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SHOWJUMPING QUALIFIER REPORT FROM ONE OF OUR MEMBERS DEENA WEBSTER
I rode my mum's horse Chum for the area sj qualifier as he can be a bit frisky and pretend to be like a grand prix horse when he is warming up although I am not sure what the sideways movement at a passage would be called! It is definitely not a half pass so maybe we have invented a new movement!
I had to take him out of the warm up arena and dance around all of the boxes instead watching out for pedestrians and dogs rather than the other horses. Eventually we managed to get something that resembled a walk so I took him back into the warm up arena so we could have a couple of pops over the jumps. Of course he got his back up after jumping as he thought that this was the most fun that he had ever had in his life. I swear he has the memory of a goldfish!
It was soon our turn (thankfully) and we went into the arena, the bell rang and we were off! He suddenly forgot to be a grand prix horse and decided that he had a job to do with the rustic fence in front of him. Every stride he was snorting like a stallion relaxing into the rhythm. It was such a shame that he could only count to 2 as approaching the 3rd fence the goldfish brain suddenly snapped into action! Yes Chum, keep your eye on the game! Now you have had a look at the fence can we reinstate the equine show jumper brain? That seemed to work as we completed the rest of the course clear and we exited and took him back to the lorry so I wouldn't have to expend too much more energy riding the dressage horse!
Now we had a three hour wait for our second round .... or so we thought! It was time for some refreshment kindly baked the previous day by mum (Joan). She had baked enough to fill 5 old chocolate tins and had done her famous Maids of Honour which are a really divine type of bakewell tart in pastry! We do have to hide them from one of my friends as she is so addicted to them she can eat a whole tin in one sitting! As yet Sue, Simone or Becky have not realised that mum does not liek to take goodies home. All the more for me then!
About an hour before we were due to start the 2nd round I went and had a look to see how they were going with the Novice class and they seemed to be flying through it and were going to start shouting for us soon. I got back to the lorry and threw Chum's tack on in record time and trotted him up to the warm up and told the stewards that we were going to compete but just needed a couple of pops before we went in. Those pops done, we went in, the bell rang and we were off again. This time clear! What a good boy and no dressage antics either. I must remember for the horse trials.....tack up quick, off the box, in the arena and go before he blows his brain!!
Simone and Becky did really well in the intermediate show jumping and both got double clears within the fastest second round times. They did not jump off though because of really bad timing problems with 8 of the 11 teams getting double clears and having to jump off before any of the individuals were allowed. This meant that there were 32 rounds of showjumping to get through before they got a chance and with the horse trials the following week I think that they wisely pulled their horses out. In the end, after the teams jumped off, anyone who got a double clear had the chance to jump off for the individual title and out of 48 competitors in the intermediate only 6 people jumped off for the individual placings. This means that some of those horses had done 4 rounds of showjumping stretched out over the whole of the day! I really believe that Simone and Becky would have had the best of chances to qualify as they both have a real good go! In the Novice individual jump off only 7 people took part and that was a very small proportion of the 66 entries! It may be that the area qualifier should be built to the standard in the book (as they are at the championships) so that the day can be shorter so that the individuals can compete at a reasonable hour and get home before 10 at night!
All in all we had a great day and I would like to thank Sue for her help in getting us all sorted out and being Chef d'equip.
Deena Webster (and Chum)
p.s. I know a few of you may think Chum's name is a little odd but when you consider that his brother's name is Chappie you can guess what may have happened to them!!
Many, many congratulations to all our riders
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