady pace. She felt absolutely amazing and we both went into the ring completely happy. As we came towards the first fence I quickly realised she was not going to be quite as steady as in the warm up, but she was still very relaxed and actually jumped brilliantly. She completely saved me in the double at fence 7 where I messed up the striding terribly causing her to land in the middle of the two fences in trot. Some how she managed to clamber over both parts,and then went on to jump the rest of the course clear!
It has become very apparent that the Cross Country phase is definitely both mine and Savannah's strength and favourite, and today was no exception. As usual I didn't do much of a warm up, just a small canter and a couple of fences. She absolutely flew out of the start box - for the first time I didn't have to encourage her to move away from it, in fact I could hardly hold her up over the first few fences. After this first burst of energy she settled into a lovely rhythm and ate up the rest of the course. We hit every fence on the perfect stride and she felt incredible, storming her way round to complete her first double clear!
Because she was so confident on the XC I didn't push her round and so unfortunately we picked up some time faults, without which we would have been placed, but I am so incredibly proud of how she went today, I really couldn't have asked for any more from her. I'm hoping to just do one more Unaffiliated at this level and then fingers crossed she'll be ready to go BE!
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