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27th August 2016
So we had a rather mixed weekend at the Pony Club Championships at Cholmondeley Castle last weekend! We started off the weekend by being first to go in our arena for the Open Dressage and managed an individual 7th place with 65.88% as well as the team getting a podium finish by coming 3rd!!! We won some lovely numnahs and salvers aswell as beautiful rosettes. Super proud of our team of event riders holding our own against the pure dressage riders!!
Unfortunately the Open Eventing didn't go so well. The weather was not on our side as it poured with rain constantly! The ground held up relatively well but it's not the right ground for Izzy to run on with regards to her hind limb issues, so we were kind of in a losing battle anyway.
Iz did a lovely test for 35.3 although the judge at C marked her rather harshly and her arena was very dug up so at times I felt like we were stuck!! 2 down SJ but I got to the warm up late and jumped 6 fences and didn't even know the course when I went in. She jumped out of her skin and just tapped the two poles because we were a bit onward bound to the double and then I was still holding into the upright on the related distance from the double! XC she absolutely flew the first 4 fences better than we had ever started XC before but fence 5 was an upright white rail which she obviously misread and so hit very hard and from what I've been told and what it felt like her legs went back underneath her and she did very well to land on her feet and not have what could have been a very nasty fall! I've now also seen the pictures and unfortunately there isn't an early one from the sequence but you can see how uncomfortable the jump was for her in the pictures that there are! This clearly knocked her confidence big time as she has never hit a fence like that before and so at the next fence which was a corner she didn't even attempt to pick up and ran out. I jumped the learner and the next fence fine but then at fence 8 which was part A and B she jumped A fine and then B which was a skinny triple brush, we got to on the two strides but again she just didn't pick up and ran out to the left again! So I retired because clearly this isn't how Izzy usually is!! She never ever runs out and we've only ever not completed a XC course once before (when something wasn't right with her)! So I'm super gutted but the XC caused absolute carnage and I'm just praying there's nothing else wrong with her apart from hitting the fence and knocking her confidence!!
Clearly this weekend just wasn't meant to be for us and there's always a next time, I just really hope the Iz I know and love will be back to herself again asap!! Unfortunately our Mixed Area 8 Team didn't complete however Emma and Annabel both did fantastically to come 8th and 10th respectively!!
Thanks to Liz Mills of The Dressage Company for the intense dressage training I've had recently, it's clearly starting to pay off. Thanks also to Tiggas Saddlery for my gorgeous new boots which had their first outing at the Dressage Prize giving!
18th August 2016
Showjumping is my worst phase so I've been working quite hard on it this year and all 3 horses have been out showjumping in the last few weeks.
Marmalade and Teddy went to the Jays unaffiliated where Marmalade jumped two lovely rounds in the 70cm and her second ever 80cm! Now I'm looking for events for her. Teddy jumped a sticky round in the 90cm and a lovely round in the 1m for 4th!!
Teddy then went to his first BS show at the Jays where I arrived too late for the 90, so jumped the 1m for another 4th place (only a few seconds off 1st and we literally cantered round!) and the 1.05 where he just got a bit rude so we had one down. This horse is amazing though and we got many compliments on how gorgeous and talented he is. Usually he's rude in the first round and then settles but each time we go out he improves and gets the hang of it quicker!!
Lastly Izzy went to the BS show at the Jays yesterday where she jumped a fab clear in the 1.10, coming 4th (AGAIN!!) and best Newcomers horse and then another awesome clear in the 1.15 despite me riding like a plonker at a few fences!! There was hardly anybody there so I was really tempted to try my first Foxhunter (1.20) but with the Pony Club Champs this weekend I decided it was best not to in case something upset Iz! So in a few weeks I might have a go :)
30th July 2016 - Cholmondeley Castle BE Novice
We took Izzy to Cholmondeley Castle for a nice easy Novice run after the PC Areas and before the Champs (which are also at Cholmondeley!). It seems that she knew where she was despite it being laid out differently to the PC Champs and so she was a bit lit up for the dressage. However she was much improved from some of our recent tests to score a reasonable 33, just with a few minor (but major in terms of mark) blips!
Unfortunately in the Showjumping Izzy was still very excited and had an unfortunate pole and then got a bit deep to a spread and tapped another, for 8 penalties. However, so many people were struggling in the very odd stride downhill treble but Izzy popped through there so easily and it’s amazing because until this year I don’t think we had ever jumped a treble clear!! So that’s a massive positive!
Onto the Cross Country and I was just going for a nice easy clear with no thought on the time. Having walked the course I wished I was doing the Intermediate, it looked so rideable!! But anyway, Izzy absolutely flew round the course, stepping over the fences and making it feel so small and easy!! We had one hairy moment at the coffin when she jumped rather oddly over the ditch and again at the water when she jumped the large chest and then discovered that the water was a nice BRIGHT BLUE!!! Poor Iz was a little shocked but we got through it and then flew the rest for a lovely clear with only 5.6 time. Considering I was not pushing her at all, this hopefully bodes well for the Champs next weekend which are also at Cholmondeley, albeit around a rather more difficult course!
So we had a rather mixed weekend at the Pony Club Championships at Cholmondeley Castle last weekend! We started off the weekend by being first to go in our arena for the Open Dressage and managed an individual 7th place with 65.88% as well as the team getting a podium finish by coming 3rd!!! We won some lovely numnahs and salvers aswell as beautiful rosettes. Super proud of our team of event riders holding our own against the pure dressage riders!!
Unfortunately the Open Eventing didn't go so well. The weather was not on our side as it poured with rain constantly! The ground held up relatively well but it's not the right ground for Izzy to run on with regards to her hind limb issues, so we were kind of in a losing battle anyway.
Iz did a lovely test for 35.3 although the judge at C marked her rather harshly and her arena was very dug up so at times I felt like we were stuck!! 2 down SJ but I got to the warm up late and jumped 6 fences and didn't even know the course when I went in. She jumped out of her skin and just tapped the two poles because we were a bit onward bound to the double and then I was still holding into the upright on the related distance from the double! XC she absolutely flew the first 4 fences better than we had ever started XC before but fence 5 was an upright white rail which she obviously misread and so hit very hard and from what I've been told and what it felt like her legs went back underneath her and she did very well to land on her feet and not have what could have been a very nasty fall! I've now also seen the pictures and unfortunately there isn't an early one from the sequence but you can see how uncomfortable the jump was for her in the pictures that there are! This clearly knocked her confidence big time as she has never hit a fence like that before and so at the next fence which was a corner she didn't even attempt to pick up and ran out. I jumped the learner and the next fence fine but then at fence 8 which was part A and B she jumped A fine and then B which was a skinny triple brush, we got to on the two strides but again she just didn't pick up and ran out to the left again! So I retired because clearly this isn't how Izzy usually is!! She never ever runs out and we've only ever not completed a XC course once before (when something wasn't right with her)! So I'm super gutted but the XC caused absolute carnage and I'm just praying there's nothing else wrong with her apart from hitting the fence and knocking her confidence!!
Clearly this weekend just wasn't meant to be for us and there's always a next time, I just really hope the Iz I know and love will be back to herself again asap!! Unfortunately our Mixed Area 8 Team didn't complete however Emma and Annabel both did fantastically to come 8th and 10th respectively!!
Thanks to Liz Mills of The Dressage Company for the intense dressage training I've had recently, it's clearly starting to pay off. Thanks also to Tiggas Saddlery for my gorgeous new boots which had their first outing at the Dressage Prize giving!
18th August 2016
Showjumping is my worst phase so I've been working quite hard on it this year and all 3 horses have been out showjumping in the last few weeks.
Marmalade and Teddy went to the Jays unaffiliated where Marmalade jumped two lovely rounds in the 70cm and her second ever 80cm! Now I'm looking for events for her. Teddy jumped a sticky round in the 90cm and a lovely round in the 1m for 4th!!
Teddy then went to his first BS show at the Jays where I arrived too late for the 90, so jumped the 1m for another 4th place (only a few seconds off 1st and we literally cantered round!) and the 1.05 where he just got a bit rude so we had one down. This horse is amazing though and we got many compliments on how gorgeous and talented he is. Usually he's rude in the first round and then settles but each time we go out he improves and gets the hang of it quicker!!
Lastly Izzy went to the BS show at the Jays yesterday where she jumped a fab clear in the 1.10, coming 4th (AGAIN!!) and best Newcomers horse and then another awesome clear in the 1.15 despite me riding like a plonker at a few fences!! There was hardly anybody there so I was really tempted to try my first Foxhunter (1.20) but with the Pony Club Champs this weekend I decided it was best not to in case something upset Iz! So in a few weeks I might have a go :)
30th July 2016 - Cholmondeley Castle BE Novice
We took Izzy to Cholmondeley Castle for a nice easy Novice run after the PC Areas and before the Champs (which are also at Cholmondeley!). It seems that she knew where she was despite it being laid out differently to the PC Champs and so she was a bit lit up for the dressage. However she was much improved from some of our recent tests to score a reasonable 33, just with a few minor (but major in terms of mark) blips!
Unfortunately in the Showjumping Izzy was still very excited and had an unfortunate pole and then got a bit deep to a spread and tapped another, for 8 penalties. However, so many people were struggling in the very odd stride downhill treble but Izzy popped through there so easily and it’s amazing because until this year I don’t think we had ever jumped a treble clear!! So that’s a massive positive!
Onto the Cross Country and I was just going for a nice easy clear with no thought on the time. Having walked the course I wished I was doing the Intermediate, it looked so rideable!! But anyway, Izzy absolutely flew round the course, stepping over the fences and making it feel so small and easy!! We had one hairy moment at the coffin when she jumped rather oddly over the ditch and again at the water when she jumped the large chest and then discovered that the water was a nice BRIGHT BLUE!!! Poor Iz was a little shocked but we got through it and then flew the rest for a lovely clear with only 5.6 time. Considering I was not pushing her at all, this hopefully bodes well for the Champs next weekend which are also at Cholmondeley, albeit around a rather more difficult course!
20th July 2016 - Pony Club Area Eventing
On Sunday Izzy had her first run back after Houghton, and where better to do it than at the Pony Club Open Area Eventing at Great Witchingham!! (In hindsight she needed a pressure free run before this!)
Iz warmed up beautifully for the dressage having gone absolutely incredibly the day before in our lesson with Liz Mills but as we went over to the arena the flies started attacking her and she started head shaking again!! Thankfully I managed to stop her doing it before we entered the arena but it meant that I rode her quite passively and quietly. We managed to score a great mark of 29.2 putting us in contention, and the comments said she just needed to be a bit more connected and engaged which is entirely true, but all positive feedback!!
Showjumping I've been working on getting Iz to be softer over her neck and back into a fence as her way of going is to hollow very dramatically on approach to a fence! She felt fab in the warm up, really listening to me and doing everything I asked but as soon as I entered the ring, all of it went out the window and Izzy knew best. Silly pony was having a wonderful time however she was not listening to her rider!! meaning we tapped the 3rd fence for 4 faults and then jumped a beautiful clear!
Cross country was a fairly similar story to SJ...Iz was faaarrr too excited to be back out eventing meaning I had essentially no say or control! As is always the case at the area trials, time faults XC make a huge difference to placings. I never push for the time apart from on these occasions, and with that in mind we set off out the start box like we meant it! However, as Izzy hasn't had a run since Houghton, me saying lets get going meant "we are going and now I'm in charge" to Izzy!!
She stormed round the course as she always does but we had a few hairy moments when she veered left at the (BE Intermediate) coffin taking us off our line and chipping in a short one and then at the first (BE Intermediate) water there was a meaty log in which jumped fab, through the water to a step up and bounce to a skinny log. I've never actually jumped a bounce XC on Iz, bless her, and she tried but we took off rather early to the step meaning she scared herself a little over the log out! Having done that she was then a bit backwards for the rest of the course so I had to ride hard, and again at the second water she veered left up the step out so I had to think quick and hook left to the jetty out in order to not be penalised!
Due to Iz being very over excited I was having to pull hard and set up early for fences, and with our little detour at the second water we incurred some time faults dropping us out of the individual placings. But this year, for the first year that I know, there was not a single Pony Club team in our Open Area competition and so we had all mixed teams. Luckily a new rule was passed this year allowing mixed teams to qualify for the champs, and my amazing team secured us the WIN!! So we are also off to the champs for eventing too!
