The diary of a Cornish Eventer – Less then 3 weeks to go!

Ok so can someone please slow time down?! It is going far too quickly for my liking! Tuesday marked 3 weeks to go! That’s only 20 days… eeeekkk!!

It’s been go go go the past few weeks. Recently I swapped my wellies for high heels and headed off to my cousins wedding in the glorious sunshine! It was b-e-a-utiful!! My cousin Jane looked gorgeous and everyone had a lovely day filled with fun, love and laughter. Of course I managed a quick ride at stupid o’clock before getting ready… best bit is my friend was also just as mad and joined me!!

Sprite was getting quite hot under all her winter fluff, so that has all been taken off and she’s now looking super-duper smart and is much more comfortable! In a short space of a week we’ve managed to get our first two events of the season under our belt.

Firstly we traveled up to Wiltshire for Portman BE where we had a really good first run. 3^rd after dressage but sadly two poles in our dreaded phase of showjumping cost us. However focusing on the positives (something we must all do!), Sprite ate up the XC going clear and inside the time. I started the day feeling stupidly nervous, more so than normal but think that was down to “pre-season” nerves, anyone else get them? Although by the end I was grinning from ear to ear! Even with 2 poles we still managed 10^th place. It was so nice to be back out doing all three phases and get our eye back in the game!

Four days later the car and trailer was loaded up again and we headed off to a local ODE; it was so lovely only being 20 minutes down the road for a change! Sprite did a lovely test to score 24.17 which was the best dressage in our class yet we still had great comments and feedback from the judge where there was room for improvement. Showjumping went in the right direction and we only had the one pole. Sprite then gave me another awesome round cross country, literally pulling me into everything! We weren’t allowed to wear a watch so it made me really appreciate British Eventing for allowing us now. Judging the time to be in a 15 second window is so difficult and we didn’t manage it this time but wasn’t far off so only had 1.2 time faults leaving us on 29.37 taking the win.

I think I feel pretty organised at the moment, well I kind of have to be I suppose, fitting everything in around both jobs. My forever supporters (mum and dad) have been absolutely fantastic helping me out when I’ve needed!

My Mitsubishi Motors Cup entry has been DONE!! Riders have then been asked to fill in a survey for our XC commentary – must admit that was pretty exciting! The cross country course has been published and is looking… urmm… beefy… technical and definitely challenging but did we really expect anything less!? Brave pants are already packed!!

Looking ahead – we’ve got one more event planned at Bovington this weekend then I’m buying the biggest roll of bubble wrap possible for Sprite! If anyone has any good links feel free to send them across 😉 (if only!). We then need to practise a bit more jumping at home on grass and touch up on the areas we can in the dressage. It’s all systems go!

Written by Emily Dunstan at EMD Eventing