A biting wind, driving rain, hail, waterproofs, and ‘the big studs’ says hunter trial season to me so it felt very odd yesterday to be setting off XC in the blazing September sun! Knowing how the organisers usually build I was expecting the 3ft to be big with a few Pre Novice/BE100 fences thrown in but sadly they broke with form, and it was pretty much the Intro/BE90 course, it looked like they saved all the big fences for the Open later in the day which was primarily BE Novice height. Soap shot out the start box, and stormed round like a pro although he is getting a little blaze at this height so we had a few discussions mid round about speed and potential take off points! He was fab over the bank which was 2 steps up across the top and 2 steps down. The ground was bad on the steps pitted and rutty which I didn’t like the look of, but he navigated it really well, and my boyfriend very kindly came along as ‘GHE Paparazzi’ and took this great shot.
We waited ages for the results and were a bit baffled when they just put up a list of 10 names (which sadly despite a fast clear we weren’t on) I was puzzled by this list as it didn’t disclose the optimum time or the times of the riders who were placed. I know that unaffiliated competitions are always a bit hit and miss when it comes to results, and placings but I might email the organiser later in the week to request my time and final placing out of the whole class because without that I have no idea if we were 5 mins too fast or 1 second too slow! The highlight of the day apart from gorgeous weather, meeting a few new faces, and a lovely clear round from Soap was managing to watch a bit of Rodney Powell’s round as he went by on a stunning bay horse in the Open. We are off to WWEC next weekend for another hunter trial where we will be taking our chances in the Open, Eeeeeke!