On Sunday Izzy had her first run back after Houghton, and where better to do it than at the Pony Club Open Area Eventing at Great Witchingham!! (In hindsight she needed a pressure free run before this!)
Iz warmed up beautifully for the dressage having gone absolutely incredibly the day before in our lesson with Liz Mills but as we went over to the arena the flies started attacking her and she started head shaking again!! Thankfully I managed to stop her doing it before we entered the arena but it meant that I rode her quite passively and quietly. We managed to score a great mark of 29.2 putting us in contention, and the comments said she just needed to be a bit more connected and engaged which is entirely true, but all positive feedback!!
Showjumping I've been working on getting Iz to be softer over her neck and back into a fence as her way of going is to hollow very dramatically on approach to a fence! She felt fab in the warm up, really listening to me and doing everything I asked but as soon as I entered the ring, all of it went out the window and Izzy knew best. Silly pony was having a wonderful time however she was not listening to her rider!! meaning we tapped the 3rd fence for 4 faults and then jumped a beautiful clear!
Cross country was a fairly similar story to SJ...Iz was faaarrr too excited to be back out eventing meaning I had essentially no say or control! As is always the case at the area trials, time faults XC make a huge difference to placings. I never push for the time apart from on these occasions, and with that in mind we set off out the start box like we meant it! However, as Izzy hasn't had a run since Houghton, me saying lets get going meant "we are going and now I'm in charge" to Izzy!!
She stormed round the course as she always does but we had a few hairy moments when she veered left at the (BE Intermediate) coffin taking us off our line and chipping in a short one and then at the first (BE Intermediate) water there was a meaty log in which jumped fab, through the water to a step up and bounce to a skinny log. I've never actually jumped a bounce XC on Iz, bless her, and she tried but we took off rather early to the step meaning she scared herself a little over the log out! Having done that she was then a bit backwards for the rest of the course so I had to ride hard, and again at the second water she veered left up the step out so I had to think quick and hook left to the jetty out in order to not be penalised!
Due to Iz being very over excited I was having to pull hard and set up early for fences, and with our little detour at the second water we incurred some time faults dropping us out of the individual placings. But this year, for the first year that I know, there was not a single Pony Club team in our Open Area competition and so we had all mixed teams. Luckily a new rule was passed this year allowing mixed teams to qualify for the champs, and my amazing team secured us the WIN!! So we are also off to the champs for eventing too!
16th July 2016 - Pony Club Area Dressage
The following day we were back at Trinity Park for the Pony Club Area Dressage. Izzy did a lovely test in the Open, just with a few little but costly mistakes. Thankfully she didn't notice the literally hundreds of swallows flying around her! All 4 of the Easton Harriers members did solid tests, however I think that we were unfortunate in being the first team,as marks got higher as the competition went on! Despite this we managed a respectable 2nd place as a team, meaning we have qualified for the CHAMPS!
The following day we were back at Trinity Park for the Pony Club Area Dressage. Izzy did a lovely test in the Open, just with a few little but costly mistakes. Thankfully she didn't notice the literally hundreds of swallows flying around her! All 4 of the Easton Harriers members did solid tests, however I think that we were unfortunate in being the first team,as marks got higher as the competition went on! Despite this we managed a respectable 2nd place as a team, meaning we have qualified for the CHAMPS!
16th July 2016 - Pony Club Area Show Jumping
So ... last Saturday was the Pony Club Area Showjumping at Trinity Park. Teddy and I competed in the Easton Harriers Pony Club Intermediate team. This was only our second ever competition, the first being another Pony Club SJ a week or so after we got him!
The first round was not designed very well and didn't flow at all so we never really got into a rhythm, and the time was also very tight, so we hit one fence, but I felt like I rode so badly!
The second round was much nicer, more flowing and open and suited us much better but unfortunately he managed to pull a shoe off half way round and tapped one fence again, but he jumped so well!!
Getting 4 faults in both rounds we actually performed the best out of the team which was pretty good considering it was only our third ever whole round of showjumping!!
So ... last Saturday was the Pony Club Area Showjumping at Trinity Park. Teddy and I competed in the Easton Harriers Pony Club Intermediate team. This was only our second ever competition, the first being another Pony Club SJ a week or so after we got him!
The first round was not designed very well and didn't flow at all so we never really got into a rhythm, and the time was also very tight, so we hit one fence, but I felt like I rode so badly!
The second round was much nicer, more flowing and open and suited us much better but unfortunately he managed to pull a shoe off half way round and tapped one fence again, but he jumped so well!!
Getting 4 faults in both rounds we actually performed the best out of the team which was pretty good considering it was only our third ever whole round of showjumping!!
15th July 2016
Next up was Area Showjumping, but before I can talk about this I need to first introduce you to my NEW HORSE!!!
We were unsure of his stable name but we were told it was potentially Billy however there was already a Billy on the yard. He also didn't have a passport name but he's such a cuddly and loving horse so we (re)named him Teddy! We chose his passport name before we called him Teddy though so it's Quick Dolla Bill (there is logic behind it but it's too long and boring to explain)!
Anyway, Teddy is a gorgeous 6 year old bay gelding by OBOS Quality 004. We don't actually know much about his past except that he's done a bit of showjumping and had been cross country schooling, was ridden in draw reins and had no concept of what legs and seat meant!!
I've actually had him for 2 months now but hadn't wanted to say anything until we had formed a partnership and got going! Bless him he's had intense training both physically and mentally in the 8 weeks that we've owned him and he just continues to improve and show us how absolutely gorgeous and mega talented he is!!!
I've taken him XC schooling 3 times now ... The first time he sort of got the idea but then we discovered he has a very well practised response of running through the bridle when he doesn't understand a question, and he was also very wary of the water. We were also jumping out of trot and we subsequently discovered that he really really struggles with this!
The second time was at a XC clinic with John Bowen at Milton Keynes and he was like a different horse. Apart from a few blips where he didn't understand the questions, he was really taking on board every instruction I gave him and he avidly watched all the other horses to see how they were doing it!
The third time though ... just WOW! That's all I can say! He was a completely different horse again! So much more grown up and mature, taking everything in his stride! He flew round 100/Novice fences like they were nothing! (He needs bigger fences to attack them more as small ones are a bit too insignificant to him!) Unfortunately mum got her videoing out of sync and managed to video the ground as opposed to Teddy so I haven't got video evidence, but next time I will I promise!
Next up was Area Showjumping, but before I can talk about this I need to first introduce you to my NEW HORSE!!!
We were unsure of his stable name but we were told it was potentially Billy however there was already a Billy on the yard. He also didn't have a passport name but he's such a cuddly and loving horse so we (re)named him Teddy! We chose his passport name before we called him Teddy though so it's Quick Dolla Bill (there is logic behind it but it's too long and boring to explain)!
Anyway, Teddy is a gorgeous 6 year old bay gelding by OBOS Quality 004. We don't actually know much about his past except that he's done a bit of showjumping and had been cross country schooling, was ridden in draw reins and had no concept of what legs and seat meant!!
I've actually had him for 2 months now but hadn't wanted to say anything until we had formed a partnership and got going! Bless him he's had intense training both physically and mentally in the 8 weeks that we've owned him and he just continues to improve and show us how absolutely gorgeous and mega talented he is!!!
I've taken him XC schooling 3 times now ... The first time he sort of got the idea but then we discovered he has a very well practised response of running through the bridle when he doesn't understand a question, and he was also very wary of the water. We were also jumping out of trot and we subsequently discovered that he really really struggles with this!
The second time was at a XC clinic with John Bowen at Milton Keynes and he was like a different horse. Apart from a few blips where he didn't understand the questions, he was really taking on board every instruction I gave him and he avidly watched all the other horses to see how they were doing it!
The third time though ... just WOW! That's all I can say! He was a completely different horse again! So much more grown up and mature, taking everything in his stride! He flew round 100/Novice fences like they were nothing! (He needs bigger fences to attack them more as small ones are a bit too insignificant to him!) Unfortunately mum got her videoing out of sync and managed to video the ground as opposed to Teddy so I haven't got video evidence, but next time I will I promise!
5th July 2016 - Pony Club Rider Development Camp
Last weekend I attended the Pony Club Rider Development Pathway Camp at Somerford that Iz and I got picked to go to! After the rather long journey up there we stayed for two days of eventing training with Gary Parsonage, as well as balance sessions, a Dengie session, goal setting and video analysis.
I learnt loads from the weekend and met some really lovely people, and would highly recommend applying for the assessment days to anyone else who is eligible!! The whole experience was so beneficial and Somerford is just such an incredible place with beyond amazing facilities!!! Unfortunately I wasn't picked for the squad of 6 but I'm proud of even getting to the camp and being 1/30 there (1/10 eventers) when loads had applied!!
Thank you to the Pony Club for allowing up and coming riders such an incredible opportunity!
Last weekend I attended the Pony Club Rider Development Pathway Camp at Somerford that Iz and I got picked to go to! After the rather long journey up there we stayed for two days of eventing training with Gary Parsonage, as well as balance sessions, a Dengie session, goal setting and video analysis.
I learnt loads from the weekend and met some really lovely people, and would highly recommend applying for the assessment days to anyone else who is eligible!! The whole experience was so beneficial and Somerford is just such an incredible place with beyond amazing facilities!!! Unfortunately I wasn't picked for the squad of 6 but I'm proud of even getting to the camp and being 1/30 there (1/10 eventers) when loads had applied!!
Thank you to the Pony Club for allowing up and coming riders such an incredible opportunity!
20th June 2016 - ***HOUGHTON INTERNATIONAL EVENT REPORT***
At the end of May, Izzy and I did our first ever CCI* at Houghton Hall International Horse Trials. It really is the most beautiful place and I can’t wait to compete there again!! After Izzy’s previous injuries we had no idea what to expect as she has never done a 3 day and therefore has never had to trot up. However, she flew through the first trot up which I think was the thing I was most nervous about – stupid I know.
Liz Mills very kindly came to warm me up for the dressage and as usual Izzy went beautifully. She felt incredible and I almost thought it might go quite well. However Iz had other ideas! The first half of the test was lovely until the walk. When I had to go from extended walk to medium walk, and then on to trot and canter in a very short space of time, Izzy started violently headshaking! She has only ever once shaken her head in a test and that was about 3 years ago. She continued this throughout the rest of the test though, meaning 11 out of 19 movements were badly affected! Gaining a very impressively bad score of 64.9. We managed a solid last place after dressage!! Whilst I heard someone else screaming at their mum because they were third last after dressage, I just laughed and said, well I can only go up from here! And actually there were many positives to take from the test anyway.
After the disaster of our dressage we moved onto the Cross Country. I walked it 3 times, once by myself, once with Philip Surl and once with Yogi Breisner. Thankfully they both said almost the same thing at each fence and it was what I was thinking too, which gave me plenty of confidence. There were 3 combinations on the course I wasn’t particularly sure about: the water, but they changed the alternative to a much easier combination and so apart from 3 people, everyone took the longer, easier route; the 8th fence, which was a big brush box on the top of a mound, down to an upright brush fence which walked on a distance of 2 and a half strides, to a left hand corner on a forward 5 strides; and the second to last combination which was a big open parallel, on a right hand curve to an open ditch, on another right hand curve to a skinny triple brush. It walked a nice distance but the course was 8 and a half minutes long and this was near the end, and I had absolutely no idea how Izzy would cope with that sort of distance!
As I was warming up I heard quite a lot of problems over the tannoy, with a fair few people falling off, but Izzy felt amazing so I felt fairly confident. Just as I was about to leave the start box they held the course which was rather irritating as it confused poor Iz slightly. Despite this, when we set off a minute later she flew out the start and pinged over everything making it feel so small! She’d jumped fences 1-7 incredibly and off we headed to fence 8. I didn’t see a stride at all and Izzy was so clever getting me out of trouble by putting in a short one before the brush box meaning she landed close behind it, and we actually got 4 (!!!) strides to the upright brush (and I was worried about not being able to fit 3 in on such a big striding horse!!)
