Eventing Blog - through the eyes of a groom

We caught up with our blogger Jess Errington, for her next installment of Life Through the Eyes of a Groom.

We are well underway with our eventing season and made the trip last weekend to Aldon. We had a busy couple of days with Catherston Definitive (Fin) and Cavalier Crystal (Nell) on Saturday. Fin was in the Intermediate Novice and Nell in the Pre Novice.

My alarm went off at 3.20am which did actually feel like the middle of the night when I eventually got up! We left the yard at 5.00am surprisingly wide awake and looking forward to the start of our season.

We arrived and it was pretty cold but I can't complain as at least it wasn't raining! it was all go straight away with no time for hanging around. I got Nell studded and tacked up and the set up base for the day whilst Harry went to collect numbers etc. He had a sit on her first before doing his test on Fin as the times were pretty tight and the dressage was quite a walk to get to.

Not only did Harry have just Fin and Nell to compete but also had one of William Fox Pitt's horses called Reinstated to compete in the novice class so we saved a parking spot next to us for the Fox Pitt Team where we had a fun time and it was so lovely to see them all and William back where he belongs. All the horses went really well. Fin surprised us all with doing a lovely calm test of 27, he can be quite sharp and too excitable for his own good sometimes especially at this time of the year but kept his cool and was very well behaved. He unfortunately rolled a couple of poles but then was great cross country.

Nell produced a nice test and jumped a lovely double clear. It was her first outing out with Harry and it's all about getting to know each other which always takes a bit of time. She was a pleasure to do and seemed pretty chilled at her first party with Team Meade!

We arrived home that evening where my team at home did a great job, we un packed to re pack ready for a reasonably early start again tomorrow this time with Away Cruising (Spot), Vrolijk (Dude) and Tenareze (Taz). Spot and Dude entered into the Advanced Intermediate and Taz in the Open Intermediate.

I started on Sunday at 6.00am ready to leave at 7.30am which included washing Spot as being grey there isn't much point in me doing it the day before! On our way I made use of my time not by sleeping unfortunately or by chatting and keeping Harry awake but by plaiting on route.

It was another full on day with tight times and involved quite a bit of running back and forth from the dressage arenas etc! We had plenty of supporters for the day with all our wonderful owners and also Hannah Freeland who always takes sure wonderful photos. The horses all went really well with Spot and Dude producing brilliant tests of 26 and 27 which left them 2nd and 4th in a high class field full of 4* horses, they then both went on to produce lovely double clears. Spot ran steadily and dude finished 6th so all very happy! Meanwhile Taz produced a nice test and a lovely double clear , it's good to have him out this year knowing now that they have formed more of a relationship which will hopefully continue to grow.

We headed home early evening with our first event of 2016 completed and all going to plan, the horses are feeling great and so glad to be out again.

It was lovely to be surrounded by wonderful eventing friends and although very cold it was a dry weekend with no rain so we can't complain too much.

We head to Pontispool unaffiliated on Saturday with the young horses to give them another run before they begin their BE debut at Portman which is very exciting!
After that we have what will be a busy few days at Burnham Market with 5 of the older horses which I am looking forward to and hopefully they will keep up the good work.

I will let you know how we get on!

Jess