Bertie takes George for his first cross country.

3 September 2000
Well, as with all things, why not make them complicated. Bertie is a perfectly good jumping horse so of course I have to try and make him play polo. George on the other hand is a perfectly good polo pony (almost) so why not make him a jumping horse.

George has now had 8 jumping lessons. He is very rewarding ride. He certainly had no idea about what he was supposed to be doing about jumping. Mind you his leapy approach to polo couldn't have done any harm. On Friday (1 September 2000) George had his eighth lesson and also took part in a small 2' show jumping competition where he got four faults. With this in mind, Bert thought it was time to show George cross country.

We went on the Downland Ride near Barbary Castle in Marlborough. It was a fun ride with 30 cross country jumps over 12 miles.

I am still waiting for the course photographers to send through the proofs of the jumping ... I didn't take a camera with me on the ride ... and why do they insist on taking pictures next to the most pathetic jumps on the course ... George nearly tripped over them they were so small.

Yeh, yeh ... I know ... I look awful over the fences ... Berts ride looks much better.

As far as the experience goes, George is an enormously generous horse ... a real trier. Its clear he hasn't hurt himself jumping yet ... he is not aware of the risks he exposes us to with his I want to be first tantrums.

We arrived at the first run of about five jumps in a row in forest cover. It was anyone's guess what he was going to do ... well he jumped them in a lovely show jumping style always landing heavily on the forehand with a thud ... but nevertheless I was so proud of him.

Next came the scary bit ... doing nothing more than canter/gallop in a straight line on nice flat grass, George managed to fall over with me. On second we were running, the next I felt his back legs disappear ... I assumed they would find themselves in time for the next stride. I could not have been more wrong, and next thing we were both sliding across the ground. I was a little winded, but kept hold of the reigns. George got up, appeared to be ok and we trotted him up just to make sure. For about five minutes afterwards, George became sensible and appeared to listen to his rider on top, but it wasn't long before I was a passenger again!!!

The next set of jumps were much bigger, even though we were jumping the smaller sets, about 2'6". There were some lovely long runs with 6 or 7 jumps. After a false start where George tried to jump the gap between the small and the big jumps he jumped all of the jumps with a much more attacking cross-country style. It was very exciting, and so rewarding - if not scary. All in all we jumped 28 of the 30 fences, which was more than I ever had expected. We left out the last 2 due to a small miscalculation on my part after I asked George to canter up a rather too steep hill which we almost didn't make.

His mind was a bit rattled by the enormity of it all, but we both enjoyed it immensely, we are looking forward to our next...

As you can see Bert was completely un-phased by the whole event. George on the other hand was not "at home" by the time we got back to the trailer. I am sure he had lots to dream about that night. He seems to have recomposed himself since then, and was back to his normal self on Monday.

We are going to try again at the Badminton sponsored cross country ride on the 24 September 2000. Fingers crossed, George and I won't end up upside down in the lake!!!

B&G had another companion, in fact with out her owners tireless motivation, B&G and me would be doing far less cross country ... thank god for Sarah Kate!!!