Equestriad Camden Championship Weekend

Last weekend 26th May was the Equestriad Camden ODE. Crafty did the Pre-Novice Horse Championship class and it was an extremely competitive field. The venue looked spectacular with Marques and TV coverage. On the Saturday it was again freezing and very windy. I drew the short straw with a 8:30 dressage, so on went the infinite layers of jackets! Crafty did a great test, more consolidated than the last, he coped really well with leaving the other horses and going to a separate oval where the pre novice dressage arenas were. He again scored a 51 which was good and he received some nice comments from the judge! The SJ was also on Saturday and he did a cute round. I then walked the XC and it was very testing course for a young horse. We had two water jumps, some introduction to narrow fences, angled lines, apex and sunken roads. Crafty is becoming very mature and was so quite in the warm up which was really good. He then set of in a great rhythm out of the start box and just took everything in his stride. Although green he was always listening to me and was so brave. I trotted through the first water jump as about half the class were either falling off or getting eliminated at the jump in, Crafty had a good look on the approach but was very honest and jumped in well, cantered through the water and spotted his fence out. At the second water jump he went straight in and felt great. We went a bit slow again, in one section of the course I opened him up a bit more and he was really good and easy to collect back again so we can work on that more at subsequent events. Over all we finished up 9th out of a big class and without time he would have been in the top few again so I am super pleased with him. His next event wont be for a while, instead we are going to do a few SJ days and continue our regular lessons with Stuart Tinney. Another highlight for the weekend was winning the CIC2** on my other Horse Holy Bruce so champagne all round! 

     

Quirindi Event

So after a few weeks at the Tinney's place Crafty has settled in nicely. He is out in a huge paddock with another horse and is learning to fit in with the routine. Leading into his first event we attended a couple of Show Jumping Days which were really good practice. He is stepping up into the 1.05m classes with no problems at all and is not concerned about the fill. I have also had some lessons with Stuart and he is improving every week.  On the 19th May we packed up and caught a lift in the Tinney Truck to Qurindi, a six hour drive North. It was a great experience for him having to go along with all the other horses and a very enjoyable weekend despite the freezing cold nights where even the water buckets had a layer on ice on them in the morning! Crafty was entered in his first pre novice and did a really Super job! His dressage was very nice, he has a great presence in the ring even though he is green. He scored 51penalties and was in the top few placing's. He also did a nice SJ round and a beautiful clear XC. We did a steady round and had some time penalties, my priority is for him to stay confident and have time to develop his jump, we can make time up in the future ! Over all he ended up 6th which was very exciting :)  Next event is Camden!

Crafty at Quirindi