Today's competition was the pairs 2nd Pre-Novice event and Richard was determined to improve on his past dressage test scores. Ideally, he would have liked to have tackled a slightly less challenging course, but with the event season winding down the choice of venues was limited.

First up, dressage, Oscar was very keen to get started and he was a little bit naughty entering the ring; he broke into canter when he should have been trotting. Richard kept his cool and soon got Oscar back under control. As the test progressed Oscar pulled out all the stops and turned the shaky start around. Richard was certain that the they had not done enough and was expecting a poor score. The judge, however, had different ideas and she commented that Oscar was 'a very promising horse with nice rhythm' and gave the pair their best test result to date (33). This put them right in the frame and with only 6 riders left to complete, in 3rd place... could today be the day?

Oscar and Richard are in the habit of jumping a clear round SJ and it looked like this trend was set to continue, right until the final fence... Oscar must have spotted the finish line in mid-air and decided to put his undercarriage down a little early, catching the pole with his trailing foot. Would the pole cups save the day? Unfortunately not, as the pole leaped out of the cups and crashed to the floor. 4 penalty points and podium hopes dashed, but the pair still had something to prove and both were keen to tackle the XC course to make some amends.

The XC course was the biggest that the pair had ever attempted, with 17 fences spread out over 2670m. The time to complete was set at 5min 56sec. Not a great start with Oscar running into trouble at the 4th, getting in too close and then catching his leg on this log topped, dry stone wall. Fortunately a small cut was the only damage and the pair pressed on without hesitation. Oscar relished all the new challenges that the course offered and looked like and old pro. The water complex at 12, which had been causing other riders many problems, was tackled with ease; Oscar leaped into the unknown without fear, or pause for thought. It's obvious that he really enjoys this exciting phase of the competition.

Results are yet to be published, but the pair won't have been too far away from the top 10 and save for the last SJ fence things could have been very different. The pairs day will come and who knows it could be at Burnham Market this weekend...