Having Harcombe was hard work but we loved owning a horse of our own, and now that we had been to our first show there was no stopping us. We went to every one that we could, sometimes Harcombe would behave and other times he was a little sod. One show that we went to had a cross country clear round course, we decided that as I had never done a cross country course before that Peter would take him around and we set of to walk the course. At each jump there was an option of either the novice jump, which was no higher than two feet, or the intermediate jump which was three foot and above. Peter said that according to how Harcombe went at each jump would give him time to judge which one he would take next.
That day Harcombe was in one of his “I am not going to jump no matter what you do” moods and watching Peter try and get him over tiny little practice jumps had me laughing out loud. The one bit that I can still remember now is when Peter cantered Harcombe twice around the field and then turned him into the jump still at a canter, Harcombe, being very wise stopped dead and just strolled up to the jump and sniffed at it, Peters legs were going flat out trying to make him take off from a standstill, like that was going to happen. Peter took him away and cantered him around the field again and this time when he turned him in towards the jump Harcome kept up the pace, Peter got ready for the takeoff, and just as you thought he was going to do it Harcombe dropped his shoulder right at the last minute, Peter carried on straight over the jump and Harcombe realizing that he was free turned and bolted off towards the horse boxes. I ran over to Peter who had still not got up from the floor and I tried, I really did try to ask him if he was ok but I just could not stop laughing, which really did not go down very well, though I do not know why, he-he.
Peter got up and started to whinge about how much pain he was in and that he could not possibly do the cross country course now and that I would have to do it. Well that knocked the smile straight off my face, but because I did not want to look like I was a complete novice I agreed and went off to rescue Harcombe who was stood so patiently next to our horse trailer, bless him.
I decided that Harcombe had done enough of the horse practice jumps and decided to go straight over to the cross country course, thinking that I would have a few minutes grace I was surprised when they said that I could start straight away, my mouth went dry and my hands were all clammy and so Peter said that he would walk round with me to make sure that I was ok. I turned Harcombe in towards the first jump, he took off and we sailed over the jump into the next field, so far so good. We cantered down the field towards the next jump which was a wall, Harcombe flew up to it but stopped dead, I managed to stay on which I think surprised a lot of people who was standing there watching. I turned him around and kicked him on again, but yet again he stopped dead in his tracks, on the third time Peter said that he would stand to the side to try and stop him from turning at the last minute, so I turned him in again and headed him straight towards the wall.
This time I really thought that he would do it and jump the wall but he stopped yet again, Peter was shouting from the side to kick him on and without thinking about it I did, and do you know what? The little sod did well! He took off from a standstill right over the wall, I took off with him but the landing part the other side is a completely different story. When we landed I was hanging round his neck, and because he just stopped dead the other side I slipped right off and hit the ground. I jumped straight up and the first thing I could think of to say was, “yeah we did it,” everyone started to cheer, which made me so embarrassed but at the same time made me so proud that I jumped back on to Harcombe and carried on around the course, and this time he jumped the rest of the course without stopping, bless him! It was days like this that made me proud of owning a horse.