The alternative at the water jumped great although Izzy launched herself in and took a stride out at the house, both with photographic evidence! She then flew the rest of the course and made all the combinations feel so easy! Although she did start to tire a bit and so I had to check more than I would have liked meaning we ended up with 4 time penalties, but as we weren’t exactly in contention for any prizes after our dressage I didn’t see the need to push her.
We then flew through the second trot-up much to our relief and surprise to be honest. Not because she was unsound but because only about 16 months ago we thought she was going to be a loss of use case and would never event again!! And to put the icing on the cake Izzy jumped such an amazing Showjumping round, just really unfortunately rolling the last pole! But WOW what an experience!! We have finally completed our first CCI* and almost successfully, rising 29 places to be second highest risers in the field.
A massive thank you must go to the Marquess of Cholmondeley, the organisers and volunteers for putting on such an incredible event at such a beautiful venue! I’d also like to thank Liz from Mill Saddlery and Riding Wear who very kindly came out and checked my saddles before Houghton, Elizabeth Mills who came and warmed me up for dressage, Eastern Motorhome Hire for the luxurious motorhome we hired for the week, Equimark Horseboxes for my gorgeous lorry which is so easy to drive (thankfully as I would not cope otherwise!), Emma at High Flyers for helping me sort my trot-up outfit – I LOVE the Dubarry shoes and Joules jacket!! Not to mention Charles and Michele at Tiggas Saddlery for basically kitting me out from head to toe (my tails are lush!) and for being so supportive! And of course a massive thank you to my mummy Caroline and amazing boyfriend James for being super grooms and supporters!
At the end of May, Izzy and I did our first ever CCI* at Houghton Hall International Horse Trials. It really is the most beautiful place and I can’t wait to compete there again!! After Izzy’s previous injuries we had no idea what to expect as she has never done a 3 day and therefore has never had to trot up. However, she flew through the first trot up which I think was the thing I was most nervous about – stupid I know.
Liz Mills very kindly came to warm me up for the dressage and as usual Izzy went beautifully. She felt incredible and I almost thought it might go quite well. However Iz had other ideas! The first half of the test was lovely until the walk. When I had to go from extended walk to medium walk, and then on to trot and canter in a very short space of time, Izzy started violently headshaking! She has only ever once shaken her head in a test and that was about 3 years ago. She continued this throughout the rest of the test though, meaning 11 out of 19 movements were badly affected! Gaining a very impressively bad score of 64.9. We managed a solid last place after dressage!! Whilst I heard someone else screaming at their mum because they were third last after dressage, I just laughed and said, well I can only go up from here! And actually there were many positives to take from the test anyway.
After the disaster of our dressage we moved onto the Cross Country. I walked it 3 times, once by myself, once with Philip Surl and once with Yogi Breisner. Thankfully they both said almost the same thing at each fence and it was what I was thinking too, which gave me plenty of confidence. There were 3 combinations on the course I wasn’t particularly sure about: the water, but they changed the alternative to a much easier combination and so apart from 3 people, everyone took the longer, easier route; the 8th fence, which was a big brush box on the top of a mound, down to an upright brush fence which walked on a distance of 2 and a half strides, to a left hand corner on a forward 5 strides; and the second to last combination which was a big open parallel, on a right hand curve to an open ditch, on another right hand curve to a skinny triple brush. It walked a nice distance but the course was 8 and a half minutes long and this was near the end, and I had absolutely no idea how Izzy would cope with that sort of distance!
As I was warming up I heard quite a lot of problems over the tannoy, with a fair few people falling off, but Izzy felt amazing so I felt fairly confident. Just as I was about to leave the start box they held the course which was rather irritating as it confused poor Iz slightly. Despite this, when we set off a minute later she flew out the start and pinged over everything making it feel so small! She’d jumped fences 1-7 incredibly and off we headed to fence 8. I didn’t see a stride at all and Izzy was so clever getting me out of trouble by putting in a short one before the brush box meaning she landed close behind it, and we actually got 4 (!!!) strides to the upright brush (and I was worried about not being able to fit 3 in on such a big striding horse!!)
The alternative at the water jumped great although Izzy launched herself in and took a stride out at the house, both with photographic evidence! She then flew the rest of the course and made all the combinations feel so easy! Although she did start to tire a bit and so I had to check more than I would have liked meaning we ended up with 4 time penalties, but as we weren’t exactly in contention for any prizes after our dressage I didn’t see the need to push her.
We then flew through the second trot-up much to our relief and surprise to be honest. Not because she was unsound but because only about 16 months ago we thought she was going to be a loss of use case and would never event again!! And to put the icing on the cake Izzy jumped such an amazing Showjumping round, just really unfortunately rolling the last pole! But WOW what an experience!! We have finally completed our first CCI* and almost successfully, rising 29 places to be second highest risers in the field.
A massive thank you must go to the Marquess of Cholmondeley, the organisers and volunteers for putting on such an incredible event at such a beautiful venue! I’d also like to thank Liz from Mill Saddlery and Riding Wear who very kindly came out and checked my saddles before Houghton, Elizabeth Mills who came and warmed me up for dressage, Eastern Motorhome Hire for the luxurious motorhome we hired for the week, Equimark Horseboxes for my gorgeous lorry which is so easy to drive (thankfully as I would not cope otherwise!), Emma at High Flyers for helping me sort my trot-up outfit – I LOVE the Dubarry shoes and Joules jacket!! Not to mention Charles and Michele at Tiggas Saddlery for basically kitting me out from head to toe (my tails are lush!) and for being so supportive! And of course a massive thank you to my mummy Caroline and amazing boyfriend James for being super grooms and supporters!
20th June 2016 - ***KEYSOE EVENT REPORT***
Keysoe was Lady Bounce’s final run before Houghton and it didn’t go entirely to plan ...
Dressage she warmed up great as always but we were nearly last in the day and on the end arena which meant that it was well and truly dug up and we had a fence down one side of the arena, so the actual test didn’t go so well. Also that particular judge never gives us (or any females) a good mark so it was fairly doomed from the beginning anyway!
Showjumping was frustrating. Izzy started violently headshaking and running through her right shoulder meaning we had two fences down but otherwise she jumped really well. And Cross Country also didn’t go quite to plan. She started okay and was jumping well until we came up the slope through a gap in the hedge to fence 6 which she decided was far too scary to go near so she took off to the left giving us 20 penalties. I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue at this point so I jumped the next fence and then took the long route at the coffin, by which time she had decided to play ball and so absolutely flew round the rest of the course!
So overall it wasn’t the best final run for us before Houghton. However despite all this she still felt a million times better than she used to.
Keysoe was Lady Bounce’s final run before Houghton and it didn’t go entirely to plan ...
Dressage she warmed up great as always but we were nearly last in the day and on the end arena which meant that it was well and truly dug up and we had a fence down one side of the arena, so the actual test didn’t go so well. Also that particular judge never gives us (or any females) a good mark so it was fairly doomed from the beginning anyway!
Showjumping was frustrating. Izzy started violently headshaking and running through her right shoulder meaning we had two fences down but otherwise she jumped really well. And Cross Country also didn’t go quite to plan. She started okay and was jumping well until we came up the slope through a gap in the hedge to fence 6 which she decided was far too scary to go near so she took off to the left giving us 20 penalties. I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue at this point so I jumped the next fence and then took the long route at the coffin, by which time she had decided to play ball and so absolutely flew round the rest of the course!
So overall it wasn’t the best final run for us before Houghton. However despite all this she still felt a million times better than she used to.
13th June 2016
Second horse update ...
HIGH HOLLOA (Holly)
Holly has had a mixed time since I last updated you on her. She also went SJ at Woodbridge Horse show where she jumped a really lovely round in the 95cm-1m class, just rolling two poles. However, she was a complete nutter for the entire warm up and would not work with me in making it easier. Not helped by the fact that 3 loose horses galloped the whole way round the massive field, lighting up her racehorse instinct!
After our really successful XC Clinic with John a while back, we decided to take her to a little unaffiliated event at Isleham at the beginning of May. Her dressage was fairly appalling as she wouldn’t settle, despite warming up quite well. Her SJ was incredible, a lovely clear, just proving how scopey and talented this mare is. And then XC…she absolutely flew out the start box and popped over all the fences beautifully, until we got to the water! I didn’t even get a chance to get near the water before she planted, however because we weren’t near it wasn’t classed as a stop. We managed to follow the next competitor through with no problems and I thought, yes, we are resolving this issue! Until the next water…2 bloody water jumps in a tiny ODE! Not impressed!! Anyway, she wouldn’t follow the one in front and then wouldn’t follow the next competitor either. The fence judge then proceeded to be really unpleasant and rude when I asked if I could get off and lead Holly through. The judge came up behind Holly and tried to “help” by scaring her, and then grabbed hold of my rein and tried to drag Holly with me shouting, literally screaming, at her to stop, to no avail as she continued to ignore me! In the end I jumped off and calmly led the poor pony through, who obviously (coz she’s a stubborn mare) walked beautifully behind me like “what’s the issue with water!!” My grandparents (who own her) had also come to watch which was a bit disappointing for them as she was flying!
Holly has so many issues and after 2 years we are at nearly the same place as we started and so we decided to take her XC schooling to Ickworth, somewhere she has been through the water before, as her final chance. She jumped all the fences impeccably, despite there being sheep EVERYWHERE!! Got to the water, stopped, looked, walked through. RESULT. Came around again and she planted and then wouldn’t stop planting.
So after much consideration, Holly has been retired from work to put on some weight to then have babies. It’s a really sad decision because she is so unbelievably talented, but another two years of time and money might just end us in the same place which isn’t worth it or even viable. However, baby Hollys is a very exciting prospect, so fingers crossed! And she is looking positively fat (for Holly) now.
Second horse update ...
HIGH HOLLOA (Holly)
Holly has had a mixed time since I last updated you on her. She also went SJ at Woodbridge Horse show where she jumped a really lovely round in the 95cm-1m class, just rolling two poles. However, she was a complete nutter for the entire warm up and would not work with me in making it easier. Not helped by the fact that 3 loose horses galloped the whole way round the massive field, lighting up her racehorse instinct!
After our really successful XC Clinic with John a while back, we decided to take her to a little unaffiliated event at Isleham at the beginning of May. Her dressage was fairly appalling as she wouldn’t settle, despite warming up quite well. Her SJ was incredible, a lovely clear, just proving how scopey and talented this mare is. And then XC…she absolutely flew out the start box and popped over all the fences beautifully, until we got to the water! I didn’t even get a chance to get near the water before she planted, however because we weren’t near it wasn’t classed as a stop. We managed to follow the next competitor through with no problems and I thought, yes, we are resolving this issue! Until the next water…2 bloody water jumps in a tiny ODE! Not impressed!! Anyway, she wouldn’t follow the one in front and then wouldn’t follow the next competitor either. The fence judge then proceeded to be really unpleasant and rude when I asked if I could get off and lead Holly through. The judge came up behind Holly and tried to “help” by scaring her, and then grabbed hold of my rein and tried to drag Holly with me shouting, literally screaming, at her to stop, to no avail as she continued to ignore me! In the end I jumped off and calmly led the poor pony through, who obviously (coz she’s a stubborn mare) walked beautifully behind me like “what’s the issue with water!!” My grandparents (who own her) had also come to watch which was a bit disappointing for them as she was flying!
Holly has so many issues and after 2 years we are at nearly the same place as we started and so we decided to take her XC schooling to Ickworth, somewhere she has been through the water before, as her final chance. She jumped all the fences impeccably, despite there being sheep EVERYWHERE!! Got to the water, stopped, looked, walked through. RESULT. Came around again and she planted and then wouldn’t stop planting.
So after much consideration, Holly has been retired from work to put on some weight to then have babies. It’s a really sad decision because she is so unbelievably talented, but another two years of time and money might just end us in the same place which isn’t worth it or even viable. However, baby Hollys is a very exciting prospect, so fingers crossed! And she is looking positively fat (for Holly) now.
13th June 2016
Okay, here goes with the first of my horse by horse updates:
WARMINGTON BEAUTY (Marmalade)
Marmalade has been out and about gaining lots of experience since I last posted about her. She went SJ at Woodbridge Horse Show where she was very well behaved - although just a little shocked by the difference in height of the fences between the two consecutive classes that she jumped in! She's also been learning to jump lots of SCARY (!) fillers, which are proving no problem for her. She has even jumped her first ever proper grid which proved very easy for her after the initial shock of seeing so many fences in a row!
