The Grand National Show

And what a show! I think the Grand National Show has to be my favourite of the season. It is well organised, friendly with fantasti facilities and the glitz and glamour that is so often missing. The entertainment is outstanding and it is a great chance to mix and socialise with the 'showies' that we see so little of throughout the season.

The boys were awesome. I took Des along just to expose him to the atmosphere. He was entered in the showing classes - he doesn't need to do anymore Novice tests. It did take a class or two for him to get used to the distractions - we were indoors with a large public gallery and there were lights and flags and mirrors and stages. He is NOT a show horse but still managed to come home with a fistful of ribbons and a whole new legion of admirers. I was especially excited to get placed in the Rebecca Peters Memorial class. This is a kind of 'Supreme' for the Novice horses and in memory of a very special person who was a show rider and jockey and who died in a trackwork accident 18 months ago. Her mum was there to present the award.

In the Novice Saddle Hunter title class

The Rebecca Peters Memorial

First Year Under Saddle Hunter Hack

Gosh was there to compete in the Grand Prix and the GP Musical Freestyle or 'Kur'. He did some good work in the GP but some unexpected mistakes - for some reason he wasn't keen to piaffe in the ring, he decided not to change in the pirouette line, I completely missed the count in our twos and of course our ones are still a work in progress. He also unblanace in his extension, which is unusual for him. However his lateral work was brilliant - we nailed the zigzag, which has been quite a difficult movement to come to terms with. And as usual his passage drew much favourable attention.

Yesterday in the Kur we really had some fun. He was still fragile in the piaffe, we had even less success with the ones and the twos were swinging but some still absolutely brilliant work, especially the half passes, the pirouettes and the passage. We ended up with an overall score of 62% which I'm thrilled with. We were 4th out of 4 but the highest score was just 65% so we are all very close.

So from here it is just mileage and training on. I need to work out how to keep him relaxed in the piaffe in test situations, we need to continue to work on consolidating the changes and just generally work on our arena craft. Des is almost on cruise until after the National Champs when we will start to push on with his training.

Next stop: Gore on the 13th-15th February for the South Island Champs.