National Championships... here we come!

Well what a start to the season so far! 
Both the boys have been out and both are #winnerswinnerschickendinners!

Storm kicked off his season after not being from the farm in over 6 months with a win!
It was an unaffiliated combined training comp (dressage & showjumping), he had the winning dressage score and jumped a lovely clear round showjumping. 
This competition was meant as a good warmup for the area 20,  combined training qualifiers held at Llanymynech at the end of March.

So onto the qualifiers we go hoping to repeat our warm up performance and well, Stormie literally Stormed it! 

It was a horrendous day, bucketing it down like I've never seen....and of course typically, when we were trying to do our bits -  But that didn't stop Stormie from getting an amazing Dressage score of 22!!!  
Over 3 points clear of second place!

Then onto showjumping, where he produced a lovely clear, no penalties to add to our dressage score, so first place was ours, and the winning qualifying ticket for the British Riding Clubs National Championships in June!
We were also part of a team, two competing at Stormie's level, and two at a lower level, all the scores are added and the first 2 teams qualify, our team was 2nd, so Storm qualified as both an individual and part of the team.

His next event, if the weather improves, will be his first British Eventing one this year at Sapey next week. 
His last two competitions have been at a smaller level height wise compared to what he competes at BE, but they have been a fab reminder of what we are both meant to be doing.

Onto Alfie, who had his first dressage competiton, they were tests used in BE90 classes and BE100 classes. I was absolutely over the moon because he won the 90, and was 2nd in the 100. 
I thought he'd take ages, as he well can, to tune his young mind into the job required, but he seems to be settling quicker and quicker each time he goes out.

His next competition was last week, again at Llanymynech for arena eventing, and this on a warmup for another BRC qualifier in a couple of weeks, and he was absolutely fantastic!  
He jumped 2 double clears, one in the 90 and 1 in the 100, and he made absolutely nothing of it! However we are still having bitting issues, thankfully he's a clever careful boy, which is a good job, because he's basically doing what he pleases. I've still not really any control...it's a work in progress sort of thing and a case of trial and error re the bit! 
Anyway arena eventing is optimum time... So you've no idea really. We were 5 seconds too fast in the 90 I found out, so because he wasn't really listening to me to steady him up, I made us go all the long ways to try and increase our time, and we ended up 3 seconds too slow in the 100, but 6th place.

So a fantastic start so far, lots of competitions coming up most weekends, and the royal Windsor show is looming ever closer for Alfie!