Carly Millbank

Carly has success at SCOPE after rocky start!

A successful day was had at the pre Scope warm up show at Unex Towerlands with Whinny jumping double clear and Luca coming 2nd in Foxhunter with a fast double clear.  Wanted (a new horse) was also attending  - jumping his first BSJA class and having just one down coming out of a double.  We were all very pleased with their performances.

A few days later and the lorry was packed to its brim with feed, bedding, tack and clothing for the horses and us ready for our departure to Staffordshire for the BSJA Scope festival.

The night prior to departure was a late one as my partner, Neal was best man at his best friends wedding - so after just 4 hours sleep we were all set for the long journey up the M6.

Luca was first to jump when we arrived so the lorry was unpacked and the horses put into their temporary stables.  This in itself was a nightmare as it turned out no stabling was allocated and the organisers did not seem to have a clue what was going on.  4 hours later after several disputes with the stable manager the horses were settled in.  Luca was prepared for his class which was not until the evening in the main championship arena.  He looked stunning for the evening performance with every inch of him polished to perfection by our travelling groom, Bethan.

Luca jumped a fantastic round and did not spook at the water fountain and the mass of people crowded around the arena, although one fence down at the end of the course put paid to our chances of winning.

The next day it was Whinny's turn.  Or at least it should have been.  None of us know that as well as entering and having to pay a small fortune to compete you also had to declare at 9 o'clock the night before of your intention to compete!  At 9.30pm I was made aware of this so I tried my hardest to get in but the organisers were completely rigid in their decision and 50 horses were not allowed to compete in the 5 year old class due to no declarations.  People assumed that entering the class was informing the organisers of their intention to compete and by paying the entry fee!  The night worsened on returning to the stable yard.  We were informed that now our horses had to be moved as they wanted to keep our line of stables for spares.....!  We could not believe what was going on and we all felt so demoralised about the show we almost packed up to go home.  It was only the fact that hundreds of other people were also facing the same problems that we all stuck together and got on with things!

The next day, Wanted jumped in the 4 year old style class and he jumped a super clear round and had the 9th highest score, to qualify you had to be in the top 8!!!  Just my luck!  Luca also jumped; he went super and jumped a very fast double clear to qualify to jump in the championship arena again.  So a good finish to the day!

The following day dawned and Wanted was entered into the style and performance class.  His owner Janine Worthy Lloyd was there to watch.  We knew we had to pull out all the stops in order to improve on the previous days score.  Wanted jumped superbly in a beautiful rhythm and left all the fences standing.  We were all delighted with him.  This was the day our luck was about to turn.  Wanted and I won the style and performance class out of over 100 entries and at last we all felt that our hard work was starting to pay off.

Whinny also jumped that day - doing a fabulous double clear in the 5 year old class and came 8th.

Luca had one more class to contest in, this was the final of the Sports Horse Classic which was in the evening in the main championship arena.  The course had some tricky distances that really didn't suit him .  We tried our hardest but unfortunately had both parts of a combination down.  I was disappointed that we didn't get a place but he finished the rest of the course foot perfect and there will always be another day for him.

All in all, despite a rocky start to the show all the horses went superbly.  Wanted was the star and I feel proud that at last we have had a substantial win and in one of the most hotly contested classes of the year.  Wanted will now have a break in the field to recover from his first stay away show.  Luca and Whinny will now go to the Arena UK festival and then have a break before the Unex Masters International show.

Carly