Show Report - Aintree 06/01/2013

We arrived at Aintree just after 12pm and didn't get in the box to leave until 7.30pm! It was a long one considering we only had 3 horses! This show was a qualifier for the unaffiliated championships in February.

Archie - following an unusually lacklustre warm-up, he jumped double clear in the 75cm finishing 9th overall and qualifying for the championship. Very pleased with him, going to start introducing jump-off techniques now that he's a bit more confident.

Tyke - had a bit of a nasty experience in the warm-up arena which knocked his confidence and possibly hurt him a bit. He was really rattled when we went in to the 85cm and ended up getting eliminated in the second phase of the course which is very unlike him. I had him entered in the 95cm to see how he would do at that height. He handled the height quite comfortably so think it's a good class for him future, but he still didn't feel right and had one stop. He jumped the next few fences very nicely though so I decided to retire him and end on a good note rather than have a bad experience later in the course. I'd like him to keep on enjoying his jumping and never take it too seriously. He qualified for the Championship on a wild card regardless so he'll still get a chance to have a go with the others.

Troy did really well. After a very shaky first fence and a few near-misses he jumped his first double clear at this height and finished 4th, also qualifying for the championship and earning me a wild card to use for Tyke in the 85cm.