Te Rapa Horse Trial 1/2 October 2011

First time for me for a very long time, riding two horses at one trial.
Completely unsure as to my fitness given my lay off following injury....but here goes!

Dressage
Terrible terrible terrible....not the best warming up, although manageable....dust did start him snorting and such however.
On my first trot around the (spooky) arena, XC walkers meant a bit of a skeddaddle just as they rang the bell. I could have done with another trot around but it was not to be.
He did hold it together, but did his whole overbending routine and was quite tense. Also fluffed the canter leads, and had a few coughs and grunts (dust) through the test. But we survived for a GRAND SCORE of..... 50% and all but last! Oh well

Show jumping
Training Show jumped on the sunday morning, whilst the big boys did their cross country which involved galloping past the warm up and show jump ring which proved interesting. He didnt quite manage to hold it together, but in all honesty there were others having a worse time of it.
We got into the ring and he actually jumped very well, just lost him on a right hand corner (to head back away from truck - and willie direction) and he got a little distracted. I failed to sit up and ride him and then wait for him to go. I saw a long one, and he didnt and down came the rail
4 faults

Cross Country
Gave me a fantastic ride!
There were no moments of hesitation whatsoever, apart from a very slight moment before jumping the ditch at the coffin.
He bowled along quite happily, although did tend to hang to the truck park a little along some areas, but kept going in the right direction and was easy enough to get back on the job.
finished 5 seconds under time for our first clear together under time.
0 XC faults

Pulling up to 5th place overall - not so bad after such a dreadful start!

Very pleased with the wee boy.