10 October 2010 - Flaxmere

No sooner was I home from WEG, we were off in the truck to Flaxmere event in the Hawkes Bay!

I was very lucky to have NZ eventing coach Erik Du Vander at home to help me on Friday morning to jump the horses before heading off. I am very thankful to Erik who also had only flown in the day before and had been away for a lot longer than me but was still happy to spend the morning helping get my team in shape for the weekend. Erik doesn't stop working and it his hard work that is paying off for the kiwis on the world stage.

I had four horses, Playtime NZPH in pre novice, Farbio in the novice and Push Play and Henton Attorney General in the open intermediate class.

Playtime NZPH did another lovely test for 26.1 leaving him 2nd, he jumped clear showjumping but a silly run out xc marred an otherwise great event for him.

Farbio did a nice test for 3rd place and 31.1, he also showjumped clear and I took him for a steady run xc for a clear round with some time faults. He is feeling very established at this level now so I am looking forward to stepping him up to Intermediate next week at Taupo.

Push Play did a nice test but the judges were marking very high in this class, I thought his test was more consistant and relaxed than his previous test at Woodhill however this was not reflected in the mark of 37.3, he was 2nd after this phase. He was brilliant in the jumping phases with a lovely double clear. I took him steady xc for time faults as he is doing his first advanced next weekend I wanted to make sure he was confident and had a good experience.

Henton Attorney General was feeling very fresh in his dressage, he added a few extra movements and I will blame the jetlag for the TWO course errrors I made in the test, he subsequently finished down the field on a score of 41!! He then had what must be his first ever rail in eventing showjumping but redeemed himself with a brilliant clear xc.

All in all it was a succesful run for all horses, I am feeling lots of improvements in all of them after a winter of training and I am looking forward to Taupo next week where Push Play will step up to do his first Advanced and Farbio his first Intermediate!