Did the 'bright lights' of Badminton lead Abi and Kate to over-prepare?
Well we are now only days away from the 'big event'. Things have not exactly gone to plan. Last time I wrote we were heading to Larkhill following a not so brilliant run at Munstead.
Larkhill was a mixed bag - it is a rare event that Abi and I go on our own to events, there is usually a following but for one reason or another everyone had other plans, so Abi and I headed off alone and to be honest it was quite a treat! Whilst Abi walked the course my job was to get Todd ready. Even if I do say so myself I am still quite good at this grooming lark!
Before
And after!
They performed what I thought was a good test however, Abi was stopped in her test, leaving her slightly confused, as far as she was aware she hadn't gone wrong? The judge got out of her car and informed her that her 10 metre loop was too small? And she was to go back and do it again (it would be interesting to know if anyone has had this happen to them) - It was a new one on us. In all of my eventing career I was never given an error of course due to a 'poor or incorrect shape'
However although getting two points deducted for an 'error' of course she scored an eight for the repeated movement. Had she not repeated the movement she would have been likely to have only scored a four or five for 'loop too small' so I reckon we still came out on top!
We arrived at the show jummping in time to warm up for our allotted time, to find the warm up area in chaos, there must have been at least 30 horses in there, most huddled around the poor steward - demanding to know when it would be their turn. It would seem that earlier in the day people had gone out of order and just put numbers down when they arrived, all of which meant we would have at least an hours wait before we could jump, so back to the lorry we went. I know that some events do take people as they come and others are very strict about running in drawn order, trying to do both was hopeless - what do you do in Australia?
The course was fairly tricky, twisty with three or four difficult related distances. Todd got one of those distances wrong, which left him with only one option but to stop at a parallel into a double - unfortunately Abi didn't stop and was unceremoniously dumped into the middle of the fence. It’s strange how it always seems an age after getting back on for the jump to be rebuilt!! However after all that they continued on and did a foot perfect clear!
Having had reservations about the cross country, lots of skinnys and combinations Abi took the decision to withdraw. I admired her bravery - its a tough call especially as it was the last run before Badminton but she didn't feel up for it and that is no way to set out on a course - there is always another day.
We travelled home, chewing the cud and trying to be philosophical about our day. Abi depressed about her 'mojo' abandoning her, questioning why had it gone so wrong, why wasn't she feeling up for it. All the same questions that at one time or another during out time in eventing we have asked ourselves.
I did the big sister thing and tried to be very positive - like 'well if you hadn't fallen off in the show jumping it would have been quite a good round'!
A cross country schooling session was just what was needed, so we headed off to Parwood Equestrian centre - they have everything that is required! More stops were to follow - in between some inspirational leaps, Todd put the brakes on. This just darkened Abi spirits further - home we went full of doom and gloom thinking should we withdraw now?
The following morning I got a joyous text from Abi stating that Todd was very sore behind the saddle. It was joyous because it meant there could be a physical reason for the uncharacteristic stops - the physio was called immediately. Soreness down the spine was diagnosed and treated - since then we have jumped and all seems to be back to normal and Todd has now been given the all clear. Unfortunately we won't know for sure until Badminton itself - just to add to the pressure - especially when reading other blogs about the fab preparations that others have had, winning events on minimal dressage scores etc … but hey ho that's horses for you!
With such a dreadful run up I do wonder if we have over planned? In our eagerness to ensure that we had it 'all right on the night' I wonder if we over prepared? If it ‘wasn't broke’ what were we trying to fix? I wondered if we had been slightly star struck by the whole Badminton thing? We had upped the dressage training in search of the perfect test – but then we weren't doing too bad on the regime we had? The height of the show jumping went up in training- why? Because the height in the competition hadn't gone up? Who knows!
I have to say hindsight is a wonderful thing and Todd does seem much relieved that we have backed off, so we will see!
We set off on Monday - with dressage on Tuesday afternoon and the show jumping and cross country on weds afternoon!!
Will keep you posted!
