Eland Lodge Arena Event - 27/10/13

I came home from university for the weekend to take part in an Arena Event at Eland Lodge Equestrian. I love Arena Events at this time of year, because the ground is often unpredictable, but you still get to do a bit of cross country, even if it is confined to an arena.  The course is also often quite long, so it's good for maintaining winter fitness.

I did the open class, which was 1 metre. The format of arena events varies across venues, but for this one, the Show Jumping was not timed, and the Cross Country phase had an optimum time of 51 seconds. The rider with the lowest score over the two phases won. In the event of a tie (more than 1 rider with a double clear), the winner would be the person closest to the optimum time.

Fence 1 of the Show Jump phase

Fence 1 of the Cross Country phase

Half way round!

One before last jump - going so fast I lost my hat silk!

I went round in a time of 48.3 - just under 3 seconds quicker than optimum time - to come 2nd! I was really pleased, especially since the winner was only 1 second closer to the time than I was!

Thank you to my Mother once again for videoing!

Eland Lodge is one of my favourite places to compete, as I feel like I've grown up there. It was our go-to venue when I first started competing, and it's so lovely to see the Coupland family doing so well hosting the events, so a HUGE thank you to them. 

Vicki is competing at the next Arena Event on 10th November, but for now it's back to University! See you soon, 

Pip x