Charlie Pickman

Off to a Brilliant Start

I have now returned from my holiday to Las Vegas, in one piece, although it did take a few days to completely recover. (This wasn’t helped by a trip to the pub in Ditcheat the day after I got back to celebrate the success of the local racing stables (Paul Nicholls) at Cheltenham.) We had a fantastic time away and Vegas lived up to all expectations. I also came back relaxed and inspired for the start of the eventing season which has showed in the results of the first couple of events. Bar one small blip it seems, so far, all the hard work through the winter is paying off.

Aldon was the first event where both Viking and Josh went brilliantly. Viking won with a 30 dressage and a double clear, and Josh came 10th with a 32 dressage and a double clear. Josh did pick up 8 time penalties on the cross country, which was mostly because I started quite steadily as it was my first round since October and the ground was quite firm. However I made up for it with Viking who finished with 1.6 time penalties, meaning he won by a mere 0.2 penalties. As I now live less than 15 miles from Aldon I also won a trophy for the highest placed local rider and a slap up meal for 2 which topped off a super day.
After Aldon I went to Gatcombe with high expectations which unfortunately were not completely filled. Viking’s dressage must have impressed the judges as he led with a score of 28.5 and then followed it up with a clear show jumping round. However, overall success wasn’t to be as he had an uncharacteristic stop cross country. We had to jump a double into woods, which had a long stride between the elements. I sat too quietly for the first part and didn’t quite make the distance to the second. He tried to put in an extra stride but didn’t really have space and so ran out through his shoulder. This was very frustrating as he would have won comfortably, as he only had 7 time penalties with the stop, and may even have been too fast. Never mind, I will learn from this.

The advantage was that I was determined to make up for it with Josh and he didn’t disappoint us. He did a 32 dressage, a super clear show jumping round, and flew around the cross country. He finished 4th which was really pleasing. He still got 2.8 time penalties which did make the difference between 2nd and 4th but I’d prefer to jump clear with a few time penalties than to have a mistake cross country from going too fast.

We now look forward to Powderham Castle for the Intermediate class with Josh and Viking. Billy has been working well and has his first unaffiliated event this weekend at Aldon. If all continues to go as well for the rest of the season then we have exciting times ahead!

Charlie

April 2009