1 Day Event at Twesledown Report

Congratulations to all who took part in the area one day event on 11th May.

We fielded 2 novice teams, 1 individual and 1 intermediate team.

The novice teams started out well with good dressage tests from all. Kim Holliday, Rosie Sharpe and Ali Plumley all did particularly well, with Kim and Guinness getting 35 points - particularly impressive considering he has been on military duties all winter!

The showjumping was in a large grass arena with some very spooky fillers. Jane Gibbs, Emma Delport and Rolf Birkett had the only clears from TVRC but with less than half the class going clear there was all to play for going into the cross country phase.

Jane Gibbs and Mel Widdows were the first of the teams to go and both went clear. Mel's pony Hattie showed you don't need long legs to go fast and was very close to the optimum course time. Jane was just ecstatic that Alfie got through the water!

The next two out on the course both had blonde moments - Sam Luff missed a fence and Emma Delport missed the finish. Despite being eliminated both were very pleased with their rounds and the horses couldn't have done better.

In the afternoon, Catherine Ingham did a brilliant round with the young Classic Star - getting ready for his first season of eventing. Ali Plumley had more difficulties with the beautiful Robbie, who took dislike to a particularly 'dangerous' fence and refused to go near it.

Quiron looked immaculate as usual as he started off on his XC but had to retire after Rosie had some issues with his enthusiasm. And after a brilliant start to the day Kim Holliday had a few stops on the course with Guinness but finished well.

Last to go Gem and Rolf started out like they meant business - and so they did, until the water where Gem lost the will to live and couldn't get out of the water! After a couple of efforts they made it and got home without further incident.

So unfortunately no rosettes for the novice team although Catherine Ingham was very close to a placing.

For the intermediate team we had a team of 3. Marian Harrold, Rachel Levinson and myself. All of us had good dressage scores, up in the top 10 so we were off and running. Both Marian and myself went clear in the showjumping but Kerfuffle - Rachel's horse took a dislike to one of the more garish fillers and refused to go near it. Despite some extremely good riding by Rachel they were eliminated.

So the pressure was off Marian and myself for the XC. Despite having evented previously with Sparks, the fences did look rather large - 18 months of dressage has turned me into a complete wimp. Both Marian and I were getting nervous!

Once out of the start box, I remembered why I enjoyed eventing. Sparks was having a great time and seemed to have to make little effort to clear the 'huge' fences. By about fence three there was a beaming grin on my face that stayed there until the next day. Once back in the lorry park I passed a nervous Marian - " it rides beautifully" I called confidently and so it did as Marian completed a fast clear and came individually 6th!

Unfortunately my time doing dressage seems to have muddled my speed monitor - I really thought I was going fast but managed to accumulate 15.2 penalties! Obviously the collected canter looked great between fences but perhaps I need a little more oomph...

Good luck to the dressage teams and anyone would like to be on the London and South East 1DE team on 26th August (2"9) please let me know.

Lucy Savage
Team Manager
07782 328 322