September 2007 - Te Rapa Horse Trial

Man I'm a sucker! Got talked into giving it another go & that I should do so as soon as possible to try & erase the bad memory of Taupo. 2 weeks later & I've managed to get a late entry into the Te Rapa. Wasn't too sure if I felt lucky or not about that one!! Arrived at Te Rapa & got ready for the dressage. Dressage test was quite below average due to me mucking up my timings & not getting a warm at all. WHOOPS! Finished the dressage on 24th out of 28. Then went & did the SJing. Thankfully we went clear. Went & walked the XC course & nearly fainted when I saw how horribly open the trakhener was. Small log, big ditch. Crapola! Carried on walking the course. There was a bounce, a big drop & a lovely upright with a sloping drop on the other side at the back of the course. XC day dawned. Got ready for the XC. Entered the warm up area, at which point Flynn decided that he was excited. Only did one practice fence as was shaking with nerves & trying to figure out if I could throw up behind a bush & not be noticed! They called our number & we were off. Managed to keep a much more leisurely speed on this attempt, as I never let him get any faster than a quick canter. That & my new waterford bit helped! Came up through the clearing to where the trakhener was & Flynn spotted the crowd of people & starting gawking at them & backing off. I have to admit by this stage I was a little worried about the trakhener & pretty much pulled him to a stop before it. We circled around & cleared it nicely, which surprised me, he didn't even really look at it. Off down to the double with the skinny. Cleared that & powered down to the water. Had a stop at the ramp coming into the water but after a tap with the whip, carried on through. Up through the coffin combination, over a few uprights & off towards the bounce combination. Had thought to myself that if I had control, was going to give it a go. He did the bounce really nicely, in fact was probably the best thing he jumped. Then off to the drop, he hesitated, I growled & he leapt in straight away. What a good boy! Then off to the palisade. Now I know its tiny but by this stage I was pretty knackered. I completely took my legs off & prayed for a stop. Sure enough I got one. Took him off to the side to get my breath back & let a few riders few, so that I could get some strength back in my legs, as I knew I had the upright with the small drop at the back end of the course & was definitely going to need to bluff my way over that one! Carried on & headed out to the jump. Came into it & gave him a whack for good measure. Silly move! All that did was get an over exuberant leap over the jump, which then caused him to land on the flat & all that energy had to travel somewhere. So it did & came right up through the saddle & cannoned me out of the saddle & up his neck. Hoisted myself back & quickly circled before the chevron. Lined up the chevron & we popped over it & headed towards the finish line. I was so, so happy to have actually completed the course after all the mishaps & hesitations etc. We even managed to finish 24th out of the 25 people who completed it. Also nice to finish the weekend whilst still on good terms with Flynn!