Ambassador
Bonnie Fishburn – October 2019
Nov
Well I can safely say that after October I am sick of rain!!! September was bad enough, but October has just been continuous and it just doesn’t seem to be letting up heading in to winter. This time last year my winter fields were lovely and dry, but they are currently very squelchy and I’ve already seen enough mud to last the winter.
Our first outing of October was a British Showjumping show at Tushingham Arena where I had a fun time with Princess Florence. Double clear in the Amateur class for 3rd place to begin and then another double clear in the second Bluechip qualifier of the day for 7th place and a qualification for the Bluechip Champs. I played it a little safe in the jump off part because the course didn’t appear to be riding very well so didn’t cut too many corners but still went into the lead, but then lots more jumped quicker double clears. Such a nice relaxed morning with a lovely crowd of people. Meantime at home, HRH was watching the rugby with Daddy and running riot and eating naughty food!!!
I did manage to get to my last event of the season at Weston Park on 12th, but the ground was rather damp. At least the actual day was dry and actually quite pleasant. But the event did fall foul to the weather for the second day and they had to abandon. We turned up at Weston Park at 6.45am in the morning and it was still pitch black and we had to resort to a head torch to walk the course. First up I had Elfie in the 90. He behaved beautifully in his dressage despite a near gambol in the slightly deep tricky going for a 32.5. Followed with another superb clear showjumping. On to xc where he was coping really well with the sticky going until we had a very uncharacteristic blip at fence 12, very frustrating as it cost us 2nd place. (I did later discover that he’d actually got a nasty boot rub on his fetlock where mud had got under the boot in the deep ground and this would have been sore enough for him to question if he wanted to carry on but being the genuine boy that he is, he did carry on to complete, I just felt bad for asking him to carry on not realising what had happened)
Next up was Arrow in the Central North West 80 Challenge Final. She was rather excitable to say the least and was somewhat distracted in her dressage for a 33.3. On to the showjumping where the ground was struggling to hold up. She was still rather full of herself but jumped quite possibly the best round she has ever jumped, coping remarkably well with the sticky ground and gave me an awesome clear. On to xc, still full of beans and pulling a few shapes but she pinged round the course clear in the time for 9th place, which is a super result and finish to her season. I just feel I’ve lost her dressage towards the end of the season, but I think it’s a combination of a young horse getting to know and love her job and realising what comes after dressage. I’m sure with some dressage outings through the winter months this will help this situation, but for now she has a well-deserved holiday.
On 27th I had another lovely little trip out with Florence to Northrop College for the Denbigh and Flint Fundraiser BS Show. A new venue for us over the Welsh border. First off we jumped the 95cm Amateur class for a nice speedy double clear for 1st place. And next we jumped the 1m Open class for another double clear and another 1st place. What a super fun morning with a real fun group of organisers.
That’s it for October, so a relatively quiet month as it always is for this time of year. The horses are mostly roughed off now for holidays apart from Florence who will continue jumping through the winter.
