Somerford Park is the kind of place that dreams are made of. Despite my usual 1 hour limit on travelling time a very persistent friend (thanks Vicky) convinced me last year that Somerford was worth the trip, and boy was she right. Inevitably due to being such a great venue there are usually loads of pros there giving their youngsters some miles, which makes you feel like a very amateur amateur when your little single horse trailer is parked up with all the super shiny lorries! Fortunately the immaculate cross country course is pure joy to ride and makes it entirely worth it! It’s also always on the beefy side which is usually exciting and terrifying in equal measure.
Slightly bravely/ madly I decided that we would tackle Somerford as our first BE100 of the season. Archie had been such a star at Solihull that I had few doubts going into this weekend. That was until I saw the course up close! It was a pretty hefty step up from Solihull’s 90. There were challenges at nearly every fence, with big solid brush fences, wide ditches and jumps into water. When we walked the course I actively ignored the bit of my brain that was screaming “ohhhh myyy god!” (a technique I’ve honed from many years working in anaesthesia). It was a long course with an optimum time of nearly 6 minutes, and I had visions of Archie and I crawling through the finish with a billion time faults.
Dressage as Solihull was a much better experience than last seasons attempts, but Archie’s new chilled state where he can focus and stay soft on the bridle seems to also be the state of a slow moving donkey. I haven’t yet found the magic button that gives me softness, energy and impulsion for when it matters during a test. It’s often readily available and willingly given in the warm up, but doesn’t quite translate inside the boards. Two years into eventing I’ve just about learnt how to ride accurately to markers and ride round-ish circles, so we are managing much neater tests these days and we came out of the ring with a decent 31.5 score.
In the showjumping warm up it took a bit of bossing for Archie to wake up and smell the jumping, but once he cranked up a gear he jumped like a stag on steroids. The course was spooky and there were lots of people getting time faults but the boy did good and put in a beautiful clear. I totally misread the line to an oxer off the corner at number 7 but the new grown up Archie took charge and got me out of that sticky situation. Only mildly huffing at my screw up and I like to imagine rather amused by my profuse apologies that were uttered on the approach to the fence.
I didn’t do much warm up for cross country as I just wanted to get out there and get on with it. Thinking too hard about the course seemed like a bad plan at this stage. A very entertaining cross country start steward helped to ease my nerves and before I knew it the first fence was flashing beneath us. I’d already decided I wasn’t going to push for time, as at that point we were lying around 9th in the section and I knew a clear round would be enough of a challenge on its own without me nagging Archie along for the time.
Despite being sticky in the warm up Archie bounded out of the start box and for the first 6 fences he was on fire! He was really taking me into the fences and hitting fabulous cross country strides without getting close and chipping in. It felt incredible! He seemed to finally have found his mojo. A quibble came at Fence 7 where a skinny wooden duck was likely to cause certain death and he thought seriously about ditching me there but fortunately I’m wise to his moves and I caught him before he ran out. There was a very steep hill down to the fence at 12 so we had a brief trot to regain some balance (and to give me a chance to actually breathe) before he absolutely bossed the corner combination. In fact nearly every fence I thought “ooh he might spook there” he just took perfectly within his stride. By fence 17 I was starting to think this was all too good to be true, and where on earth was the final fence, the course seemed to go on forever! A minute later we were out the other side and we were clear! With just a handful of time faults to add to our final score. I simply couldn’t believe how easy and fun he had made such a challenging course feel. It’s the kind of feeling I’ve been waiting for since my first ever cross country round all those years ago with Nike.
I couldn’t be more proud of this awesome grey pony who hasn’t had the smoothest journey in learning cross country. He’s had to teach me too, and it’s taken him some time to find his brave pants. If this is how he feels when he’s at his A game then long may it last!! Our time faults dropped us out of the top 10, but making the decision not to push for the time was definitely the right call.
Before the long drive home I stopped by a stall to pick up some dinner and some impressive sausage rolls that I couldn’t resist. Poor planning meant I couldn’t actually reach them in the footwell during the drive home and so they were still safely tucked in my bag when I arrived back on the yard. Rather unfortunately during the 5 minutes where my car boot was open a cheeky jack russel managed to sneak in, climb through my car onto the front seat, dig through my bag and devour the tasty pastry hidden within. I won’t repeat the rather blue words I screeched when I discovered the remnants of my long awaited dinner!!
Journey of an Amateur Eventer 