Sunday 17th May Royal Windsor

Well Windsor was rather a mixed day.  The weather could scarcely have been more horrible.  I'm not sure I remember ever being so wet, even hunting cos at least you then have a decent coat on!). On the other hand Xaile behaved beautifully (most of the time).  

I set the alarm for 4 and managed to drag myself out of bed at about 10 past.  I had packed the car on Saturday night so all I had to do was dress and put my camera in the car and go.  Xaile eats incredibly slowly so eventually we gave up on waiting for him to eat it and took his breakfast with him to the wash box and started beautifying him.  Ali did her beautiful plaits again and I polished till he shone. He loaded fantastically and we were off, only half an hour late.  It was beautifully Sunny. As we got near to Windsor the wind got up and it started lashing down with rain.  At one point it was so noisy we could hear each other speak.  

When we got there I was really pleased to find we were parked very near our friends which is always a comfort.  We went to get our access wrist bands, and doing so we passed the most incredible boxes with names like Ben Maher etc on the side, which nearly gave me a nervous breakdown- what was a I doing at a real show with a baby horse that can't even do a prelim dressage test.  I got told not to be so silly lol.  

Ali got Xaile out and lunged him while I changed.  He was very good and quite and working really nicely.  But the rain got a lot worse so we put him back in the box and decided to wait till the last minute to tack up and make a dash for it. The hack from the box to the rings was decidedly hair raising.  The ground was terribly muddy and slippery and I don't think poor Xaile has ever seen a carriage before and found them terrifying.  Unfortunately there were rather a lot of them and every time I got him calm from passing one an other one would appear and off we'd go flying round backward in circles.  

When we eventually got to the warm up he went absolutely beautifully, as well as he ever has.  I really couldn't have been more pleased.  The only problem was that it was pouring with rain and the ring was really muddy and there were alot of people in it so by the time for our class came we were both plastered in mud (we really might as well have been hunting!!).  So off we went to the collecting ring to be told that the class was running half and hour late.   

We went off and walked round and round and round the stabling area and he got quite unsettled. 

When we eventually got into the ring about an hour late Xaile was much tenser and not going beautifully like in the warm up.  However he behaved beautifully and stood like a rock in the line up.  The one advantage of the wait was that the sun had temporarily come out!  The individual show was ok, but he struck off on the wrong leg and buck when I asked him to change and the judge stopped looking at us.  On that subject the steward had come round when we were in the line up and told us to be as quick as possible and actually had 2 going at a time.  Obviously we didn't get placed but I was very happy with his behaviour.  

Here's a video of the group bit:  

and the individual:  

and a pro photo that my parents had very kindly bought as a surprise for me (it was so sweet of them to come, they don't like horses very much, but they do seem to like Xaile):  

Then it was back to the box to change for the parade class which was running an hour and 40mins late!!!!!!!! (a relief I suppose as it gave us time to get ready). Firstly there was an awful lot of brushing to do to try to get some of the mud off. No chance of getting it all off but he looked a bit cleaner by the time we were done.  Then I put ribbons in his mane.  I thought it looked fantastic when I'd seen it at the Luso show last year, but when we got the the warm up I was told by someone it wasn't correct, never mind- it looked really brilliant!! I was very glad I'd taken my lovely riding coat I'd bought last year at Golgega as it was by then tipping down again, I think Edward took some pics of me on Xaile in it- I'll have to get him to send them to me.  

I didn't bother with very much warming up this time as the ring was terribly slippery and my hand was beginning to give up. In the ring we started off walking with a couple of friends which was great to settle the horses.  This time in the line up I didn't have a chance of getting Xaile to stand.  It was raining hard and very windy so we went in backwards circles again!!  My hand was getting sorer and sorer.  By the time it got to my individual show Xaile was very worked up and my left hand wasn't really working so I just managed to canter round a few times, I had had good things planned but it wasn't possible.  Oh and my hat blew off.  Again obviously no chance of a placing again, but given the circumstances he had behaved not too badly and I don't think I made a total fool of myself.  

Here's the general video:  

The individual:  

And another photo from my lovely parents, please do excuse the expression on my face - it's a grimace partly due to nerves and partly pain. 

Unfortunately leaving the ring I realised how badly my hand was hurting I couldn't really control him so was very glad to be able to walk back to the boxes with a good friend who's horse he adores (the grey with the woman in green in the video). Suddenly everything went all grey and fuzzy and I think I nearly fainted- luckily my friend's groom was walking with us and grabbed Xaile before anything happened and lead me back to my box.  The relief of not having to hold that rein any more was fantastic. We took a few photos of the ribbons before removing them - he did look so lovely.  

So on the whole I was really pleased with my lovely little horse but thought that the show was really poorly run- £40 a class and almost no time for an individual show.