Pippa’s June Blog: Jumping June!

KBIS NSEA Bursary winner Pippa and Tilly Showjumping

Hello Everyone!

With the sun continuously shining, Tilly and I have been able to get out nearly every weekend, and had the chance to win a few rosettes!

At the start of the month, we competed at a One Day Event. After a very rushed dressage (which will hopefully be improved using the Bursary for dressage lessons), Tilly picked up her feet and jumped a superb showjumping round and really picked up the pace cross country, jumping a neat clear round and being the only pair within the time (by a good ten seconds!). This was a real buzz after the dressage meaning when the results first came out I was winning! It wasn’t long though before a few people complained and brought out the pesky rulebook. Apparently, in 80cm classes, time penalties for cross country are not allowed meaning that although I was in the lead, I dropped all the way down to 8th which was disappointing.

Sadly, luck was not a friend of mine this month as I competed representing my school in showjumping which was a qualifier for the NSEA championships. Unusually the 90 class was before the 80 and after soaring over the first two fences in the 90cm, we got our stride all messed up on our third fence and Tilly came down on the fence as I was in my jumping position and I, unfortunately, came tumbling down – but I landed on my feet! In the 80cm we had slightly better luck and did a flying clear round as did the rest of our team meaning we came 3rd qualifying for the Plate Championships.

Fitting in school and ponies can be hard but I like to be out training as often as possible so after school one evening, I took part in some event training with my favourite instructor, Trisha. The reason I like her is that she works me very hard and is always saying that there is no point in jumping big in training if you can’t jump four small jumps perfectly and save the big jumps for competition. Tilly was like ticking time bomb, very energetic and strong and couldn’t contain her excitement of being the smallest pony by far as all others in the group were 14.2hh plus. By the end of the lesson, she calmed down and we popped a beautiful clear round over a course my instructor built. In that lesson, we had been focusing on maintaining a balanced canter in between fences and keeping our rhythm the same throughout the course.

On the 17th of June, we competed at a One Day Event my Pony Club was holding. We participated in our first ever 90cm one-day event and I was really thrilled with how we did. We somehow managed to score a dressage mark of 30.8! This is by far the best test we have ever done and put us in a good position to move forward. I was a bit baffled, though, how we managed to score that as Tilly spooked in the free walk on a long rein and we still scored an 8 in that area! Sadly, in the showjumping, we rolled a pole. Rider error! However, the cross country was a different story! We flew round the course, keeping our stamina the whole way, but got a few time penalties. I was absolutely over the moon with the clear round and couldn’t stop smiling! We ended up coming a tremendous 3rd! We also won a cup as we were the best in our Pony club in that class.

Last weekend, Tilly and I competed at the Area 6 Showjumping. It wasn’t our best day and we have plenty of improvement to take forward from that and have many lessons to spend my KBIS NSEA Training Bursary on! The going was very slippy (especially when you have no back shoes) and in the first round, we, unfortunately, skidded into a fence. In the second round, we didn’t fare any better. The fences were raised massively and as we neared the third fence, she decided it was a bit too high for her little legs or was it that she just didn’t like the luminous orange filler?

As June comes to an end, I have been reflecting on our competitions and what we have achieved. Although it has not been the highlight month, I have had lots of fun and we have plenty to improve on over the next few months. I have decided to pick and choose my 90s as some are very big and as the ground is getting particularly hard due to the unnaturally hot weather in England, it is getting difficult for Tilly who is only 13hh and getting older. We are looking forward to the summer holidays in just 2 days though, when I can ride pretty much every day to keep Tilly fit and ready for competitions! In the summer, Tilly and I are off to Pony Club camp for a week! We also going camping with some friends and at the campsite, there are fields for the ponies so we can take them and ride on the beach during the day! The most important thing for me in the summer is to just have fun with Tilly.

Good luck to anyone with upcoming events!

Until next time,

Pippa x

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