On the dressage side, we had a less with Liz Mills, which proved very beneficial and Liz reckoned we were nearly ready for a Novice dressage test. On that note, at the Pony Club Show at Westerfield last Saturday, Marmalade did a Novice test as I didn't fancy the early start for the Prelim! Considering it was her fourth ever test, second ever on grass and she has no idea about medium trot or medium canter, we scored a very respectable score of 64.6% with three 8s!!
We have also had two clinics with John Bowen. One was SJ at Brook Farm where w worked on Marmalade's straightness through evenness in the contact. I am very crooked and so all my horses are more in the left contact than right! But I am working hard on correcting this. The next was a XC clinic at Milton Keynes yesterday. We had a shaky start as she lost her confidence a few weeks ago when XC schooling, but by the end of the session she was back to her usual confident flying self! I am so excited by how willing this pony is to learn and can't wait until we do our first BE event in the not too distant future!
Okay, here goes with the first of my horse by horse updates:
WARMINGTON BEAUTY (Marmalade)
Marmalade has been out and about gaining lots of experience since I last posted about her. She went SJ at Woodbridge Horse Show where she was very well behaved - although just a little shocked by the difference in height of the fences between the two consecutive classes that she jumped in! She's also been learning to jump lots of SCARY (!) fillers, which are proving no problem for her. She has even jumped her first ever proper grid which proved very easy for her after the initial shock of seeing so many fences in a row!
On the dressage side, we had a less with Liz Mills, which proved very beneficial and Liz reckoned we were nearly ready for a Novice dressage test. On that note, at the Pony Club Show at Westerfield last Saturday, Marmalade did a Novice test as I didn't fancy the early start for the Prelim! Considering it was her fourth ever test, second ever on grass and she has no idea about medium trot or medium canter, we scored a very respectable score of 64.6% with three 8s!!
We have also had two clinics with John Bowen. One was SJ at Brook Farm where w worked on Marmalade's straightness through evenness in the contact. I am very crooked and so all my horses are more in the left contact than right! But I am working hard on correcting this. The next was a XC clinic at Milton Keynes yesterday. We had a shaky start as she lost her confidence a few weeks ago when XC schooling, but by the end of the session she was back to her usual confident flying self! I am so excited by how willing this pony is to learn and can't wait until we do our first BE event in the not too distant future!
7th June 2016
So sorry for the distinct lack of updates - uni exams and Houghton preparation got in the way, but that's all done now! Absolutely loads has happened here at EF Eventing in the last month so I will update you horse by horse in the next few days. In the meantime, thanks for your continued support, it really means a lot.
So sorry for the distinct lack of updates - uni exams and Houghton preparation got in the way, but that's all done now! Absolutely loads has happened here at EF Eventing in the last month so I will update you horse by horse in the next few days. In the meantime, thanks for your continued support, it really means a lot.
27th April 2016 - ***EVENT REPORT***
Last weekend we decided to withdraw Lady Bounce from Hambledon CIC* because even though they were going ahead we didn't want to make the long journey there just to find that the ground wasn't suitable for Izzy to run on after all this horrendous weather (and by all accounts, whilst it was rideable, we made the right decision for Izzy)! Due to her previous injuries she is very compromised on anything other than good/firm ground and I'd rather build her confidence than lose it unnecessarily. So instead we decided to run at our PC Event at Poplar Park Equestrian Centre - and what a good decision that was!!
It appears that Poplar is Izzy's fave place as she just springs off the ground there! We did a lovely dressage test, with the only slight tension occurring when it started hailing half way through our test, giving us an amazing score of 18 (I think that the dressage judge was feeling very generous)!!!! Meaning we won the dressage. Iz then jumped a fabulous double clear, just with some time penalties, but taking all the direct routes cross country and a much more confident round than our last two runs this season, giving us our first WIN of the season!! I even won a trophy for best Easton Harriers Pony Club member!
Last weekend we decided to withdraw Lady Bounce from Hambledon CIC* because even though they were going ahead we didn't want to make the long journey there just to find that the ground wasn't suitable for Izzy to run on after all this horrendous weather (and by all accounts, whilst it was rideable, we made the right decision for Izzy)! Due to her previous injuries she is very compromised on anything other than good/firm ground and I'd rather build her confidence than lose it unnecessarily. So instead we decided to run at our PC Event at Poplar Park Equestrian Centre - and what a good decision that was!!
It appears that Poplar is Izzy's fave place as she just springs off the ground there! We did a lovely dressage test, with the only slight tension occurring when it started hailing half way through our test, giving us an amazing score of 18 (I think that the dressage judge was feeling very generous)!!!! Meaning we won the dressage. Iz then jumped a fabulous double clear, just with some time penalties, but taking all the direct routes cross country and a much more confident round than our last two runs this season, giving us our first WIN of the season!! I even won a trophy for best Easton Harriers Pony Club member!
20th April 2016
Continuing the Easter Holidays update:
Holly and Marmalade turned their hooves to a bit of dressage at Crows Hall during the Easter hols. This was Holly's third time seeing dressage boards and Marmalade's first time. Holly did a fairly nice walk and trot test to come third, just adding in a couple of canter transitions and extra halts, and then did a lovely first half of the Prelim 14 test. The second half was a little disastrous with lots of extra halting and cantering and bucking!! So that was a test of two halves, as reflected in her marks! But overall, she performed quite nicely and we took lots away from the two tests to work on. Marmalade on the other hand was an absolute babe!! She did the Prelim 14 and Prelim 17 tests and despite having never seen scary white dressage boards, markers and flower arrangements, she behaved impeccably, although, coming up the centre line to a car is apparently very scary!! She strutted her stuff in both tests, just getting a little tired in the second test and so was a bit uneven in her head carriage but still managed placings in both tests and best GRS member in the Prelim 17! I am so proud of how they both went and hopefully they will be out doing some more dressage soon!
Holly and I took a little trip in our lorry to a flatwork and show jumping lesson with John Bowen at Brook Farm. He hadn’t seen her in quite a while and she’s still recovering from her latest bout of ulcers, but he was very impressed with her. We worked on keeping her calm and working over her back into and after a fence, as she tends to get very over excited and throw herself around a lot! She worked so beautifully and I really feel like we are getting somewhere now!
A week later we took Holly to another clinic with John, but this time XC at Milton Keynes. The last time John saw Holly and I at a cross country clinic I fell off her twice and she galloped around for a long time!! This time however, she was INSANE (good)!!! She jumped everything I asked of her, no questions asked, no spookiness, no greenness, just a totally straight forward horse! We even managed to go straight through the water first time and by ourselves. She even jumped down 2 steps into water! These are all really small things but they are HUGE improvements for Holly and John really believes that she is going to be a class horse and us a really good partnership as long as we keep working her how we are!!
We also took Izzy to the XC clinic as we have yet to XC school this year, despite having two runs already! As per usual, Izzy was amazing and we worked on skinnies, and riding curved related distances to skinnies. It really gave us the confidence boost we needed after having two good, but sedate cross country runs at Poplar and Burnham.
Continuing the Easter Holidays update:
Holly and Marmalade turned their hooves to a bit of dressage at Crows Hall during the Easter hols. This was Holly's third time seeing dressage boards and Marmalade's first time. Holly did a fairly nice walk and trot test to come third, just adding in a couple of canter transitions and extra halts, and then did a lovely first half of the Prelim 14 test. The second half was a little disastrous with lots of extra halting and cantering and bucking!! So that was a test of two halves, as reflected in her marks! But overall, she performed quite nicely and we took lots away from the two tests to work on. Marmalade on the other hand was an absolute babe!! She did the Prelim 14 and Prelim 17 tests and despite having never seen scary white dressage boards, markers and flower arrangements, she behaved impeccably, although, coming up the centre line to a car is apparently very scary!! She strutted her stuff in both tests, just getting a little tired in the second test and so was a bit uneven in her head carriage but still managed placings in both tests and best GRS member in the Prelim 17! I am so proud of how they both went and hopefully they will be out doing some more dressage soon!
Holly and I took a little trip in our lorry to a flatwork and show jumping lesson with John Bowen at Brook Farm. He hadn’t seen her in quite a while and she’s still recovering from her latest bout of ulcers, but he was very impressed with her. We worked on keeping her calm and working over her back into and after a fence, as she tends to get very over excited and throw herself around a lot! She worked so beautifully and I really feel like we are getting somewhere now!
A week later we took Holly to another clinic with John, but this time XC at Milton Keynes. The last time John saw Holly and I at a cross country clinic I fell off her twice and she galloped around for a long time!! This time however, she was INSANE (good)!!! She jumped everything I asked of her, no questions asked, no spookiness, no greenness, just a totally straight forward horse! We even managed to go straight through the water first time and by ourselves. She even jumped down 2 steps into water! These are all really small things but they are HUGE improvements for Holly and John really believes that she is going to be a class horse and us a really good partnership as long as we keep working her how we are!!
We also took Izzy to the XC clinic as we have yet to XC school this year, despite having two runs already! As per usual, Izzy was amazing and we worked on skinnies, and riding curved related distances to skinnies. It really gave us the confidence boost we needed after having two good, but sedate cross country runs at Poplar and Burnham.
18th April 2016
🌟🌟OMGEEESS IM SO EXCITED!!🌟🌟
Just had confirmation through that I've been selected to go to the Pony Club Rider Development Camp in July at Somerford Park!!🏻 From there they then choose the squad (two riders from each of the three disciplines), so fingers crossed I impress!
🌟🌟OMGEEESS IM SO EXCITED!!🌟🌟
Just had confirmation through that I've been selected to go to the Pony Club Rider Development Camp in July at Somerford Park!!🏻 From there they then choose the squad (two riders from each of the three disciplines), so fingers crossed I impress!
14th April 2016
The horses have been very busy over my Easter holidays, so I have lots to update you all on. Firstly Izzy and I were very lucky to have been picked for the Fairfax Bridle Trial, hosted by Mill Saddlery & Riding Wear. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, because how could a bridle make such a difference!?!?
Izzy usually does dressage in a Micklem as she won’t tolerate a normal bridle, but jumps with a normal bridle and grackle as the dutch gag can’t go on the Micklem. So anyway, we had rein pressure sensors put on our Micklem bridle and this was analysed and then I tried the Fairfax Performance Bridle with a drop noseband with rein pressure sensors on and this was analysed. To me she felt so different in the Fairfax ... much more elevated in her steps and she was taking the contact much better. From the analysis, my rein pressure was very uneven with the Micklem, which I knew already as she tries to avoid my right contact as much as possible so there were many spikes on the rein pressure. With the Fairfax Performance Bridle my rein pressures were much more even, with less spikes, and I could feel this! Izzy was a bit lit up during the whole trial with the rein pressure sensors on, but when we took those off I continued working her and OMG WOW! She just felt absolutely incredible, so elevated in her trot and canter work, and when I did lateral work she really crossed her legs underneath her. I can’t wait for my bridle to arrive, hopefully in time for Houghton CCI*!!!
Meanwhile, Marmalade has been back in work for a few months now and started jumping again about a month ago. She's been to Topthorn where she jumped beautifully, obviously not forgetting what it's all about and she also went to a Pony Club XC Rally at Boundary Farm. The ground was unbelievably sticky and holding but she coped so well, jumping everything I asked of her (although we did lose a shoe!) but apparently the water jump had monsters in it!! However, we ended up going up and down steps into and out of it absolutely no problem!! Bless her, she hadn't been XC or jumped for that matter, since last November and she just loved it! I absolutely adore this mare!! She has been jumping at home more and is really starting to get confident in herself, so hopefully she will be out doing a one day event very soon.
Izzy had another good session with Liz Mills a couple of weeks ago. She was her usual lovely self, although she does like to make life hard during my lessons with Liz!!! We really worked on getting her even in both my reins by taking up my right rein more as she is so adverse to it, and apparently even more so now that she is getting fitter and fitter!! So we have lots to work on, especially as Hambledon CIC* is next weekend, which means the dreaded (but only on Izzy) all sitting trot test!!
