Well on the whole a very successful day, however I am still very cross at myself but I will learn! I allowed myself just over an hour to get on and warm up ready for my test, so worked him in walk for a long time, and he was going really well so I was really hopeful. The other paces were just as good and he wasn't at all tense. I then found out I had 4 in front of me, so decided to give him a break. The steward then came up and said I could go in if I liked, so I went to warm him up again and he never quite settled - it wasn't really tense, just not as relaxed as it had been. I was happy enough with the way he was going, so I went in. His first 3 movements were all 7s! It then went downhill, he struck off on the wrong lead, changed in one of his counter canters, pretended he didnt know what rein back was.. or walk for that matter, and to finish it off did walk to canter in his walk trot transition! Although this seems like a lot of errors, the bits inbetween were really quite good (I think I am getting there!) I then went to meet Mark Corbett (the South East U18 coach) to go on a coursewalk. It was nice meeting other juniors, they were really nice! The course was straight forward enough, and very similar to last year, so I was feeling quite confident. However they took out the water jump as it was causing problems, which was a shame - as Ozzie loves water! Onto the show jumping, and I knew the pressure was on, as although I didnt know my dressage score, I knew if I could jump double clear we would be in with a chance. I jumped the grand total of 6 warm up fences, as the ground in the showjumping warm up wasnt great, and went in. I was slightly worried when Ozzie decided left lead canter was impossible! He quickly decided it wasn't and off he went. Well he was a star, made all the distances and didnt touch a thing to finish with a clear round! Onto the cross country and Ozzie walked down relatively calmly (obviously the influence of Lucyanna Westaways Tiggr!) We jumped 3 warm up fences and were off. He was just lovely, he never pulled and stayed in a lovely if fast rhythm. As I didn't have to fight him, he made up so much time. There was a combination at 15 and 16, which was a big brush and then a curving line to a corner, it was either a long 4 strides or a steady 5, well Ozzie did neither .. and flew through on an easy 4 - what a star. Unfortunately, due to timings from the water being taken out, we ended up with 8.4 too fast time faults ! The thing was he was just in such a lovely rhythm, so to say I am gutted is an understatement, I couldn't believe I had ruined Ozzies chance of doing well. It dropped him from 5th to 12th, however lesson learned, and I think a stopwatch is going to be used from now on! Ozzie will have a couple of days off before heading to some more dressage at Windsor on Sunday!
Will update you all after that
Georgie and Ozzie x

Here is the video;
http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=2112103167356

Well, this weekend was very successful! I thought instead of writing essays of results in the 'results' section, I would start a blog and add a few more details!
So yesterday, after Punch's successful BS outing last weekend, we thought we would take him to jump round a couple of BS classes at Felbridge. To say he was awesome is an understatement. He jumped absolutely fantastically, and flew round the Discovery, making all the distances! It was a 2 phase, and he felt fantastic, so I thought I would go for it, I just trusted him to run and jump and he loved it. It was such a confidence giving round and the added bonus was that he won! Considering he was too scared to jump a 2'3 filler when I first rode him, this was a big acheivement! We then did the 1.05 Open. This weekend I was not going to have the first fence down, so I kept him listening outside, and didn't go into the ring until the last minute. Well, he didn't get anywhere near the first fence so I needn't have worried! He jumped a super clear, and again it was 2 phase. He did a couple of fantastic turns, and took a stride out (to my shock) on a dog leg distance! However I had got a bit excited having already won once, and didn't give him enough time into the double, which he was very unlucky to just roll behind. So he finished on 4 faults, but another successful outing none the less.
Today, I had the joy of taking Ozzie to dressage on grass at Windsor Park Equestrian Club. Knowing how much Ozzie loves dressage (not very much) and how much he loves going fast with his head in the air (a lot) I was slightly apprehensive! However, we have got some calming drops from Forest Pharmacy which seemed to work fantastically. He warmed up beautifully, he was a little stiff on my right rein but i just tried to ignore it as that is what he tends to do when he gets at all tense. We went in, and despite a 'trainer' in the next door arena doing her best to speak as loudly as possible, Ozzie did an even calm test, he even got two 8s.. Finally we are making a breakthrough! He got 63.45% and came 4th which I was really pleased with. The second test he was slightly more tense as the same 'trainer' despite being 2 arenas away, was screaming 'FORWARD' as loudly as possible and as many times as possible during my test .. Ozzie, funnily enough, didn't appreciate it! However it wasn't too bad, and he came out with 58% which may have been on the harsh side, but he does enjoy losing as many marks as he can!

Well that's it for this weekend, I have got a flatwork lesson on Tuesday, am taking Ozzie to the gallops on Wednesday all in preparation for Borde Hill on bank holiday Monday. Ozzie is doing the Junior U18 qualifier, and Punch is entered in the BE100, (he may be entered, but unless it rains he is not setting foot on grass for the rest of the summer!) So lets keep praying for rain, it is needed for the ground to soften up, but more importantly actually, so the grass grows and we can actually get some hay for next winter !
I will do my next r