GATCOMBE

PENCARDER SILVER STORM took part in her first CIC** at local event Gatcombe. We went with realistic goals with the first being a qualifying score in the dressage (75). Rosie managed to hold it together for the trot work scoring 7's, however, we then had to walk...Rosie didn't!! Sadly this marred our mark as there was a fair amount of walk in the test. Luckily the canter work was ok and we managed to score 70.8 which left us in 90th out of 100 (yes there were 10 combinations worse than us!!) Anyway mission accomplished we had a qualifying mark...

Next stop the xc. Having walked the course, I realised that 2 stars are actually quite a lot more demanding than your average intermediate track. Luckily I knew I was sat on a jumper and she has always been bold so I was hopeful she would step up to the mark.
We had done our dressage test on the Friday so Rosie hacked Saturday before returning to Gatcombe on the Sunday for the jumping. I walked the course again on the Sunday morning whilst the first few ran...it was not filling me with confidence as none of the first few finished clear and it became obvious very early that this was no dressage competition.
We set off on xc late due to a few holds on the course. Rosie was full of arrogance over the first few and hit the third hard. Luckily this made her respect me rather than scaring herself. She gave me an incredible ride round the whole course. Through the corner complex where so many combinations came apart she cruised through like a pro. She felt tired towards the end but kept jumping. I couldn't have been happier with her. We finished with just 14.8 time which catapulted us up the order with only 37% of the field going clear across country.

Photos Courtesy of Katy Vincent

 After the xc had finished we had to trot up. Rosie flew through this and surprised me with how much energy she still had. The show jumping was in reverse order so we had a few to watch before we were on. Considering she was still in xc mode I was thrilled with just 2 poles being knocked. One was her and one was me just coming a little too forward into the final treble. We ended up in 30th position moving up an incredible 60 places from day 1. I am excited about her future she continues to impress over a fence I just hope this winter we can find some miracle to sort her dressage....Any ideas anyone??!!