Bye Bye Sebby. You will be missed. Last Rides.

Vanessa and Zoe with Seb.

CTR Three

Last Wednesday was the last of the WAR CTRs. I had a great partner in Karen who with her lovely Arab/QH mare had done a 60 km the weekend before. Karen set a cracking
trot pace which Finn had quite a job to keep up with. Because he was a bit tense and excited he would not lengthen his trot to keep up with Karens mares power trot so cantered to keep up. We felt like the Massive heaving couch potatoes trying to keep up with the lithe athletic Gym bunny. Fortunately in the second half he got the idea and relaxed so we were able to JUST keep up at the trot. We came in with just two time penalties and a line heart rate of 60. After his half hour rest period his heart rate had dropped to 36BPM. And we won! Wahoo. I was gobsmaked. Tracey came in with a HR of 57 and resting rate of 36 but had more time penalties so she came in second. Karen was third. Berluddy hell. Both Karen and Tracey are professional Endurance peeps and I beat them on a hefty Irish Horse. Go the Irish. Such a versatile Boy. :)

Just a little pic here of Vanessa giving Henry a lunge.

WRC Dressage

As Pumpkin has been out so long I decided to forego the registered Dressage at Clevedon and do the Unregistered WRC day instead. It was a great chance for Pumpkin to get his feet wet again and its just as well we did it at an unregistered day because he was horrible. He was falling on the forehand through the transitions horribly. Not nice. and falling on his nose. Judges comments - Lovely Boy but just struggling a bit today. No kidding! He still managed a 3rd and 4th but not our greatest moments. Being an unregistered day I decided it was a chance for Finn to have a go at Novice. Pity his first test was the horrible 2.3. Its a test I absolutely hate and would rather ride most of the Elementary tests rather than it.
Finn did an admirable job though for 62.08 %. The second test was the much more flowing 2.1. He flew through this one with the greatest of ease. Pity about the rider though who did not know the test and got 2 course errors. He still managed to get 2nd in it though with 70%. Go Finny.

The Boys kicking back at Home

Henry surveying His Domain.