Next up Izzy and I had the Pony Club Rider Development Pathway Assessment for Eventing at Moreton Morrell. I've never been there before but it is a lovely venue! Anyway, Iz was fantastic all day! She was absolutely pinging even though we were indoors, and I got on really well with both assessors! I've had my feedback back and it is all very positive, apart from I "need to learn to walk a SJ course"....said a showjumping trainer to an event rider!!
We also did another assessment day at Brook Farm, which also went really well. I learnt loads from the dressage trainer (Jill Day) who gave me a few new ways to work on getting Izzy into my right rein. The feedback from this day was also extremely positive, so I have my fingers firmly crossed that I get picked from one of the assessment days.
In between the two RDP Assessment days, Izzy and I did our second event of the season in the BE Novice at Burnham Market International. Izzy warmed up well for the dressage but unfortunately our arena was on rather an annoying slope and most of the test just felt like it did not go very well. However we managed to wangle a generous score of 33.5 putting us in 7th after dressage!! I decided to wear spurs for the SJ and she jumped fabulously! She was so excited and up for it, although maybe slightly too up for it as she just ran slightly into the bottom of one fence resulting in an annoying pole, marring an otherwise lovely round. Cross country Iz was a babe as usual, (video footage here) but for some reason this season I've been riding slightly defensively XC meaning that we incurred lots of unnecessary time penalties! However, we came 15th and it was a really good day overall, with lots of little things to work on for our next event which is hopefully the CIC* at Hambledon next weekend (weather permitting!!)! Massive thanks must go to Burnham Market Eventing Centre and Musketeer Events for making the event run so well, and the ground conditions were great considering the weather we have had!
The horses have been very busy over my Easter holidays, so I have lots to update you all on. Firstly Izzy and I were very lucky to have been picked for the Fairfax Bridle Trial, hosted by Mill Saddlery & Riding Wear. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, because how could a bridle make such a difference!?!?
Izzy usually does dressage in a Micklem as she won’t tolerate a normal bridle, but jumps with a normal bridle and grackle as the dutch gag can’t go on the Micklem. So anyway, we had rein pressure sensors put on our Micklem bridle and this was analysed and then I tried the Fairfax Performance Bridle with a drop noseband with rein pressure sensors on and this was analysed. To me she felt so different in the Fairfax ... much more elevated in her steps and she was taking the contact much better. From the analysis, my rein pressure was very uneven with the Micklem, which I knew already as she tries to avoid my right contact as much as possible so there were many spikes on the rein pressure. With the Fairfax Performance Bridle my rein pressures were much more even, with less spikes, and I could feel this! Izzy was a bit lit up during the whole trial with the rein pressure sensors on, but when we took those off I continued working her and OMG WOW! She just felt absolutely incredible, so elevated in her trot and canter work, and when I did lateral work she really crossed her legs underneath her. I can’t wait for my bridle to arrive, hopefully in time for Houghton CCI*!!!
Meanwhile, Marmalade has been back in work for a few months now and started jumping again about a month ago. She's been to Topthorn where she jumped beautifully, obviously not forgetting what it's all about and she also went to a Pony Club XC Rally at Boundary Farm. The ground was unbelievably sticky and holding but she coped so well, jumping everything I asked of her (although we did lose a shoe!) but apparently the water jump had monsters in it!! However, we ended up going up and down steps into and out of it absolutely no problem!! Bless her, she hadn't been XC or jumped for that matter, since last November and she just loved it! I absolutely adore this mare!! She has been jumping at home more and is really starting to get confident in herself, so hopefully she will be out doing a one day event very soon.
Izzy had another good session with Liz Mills a couple of weeks ago. She was her usual lovely self, although she does like to make life hard during my lessons with Liz!!! We really worked on getting her even in both my reins by taking up my right rein more as she is so adverse to it, and apparently even more so now that she is getting fitter and fitter!! So we have lots to work on, especially as Hambledon CIC* is next weekend, which means the dreaded (but only on Izzy) all sitting trot test!!
Next up Izzy and I had the Pony Club Rider Development Pathway Assessment for Eventing at Moreton Morrell. I've never been there before but it is a lovely venue! Anyway, Iz was fantastic all day! She was absolutely pinging even though we were indoors, and I got on really well with both assessors! I've had my feedback back and it is all very positive, apart from I "need to learn to walk a SJ course"....said a showjumping trainer to an event rider!!
We also did another assessment day at Brook Farm, which also went really well. I learnt loads from the dressage trainer (Jill Day) who gave me a few new ways to work on getting Izzy into my right rein. The feedback from this day was also extremely positive, so I have my fingers firmly crossed that I get picked from one of the assessment days.
In between the two RDP Assessment days, Izzy and I did our second event of the season in the BE Novice at Burnham Market International. Izzy warmed up well for the dressage but unfortunately our arena was on rather an annoying slope and most of the test just felt like it did not go very well. However we managed to wangle a generous score of 33.5 putting us in 7th after dressage!! I decided to wear spurs for the SJ and she jumped fabulously! She was so excited and up for it, although maybe slightly too up for it as she just ran slightly into the bottom of one fence resulting in an annoying pole, marring an otherwise lovely round. Cross country Iz was a babe as usual, (video footage here) but for some reason this season I've been riding slightly defensively XC meaning that we incurred lots of unnecessary time penalties! However, we came 15th and it was a really good day overall, with lots of little things to work on for our next event which is hopefully the CIC* at Hambledon next weekend (weather permitting!!)! Massive thanks must go to Burnham Market Eventing Centre and Musketeer Events for making the event run so well, and the ground conditions were great considering the weather we have had!
16th March 2016 - First event of the season - Poplar Park BE Novice
Eeeekkk ... so the eventing season has officially started for us at EF Eventing!!!
Last weekend LADY BOUNCE competed in the Novice at Poplar Park. We went to walk the course the day before, having already been told that it wasn't an easy course! So off I trundle and the first 4 fences were fine but then fence 5 was a hanging log on a slope, with a slight curve down to a single barrel, also on a slope which I thought was a tough question for the second (or first in many cases) event of the season! The rest of the course seemed okay, although it was definitely built up to height and was pretty technical, so not that easy!
Anyway onto the event, we did a PB (at Novice level) dressage of 28.5 which I was soo happy with, putting us into =5th, just proving that our winter of intense dressage is (fingers crossed) paying off!! Then came the SJ, and having not been SJ at this height pretty much since last October, this was quite a scary prospect! As always the course was built up to height and the slope of the arena was used well. Debbie Edmundson warmed me up in the lovely new arena that Poplar have put in and Izzy was flying!! By fence 7 we were clear and I was thinking "when is this going to finish, I'm exhausted" - haha - but she kept on pinging and jumped a beautiful clear round!
Then on to the XC! Neither of us have been XC since our last event in October, so like the SJ this was quite scary too! Izzy set off at full pelt out of the start box and it took me until fence 4 to have some control! Heading to the hanging log at 5 I opted for the long route a long way out as I thought it a bit dangerous to try the straight route due to my lack of control! But she flew it and would have been fine with the straight route! I then anchored her for the rest of the course and she jumped a class clear just picking up lots of time!
It was amazing to know that (when conditions are right) Izzy is still feeling fabulous and is still really up for the job, and we even came 13th and got one point for our double clear! So fingers crossed for the rest of the season - I can't wait now! What a good way to start! And a massive thank you must go out to the organisers and volunteers for all their hard work, without whom these events would not run!!
Eeeekkk ... so the eventing season has officially started for us at EF Eventing!!!
Last weekend LADY BOUNCE competed in the Novice at Poplar Park. We went to walk the course the day before, having already been told that it wasn't an easy course! So off I trundle and the first 4 fences were fine but then fence 5 was a hanging log on a slope, with a slight curve down to a single barrel, also on a slope which I thought was a tough question for the second (or first in many cases) event of the season! The rest of the course seemed okay, although it was definitely built up to height and was pretty technical, so not that easy!
Anyway onto the event, we did a PB (at Novice level) dressage of 28.5 which I was soo happy with, putting us into =5th, just proving that our winter of intense dressage is (fingers crossed) paying off!! Then came the SJ, and having not been SJ at this height pretty much since last October, this was quite a scary prospect! As always the course was built up to height and the slope of the arena was used well. Debbie Edmundson warmed me up in the lovely new arena that Poplar have put in and Izzy was flying!! By fence 7 we were clear and I was thinking "when is this going to finish, I'm exhausted" - haha - but she kept on pinging and jumped a beautiful clear round!
Then on to the XC! Neither of us have been XC since our last event in October, so like the SJ this was quite scary too! Izzy set off at full pelt out of the start box and it took me until fence 4 to have some control! Heading to the hanging log at 5 I opted for the long route a long way out as I thought it a bit dangerous to try the straight route due to my lack of control! But she flew it and would have been fine with the straight route! I then anchored her for the rest of the course and she jumped a class clear just picking up lots of time!
It was amazing to know that (when conditions are right) Izzy is still feeling fabulous and is still really up for the job, and we even came 13th and got one point for our double clear! So fingers crossed for the rest of the season - I can't wait now! What a good way to start! And a massive thank you must go out to the organisers and volunteers for all their hard work, without whom these events would not run!!
7th March 2016
Saturday saw Mum and I spending a long cold day sat in the car fence judging at Isleham Horse Trials - giving something back to the sport I love!
Then yesterday we took Holly and Izzy to the Jays to do some Arena Eventing. Holly just did the one class as she was feeling a bit lethargic so we withdrew from the second one. We are pretty certain her ulcers are back again but nonetheless she jumped very well, her only "problem" being the water jump which we knew she wouldn't like! She had absolutely no intention of going near it, let alone through it!! But had I had time to just stand there and persist I think she would've gone in eventually as she almost thought about it the second time she saw it!
Izzy was out for some fun before her first event of the season!! She jumped a beautiful clear in the 1m, as she should because she can do it with her eyes closed!! But even she thought that the table and chairs by the water jump, and therefore the water jump itself, were very scary! I did have to remind her that's she is in fact quite an accomplished event pony!!
Then we were the only ones in the 1.05m but Andrea very kindly ran the class for me! Izzy got a little carried away because she knew the course and thought she knew best so tapped a couple of poles, and then I got a little carried away and expected her to jump the corner from a silly stride and Izzy thought that cantering around was more fun!! But we still got a red rosette haha!
All in all it was a great day albeit a bit long and cold!
Saturday saw Mum and I spending a long cold day sat in the car fence judging at Isleham Horse Trials - giving something back to the sport I love!
Then yesterday we took Holly and Izzy to the Jays to do some Arena Eventing. Holly just did the one class as she was feeling a bit lethargic so we withdrew from the second one. We are pretty certain her ulcers are back again but nonetheless she jumped very well, her only "problem" being the water jump which we knew she wouldn't like! She had absolutely no intention of going near it, let alone through it!! But had I had time to just stand there and persist I think she would've gone in eventually as she almost thought about it the second time she saw it!
Izzy was out for some fun before her first event of the season!! She jumped a beautiful clear in the 1m, as she should because she can do it with her eyes closed!! But even she thought that the table and chairs by the water jump, and therefore the water jump itself, were very scary! I did have to remind her that's she is in fact quite an accomplished event pony!!
Then we were the only ones in the 1.05m but Andrea very kindly ran the class for me! Izzy got a little carried away because she knew the course and thought she knew best so tapped a couple of poles, and then I got a little carried away and expected her to jump the corner from a silly stride and Izzy thought that cantering around was more fun!! But we still got a red rosette haha!
All in all it was a great day albeit a bit long and cold!
