DAY 1 :

today i went to the caste hill agricultural show..

i competed in the showjumping today and will be going back tomorrow.

today was the pony club jumping and the open jumping afterwards.
In the pony club jumping they only had A grade.

A grade is the highest grade in pony club it stands at 1m -1.05 (3'2" - 3'3")
me and my friend competed against other clubs

It was a fun day, I took my A grader Rion and we had our best shot..
In the first round everyone knock one or more rails down..

the judges went back to the time and there was 4 riders included into the jump off me and three other girls.

The first rider jumped the wrong jumps and was eliminated. I was second, I went quite tight and fast. i was all clear until the last 2 which were a stile oxer (thin,not very long poles) and a vertical 6 strides after. giving me 8 penalties

I came through those last two jumps too fast and Rion didnt have time to pick his feet up.

the third rider had 21 time penalties (alot!) because her horse tried to throw her off... her stirrup came off her saddle in the process. and she still went through the rest of the course.

then my friend from a different club went in for her jump off, she got a rail down on the stile oxer like me giving her only 4 penalties, she was however a little slower than me.

the placings were read out, my friend from the other club came first i came second and my friend from my club came 6th..

i was really happy with that result.. it was rions first showjumping ribbon.


DAY 2 :

so today was my second day at castle hill show.. I rode Rion in all classes

First up was the junior equitation which was also a qualifier for sydney royal easter show. height was 1m-1.10m (3'2 -3'4)

unfortunately i didn't make it. and got 7th place.

The tasks were set out nicely and weren' to hard, coming into jump 4-5 (line) we had to put in 6 strides we managed but only because i made him chuck in a little chip and luckily we cleared it!

coming off jump 6 which was a double, into jump seven which was a stile (thin) Rion got his tongue over the bit and chucked his head in the air and spun around, we managed to get it under control after he put his tongue back somehow.

We ended the course with one rail.

In the 1m class we rode excellent,I was so pleased!!

My coach was impressed at how much my riding has improved over the last 2 days competing.

In the metre I had one rail that was Rions fault. It was an A2 class (fastest round with least amount of penalties wins) And was coming 2nd until others got a clear round and pushed me down for a final position of 5th! which im not upset about at all.

Mum thought i rode that class really well and offered me a late entry in to the junior 1.05m, I said yes and we just loosened him up over a couple of jumps then i went into the ring first.

I rode the best round ever on Rion and went clear in the first round Qualifying for the jump off , this classs was an AM5 ( everyone rides then the people who got clear in the first round do the jump off)..

I was really happy that i went clear over these fences because its one thing to clear 80 cm and then to clear 1.05m together was great. i felt great when i was out there and we had good contact..

It came down to the jump off and there were only 4 riders in there, one girl was riding 2 horses though, she did 2 clear jump offs and took out 1st and 2nd place, 2 others placed in front of me with one rail down and i placed 5th with 2 rails down!! i didn't have enough 'ooomph' to get around and i wasn't riding it fast..

Since getting rion i haven't been into the jump off very much so now i am getting clear i need to get back into riding the jump off..

I am very pleased with myself and Rion's efforts today.

the next competition i have i am jumping 90cm and a metre, and im sure i will kick their buts!! haha lol not literally!

sorry everyone i didnt manage to get pics or videos!!
thanks for reading jess
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