The start was ominous. First of all, the cable that attaches the car electrics to the float electrics went missing. I blamed its absence on my poor unsuspecting husband. He blamed it on the men that serviced the car. I saw it as a great excuse not to go. My husband said "drive without it". The cable was found.
Then the weather. Just as I was pur pur purring up the last bit of the divide between Noojee and Powelltown, it started to pour. And I mean, pour. Sheets of rain. Zero visibility. Cats and dogs. Kangaroos and wombats. It poured. My feelings sank to their lowest yet, and I really wondered what in the world I was doing out here.
Finally, full of retrospection, I arrived at the competition, and the elderly man at the gate asked with a smile "Have you come to win?". "Young man," I replied, "I have every intention of winning".
I got the horses off the float, registered, showed my cards, helmet, crop, medical arm band and whatever else was required, and proceeded to walk the course. A woman joined me, and I was glad to have company. I always talk when I walk the course, so at least I would be talking to her, and not looking like I was going mad.
Now I will be very honest. I was expecting a couple of piddly logs, maybe a half-baked water jump, and nothing more. The reality was quite a challenging little course with a train crossing, a flower bed, a gate, a house (yes, blue walls, windows, doors, red roof and all ... just scaled down), and, what I believed to be the "showpiece of the course", a crate full of fresh, green, apples.
Of course, the weather was still being cheeky and it actually hailed while we were walking the course.
Dingo was scheduled to go first and I was very pleased to see that he settled down in the warm up. In the dressage test, he almost seemed bored. But that all changed when I showed him a warm up jump. Then, off we went. Well he was a good sport, wondering why we couldn't go faster, getting more worried about the jump judges than the jumps, and questioning me when jumping the rail crossing, and of course, the apple crate. The showjumping course was a breeze, and as far as I could tell, we made good time.
Next up was Lil. She sweated up early in her warm-up and I wasn't sure how much to walk her, and how much to trot her. So I walked her for a while. When we went back into trot she was visibly stiff on the right rein. I kept her trotting, and the stiffness loosened up. She did a calm dressage test, and I was happy. Then we did our jumping warm-up and off we went, across country. Lil's attitude was fantastic, and she really got quite a nice rhythm going. Of course she gave the apple crate a massive look, and then a huge leap. She also got a good look at the house with the red roof, but it wasn't the house that was the issue. It was the churned up clay leading into the house jump. We went clear, and she also made good time.
When the results were posted up, I couldn't believe my eyes. Dingo had come first and Lilly came second. I wondered whether the man at the entrance was interested in knowing?
Dingo got a really good dressage mark and then only had 7 time faults (in the XC and SJ, combined). Lilly's dressage test was poorer, and she had 8 time faults. All the other competitors had far more time faults. I really wanted to jump up and down and scream, but I tried really hard to be the "good winner" and just sit there looking "wise".
I received a sash for each placing, as well as a little hamper (which included chocolates, yes!) for first place, and a bottle of wine for second place. I felt very special.
In the end the weather was more of a nuisance to the organisers (and the jumps judges) than the competitors and the horses. The format - short course - ran really well, and I think it should be adopted more often for the lower levels. The format also made it very easy to compete with two horses, and I was able to manage really well just by myself.
Just before I got Lilly on the float she managed to kick out, and hurt her frog rather badly. But that's a story for another post. I'll just add that those chocolates might be really useful.
