28th March- Rather a challenging time at Gatcombe

After having rather a tough time in the build to Gatcombe, not helped by a rather sore leg from a fall i had on the Wednesday before the weekend. I had been taken off in an Air Ambulance with a suspect broken Fema - Thankfully nothing broken meant i could go ahead and compete the 4 horses on the Sunday at Gatcombe.
After two dressage lessons with my trainer Rhett Bird - on Divilabit and Creeslough i thought i would be OK to compete.

All the horses went well in the dressage, Bonnie Amie did her first advanced dressage test which was lets just say...interesting, she just about kept a lid on it... after a few disagreements and airs above the ground.
Chilean Boy did a lovely test and got one of his best marks to date. The test flowed and his movement has really improved. His shoulder in still needs more work for the higher marks.
Rising Midnight did a pleasing test although not as good as the one from Twesedown, a little bit unsettled at times in the contact. but still scored 32.
Divilabit, did his usual accurate test, his shoulder In's were of consistent angle and his simple changes were nice. He is not a big moving horse and really struggles with the medium trot which was where he lost his marks.

On to the show jumping, Chilean Boy jumped fantastically having only one rail down which was a real shame. He feels on top form and couldn't have jumped better.
Rising Midnight had two down but jumped well, and our partnership is ever getting stronger.
Divilabit also had two down, a little bit keen, and flattened over a couple.
Lastly Bonne Amie in the AI section had three down but couldn't have tried harder. Rather excited to be out again she just covered up too much ground in the combinations, which is something i have been working on maintaining, rather exuberant at times it makes the distances rather hard to ride.

Sadly XC, my leg began to hurt which meant i could not ride the horses to my full ability so i pulled up on rising Midnight after a couple of stops which was unlike him, i also pulled up part way round on Chilean Boy, I then decided to withdraw the other horses and save them for another day.