ESB Golden Zone Eventing Debut

Wow! What an exciting couple of weeks.
After making the 5 hour trip to Warnambool, Zoney the pony had a lovely practice ride and seemed well settled at the showgrounds. The next morning Zone was first up in the dressage. I was so impressed with his behavior in the warm up ring. It was a small area with many other horses and he behaved beautifully. The main aim for this first test was for Zone to behave and be relaxed in the arena. I don't want him to see competing as a stressful situation, so I'm keeping the pressure light until I know he is happy in the environment. Still I was extremely pleased with what he produced. A little green in the canter transitions and a little wobbly on the center lines, but over all a sweet relaxed test that secured 10th place.
Show jumping, again I couldn't have been happier. He was confident and responsive in the warm up and didn't have a problem with the other horses. In the ring he out did himself again producing a very mature clear round. Zone was turning more than a few heads.
Sunday afternoon Zone had to tackle quite a challenging cross country course. once Again I was beyond pleased with his performance. Although a little wobbly and green at times he was tested with skinnies, ditches and many related lines. We did have a slight difference of opinion at the second last fence, which was off a long gallop stretch and I think Zone was enjoying him self so much that he was quite surprised when a fence jumped out at him.
Never mind, a fantastic result for his first official competition.

 Two weeks later and Zone was back on the truck with the rest of the team on his way to Geelong horse Trials. The conditions at Geelong weren't as perfect as Warnmbool, with showers and howling wind making Zone a little more edgey than at his last event. Still I was happy with his dressage. He is understanding the contact a lot better now and I'm finding it a lot easier to get the response I'm after from my leg. Still the canter trasitions left a little to be desired which really effected our score. However I'm now feeling confident enough to put more pressure on him when were out because I know he is happy with the enviroment.
The show jumping wasn't quite as relaxed as the previous weekend Zone was having a lot of trouble dealing with the rain, wind and all the other young horses that were in the warm up at the same time as us. He improved once he was in the ring and took one rail through the double where he over jumped a little. Although he wasn't as settled as I would have liked, he did well in the conditions.
Cross country was where Zone really excelled. I started trotting and popping the first few but quickly settled into a rhythm and jumped everything beautifully, including quite a large trakena.
I'm so thrilled with these first two events and am really enjoying riding him.
I cant wait for this weekend to challenge him again and hopefully this time with a bit more of and improvement in the dressage.
Stay tuned for an update Not only on ESB Golden Zone, but also ESB Irish Justice who will be coming out for the first time this year in the CIC3* class at the Tonimbuk Horse trials state championships!