Charlie Pickman

Viking lives up to expectations at The festival of Eventing

After all the rain and wet weather we’ve had over the last few weeks the sun decided to shine on us at The Festival of Eventing at Gatcombe this weekend. Viking lived up to all expectations and more than proved his quality finishing 8th in the Novice Championships. It was a very competitive section with the top 30 being within 9 marks after the dressage, and many top International riders were taking part. Viking did a pleasing test to get 32.4, and although I would have liked to score in the 20’s it certainly left me in a competitive position. Both the show jumping and cross country were testing substantial Intermediate tracks, as would be expected for the National Finals. This worked to my advantage as Viking jumped a lovely double clear. To be placed I had to get close to the optimum time on the cross country, and we finished inside the time with a few seconds to spare. This is the first time I’ve ridden for the time on an Intermediate course with Viking, and I was really pleased how he responded. He has got loads of ability and also a great attitude, and always wants to do his best. We were 1 of only 4 combinations out of 103 starters to finish on their dressage score, which was great!

Previous to Gatcombe Viking went to Barbary for the CIC**, where again he went well. His dressage wasn’t his best, but still got 52 which left him about 30th, but unfortunately he had a pole down show jumping, which is unlike him. I then decided to jump a steady cross country round as the main aim was to qualify for a 3 day, for which he needed to jump clear. He achieved this comfortably and we had a great cross country round, which set us up nicely for Gatcombe.

Billy has now started his Eventing career, with much success. He has been to Shipton Moyne, Stockland Lovell and West Buckland doing Pre-Novice classes, where, bar a couple of time penalties at Shipton Moyne, he has jumped double clears, finishing 7th, 4th and 4th. Unfortunately at West Buckland he pulled a shoe 4 fences from home, which, meant I went quite steadily over the last few fences. I then discovered if we’d gone 2 seconds faster he would have been 2nd! However he has been really bold and makes everything feel easy, and I wouldn’t want to knock his confidence for the sake of 2 places. The plan now is to do a couple more Pre-Novices in September and then a couple of Novices to end the season. I’m not in any rush with him as he is still quite green, and then hopefully next year he can crack on with some more Novices.

Josh went to Wilton in the Intermediate class, where he went well, but unfortunately finished just out of the placings. He had a show jump down which was expensive, but otherwise went well in a competitive section.

We now have a break from Eventing in August, although we will try and go Show Jumping towards the end of the month, and then do some more Eventing in September. The main aim will be to finish 1st or 2nd in an Intermediate class with Viking to qualify him for the Intermediate Championships at Gatcombe next year, and then to do a CCI** probably at Weston Park to finish off his season.

Charlie

17th August 2009