Sunny Saturday Cross Country

I think a miracle occurred for a brief day this Saturday, we actually got some sunshine! Spring is that you?

A brief respite from the rain meant that a cross country event actually went ahead as planned this weekend. It was an unaffiliated hunter trial and tetrathlon at Horseheath just outside of Cambridge/Newmarket. On Friday Frankie and her team completed their first 3 phases of the tetrathlon; bean bag throwing (they’re too young to shoot, obviously), then swimming and running. Frankie has been ‘training’ with her Dad on Sundays by running about a mile and a half to Grandma and Grampys house in the next village over. She aced her run and has really improved her swim!

On Friday afternoon I went to walk the cross country course after work in the sun and check out the fences and posted them all here if you'd like to see the whole course.

Saturday morning was sadly a brisk one and puffers and hats required as the day started cold and with a breeze that whistled across Horseheath; that obviously didn’t deter these country children from getting on their ponies and jumping a round of 14 fences! After a rather exuberant jump in the warm up there was an unscheduled dismount. Consoling was given, Frankie got back on and with me we pop over a couple of practice fences again and we were good to go! Being competitor number 1 Frankie was called in first into the arena before lots of onlookers. Georgie ran round while I got photos and Frankie and Ronnie came out with a lovely clear round and a beautiful rosette well earned!

 We had a quick turn around and loaded Ronnie back onto the trailer to go home to the yard and pop the horses out for an hour while we had a quick lunch and get equipment changed over for Georgie’s course in the afternoon.

Now, those who have been to Horseheath competitions know it’s either a really long wait for hours, or a mad rush to make sure you get ready in time to not miss your class. Alas we were the latter. We got back to the yard and loaded up B and made our went to the course about 1pm for a 1.30pm arrival thinking we’d have loads of time. Wrong! We got there, I unloaded B while Georgie went off to have hat and back protector checked. I’d just tied him to put his boots on when Georgie came running over saying there were only 5 people left to go before they’d finished! OMG whatttt!

Mad rush and what felt like some sort of formula one pit stop event happened! Georgie put on saddle, I put on bridle, she then basically threw on her own equipment and I practically launched her up via a leg up onto B. Trotting to the warm up arena while I got my camera and sprinted after her; I don’t think Beanie knew quite what was going on at this point as half an hour earlier he’d been happily munching in the field and now he was about to go cross country!
After a quick couple of circuits of the warm up arena, a girth check, a pop over a fence and a final girth check she was being called into the start box!

In a quick 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 she was given the go to start. B set off full of running and eager to go. Maybe it was a good thing she’d had no warm up, no chance for Georgie to get nervous and no time for B to get fresh and silly. I managed to sprint to various parts of the course to get some photos and watch. In what seemed like a blink of an eye they were back and finished, they’d whizzled around. Annoyingly the wind had blown a fence number out of view so Georgie nearly missed it and had to do a small U turn to get the fence which meant a little slow getting 11 time faults but we were just happy to get a safe clear round. B seemed to want to go again and Georgie was all smiles.

Once we’d finished B was washed off and allowed to wind down with some grass while we hung out while Georgie, Mum and the girls went off to see how they’d got on. We were super pleased to see Frankie’s Tet team had some third! Well done girls

A nice way for B to have some variety in what he’s up to; he’s not just a show horse and likes to do cross country, show jumping and all sorts! Helps keep his mind happy and busy too.

And with all that walking and running I think I’ve trodden on a stone and bruised the sole of my foot so I’m on box rest this week and maybe some swimming!

How did you get on with your horses and ponies? Where you at Horseheath too?! We’d love to know how you got on

Sophie x