Keeping an eye on the competition

I went into work early this morning, so that I could leave early and join Lou and Moss at a nearby One Day Event ( each horse and rider combo competes in dressage, show jumping and then cross country, and the points for each event are added up to find the overall winner ).

I just got there in time to see them begin with their dressage and then the show jumping and the cross country followed in quick succession. Inbetween events I helped by taking care of Moss whilst Lou sorted herself out and learnt the courses.

This shot was taken as we were watching some of the other competitors warming up for the show jumping.

Moss is still dropping his back legs too early, ie before he's finished jumping the fence, but Lou said she got excited after he'd managed 5 fences without knocking one down ... Of course he then knocked the next two and another one further round!

However, there was a triple ( 3 jumps with only one stride between each one ) which he has never negotiated before, and he cleared all three jumps perfectly, so that's the positive we're taking away with us for the day.

Cross country is much more up his street ( and the jumps are much more solid, so he is much more careful about clearing them! ) and he flew round the course, yet still got penalty points for being 10 seconds over time, which was a surprise to us as we both felt he'd done well.

So no prizes for them this week, but it's all good experience for him and he seems to enjoy a day out and mints from his Aunty Leah for being such a good boy. Maybe my minty bribery was what won him over, as he allowed me to trim his whiskers, which he's been reluctant to let Louise do - Win!