Any equestrian will know and understand the struggle of the seemingly endless slog that is winter. If the diabolical weather, knee deep mud and constant darkness doesn’t make you want to cry, your suddenly-colossal feed bills certainly will. As eventers, we have another slap in the face to deal with during these already trying months – the complete absence of the sport that we love! So, when our alarms went off at some ungodly time on Sunday, it’s no surprise that the grumbling was kept to a minimum. We’d been waiting months for this! So, after heading up the yard, mucking out, and loading the horses on the lorry, we set off for Munstead Horse Trials with Dantastic, Kilshannaig Trigger, Seaview Jazz and some very excited riders onboard. The season was finally upon us!
First up was new recruit Seaview Jazz, AKA Brian, who was entered into the 90 at his first ever BE event. Having only been with us for a couple of months, we were keen to see what he would make of such an event, and he did us proud, barely batting an eyelid at the buzzy atmosphere and busy warm-ups. He flicked his toes to score a respectable 34.3, cruised around the SJ with ease to bag a clear round and then headed out to the XC – a phase he’d never had any experience with before, but despite a couple of honest stops (the trakehner was most definitely going to eat him!), still managed to storm home inside the time. A rather successful first outing all round, and lots of promise shown for the future!
Next up was Kilshannaig Trigger, who was also doing the 90. He managed to perform a sweet test for 37.8, despite being joined by a loose horse in the warm up, and picked up 4 faults SJ due to a particularly terrifying filler, but all was forgiven out on the XC course, where he managed to fly round clear picking up just a couple of time faults, and finishing him on his personal best score of 47. A brilliant result for his first event of 2017!
And finally, it was the turn of resident superstar Dantastic, who was fit and raring to go for his first BE100. Having not been Cross Country is several months, his mind was set on galloping around the course from the word go, but he still managed to score a 38.3 dressage and had just 1 one unfortunate pole SJ. Once released onto the cross-country course, he stormed round to come home clear inside the time, full of running and ready to go again!
All in all, a truly successful day out eventing, with all three horses showing real potential for the future, and a promising a very exciting season ahead.