22nd February 2016
We took Izzy to Wix for a fun outing to jump the 1m class (they didn't have anything bigger) to give us both some confidence after Arena UK. She really enjoyed herself and jumped very well, taking some good shortcuts and angles in the jump off section (it was 2-phase) to win the class!! Our first red ribbon ...!! (video here)
We took Izzy to Wix for a fun outing to jump the 1m class (they didn't have anything bigger) to give us both some confidence after Arena UK. She really enjoyed herself and jumped very well, taking some good shortcuts and angles in the jump off section (it was 2-phase) to win the class!! Our first red ribbon ...!! (video here)
19th February 2016
I have had a rather busy enhancement week (reading week for every other Uni!) with a Dressage and SJ clinic with John Bowen at Brook Farm last Friday. I was meant to take Holly and Jigsaw but Holly had a reaction to her flu jab, so Jigsaw got an extended lesson! It was so beneficial and John thinks we have a very smart horse with a lot of potential, which is very exciting :))
Next up was JAS Eventing at Arena UK with Izzy last Saturday. She'd already qualified for the Open Finals at Hartpury so we thought we would try to qualify for the Novice too. Stupidly we had her saddle re-flocked (but not on site!) on Friday as it was sitting to the left and it turned out not to fit properly, and poor Izzy can't cope if her saddle is slightly out of place! She actually jumped really well in the Novice but I got it slightly wrong to the roll top and she said no ...very unnecessary but we now know why. It was a complete shame because she would have come 4th without it and therefore would've qualified for the Finals! We were also entered in the open but that didn't got to plan at all ... I was having to make her jump the fences and we were taking off whenever she thought suitable. She took off about one and a half strides early to the biggest fence on the course, I landed it and then the saddle slipped left meaning I ended up hitting the floor directly on my left hip with some force and at speed! Poor Izzy was a bit shocked by it all but I got back on and trotted her around to make sure she was okay! I then had to drive 3 hours back home in severe pain and couldn't get out of the lorry when we did make it back to the yard! James had to lift me out!!
I have had a rather busy enhancement week (reading week for every other Uni!) with a Dressage and SJ clinic with John Bowen at Brook Farm last Friday. I was meant to take Holly and Jigsaw but Holly had a reaction to her flu jab, so Jigsaw got an extended lesson! It was so beneficial and John thinks we have a very smart horse with a lot of potential, which is very exciting :))
Next up was JAS Eventing at Arena UK with Izzy last Saturday. She'd already qualified for the Open Finals at Hartpury so we thought we would try to qualify for the Novice too. Stupidly we had her saddle re-flocked (but not on site!) on Friday as it was sitting to the left and it turned out not to fit properly, and poor Izzy can't cope if her saddle is slightly out of place! She actually jumped really well in the Novice but I got it slightly wrong to the roll top and she said no ...very unnecessary but we now know why. It was a complete shame because she would have come 4th without it and therefore would've qualified for the Finals! We were also entered in the open but that didn't got to plan at all ... I was having to make her jump the fences and we were taking off whenever she thought suitable. She took off about one and a half strides early to the biggest fence on the course, I landed it and then the saddle slipped left meaning I ended up hitting the floor directly on my left hip with some force and at speed! Poor Izzy was a bit shocked by it all but I got back on and trotted her around to make sure she was okay! I then had to drive 3 hours back home in severe pain and couldn't get out of the lorry when we did make it back to the yard! James had to lift me out!!
31st January 2016
Yesterday we took Holly and Izzy to Houghton Hall for some BE JAS. I haven't done JAS in a while and had kinda forgotten quite how spooky the courses were!
So, once I had got there and seen the course I was pretty confident Holly would not make it near the first fence, let alone around the whole course!!! Pessimistic I know, but it really was a big ask for her! How wrong I was though! She was absolutely storming in the warm up but I still wasn't convinced that we would get round the course! However when we went in she didn't bat an eyelid at anything! She has never been in an arena with glass the whole way round, nor one with a seating area, nor one with a warm up area just behind the seating area! And my Granny and Grandpa (who bred her and owns her) came to watch, so it was pretty never-wracking! But Holly did me unbelievably proud!! Jumping a beautiful and calm round for equal best style mark with just one unfortunate fence down and some time penalties, finishing just outside the placings in the 90cm! I was so proud of her and so completely shocked I actually had a little cry with happiness!! Clearly all our hard work and persistence is paying off!
Next up was Izzy in the Novice and Open (1m10 and 1m15). The Novice didn't go quite to plan with Izzy suddenly deciding everything was scary and so of course she had to spook at everything! But moving on from that she jumped such a nice round in the Open, with a really irritating fence down and a couple of time penalties to finish 2nd!! Meaning we have qualified for the JAS Finals at Hartpury!!!
Pretty good way to end January ...
Yesterday we took Holly and Izzy to Houghton Hall for some BE JAS. I haven't done JAS in a while and had kinda forgotten quite how spooky the courses were!
So, once I had got there and seen the course I was pretty confident Holly would not make it near the first fence, let alone around the whole course!!! Pessimistic I know, but it really was a big ask for her! How wrong I was though! She was absolutely storming in the warm up but I still wasn't convinced that we would get round the course! However when we went in she didn't bat an eyelid at anything! She has never been in an arena with glass the whole way round, nor one with a seating area, nor one with a warm up area just behind the seating area! And my Granny and Grandpa (who bred her and owns her) came to watch, so it was pretty never-wracking! But Holly did me unbelievably proud!! Jumping a beautiful and calm round for equal best style mark with just one unfortunate fence down and some time penalties, finishing just outside the placings in the 90cm! I was so proud of her and so completely shocked I actually had a little cry with happiness!! Clearly all our hard work and persistence is paying off!
Next up was Izzy in the Novice and Open (1m10 and 1m15). The Novice didn't go quite to plan with Izzy suddenly deciding everything was scary and so of course she had to spook at everything! But moving on from that she jumped such a nice round in the Open, with a really irritating fence down and a couple of time penalties to finish 2nd!! Meaning we have qualified for the JAS Finals at Hartpury!!!
Pretty good way to end January ...
28th January 2016
So, January has been pretty hectic but also very successful!! Since I can now drive myself to competitions (I passed my HGV on 8th January), I have been out with the horses pretty much every weekend - and poor James has been upgraded from Boyfriend to Groom as Mum is on crutches following an operation!
Holly needs a season ticket to Topthorn Arena now as we have been there a fair few times this month. She has only been jumping quite small (up to 95cm) to keep it easy for her. But she has improved hugely in just a couple of weeks and has qualified for the Sunshine Tour at Hickstead in September! Holly is jumping courses very calmly and carefully now - she's a completely changed horse! We also took her to do some Arena Eventing at Topthorn which proved most beneficial as there were scary brushes and sandbags for her to spook at!
Holly and Izzy have also been practising their Stressage with the help of Liz Mills. Izzy is just a babe! She is going better than ever - I know that I keep saying this about her, but it's just because she really does keep getting better and better! I've just got to work on my fitness now so that I can sit to her trot now that it's even bigger and more powerful!! And Holly is improving hugely, although for her dressage really is stressage! Her trot work is vastly improved, it's just her canter work that needs working on, but this is very dependent on her mood each day!
I'm so excited about these 2 horses and the season ahead because they have both improved so much in such a short space of time!
So, January has been pretty hectic but also very successful!! Since I can now drive myself to competitions (I passed my HGV on 8th January), I have been out with the horses pretty much every weekend - and poor James has been upgraded from Boyfriend to Groom as Mum is on crutches following an operation!
Holly needs a season ticket to Topthorn Arena now as we have been there a fair few times this month. She has only been jumping quite small (up to 95cm) to keep it easy for her. But she has improved hugely in just a couple of weeks and has qualified for the Sunshine Tour at Hickstead in September! Holly is jumping courses very calmly and carefully now - she's a completely changed horse! We also took her to do some Arena Eventing at Topthorn which proved most beneficial as there were scary brushes and sandbags for her to spook at!
Holly and Izzy have also been practising their Stressage with the help of Liz Mills. Izzy is just a babe! She is going better than ever - I know that I keep saying this about her, but it's just because she really does keep getting better and better! I've just got to work on my fitness now so that I can sit to her trot now that it's even bigger and more powerful!! And Holly is improving hugely, although for her dressage really is stressage! Her trot work is vastly improved, it's just her canter work that needs working on, but this is very dependent on her mood each day!
I'm so excited about these 2 horses and the season ahead because they have both improved so much in such a short space of time!
4th January 2016
We took Izzy to the Norfolk Show Jumping Club BS Seniors show at Easton College yesterday. Apart from there being hundreds of entries (my first class scheduled to start 'not before 1.00pm' did not actually start until around 3.30pm - I finally finished my two classes at 6pm and they still had 2 classes to go!!), it was also very cold wet and windy - we have been so lucky with the weather at all the events that we have been to over the past 2-3 years that I had forgotten what it is like to get quite so cold and wet!!
Having not jumped Izzy competitively since Norton Disney in October, it took as both a bit of time to get back into the swing of things so the 1m10 class did not go quite according to plan! However, things took a big turn for the better in the 1m15 and we finished up in 6th place - well pleased.
We took Izzy to the Norfolk Show Jumping Club BS Seniors show at Easton College yesterday. Apart from there being hundreds of entries (my first class scheduled to start 'not before 1.00pm' did not actually start until around 3.30pm - I finally finished my two classes at 6pm and they still had 2 classes to go!!), it was also very cold wet and windy - we have been so lucky with the weather at all the events that we have been to over the past 2-3 years that I had forgotten what it is like to get quite so cold and wet!!
Having not jumped Izzy competitively since Norton Disney in October, it took as both a bit of time to get back into the swing of things so the 1m10 class did not go quite according to plan! However, things took a big turn for the better in the 1m15 and we finished up in 6th place - well pleased.
2nd January 2016
I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas and New Year and is looking forward to 2016 because I certainly am!
Holly has been having intensive flatwork and jumping practise in order to get her ready for the start of the 2016 eventing season and Izzy and I have been focusing on dressage together!
Marmalade came home to us two weeks ago but hasn't been very well having picked up a nasty streptococcal bacterial infection and massive girth galls whilst she was away, so she is spending a bit of time in the field and will continue her education in the next few weeks in order to get her out eventing this season too!
I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas and New Year and is looking forward to 2016 because I certainly am!
Holly has been having intensive flatwork and jumping practise in order to get her ready for the start of the 2016 eventing season and Izzy and I have been focusing on dressage together!
Marmalade came home to us two weeks ago but hasn't been very well having picked up a nasty streptococcal bacterial infection and massive girth galls whilst she was away, so she is spending a bit of time in the field and will continue her education in the next few weeks in order to get her out eventing this season too!
29th December 2015
We took Holly to the Waveney Harriers Pony Club Christmas Showjumping at Topthorn yesterday. She was a little freaked out by all the little ponies bombing around the collecting ring and doing handbrake turns in front of her, but managed to keep her head in the ring and jumped really well, getting better in each class as the fences got bigger, culminating in a lovely clear round for 8th place in the 85cms speed class (we didn't go fast!!).
She is really beginning to make some progress now and I am looking forward to getting her out more frequently and hopefully eventing again in the Spring. In the meantime we continue to blood test her regularly to ensure that we have her ulcers under control, especially at this time of year when turnout is more limited and she decides to become a seriously fussy eater!!
We took Holly to the Waveney Harriers Pony Club Christmas Showjumping at Topthorn yesterday. She was a little freaked out by all the little ponies bombing around the collecting ring and doing handbrake turns in front of her, but managed to keep her head in the ring and jumped really well, getting better in each class as the fences got bigger, culminating in a lovely clear round for 8th place in the 85cms speed class (we didn't go fast!!).
She is really beginning to make some progress now and I am looking forward to getting her out more frequently and hopefully eventing again in the Spring. In the meantime we continue to blood test her regularly to ensure that we have her ulcers under control, especially at this time of year when turnout is more limited and she decides to become a seriously fussy eater!!
24th December 2015
I went hunting today with the Essex & Suffolk Hunt at Shrublands. Had a good day jumping lots of ditches and Jigsaw was very good although he wasn't sure about little ponies running up his backside! It was a trifle muddy (to say the least) and poor Lu who came with me on a hireling managed to lose 3 shoes!! In the meantime Mum was making a quick dash to Rossdales in Newmarket with a swab from Marmalade for testing ... more about that later.
I went hunting today with the Essex & Suffolk Hunt at Shrublands. Had a good day jumping lots of ditches and Jigsaw was very good although he wasn't sure about little ponies running up his backside! It was a trifle muddy (to say the least) and poor Lu who came with me on a hireling managed to lose 3 shoes!! In the meantime Mum was making a quick dash to Rossdales in Newmarket with a swab from Marmalade for testing ... more about that later.
30th November 2015
Yesterday I had my second day of training with Liz Mills in as many months. The training took place at Easton Park Stud (for more information check out Optimum Event Management's website). Last time I took Izzy and Marmalade who were both stars. This time I took Holly, Izzy and Jigsaw.
