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► 1st Team @ Cardiff (16/11/2011)

1st Team Match Report – Cardiff 16/11/2011

A 7:55am departure time was promptly achieved as Charlotte (the designated driver of the day) piled three of us (Emma and Hobo and myself…Gedge) into her newly acquired VW polo. Once Hobo overcame the minor panic of almost forgetting her show jacket and running from fch back to her house to retrieve it, we were all on our way; Cardiff bound!

Weather seemed good (obviously incredibly important in the sporting world of equestrianism...), everyone was here, we were on time and the traffic appeared to be on our side. As long as Charlotte didn’t continue to stall every 10 minutes (new car syndrome) we’d be in Cardiff by at least 9:30am, plenty of time to start at 10:30am. However, unsurprisingly the traffic wasn’t on our side and a stroppy sat nav didn’t help the situation. So after stopping to ask a random Welsh painter and decorator where we were supposed to be going (we were convinced the yard couldn’t be in the middle of an industrial estate), and battling through the rain and fog that seemed to descend upon us as soon as we got into Wales, we eventually arrived safe and sound, mainly thanks to Hobo’s ‘homing pigeon instincts’.

After meeting up with Julia who’d already had the delight of staying overnight in Cardiff with a friend, the team were soon wriggling on boots, attempting to tie stocks and in Adders’ case learning the dressage test – no time like the present and all that jazz!

Time for the four dressage horses to be shown, the girls had already picked their horse’s letter from a hat so now was the time to see which steed match their letter. Adders was paired with a suitably pretty liver chestnut, who despite the test rider being unable to ride one side of it still looked rather promising (interesting tactics already Cardiff…), Hobo and Emma both lucked out with two nice grey horses (one of which had seriously squiffy plaits but we’ll let that one slide) and Julia well, Julia had to take one for the team and attempt to tame the not-so-wild–more-like-a-leg-in-each–corner-beast that was Tom.

Julia was first to represent UoG, having warmed up extensively she managed to get Tom looking rather smart and as a result produced an equally as smart test. Despite sounding like a WW2 tank going around the indoor arena. Unfortunately, having Tom first meant it was likely she’d made life a little more easier for his next three riders.
Next up was Adders, having already seen someone ride the test on her horse it was rather apparent what she needed to do when she was on board. In her own words she just wanted to ‘make it happy’. In all fairness Adder’s approach wasn’t futile and having spent the majority of the warm-up time getting the mare to relax, when it came to the test she didn’t disappoint and produced a corker, nice one Adders!
Third to go was Emma, having seen the rider before her proceed to go around half of the test bucking it would be fair to say she had her concerns. But, never the less Miss Walter’s hopped aboard and worked her magic to produce a super test.
Last up was Hobo, who landed the large grey gelding. After initially looking slightly like a pea on a drum, she worked super hard in the warm-up and ended up doing another smart test. Nice work kiddo.

Following a spot of munch (hello first mince pies of the year!) the results after the dressage were announced. UoG hadn’t disappointed as found ourselves sitting fairly comfortably in 2nd place with two of our riders (Emma and Charlotte) achieving the top score on their horses. On with the jumping!

After a rather amusing session building the course which involved Julia being preyed on by a playful Alsatian (cue hilarious photos) and Hobo eventually taming said dog, the riders drew letters again for their jumping horses. Emma was on board a very cute grey jumping pony who seemed relatively straight forward, Adder’s had a big chestnut with casual yellow hind legs who also seemed quite sweet and Hobo was paired with a slightly stroppy bay mare who’d quite happily buck every few strides, however Hobo had ridden it in the 2nd competition last year so wasn’t overly worried. Our CC Julia was not-so-proudly waving the banner for ‘cobs R us’ and managed to land the second leg-in-each-corner beast of the day, although this time he looked even more gypsy-like being piebald. Just take one for the team Joules…

The course was relatively complex with two combinations and a skinny fence that had to be jumped twice in both directions, as did a few other fences. Hobo jumped a stylish clear-round as did Adders and Emma. Joules was at a slight disadvantage having Mr cob last, however having whizzed him up as much as possible in the warm up she jumped a great round with just one fence down – much better than some of the riders before her!

So after an eventful (and be it rather cold!) day, UoG Equestrian finished in 2nd place, with Hannah Brook-Lawson gaining an individual 6th place and Emma Walters individual 2nd. Good effort guys!