With everything going on at the moment the below might be our last outing in a while!

I had just figured out my plan for Eva and I this year, which events we were going to enter, the (increasing) heights, when I want to get lessons. Everything. When British eventing announced they have cancelled all events with immediate effect.

While slightly frustrating I hope the measures taken will mean that we will be back to normal at some point in the near future!

Before the country went on lockdown heres what Eva and I got up to ….

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The day after Eva and I had a trailer practice we were entered into hunter trials, as it was the first time out to cross country since September my only aim was to get round and have some fun.

I had walked/jogged the course the day before and there were a few that were certainly up to height if not above. There were a few jumps that I already knew Eva would be having a look at especially the water which was a running stream with a steep path in and out of it and jumps at the either side at the top.

As we hadn’t been out in a while I was expecting some Eva diva moments but instead Eva was a wee pro for this event. When loading she hesitated for a second, sighed and walked up the ramp. When we were at the event as soon as I got on she was already marching me off in the direction of the warm up! It was almost like she missed going out and was happy to be out for the day!

For the warm up I mostly stuck to the flat and popped her over the warm up jumps a few times as I wanted to reserve our most energy for the main event as we aren’t as fit as we would like to be yet.

After a slightly hesitation in the starting box Eva and I were off, and then ran out of steam quite quickly!

We were over taken twice by smaller far more wizzy horses, not that it spurred Eva on she was quite happy to let them past! It was a classic hunter trials of the fastest round wins, Eva and I certainly weren’t the fastest but we definitely enjoyed ourselves!

Round the course we only had one refusal where we needed to turn around and re-approach but there were few that we needed to have a good look at before jumping, which is what I expected so Im pleased that there weren’t more refusals.

Overall I am very happy with the way Eva behaved and how she approached everything, I only wish that I had gotten her a little fitter before the event. There were several factors to why she wasn’t fit enough, mostly it was the weather. Any day that I had time or daylight to hack it was horrible wind and rain, this lead me to being quite demotivated coming out of winter.

Having had an outing and with the weather turning for the better I am definitely feeling a little more motivated and we know what we need to work on for our next event! (Although with all everything now being cancelled that motivation has decreased somewhat)

I am very glad that we did managed to get out to one (and it might be the only) event this year!

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