Wilmington One Day Event

Toastie and I had a fun weekend at the Wilmington One Day Event. We had previously attended a cross country training day, and I decided we would enter the 50cm, as a couple of the 65cm jumps were a bit tricky for a first event for Toastie's level of experience.

I was so pleased with how well behaved Toastie was on Saturday, not requiring any lunging or working down. This was also the first time I have plaited her up! The ground was very wet after all the recent rain so we did have some awkward moments in the test, but she got her correct leads and we hit all the main points, so I was very pleased with her - especially as I had forgotten we would be competing in a 40x20 arena, and all our practice at home had been done in a 60x20!

We then had cross country. Toastie was very on her toes when I warmed up for cross country, however there were a few falls that caused the start to be delayed, and that actually benefited us it gave Toastie time to settle. She left the start great, althoguh we did have a couple of unfortunate stops - just green horse moments, gawking a bit, caught by surprise by a jump, happy to go over it once represented.

Then on Sunday we had the showjumping. Toastie warmed up really well again, however as we entered the arena the loud speaker did make her think she was heading back to the racetrack! The first couple of jumps were a little bit yeehaw, and then we knocked a rail at the third. That made Toastie think twice and by the end of the course she had settled and jumped very nicely!

At the end of the day we walked away with a blue ribbon - but only because we were the only open EA rider in the 50cm. We may not have had an amazing score, but I was so happy with how easy to handle and ridable Toastie was for a green thoroughbred at her first eventing competition.