Holly Wray’s European Pony Blog – The Final Phase
The final day started off at 8am with the final trot up of the competition. All the team Ireland ponies passed first time and were set to complete the rest of the competition. As a team we walked our showjumping course with team trainer Tom Slattery. The course had a few awkward lines but we had prepared for them through the training we did prior to our trip.
The showjumping walked well with a few combinations that we expected might cause some problems if they weren’t ridden with determination. The showjumping started off with a Swiss rider who was eliminated which was quite concerning as we couldn’t see how the course was riding before the first of the Irish would compete.
Before warming up Baxter I was able to watch a couple of riders from other nations and had the privilege of knowing how tight the time might be. Warming up was quite difficult in 40 degree heat as we didn’t want to tire the ponies before competing.
Baxter warmed up well with the thanks to Tom Slattery who helped us ‘get our eye in’ to ensure we were going to be precise when it came to the combinations in the arena. Baxter jumped fantastic and got a clear round inside the time. Many of the individuals from other nations I was competing against didn’t jump clear so it slowly moved me up the placings.
After showjumping I moved from 23rd place to 17th and finished on a score of 54. Baxter seemed particularly pleased with himself for jumping clear as it is his strongest phase of 3 day eventing. I was really happy with how he preformed as he was hoof perfect the whole way home and we finished the competition on our dressage score minus 3.20 time penalties.
Category: Eventing, International, News
