Series Finals in Hawera

Oh Hawera I don't think I have ever had a good show here. I was feeling pretty confident after last weekend at Foxton and maybe that was my downfall. We arrived on Thursday night and settled in and woke in the morning to a grey day that turned into pretty heavy rain by about 9 in the morning. Kate started out in the 1.10m class and had a rail and a stop. The stop was my fault because I underestimated how much she would stall at the gate and so didn't ride up soon enough and didn't make the distance. Then Connie came out in the 1.20m class and was a complete egg. I don't think I rode her that badly and I think for once I'm going to say she didn't do her half of the job. She was good over the first fence, didn't lock onto the second and had a rail. I circled off of the third the first time because there was no spot. The second attempt she jumped in ok from a decent spot but landed and was never going to jump the second part of the double. I don't know if she was finding the going deep (it was starting to cut up) or what her deal was, though in thinking she probably needed a more aggressive ride to force her focus.

Kate was in the same 1.20m class and started pretty well but felt like she was struggling in the ground somewhat. I learnt a lot from this round though. 1. She can clear an oxer from a really deep spot if I stay committed. 2. She is chicken to Wavy planks. 3. I am chicken to plank oxers lol! She actually tried pretty hard but I did a good job of getting in her way. Finally I got a terrible ride into the treble and addedin the one stride distance and circled out for the big E. Guts. It was really nice to see and meet Sally who is a reader, I just wish she could have seen the girls (and me!) on form.

That night the rain came back so heavily the sound of it on the roof of the truck was deafening and we didn't sleep very well. The ground in the oval was getting really deep. A guy who trains racehorses said that ring 2 was grade 8 heavy which is really really heavy. Still Connie had been changed to the 1.05m class. When I tried to saddle her up she went ballistic and after 15mins hanging onto one front foot trying to put her studs in (She had keepers- it was only a matter of screwing the keepers out and the studs in). I wasn't going to let that foot go though. Still after that much hassle I gave up on her and didn't do her other feet. I certainly wasn't getting under her to do tha back ones. The joys of working with a fair weather horse eh. Anyway by the time I got her to the ring I was really wild with her, but she actually jumped really well. (More aggressive ride though) she was even committed as through the combinations and we did an awesome jump-off with super tight turns and a full on gallop to the last to jump it on an angle to win the class. For that I pocketed a cool $90, which is crazy prizemoney for a open 1.05m class. Connie. When she is good she is very very good but when she is bad she is horrid. The ground out in ring 3 was actually really good and Connie didn't slip despite having no studs in three feet.

Kate then had the amateur class in ring 2. Had a stop at the first (Why why why am I scared of triple bars, they are so easy to jump) because of a bunny ride but then she jumped quite well. She never felt happy or confident though and I was having to ride her really hard to the base and still wasn't sure she was going to leave the ground. In the first combination it felt like she really sunk into the ground and she took a stride and hurled herself at the next fence. I retired after that, because to me it just felt like she was finding the going too hard. No point killing her before HoY and it's not like I wasn't miles down in the series. Something seems to happen when I know the fences are 1.20m and I make silly mistakes. It's just like a mental block and I need to just get over it. So Hawera was really not my show. We didn't start on Saturday because it was raining again and actually hideously cold. With a 4 hour trip home it was actually nice to be on the road fairly early and get home before dark.