Return to Eventing!

It has been a good 2 years since Gamble and I last competed in eventing, and we made the return last weekend at Benalla Horse Trials. Gamble and I had a few confidence issues on x country 2 years ago and we decided we needed a break, so consentrated on show jumping, which he loves, with a  bit of dressage which he was pretty good at too.
With not a lot of competitions happening here at the moment, I made the decision to enter Benalla..a week before the event, and Gam only being on a x country course once in the past 2 years! What was I thinking!!! Not to mention it was forcast to be 35+ degrees on the day...I really should stop entering competions from under the air con!
Anyways we headed off to Benalla bright and early on Sunday, with no pressure or expectations other then to have fun.
Our dressage was alright. We had warmed up beautifully then the judges decided they needed a break, so we ended up being on longer then I would have liked. But anyways, we continued on to post a score and a resonable test.
Gam had a bit of a break under a tree while I watched the show jumping and picked up some rails. Soon enough Gam and I were warming up..well we were already quite hot, so perhaps stretching our legs is a better word for it. Jumping at 1.30 and the temp was well in the mid 30's aghh! Gamble jumped a beautiful clear round. Had a quick drink on the way out of the ring then headed straight to the start of xc.
It was soo hot, I was thinking of not running, but we were at the start now and if it got too bad we could always walk back..but it would only take 3 minutes right?? So off we went, I let Gam pick the canter speed, no need to push him on a day like today. He jumped sooo well. It wasn't until we got half way around the course that we had our first problem. A bounce of roll tops, soo super short striding that I wasn't sure Gam could bounce out with out landing on the 2nd element! I was a bit distracted with trying to work out if I should show jump it, or keep the canter we had or just what and I think Gam felt my thinking, took a look at it and ducked out to the left. Opps! Oh well, we represented and got through it..just! Gam almost kneed the B element, but we were out! The rest of the course cruised well, and I was super happy with him. After not seeing xc fences for soo long he was awesome! The marshells at vet check greeted us with water bottles...much appreciated!
So went and washed Gammy down and went to see how our dressage scored.
Well...it took me a moment to remember that its the lowest score that wins..(been doing straight dressage too long!) So after much staring at the board, I realised Gammy and I were actually leading the dressage! What?? How did that happen?! But ok! So with clear show jumping we were still leading, but with the 20 on xc, I wondered how far we might have slipped.
Anyways after a bit of a wait they put scores up and Gamble placed an awesome 5th out of a large class! Champion! I decided not to wait for presentations as they were waiting til the whole day had been finished. It was hot and Gammy was running out of shade so we started the trip home. I couldn't have been more happy with my grey man. Now we are just waiting for our ribbon to come in the post.
Next weekend we are heading to Wodonga Ag show for a bit of show jumping. Hopefully not as hot...