Nelson Stinker!

Nelson's show name is Nelson's Tinker, but it was once misheard as Nelson Stinker and this morning he lived up to that!

It's 'Scope' show time. A week long event of various classes for horses and ponies that have qualified to compete. It's not cheap, entry fees are around the £100. This year the qualifying requirements are very low, only one double clear at a qualifying show, which meant a large volume of entries.

Emma and Nelson were 229 out of 256 in the first class, so it was very disappointing for Nelson to do something he never does - refuse a fence! With so many entries that immediately put him out of any hope of a placing. That's him building up to stopping in the top picture. Emma presented him at the fence again and he jumped it then went clear after that.

Emma was quite cross of course, so no mints for him from any of us, which he was a bit mystified by, asking all of us for one ( myself, and Em's mum and boyfriend were there too ). We told him how he'd let himself down infront of all those people, hence he wasn't getting any treats!

We then had a long wait until the next class, which was supposed to be the last class in the indoor arena but was moved twice to an outdoor one. Luckily Emma was suspicious of the likelyhood of it being indoors so went to the office to find out where it would be.

By the time the class started it was already getting late and with 180 in the class they were pushing it to get done before the light failed. There was some annoyance when it was announced that they would be stopping at 121 and resuming in the morning.

Luckily, Emma was 105th. By now the rain had set in and I was the only one left to support them. Finally, about 8pm, Emma and Nelson got to jump, flying round, getting a double clear. Unfortunately it wasn't the sort of course that would give Nelson the edge over the bigger horses - not many sharp turns, which he can do as he's very nippy, and they came in 13th. As I'm backblipping I can tell you they ended up 16th. At least Em gets £30 of her entry fee back for that position!

The second picture is Nelson performing much better outdoors, despite the rain!

I'm now waiting to hear how they got on today ( Monday ).