Barbury 2019

Barbury International Horse Trials Novice

Barbury was a big deal for me… not only is it our local event but I never actually thought I’d ever ride there! As you know I hadn’t had the best prep for it. I was still in quite a lot of pain in the run up but it was getting better and I felt like I was riding well enough to go.

As it is such a close event we managed to walk the course the night before… it was big so was feeling pretty nervous! However I knew that if I did my job and RODE her we would be fine!!

Dressage is not our strongest point but had a couple of new techniques to try and help us… unbelievably we managed a 34.3 so was very pleased with that!!

Show Jumping…which was held in the main arena for the first time! How exciting, it was such an amazing experience for both myself and the horse to be able to do that and we learned a lot from it! Michelle was around to help me warm up which was a big help.

It wasn’t our finest round as had 3 down and I was a little disappointed. In hind sight though we had changed her bit and not really had time to practice in it properly so was holding her too much over the fences, just need to learn to be softer and I think this will get better! The show jumping course was up to height and ran up and down the bank which was catching a few people out.

As Michelle and I arrived at the cross country there was no body in the warm up, which I quite like as we didn’t have much time to hang around. So we were off! All I can say is that I LOVE my horse. She was utterly awesome. She felt so confident but unlike Farley she listened to me when I asked her to come back to me. The water was a big ask with the drop in, there was an alternative, which I thought I might take if I felt she was losing confidence, but really I was always going straight! Pepper loves water and she took it in her stride!! I couldn’t of asked more of her and we finished just with a few time faults, but with a smile on both our faces!!

Thanks to everyone who helped and came along to watch, it was a great day and looking forward to next year already.