Not unhappy - could've been worse.

Jazz coped well with the longer journey than he is used to. There was a loose horse dancing around the lorry in the parking area and he went ballistic, but the restraints were still on so he got nowhere - that's a lesson for the future never to trust him and to leave the restraints in place when he's parked up.

He was stroppy in the dressage warm-up and I lost my steering a number of times. I managed not to let him go back to the lorry park, but he was certainly throwing his weight around. In the test itself, though, he now understands completely that he stays inside the boards until after the halt. We almost completely failed to get right canter lead, so we have dropped a massive number of points there, otherwise we would have scored over 60% and got 40 penalties or less. As it was we were on 44 but off the bottom of the class.

He warmed up with huge enthusiasm for the showjumping. Then my strategy of "showing" him the first fence by lining up and starting slow absolutely failed. He refused. I then went into a canter and brought him around the corner in canter and he promptly did a clear round. Time faults aside, we had only 4 penalties from the showjumping. At that point I was totally delighted. That was a performance way above expectations, especially as I saw three other horses eliminated. I had thought we had only 50% chance or less of getting through without being eliminated for refusals or more than 24 faults. To get a clear after one stop was amazing.

So I was hopeful of the cross country. The first fence was a nice brush, the second, third and fourth all rolltops! But I thought I could get him over them when I walked the course. I thought that 5 would scare him because it had a bale of straw stuck right up into the air as an "arm" on each side of the fence, which was itself maximum height and width. Fence 6 was a flower bed with flowers in it, which I also thought he would want a look at, and it was followed 3 strides later by an open ditch. Fence 8 was a bigger version of fence 6. Anyway, he did stop once at 5, and once at 6. Since he now knew about the ditch I was pleased that he went over it the second time. So we had only one more stop in hand at that stage. He stopped momentarily at the ditch, did not step back, and then popped over it, but the judge called a refusal. They are absolutely tight on this at affiliated now, any stop, no matter how short, is a refusal. Approaching 8 I was hopeful I could push him over it, because it was the same construction as 6. But the flowers were bigger and his courage failed him.

I've got no doubt that if it had not been an affiliated event I could have carried on and had no more than one refusal at any fence on the course. The shame is that at affiliated you cannot do that, but that the introduction of affiliated Intro in the Cheshire area has practically removed the calendar of local cross countries where you could get that experience.

He will be better again next time. And of course we will concentrate on cross country now that the showjumping appears to be nailed. (Mind you, there were no flowers on the course, so we'll have to see what happens when he gets some!)

I know that some people will be disappointed that he didn't do better. Of course I am myself. But considering how he was even a month ago, he was really very good. And I must remember that before he finished the showjumping today I had no expectation of even being allowed to start the cross country. One day, when we can get his confidence level up, he will be a superstar. On my walk back off the course a number of fence judges remarked on how lovely he is, which was great!

C