OASBY HORSE TRIALS 9-11 MAR 07

Oscar’s 1st event of the season and he was raring to go, the Lincs venue was new to the pair, but it had the advantage of being close to home. They duo were entered into Section B (39 entries) of the Pre-Novice category.

The dressage test was, as ever, 1st up and Oscar was very excited, he even tried to buck during the test, however, Richard was wise to this and kept things pretty much under control. Richard wasn't over impressed with his performance and knew that he could do much better, although the judges weren't so harsh and gave the pair a fairly respectable score of 34.6.

The SJ phase got off to a shaky start with fence No1 hitting the dirt in short order. The pair quickly recovered and then put in some good jumping to clear the remaining 11 jumps. The 19 solid fences of the cross country beckoned and the pair were keen to begin their favourite phase of the day. A clear round was dispatched with ease and both returned home with their tales in the air (Richard really should know better :-)

When all the results were in the pair had climbed up the scoreboard to finish in 13th place; a steady start to the season and a good foundation to work from.

Although strictly speaking this site is dedicated to Oscar, he has generously agreed that his stable mate, Cloudy Bay Boy, can join him in the limelight – anything for an extra ration of carrots!

Cloudy was entered into Sundays Intro event, this being his very 1st event, although Cloudy had previously seen action in P2P competitions. Richard had spent most of the winter schooling Cloudy in the strange ways of dressage and show jumping and Richard has been impressed with his willingness (most of the time) to learn. The dressage test passed without any incident, although Cloudy’s concentration did lapse when he noticed one of the organisers dismantling the next-door arena; you will be hard pressed to meet a ‘nosier’ horse. The judges gave them a score of 40.2, putting them in the lower of half of the field, but only just and it was still a very good start to his new career.

The SJ phase was next, Cloudy was very keen to compete and at times Richard had to keep him in check, but he jumped big and was unlucky not to go clear with just 1 fence down. Richard knew that Cloudy had a turn of speed and was pleased that he matched this with a willingness to tackle the solid fences of the cross-country course. The pair had a clear round and if Richard hadn’t have tried to take Cloudy around the previous days Pre-Novice course, they would have easily been under the allowed time. All in all a great start for the pair and it was clear that Cloudy is very pleased with his new ‘job’ – Oscar watch out, Cloudy is coming!