Then came the show jumping which was in a huge arena with a mini grandstand I didn't get to walk the course but I was able to watch a few riders go and see how it was riding. I had a great warm up Ahlerich was jumping out his skin I cantered into the big arena and started to have a wonderful course everything was riding well 1-6 jumped perfectly and then I added an extra stride between 6 and 7 which was alright but coming out the 7ab combination I lost the implusion he jumped 8 well and then we came into 9abc I had gotten the canter back and had an okay distance in but Ahlerich got a little nervous with not enough canter into the triple he put two strides in a one and I didn't react quick enough and he landed dead after the b element and could not get over the c I circled got a good canter and jumped through there okay having the c element down. He jumped the rest of the course well but sadly had the last down as well as a lot of time. I feel horrible to put Ahlerich in that situation again he has such a big heart and never wants to stop but he had no choice this is something I really need to work on we are going to go to some show jumping shows and jump some lower level classes just to get our confidence back and then hopefully be able to jump the clear round that I know we are both capable of doing.
So as I got back to the lorry I started to worry if I was capable of riding at this level after having two not so good show jumping rounds at this level back to back. I started to get Ahlerich ready for XC and we headed to the start box they told be I had 20 horses till I could go so I decided the best thing would be to head back to the lorry and wait instead of making Ahlerich wait around the start. Once I got back all I could do is think if I could do this course did I trust Ahlerich enough to tackle one of the biggest advanced coursed in England. So I asked my good friend Thalia who came with me to the event to help out what does she think? Her response was would I reget it? Once I heard that I hopped on and headed to the warm up. We met up with another good friend from uni Astier Nicolas who had walked the course with me, he came up and hit mey leg and said ride strong and postive and you will be fine! We warmed up went over the course with Astier one more time and Thal led me into the box! I was so excited to get out there and attack the course but Ahlerich had other ideas when we were being counted down from tec second Ahlerich was abnormally calm and once the man said go I kicked Ahlerich, thal let him go and instead for going forwards out of the box he ran backwards.... somehow we made it back out after being 20 seconds late but I was glad to be on course. Everything out there was big and there was no easy fence on that course everything rode great I wasn't going for time because I did not see the point in running Ahlerich fast after such a bad show jumping and made even though I was probably the slowest person of the day I think I was the happiest and I was so proud of Ahlerich for taking such good care of me! He jumped everything perfectly the most amazing jump was the jump into the main water jump it was huge and we got an amazing jump in and it felt so cool landing into the water. The rest of the course went well and I was so happy coming through the finish flags. Ahlerich was a rockstar and I was proud of myself for going out doing it and jumping clean round!
Ahlerich is now enjoying a few days off before he starts back at it again! I have to give a big thank you to Thal and Astier the weekend would not have gone so well without them!
Until next time
Meaghan and my little superstar!! <3
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