First up was Holly. She has had some down time recently following her blood test after Stratford Hills, which showed increased liver enzyme levels - an indicator that her ulcers were playing up. We treated her accordingly and upped her Protexin AcidEase to "loading" dose and 3 weeks later her bloods were much improved. She is showing the potential to be seriously good, if we can just persuade her to work with me rather than getting stressed and thinking she can't do it - because actually she can!
Finally it was Izzy's turn. I cannot tell you how much fun she is now - she is showing so much more engagement, lightness and self-carriage and her lateral work has improved as well - she actually seriously crosses her legs when going sideways now!
I plan to keep working through the winter with Liz to improve my riding and my horses' way of going and am super excited for 2016.
Yesterday I had my second day of training with Liz Mills in as many months. The training took place at Easton Park Stud (for more information check out Optimum Event Management's website). Last time I took Izzy and Marmalade who were both stars. This time I took Holly, Izzy and Jigsaw.
First up was Holly. She has had some down time recently following her blood test after Stratford Hills, which showed increased liver enzyme levels - an indicator that her ulcers were playing up. We treated her accordingly and upped her Protexin AcidEase to "loading" dose and 3 weeks later her bloods were much improved. She is showing the potential to be seriously good, if we can just persuade her to work with me rather than getting stressed and thinking she can't do it - because actually she can!
Finally it was Izzy's turn. I cannot tell you how much fun she is now - she is showing so much more engagement, lightness and self-carriage and her lateral work has improved as well - she actually seriously crosses her legs when going sideways now!
I plan to keep working through the winter with Liz to improve my riding and my horses' way of going and am super excited for 2016.
4th November 2015
So Norton Disney a couple of weeks ago saw my 2015 eventing season come to an end!
We thought we would give LADY BOUNCE a nice easy run round the Novice there. Her dressage was much improved but the judge didn't think so, leaving us mid way through the section. But she jumped an insane clear SJ (obviously appreciating the fact it was a bit smaller again), 2 years after our first clear round Novice here too which was nice!
I really thought this was the event I was going to get a good placing but it wasn't meant to be! XC she was flying as per usual until fence 6 (I think) which was a log to a skinny mushroom to another skinny mushroom on a left hand turn. We jumped the first two really well and had turned and got the line to the third, then one stride out I felt her back end just completely disappear, so poor Izzy couldn't make it over the fence, giving us a very unfortunate and very undeserved 20 penalties! In the past she would've kept going and been able to get out of any situation but this is just proof that she is now compromised from her previous injuries!
Anyway, onwards and upwards! I was thrilled with her, but at the same time totally gutted for her too! At the beginning of this year I didn't think I was ever going to ride her again let alone compete her or even complete our first 1* or first Intermediate together! So whilst this season doesn't look amazing on our record, she has tried her heart out for me over and over, for which I'm forever grateful!
We've got a few aims for next year, assuming that she stays sound and that ground conditions permit, before probably retiring this gorgeous girly to have baby Izzy's! Here's to the winter of training and then the 2016 season!
So Norton Disney a couple of weeks ago saw my 2015 eventing season come to an end!
We thought we would give LADY BOUNCE a nice easy run round the Novice there. Her dressage was much improved but the judge didn't think so, leaving us mid way through the section. But she jumped an insane clear SJ (obviously appreciating the fact it was a bit smaller again), 2 years after our first clear round Novice here too which was nice!
I really thought this was the event I was going to get a good placing but it wasn't meant to be! XC she was flying as per usual until fence 6 (I think) which was a log to a skinny mushroom to another skinny mushroom on a left hand turn. We jumped the first two really well and had turned and got the line to the third, then one stride out I felt her back end just completely disappear, so poor Izzy couldn't make it over the fence, giving us a very unfortunate and very undeserved 20 penalties! In the past she would've kept going and been able to get out of any situation but this is just proof that she is now compromised from her previous injuries!
Anyway, onwards and upwards! I was thrilled with her, but at the same time totally gutted for her too! At the beginning of this year I didn't think I was ever going to ride her again let alone compete her or even complete our first 1* or first Intermediate together! So whilst this season doesn't look amazing on our record, she has tried her heart out for me over and over, for which I'm forever grateful!
We've got a few aims for next year, assuming that she stays sound and that ground conditions permit, before probably retiring this gorgeous girly to have baby Izzy's! Here's to the winter of training and then the 2016 season!
31st October 2015
** FOR SALE **
Grassroots Potential / All Rounder
5yr old 15.2hh by Young Ern out of mare by Pulsingh
Excellent prospect for someone looking for a smart genuine unspoilt young horse with the potential to make an excellent grassroots prospect, PC/RC all rounder or Intermediate show horse.
‘Marmalade’ was purchased from her breeder as an unbroken 4yr old in September 2014 as a project for my daughter during her gap year. Her dam was successfully shown both in hand and under saddle and is full sister to Wilderness II who evented to CCI** level.
Marmalade proved willing and easy to back and was taken out hunting before being turned away for a couple of months whilst her jockey recovered from surgery. She has been brought on slowly, attending clinics, cross country schooling, showjumping (both indoor and outdoor), eventer trials and hunter trials. She is honest and straightforward and happily jumps coloured fences, cross country fences, ditches and water etc. without problem. Still a little green but very genuine and ready to progress further.
Easy to do in every way - good to handle, box, clip, shoe etc. Hacks alone or in company, as well as ride and lead. Snaffle mouth. No vices and absolutely not mareish in any way.
Only for sale as now at University.
£4,500 ono. Call 07957 623351
** FOR SALE **
Grassroots Potential / All Rounder
5yr old 15.2hh by Young Ern out of mare by Pulsingh
Excellent prospect for someone looking for a smart genuine unspoilt young horse with the potential to make an excellent grassroots prospect, PC/RC all rounder or Intermediate show horse.
‘Marmalade’ was purchased from her breeder as an unbroken 4yr old in September 2014 as a project for my daughter during her gap year. Her dam was successfully shown both in hand and under saddle and is full sister to Wilderness II who evented to CCI** level.
Marmalade proved willing and easy to back and was taken out hunting before being turned away for a couple of months whilst her jockey recovered from surgery. She has been brought on slowly, attending clinics, cross country schooling, showjumping (both indoor and outdoor), eventer trials and hunter trials. She is honest and straightforward and happily jumps coloured fences, cross country fences, ditches and water etc. without problem. Still a little green but very genuine and ready to progress further.
Easy to do in every way - good to handle, box, clip, shoe etc. Hacks alone or in company, as well as ride and lead. Snaffle mouth. No vices and absolutely not mareish in any way.
Only for sale as now at University.
£4,500 ono. Call 07957 623351
30th October 2015
Having been rather over excited about the fact that Izzy and I finally completed an Intermediate, I forgot to mention that the two ginger babies had been out competing!
WARMINGTON BEAUTY (Marmalade) and HIGH HOLLOA (Holly) both went to Poplar Park for an eventer trial where they both jumped lovely clears SJ and then Marmalade was amazing xc with just a couple of baby stops and an attempt at side stepping round the water, but this was only her second time seeing XC fences! Holly wouldn't go near the first fence but once we'd conquered that, she flew the rest of the course, only making me get off to lead her through the water once!
Since then Marmalade has been to 3 hunter trials, and has gone from trotting cautiously over XC fences and side stepping round water, to cantering confidently over the fences and even cantering through the water jumps! She's really started to come into her own and is showing some enthusiasm for life now, with a couple of attempts at bucks!! Nothing nasty at all, just nice that she's finding XC exciting! She is now FOR SALE though. I have no doubt that she will make a super smart Grassroots horse in the future!
Holly on the other hand has had an up and then a down. She stormed round the pairs XC at Poplar, going straight through both waters, even leading through one, which was a massive step in the right direction! But then at Stratford Hills she decided that every fence was frightfully scary and that she could not possibly leave her "friends" in the collecting ring!
We are going to get her back checked and also blood test her again to see if there is a physical reason for this behaviour.
Having been rather over excited about the fact that Izzy and I finally completed an Intermediate, I forgot to mention that the two ginger babies had been out competing!
WARMINGTON BEAUTY (Marmalade) and HIGH HOLLOA (Holly) both went to Poplar Park for an eventer trial where they both jumped lovely clears SJ and then Marmalade was amazing xc with just a couple of baby stops and an attempt at side stepping round the water, but this was only her second time seeing XC fences! Holly wouldn't go near the first fence but once we'd conquered that, she flew the rest of the course, only making me get off to lead her through the water once!
Since then Marmalade has been to 3 hunter trials, and has gone from trotting cautiously over XC fences and side stepping round water, to cantering confidently over the fences and even cantering through the water jumps! She's really started to come into her own and is showing some enthusiasm for life now, with a couple of attempts at bucks!! Nothing nasty at all, just nice that she's finding XC exciting! She is now FOR SALE though. I have no doubt that she will make a super smart Grassroots horse in the future!
Holly on the other hand has had an up and then a down. She stormed round the pairs XC at Poplar, going straight through both waters, even leading through one, which was a massive step in the right direction! But then at Stratford Hills she decided that every fence was frightfully scary and that she could not possibly leave her "friends" in the collecting ring!
We are going to get her back checked and also blood test her again to see if there is a physical reason for this behaviour.
21st October 2015
Moving quickly on from the disaster that was South of England, Izzy and I had Little Downham Intermediate, only a week later.
We changed her feed, back to how it was and also changed her SJ and XC bit to a metal version.
The day started off pretty crap as I couldn’t get Izzy to soften whilst warming up for dressage. She just kept leaning on my reins and wouldn’t engage at all! I was so frustrated and just thought that this was going to be the start to another really bad attempt at Intermediate Level, and that maybe I should just give up trying and stick to Novice. Bit dramatic, I know, but when you’ve had the amount of setbacks that I’ve had and it’s taken soooo long to get to Intermediate Level, it seems reasonable! So we got a pretty rubbish mark of 40.5, but as I gave up riding the test, that’s fair enough!
With all that negativity, off I went to walk the XC course…it seemed a really nice course and as I was walking round I couldn’t help but think that I would be absolutely gutted if I didn’t make it round this one! So, courtesy of my amazing boyfriend, and now apparently, motivator too, I changed my mindset completely and really thought that I could do this!! Izzy and I were going to go clear no matter what! And I say no matter what because it was absolutely chucking it down…we were completely soaked through from walking the course! It may sound odd and not at all plausible to some, but I really believe that if you honestly think you can do something, then you can do it!! I had also been telling myself that Izzy and I were going to have no more than 2 fences down in the SJ…but we will come to that in a bit!
So on to the SJ…on my record it doesn’t look great, but in reality Izzy jumped the best she has ever ever jumped!! We had an unfortunate 2 fences down, as I didn’t jump big in the collecting ring and so poor Iz was rather shocked by the size of the fences in the arena! She was absolutely flying though! So much so that I got really carried away and went for a long one that just was not there at a rather large oxer, and Izzy, quite rightly, said I really can’t do that mum! And because I was very committed to jumping on that stride, I decided to practice my dismounting. I got back on straight away and came round again and she really flew it, and then jumped incredibly through the treble to finish! I was so proud of her because she could easily have said no after my major mess up! Overall we unfortunately ended up with 20 jumping and 20 time, so 40 on our record but I know how insane she was AND we only had 2 fences down! Next time I’m gonna think CLEAR haha!!
On to the XC then, and I was on a real high despite the cricket score! I set off slowly, so as not to have a lack of brakes again, and WOW! Nothing else to say really! We stormed round! She hit a couple of fences in front to start off with, due to lots of over enthusiasm, but once we got into our rhythm she was INSANE!!! And now I can finally say that I have gone CLEAR ROUND INTERMEDIATE LEVEL!!!! Half way round the course I realised it was going well, and from then on I had a huge Cheshire Cat grin on my face, which didn’t disappear for a long time!!!
I would just like to say a massive thank you to Tina Ure at Ely Eventing Centre for yet another amazingly run event, to Tiggas Saddlery for your support as I was sooo nervous about this event, to my amazing boyfriend James Bleese, for kicking my butt into gear and making me be positive, and to my incredible mum Caroline Freeman, without whom none of my eventing career or even riding would be possible! One more event to go…!
