The organisers must have been very pleased with things today at Blenheim. The heavy rain predicted stayed away and the main CCI class provided a good day’s entertainment with them running cross country and then the CIC class I’m in did show jumping at the end of the day.
Cocoa was a good boy jumping clear in the show jumping, despite the fact that I could not get a nice rhythm on the track. The show jumping was not overly big but a few lines came up quickly.
The CCI cross country was long at 10 minutes and 54seconds and only a handful of people got the time, which I think is what the cross country should produce as an outcome. The track was very jumpable with no clever lines and really good going.
The first real test on the cross country was the rail on top of a very steep hill with the dew pond right behind it if you under rode the rail and looked too much for a stride and lost your pace you could have had trouble and sadly some did. At the end of the track there were two angled brushes on one stride and I think it caught out a few tired horses. The fact there were three very strong pulls up hills on the track make it a physically demanding track but thankfully with the good going most horses finished well with a few time penalties.
Coco does his cross country tomorrow at lunchtime as the CIC cross country runs in reverse order. He’s moved up to 5th going in to the cross country but I don’t think I’m going to stay there as I’m not planning to go flat out. This year remains all about giving him experience. 2011 will be about results given our goal of 2012.
Cheers,
Bill
Posted 11th September
