Liz Halliday completed a packed schedule of Eventing last weekend which included a mammoth round trip of 570 miles!
The Friday saw the dual sportswoman travel to Hatherleigh in Devon to compete two of her horses, Fox (Red Letter Day II) and Ollie (Volien). Despite most of the country enjoying bright sunshine and warm weather, the South had endured torrential rain, leaving the ground resembling more of a quagmire than Eventing course.
Undeterred, Ollie led the Pre Novice class after an excellent morning’s Dressage, before dislodging just two rails in his Show Jumping round. Inexperience would come to bear in the Cross Country, however, after a hold on course left the pair stationary for some time between fences 10 and 11. The delay was enough for Ollie to lose her concentration and she eventually had an unfortunate run out at a narrow fence after tripping on landing off a drop.
Fox’s first competition of the season meanwhile proved equally as testing. Entered in Open Intermediate, the duo completed a solid Dressage before preparing to Show Jump. The warm-up went well with the horse performing excellently. Halliday had high hopes.
“He’d been jumping really well both in training and then on the day,” said Liz. “We then got to the arena only to stand around and wait for 45 minutes because the competition was running behind schedule. This was enough to really upset Fox who completely lost his focus.”
Despite the ground being wet, Liz still completed the Cross Country, albeit at a significantly reduced pace.
An early start on Sunday saw Halliday travel north to Burnham Beeches in Berkshire with horses Vimto (Redos) and Newbie (All Inclusive) where both would perform well.
All three phases of the Pre Novice class went well, with clear rounds in both the Cross Country and Show Jumping following excellent Dressages to leave Vimto third and Newbie sixth overall.
“The conditions were completely different over the two days,” said Halliday. “Whereas the event on Saturday was like a bog, Burham Beeches was quite hard going. The course was good enough though, and both horses went well. I was really pleased with the results, especially as I’ve only had Newbie for a month. To have a nice double clear was particularly pleasing.”
The weekend before (September 15/16) had also been a busy one after travelling to Hartpury for a 3-Day Event where Billy (Baladaghe) was making his International CCI* debut.
Despite comparative inexperience thanks to only starting his eventing career this season, Billy held his own in the Dressage, finishing a solid 30th out of the 104 starters after an encouraging performance in the ring. He followed that up with an equally determined Cross Country run, producing a clear round with just the three time faults. On the final day however Billy's performance in the large International Show Jumping arena demonstrated his inexperience where four rails down left the pair in a still highly respectable top half of the field.
“I thought that was a great effort considering it was his first competition at International level,” said Liz. “I think he got a little spooked in the Show Jumping arena which is understandable considering it’s all new to him and it was a big course. We will continue to work on that in the future and hopefully I will enter him for an Intermediate at the end of the year.”
Her packed schedule saw Liz move on to Firle last weekend where Ollie and Newbie stepped-up to Novice, and her young horse, Balloo (Darola Diamond), contested the 4 year old class. Fox was also back in action on Monday at Highclere where he competed in the Advanced section.