First of all I could't find anything I needed at home, had washed saddle blankets & boots & put them in different parts of the house. Left home at 12.30 only to have the truck battery light come on, so went to Richards work, where we then found a really big oil leak as well. After having a look & realising there was nothing we could do, decided to take a bottle of oil with me & just keep topping it up on way down if necessary. I then decide that I had gotten new tyres on the back at last COF & was supposed to get the wheel nuts tigthened again after x amount of kms which I hadn't done yet, so pulled in there to get them to tighten them up, which they did. I then asked them since they were there, to check the air in my tyres. Lucky I did as my inside back tyre was flat as a pancake. Wheels come off to find that the sidewall has a hole in it. Luckily it can be repaired though, so after putting on a patch, I leave East Tamaki at 3.30 & head out to horse. Fill truck with water & finally get leaving just after 4. Whoops!
Was supposed to be picking up a tub of equilibrium at Matamata, the lady very nicely agreed to take it off my visa & leave the tub outside so that I could still get it as I came through. Thank goodness for daylight savings, didn't hit Matamata until 6.30 & the lovely lady had stayed behind to do long put off after hours work, just so that she could give me the tub. Big ups for GN Hills! Arrived at Rotorua in the dark & promptly missed seeing my name on the yarding list. Luckily Ray came over with a torch & helped me out. Richard then arrived as he had driven down from Auckland seperately. It was raining by this stage & suffice to say the first sleep in the truck was not a pleasant one as I had stupidly parked under trees!
Flynn warmed up very nicely for the dressage, I was starting to get quite hopeful. Until I had to leave the warm up area & go down to the end arena, where he promptly got all wary of his surroundings & tensed up beautifully. Trotted around the arena & did some transitions to try & get his mind back on the job, which mostly worked & he actually started a nice dressage test until he decided to do his usual standard issue left rein canter "elevation" LOL We even got it caught on camera for change. Its always the second stride in canter and I know always know when its coming, please excuse the heinous long reins
yes in this photo I am saying oh you little shitbag!
Just have to smile sometimes
Lucky for Flynn apart from the canter he actually did some nice work and finished the dressage on 11th place.
We then went & got ready for the SJing. He was quite energetic but still produced a lovely clear round. I think it helps that he still clears them by miles LOL Though we did slip coming into the brown wall filler and I got lost & came in on a bad angle & hit a mud patch right as we took off. Going clear moved us up to 7th place
After a further disastrous evening which involved someone who shall remain nameless locking their keys in the boot with 8 bags of ice in there & my McDonalds in the front seat going cold & having to call someone out to get them to break into a certain Altezza... We then relaxed by watching Pineapple Express with Ray & Debra. Highly entertaining movie!
Sunday morning & thank goodness the weather had cleared up nicely. Flynn warmed up nice & positively, such a change from the horrible gawky pony that used to slide into the first practice fence I would put him at! Love the new version!
Unfortunately I didn't work on my speed though & I let him too long & strung out & fast and it then put him backwards & he got all apprehensive, went too fast through the gateway & tried to charge off up the driveway, by the time I finally managed to get him turned, we missed the nice slope up & had to jump the drainage ditch instead. We then cantered up to the coffin combination & had a run out at the last part of the combination (how embarrassing, probably the smallest jump on the whole course!) He had caught sight of the spectators and just wasn't paying attention at all.
Then it was off over the rest of the course. We had another run out at the second jump in the triple, I had strided it wrong and was aiming for a short upright canter coming into it, however didn't quite get there, which then put him in a bad spot for take off. That teamed with me on his neck, meant that he just couldn't do it and he ran out. Quickly represented and he jumped it beautifully. Jumped beautifully into & out of the water and then did a great superman impersonation over the palisade
So cute, go superman, go!!
With the 2 run outs, we ended up 11th, which is pretty good, however it was a tough course as only half the competitors completed it!
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