Aston le Walls was my first disappointing event for a while. I had Bee Animas, General Opposition and High Havoc all competing in the Advanced. Bee Animas was a little bit hot and tense in his dressage and scored 37. He then jumped a lovely clear in the show jumping which caused its fair share of trouble. He then was giving me a great ride cross country and was a good three quarters of the way round the course when we turned for home. At this point he really took hold for some reason and didn’t want to listen at all. For this reason I made the decision to pull him up. We will have a little rethink on bitting and management before he goes out again. I think he is a little too fit and feeling rather well after his wind operation at the end of last year.
General Opposition did a lovely test, but lost a few marks for shaking his head quite violently when he got a bug or fly down his ear so scored 35. He then jumped really well and was unlucky to have the middle part of the treble down. He then jumped very well over the first eight cross country fences, but pulled a shoe off and then was very reluctant to jump down the drops, which is unlike him so again I decided to call it a day, which was very frustrating, but I would rather have a sound happy horse ready to run confidently next time out.
High Havoc did a brilliant test and was very good in his changes which have let him down in the past, which was really pleasing. He scored a 30 which left him in third place. He then jumped a really good clear in the show jumping. I then decided to not run him cross country as the ground was a little tacky and he had only done Barbury two weeks previously, where he had been amazing. He next stop is now Gatcombe.
