Area 13 Novice Champs Report- SJ and DR

On Sunday 23^rd August 5 of us went to Pacesham to compete in the Novice Champs in Dressage and Show jumping. The Dressage team was Charlotte, Tom, Dan and Clare. They all did a lovely test despite 3 of them getting lost at one point but they held it together and managed to come 3^rd as a team overall with Charlotte winning her arena and Clare coming 4^{th in} hers.

Ashley joined Dan, Tom and Clare for the Show Jumping. They had to go straight from the Dressage to walk the course whilst Nat had to take the ponies and get them ready for jumping. Although seeming quite nervous they had a good warm up, tack check and then it was their turn to jump. Dan was first and went clear whilst the others watched nervously from the side, then it was Ashley who made it look easy on big Holly with another clear round. Then Tom was next on Fizz, he did a lovely clear round and managed to remember the course unlike at area show jumping and last but not least was Clare who had a lucky clear round after touching one pole and rocking it. They went through to the second round on a team score of 0.

Meanwhile the prize giving was meant to be starting for the dressage so the dressage team went to wait for their rosettes. While they waited they did not realise they had missed the course walk for the second round of the show jumping and had the sweet talk the steward to let them walk it in-between 2 teams. Everyone found it very amusing as they ran round the course trying to remember it. They jumped on the horses to have a quick warm up. All was going well until Clare’s pony Canon got distracted and forgot to jump and took the whole thing down and Clare went tumbling to the ground. Both were a bit surprised but with only 2 minutes to go quickly recovered and popped another jump with no problems. The pressure was on after all going clear in the first round. They all jumped well again with Ashley having just 4 faults but still meant their team score was 0. The last team to go was also on zero which meant if they all went clear we would have to jump off. Fortunately for us but unfortunately for them their nerves got the better of them and they finished with a lot of faults which meant our team had won! They were all very pleased and just started to relax when they announced that Clare would be going first in the individual jump off for going double clear. Tom and Dan would also have to do the jump off. They quickly tried to learn the course and then Clare went straight in, very nervous! She finished with 4 faults along with Dan and Tom finished on 12. Clare finished 2^nd individually, Dan 3^rd, Tom 5^th and Ashley 7^th. They were all so happy but disappointed the prize giving was unmounted because they wanted to do a lap of honour.

They got some lovely rosettes and a big shield for winning which will have all their names engraved on it but best of all they all thoroughly enjoyed the day.