A rather belated Chilham round up, please forgive me, I’ve been busy!
It was the first Chilham event with their new layout, and I was not disappointed. This event is always one of my favorites, the volunteers and organisers are always incredibly friendly, and the venue itself is a beautiful back drop to a wonderful sport. My only criticism would be that it was a very long walk round to the show jump collecting ring, but you can’t have everything!
So I just had the one ride, Trojan Odyssey, so i had to do my best to be as noteworthy as possible with only one ride!. Troy did not disappoint. He pulled a very nice dressage test out of the bag, with still a little more room to improve, proving he will be a real contender BD.
Then off to the show jumping, now we all see or hear the phrase often….. an unlucky pole…. yeah, righto, you plowed through it, it wasn’t unlucky! I myself have used that expression myself, and always feel bad when I do.
But this time, I feel it was justified! One unlucky pole on the way out of the double….. we were entering the cross country phase on a competitive score! Now was our time to shine…..
We joined the indomnitable Chris Kirby in the start box for a few kind words (he is the perfect definition of a gentleman) before he counted us down, and we were off! Now Troy is a real little machine for such a scrawny creature, and he was on a real mission at Chilham! He dominated the course and skipped his way round with ease. Now sadly, this is where it went wrong….. as we approached the second water I made an error of judgement and put him in a position to take the easy option…. so he did, and nipped out the side. Because he is so positionable, and such a machine, I forget that this is only his third event, and expected too much from him. So with 20 penalties under out belt, we thought we would revert to just enjoying it a little more, and looking out for the camera! If you don’t enjoy it, is it worth It???
Little Bentley Eventing 