Well, this is our last BE of the season. As my start time for dressage was 15.48 I decided to travel down on the day. I slept in my lorry on the yard the night before and was buffeted by storm Callum. It felt like being at sea. Can’t say it kept me awake. I was asleep by 9pm and wide awake at 5am. Frank had an early breakfast, I mucked out two horses then had my breakfast of fruit, yoghurt, nice coffee and two ginger biscuits. Did a tack and boot check, sorted out my stuff, filled hay nets. After all the rain the lorry wheels had sunk and I had trouble getting out of my parking space. After loading Frank I had trouble closing the ramp as the wind was so strong and it blew one of the inner doors off its hinges. I manoeuvred the lorry to another spot and with the aid of some steps I managed to close the ramp without giving myself a hernia or a stroke. After all that messing about it was 8.30am. So much for an early start and I felt like I had done a days work already. Poor internet connection at the yard made it impossible to check if the event was still on- even climbing up to the top of the bales in the barn failed to get a signal. I couldn’t get hold of Google maps either. I’d already worked out the best route using a road atlas and so I set off despite storm Callum. Further confusion was added to my day as I am changing over from using a Samsung to an iPhone. A good trigger for early onset senile dementia if ever there was one. The journey took 4 hours, by the time we reached Cardiff the storm had abated and by the time we got to the M5 the sun was out and I was boiling in the bag. My old lorry has no heating controls and basically you are sat on the engine being cooked. Found the venue easily and just managed to park up without getting stuck in the mud although it was a close call. Jump out the lorry get the ramp down and find Frank bathed in sweat. Quick sponge down then off to get numbers and walk the XC course. Given my sat nav errors at Pontispool I catch up with another course walker and ask if she doesn’t mind if I walk the course with her. ‘Well, OK’ she replied ‘but don’t talk to me’ Got it, I replied. After fence 4, she asked to look at my map. Fence 7 ab was the only cause for concern. It was downhill, with a slight dog leg turn from a to b and a short distance between the two elements. I would need brakes and Frank would need to be listening. After team chasing the week before the fences looked ridiculously small but some of these were ridiculously close together.

On my way back to the lorry I stopped to check the showjumping course. Here, my ‘silence please’ course walk partner came up to me and apologised for being rude. I told her not to worry at all, I understood perfectly-recalling my bad behaviour at Pontispool (see earlier post). Back to the lorry, kettle on, water horse, plait up, tack up, stud up. Pour bucket of water over head as I am soooo hot. Drink coffee, check dressage test. Suddenly remember fence 7a & b…. and change Franks XC bit from Cheltenham gag with French link to American bad boy motherfucker single joint because I know I will not be able to control him down that combination. Frank is shaking a bit now. Give him some carrots which he eats so figure he must be okay. Get on 45 mins before dressage test to warm up. Still blowing a gale but I’m still feeling cooked. I allow Frank to let off a bit of steam. Straightaway I know what I’m dealing with here as he clearly has his team chasing head on. He’s strong in the dressage warm up but obedient. Is ok in trot but overbent in canter and pulling. We have a bit of a fight and I get him to do lots of transitions and he comes back to me. He is equally balanced on both reins. I’m last to go but definitely not least but for all the wrong reasons … Frank is like a wild beast in there and I am just a passenger. Wrong canter lead, try to correct, wrong again. Replay the movement and finally correct lead. I know we haven’t done well, guessing a 40.

Back to the lorry for quick tack change and into SJ warm up. The storm is cranking up and so is Frank. I know that if I don’t gain some control here he will cart me round and knock everything down. So I have strong words with him. Warm up fences are now blowing down and in we go. Last on the list for the afternoon. He is strong but somehow I’m stronger -we have time faults for going too fast but we go clear. Half an hour to get changed for XC and I’m a bit worried about the route between fences 4a/b and 5 &6 but no time to check. I’m last to go XC and really looking forward to this bit and have no fear. Team chasing has given us both a lot of confidence I’m just a little worried about the downhill fence 7 combo. Frank is broncing in the XC warmup and soon we are in the start box with a minute and a half spent small talking with the starter- ‘what colour is he’.. ‘he’s bay roan, every single shade of mud…yes a self-cleaning horse ha ha! Used to be a show horse… blah blah… now he’s a team chaser’… starter looks impressed… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO! Frank leaps out of the start box. I’m aiming for the first fence a tiny 80/90 combined little house and Frank runs out🙈🙈🙈 oh the shame. I’m so annoyed I crack his ass at the second attempt and we absolutely fly round the remainder of the course. The only sketchy bit is fence 7 where I pull him up so much for the first element that he has to climb over it one lanky leg at a time. The whole course was easy peasy. Just a couple of moments where I had to check we were going the right way. By fence 8 we’re cooking with gas and going so fast my hat silk flew off and a hero on a quad bike followed me back to the lorry to return it to me. So, that’s us done for 2018 event season. Frank stopped at the first fence at our first event at Mount Ballan and this seems to have set a pattern for the season. He cleared the first at Pontispool but jumped the 100cm by mistake. Hmmmm… I have some theories about this which I will discuss in a later post. Its been a funny kind of event season not helped by Frank becoming lame through poor shoeing at the start and then returning to ground like concrete. Two more team chases. Hereford (Sapey) next week and Cotswold (Foxcourt) on Oct 28. Holiday then for Frank 😀

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