Witton Castle was Ramblers first event of 2005 and after all the hard work put in over the winter we were hoping for a good dressage and for the jumping to take off where we left it last year. We were expecting Tara to get the excellent dressage that she didnt get at Oasby.

We were not so lucky with the ground as we were the year before as after the 4th horse had gone round the show jumping ring was already looking chewed up. By the time it got to Tara's round there was no grass left in the warm up, with still all novice, advanced and half of the pre-novice horses left to jump! On Saturday morning at about 11.00 they were starting to pull wagons out of the car park with still 2 days left to go.

Doing the dressage and the show jumping the day before make the event seem like it lasts for ever.

With the vast numbers of entries received they were struggling to find flat ground for the dressage. Tara was 1st on and had a flat arena but Rambler wasn't so fortunate with one of the worst arenas and his existing balance problem didn't help him. After the dressage Tara was lying in 2nd with a score of 33.3 her best dressage score yet. We were more disappointed with Rambler who got 47.6 but Marianne who watched both tests said this mark didn't reflect on the test that he did.

The show jumping was a nice and straightforward course but Tara getting into her hunting ways got a little too excited had a pole down which put her in third over night. Rambler however redeemed himself by jumping clear after a 30 minute wait as they were running behind time.

The cross country proved a successful day for both horses both jumping clear in a fast time (Rambler beat Tara for the first time). Tara was her usual hunting self on the cross country always wanting to go faster to try and find the hounds that she knows so well but always being told to wait. By the time we get off the course my arms hurt from the pulling but she always wants to go round again.

The weekend was successful with Tara finishing 3rd to two top riders and Rambler finishing 15th.

Hopefully this will have been great preparation for Belton Park next week where both horses are competing at novice level for the first time. They are entered in the Junior Regional Novice class (JRN). In JRN's, the fences in both show jumpiing and cross country, are at maximum height.