The end

Hi,

Aldon, the last event of the season went really well. I had dressage on the Friday, which was the second day of dressage for my section of 105 people.

Herbie did a lovely test, which was only let down by two little rider errors. He scored a fantastic 48 and the fact that I know it could be at least 5 marks better is very exciting. We were lying a very creditable 13th place after the two days of dressage.

The Saturday was cross country day, it was a tough enough course for a CCI*, with a lot of skinny fences that you could easily make a silly mistake at. I had a long wait because I wasn't on until 3 45, but at least it gave me time to watch a few horses go, so I could see how it was riding.

Herbie absolutely flew around the course, never questioning a single thing, he finished well inside the time, meaning we added nothing to our dressage mark, which moved us up to over night 5th place. The last day, Sunday, is the show jumping. Herbie was definitely looking exhausted, and being his first three day he didn't really get what the hell was going on when I got on him again. The showjumping runs in reverse order of merit, meaning again I had a long old wait till it was my turn to jump.

Herbie felt knackered and where he is still a little weak he struggled. Unfortunately I rode like a donkey to have 2 fences down. I was completely gutted at the time, but we still finished 14th out of 105 and I fulfilled my goal of getting inside the top 20. It is also very reassuring to know that it could have easily been Herbie and I in second or first place. I could not be more pleased with the way that he has come on this year, his dressage has improved more than I could really have hoped for and his jumping is getting better and better with this. Herbie has gone from having 1 British eventing point when I took him on at the beginning of the year, to 22 points, he is now ranked as an Intermediate eventer. He is now having a well deserved rest for 2 months in the field and I strongly beleive he is going to come out fighting next season, so bring on 2010!!!!!!

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