Showjumping League 1st leg Victory

Today was the first leg of the showjumping League in my riding club. I was assigned Teachai again and was 2nd last to go in Intermediate Showjumping.

we have two jump two rounds and if you go clear in the first round, you jump against the clock in the 2nd round. I did my usual warm up, butnoticed teachai was drifting to the left on one of the warm up fences, although we did clear it every time. I then jumped two fences in a row , and was happy with the jumping, so decided to leave it at that. Jumping the warm up fences is partly about warming the horse up, but its also about giving the rider confidence. You must remember that it is a partnership, and you have to have confidence in each other. Well, I had to wait an age to jump, partly because the 1st round course was very long; over 400metres.

In todays competition, in the first round, we jumped fences 1 to 9, and in the 2nd round we jumped 1 to 6. Its also american format, which means we jump the 2nd round straight after jumping the first round.

Teachai wanted to go and jump, and I was happy with that, so I said I was ready for the Bell. We nearly had a hickup in the first round, when I wanted to go right after the 3rd fence but Teachai insisted on going left. This is also the type of situation, which can result in a fall if you do not have sufficient balance and strong enough lower legs.
He had jumped the course before, with a primary rider, and I fortunately decided to listen to him, shouting out that he knew the course better than I did, which brought a laugh from the gallery. Anyway , we finished the course clear without further incident, and we were pretty much ready for the second round. The fitness work I did during the 2nd half of last year has really paid off. I wasn't even out of breath. So on to the 2nd round, and I wanted to know the fastest clear round time which was 41 seconds. I'm just a little bit competive, so I obviously want to go for the win. It was a case of upping the rate and keeping it consistent as there weren't any opportunities in the course for alternative lines to be taken. I even lost my right stirrup during the round, but in this case its just a case of keeping your leg on and jumping the fences. There isn't time to fiddle around looking for your stirrup iron. I got it back just after the 2nd last fence , and was really pushing on. Its a case of keeping the horse moving forward at a good rate without disturbing the rhythm. The approach to the last fence in the second round meant you had to make a close to 180 degree turn, so I decided I had to make the approach on an arc if I wanted to save time. Everything worked out perfectly, and I was inside the time by a good 2 seconds. There was only one rider after me, who had a run out during their second round at the 3rd fence, which meant that I had won. So its a pretty good start vto the defence of my showjumping league title.