Moving quickly on from the disaster that was South of England, Izzy and I had Little Downham Intermediate, only a week later.
We changed her feed, back to how it was and also changed her SJ and XC bit to a metal version.
The day started off pretty crap as I couldn’t get Izzy to soften whilst warming up for dressage. She just kept leaning on my reins and wouldn’t engage at all! I was so frustrated and just thought that this was going to be the start to another really bad attempt at Intermediate Level, and that maybe I should just give up trying and stick to Novice. Bit dramatic, I know, but when you’ve had the amount of setbacks that I’ve had and it’s taken soooo long to get to Intermediate Level, it seems reasonable! So we got a pretty rubbish mark of 40.5, but as I gave up riding the test, that’s fair enough!
With all that negativity, off I went to walk the XC course…it seemed a really nice course and as I was walking round I couldn’t help but think that I would be absolutely gutted if I didn’t make it round this one! So, courtesy of my amazing boyfriend, and now apparently, motivator too, I changed my mindset completely and really thought that I could do this!! Izzy and I were going to go clear no matter what! And I say no matter what because it was absolutely chucking it down…we were completely soaked through from walking the course! It may sound odd and not at all plausible to some, but I really believe that if you honestly think you can do something, then you can do it!! I had also been telling myself that Izzy and I were going to have no more than 2 fences down in the SJ…but we will come to that in a bit!
So on to the SJ…on my record it doesn’t look great, but in reality Izzy jumped the best she has ever ever jumped!! We had an unfortunate 2 fences down, as I didn’t jump big in the collecting ring and so poor Iz was rather shocked by the size of the fences in the arena! She was absolutely flying though! So much so that I got really carried away and went for a long one that just was not there at a rather large oxer, and Izzy, quite rightly, said I really can’t do that mum! And because I was very committed to jumping on that stride, I decided to practice my dismounting. I got back on straight away and came round again and she really flew it, and then jumped incredibly through the treble to finish! I was so proud of her because she could easily have said no after my major mess up! Overall we unfortunately ended up with 20 jumping and 20 time, so 40 on our record but I know how insane she was AND we only had 2 fences down! Next time I’m gonna think CLEAR haha!!
On to the XC then, and I was on a real high despite the cricket score! I set off slowly, so as not to have a lack of brakes again, and WOW! Nothing else to say really! We stormed round! She hit a couple of fences in front to start off with, due to lots of over enthusiasm, but once we got into our rhythm she was INSANE!!! And now I can finally say that I have gone CLEAR ROUND INTERMEDIATE LEVEL!!!! Half way round the course I realised it was going well, and from then on I had a huge Cheshire Cat grin on my face, which didn’t disappear for a long time!!!
I would just like to say a massive thank you to Tina Ure at Ely Eventing Centre for yet another amazingly run event, to Tiggas Saddlery for your support as I was sooo nervous about this event, to my amazing boyfriend James Bleese, for kicking my butt into gear and making me be positive, and to my incredible mum Caroline Freeman, without whom none of my eventing career or even riding would be possible! One more event to go…!
16th October 2015
So far I've written 280 words of my 1500 word essay for tomorrow but doing updates is much more fun!
On Friday 25th September I had two dressage lessons with Liz Mills on Izzy and Holly. Having spent a week away at uni I got on Izzy and she felt amazing! My new Albion dressage saddle from Mill Saddlery and Riding Wear is like a god-send!! I can finally do sitting trot on my stupidly long striding horse! We focussed on the movements for my Intermediate test for South of England 2 days later and Izzy was finding them quite easy, and I was really starting to feel like I had the Izzy I know back.
Holly is really starting to come on and I can actually ride her without either of us falling out with one another! She is an out and out fiery but stubborn thoroughbred chestnut mare! However she’s really talented so we will let her off! Her balance is finally starting to improve and she’s therefore finding it much easier to carry herself in trot and even in canter now too. Her stressheadness (yes that is a word!) is also finally starting to slowly disappear meaning we can have a productive schooling session at last .
That evening I also took the other ginger nut, Marmalade, out to Topthorn for a bit of SJ. She did the 70cm and 75cm and managed her first whole course in canter! Her XC schooling outing did her the world of good and she’s found a new lease of life, actually taking me to fences now, which is far from the horse I backed last year, or even brought back into work earlier this year! Marmy is really starting to turn into a nice little horse and (sadly) she is actually going to be FOR SALE/LOAN/LEASE shortly.
Next up was South of England Intermediate with LADY BOUNCE. This was my second attempt at Intermediate level (first one was a week after dislocating my knee cap and so didn't go entirely to plan) and Izzy's first time at this level. This attempt also didn't go too well!!
She warmed up incredibly for the dressage, but I did a few too many canter to walk and walk to canter transitions and so she got a bit lit up in the test! However we managed to get a mark of 37.3 with lots of room for improvements.
The SJ collecting ring and ring itself were really dug up by the time we jumped towards the end of the day and so the ground was quite holding. Due to Izzy's previous injuries she is hugely compromised on this kind of ground and she really did not enjoy herself! We had a disagreement at every fence as to what stride we were going on, resulting in us having an appalling and very uncharacteristic 5 fences down!
I decided to run XC anyway because that is our strong point, and it was a really nice course! However, I very quickly found out that I had major braking issues! We got to the third fence, a big narrow box into water which she just charged at without taking note of it and then stopped. Izzy never stops, so I came round again and she jumped it ok, and scrambled over the one out, tipping me out of the saddle but thankfully I stayed on! I just saw the ground getting closer and thought, oh great, here I go again! I kept a firm hold of her from then on and she jumped the next 4 or so really really well, until we got to a slightly offset double of hedges, but nothing that should be of any trouble to us. However we jumped the first and then Iz just hooked off left, completely by passing the second part. I thought she may settle so carried on, but again with a firm hold of the reins! We jumped the middle part of the course really well, until we got to the coffin, where she jumped in nicely, then launched over the ditch and landed in a heap and then proceeded to hook off to the left again, again completely by passing the third element. So unfortunately we got a big fat E on our record! Although technically she didn’t actually run out, I was just nowhere near the fences and had to turn circles in combinations.
I was really upset and disappointed on the long walk back to the lorry, but by the time I got back I was fine because I knew this was so unlike Izzy and there must be an explanation as to why my brakes suddenly failed at this event! Mum and I realised that we had been feeding her up because we were jumping bigger fences so thought she might need it, and so the plan was to immediately stop that in the hope that a week later at Little Downham I would have brakes again!
So far I've written 280 words of my 1500 word essay for tomorrow but doing updates is much more fun!
On Friday 25th September I had two dressage lessons with Liz Mills on Izzy and Holly. Having spent a week away at uni I got on Izzy and she felt amazing! My new Albion dressage saddle from Mill Saddlery and Riding Wear is like a god-send!! I can finally do sitting trot on my stupidly long striding horse! We focussed on the movements for my Intermediate test for South of England 2 days later and Izzy was finding them quite easy, and I was really starting to feel like I had the Izzy I know back.
Holly is really starting to come on and I can actually ride her without either of us falling out with one another! She is an out and out fiery but stubborn thoroughbred chestnut mare! However she’s really talented so we will let her off! Her balance is finally starting to improve and she’s therefore finding it much easier to carry herself in trot and even in canter now too. Her stressheadness (yes that is a word!) is also finally starting to slowly disappear meaning we can have a productive schooling session at last .
That evening I also took the other ginger nut, Marmalade, out to Topthorn for a bit of SJ. She did the 70cm and 75cm and managed her first whole course in canter! Her XC schooling outing did her the world of good and she’s found a new lease of life, actually taking me to fences now, which is far from the horse I backed last year, or even brought back into work earlier this year! Marmy is really starting to turn into a nice little horse and (sadly) she is actually going to be FOR SALE/LOAN/LEASE shortly.
Next up was South of England Intermediate with LADY BOUNCE. This was my second attempt at Intermediate level (first one was a week after dislocating my knee cap and so didn't go entirely to plan) and Izzy's first time at this level. This attempt also didn't go too well!!
She warmed up incredibly for the dressage, but I did a few too many canter to walk and walk to canter transitions and so she got a bit lit up in the test! However we managed to get a mark of 37.3 with lots of room for improvements.
The SJ collecting ring and ring itself were really dug up by the time we jumped towards the end of the day and so the ground was quite holding. Due to Izzy's previous injuries she is hugely compromised on this kind of ground and she really did not enjoy herself! We had a disagreement at every fence as to what stride we were going on, resulting in us having an appalling and very uncharacteristic 5 fences down!
I decided to run XC anyway because that is our strong point, and it was a really nice course! However, I very quickly found out that I had major braking issues! We got to the third fence, a big narrow box into water which she just charged at without taking note of it and then stopped. Izzy never stops, so I came round again and she jumped it ok, and scrambled over the one out, tipping me out of the saddle but thankfully I stayed on! I just saw the ground getting closer and thought, oh great, here I go again! I kept a firm hold of her from then on and she jumped the next 4 or so really really well, until we got to a slightly offset double of hedges, but nothing that should be of any trouble to us. However we jumped the first and then Iz just hooked off left, completely by passing the second part. I thought she may settle so carried on, but again with a firm hold of the reins! We jumped the middle part of the course really well, until we got to the coffin, where she jumped in nicely, then launched over the ditch and landed in a heap and then proceeded to hook off to the left again, again completely by passing the third element. So unfortunately we got a big fat E on our record! Although technically she didn’t actually run out, I was just nowhere near the fences and had to turn circles in combinations.
I was really upset and disappointed on the long walk back to the lorry, but by the time I got back I was fine because I knew this was so unlike Izzy and there must be an explanation as to why my brakes suddenly failed at this event! Mum and I realised that we had been feeding her up because we were jumping bigger fences so thought she might need it, and so the plan was to immediately stop that in the hope that a week later at Little Downham I would have brakes again!
15th October 2015
Next up it was the babies’ turn! We took HIGH HOLLOA and WARMINGTON BEAUTY (the two ginger nuts) to a XC Schooling day at Little’s Farm, Shalford. If you haven’t been, it’s a really good place to take youngsters to, as they have set schooling days and you can go round the whole course, but jump whatever you like!
Megan Rodwell very kindly rode my lovely girlie Marmalade who had never seen a xc fence before! It started off quite eventfully as I managed to have quite a heavy fall off Holly in the warm up area when she launched over a tiny log and then jumped sideways on landing. Now bearing in mind she is an ex-race horse, there isn’t much beneath you and she’s pretty quick at moving sideways! I almost clung on, but I think that made it worse as when I did fall off I landed on my hip and she trod on my leg, leaving me feeling dizzy for about 10 minutes! Thanks to some chocolate fingers and water I was back raring to go though and Holly was oblivious to what had happened.
In this time, Megan had taken Marmalade off by herself and jumped lots of little fences, no questions asked! They both made it through the water, with Marmalade, having never seen a water jump before, leading Holly through! Although Marmy did try to side-step around the very small verge!
All in all they were both amazing ponios! I was so proud of Marmalade, as she is so willing to do anything you ask of her and just has the nicest attitude towards life! And Holly’s aim was to get through the water, which we did. And she even coped with a lot of other horses around her!
Next up it was the babies’ turn! We took HIGH HOLLOA and WARMINGTON BEAUTY (the two ginger nuts) to a XC Schooling day at Little’s Farm, Shalford. If you haven’t been, it’s a really good place to take youngsters to, as they have set schooling days and you can go round the whole course, but jump whatever you like!
Megan Rodwell very kindly rode my lovely girlie Marmalade who had never seen a xc fence before! It started off quite eventfully as I managed to have quite a heavy fall off Holly in the warm up area when she launched over a tiny log and then jumped sideways on landing. Now bearing in mind she is an ex-race horse, there isn’t much beneath you and she’s pretty quick at moving sideways! I almost clung on, but I think that made it worse as when I did fall off I landed on my hip and she trod on my leg, leaving me feeling dizzy for about 10 minutes! Thanks to some chocolate fingers and water I was back raring to go though and Holly was oblivious to what had happened.
In this time, Megan had taken Marmalade off by herself and jumped lots of little fences, no questions asked! They both made it through the water, with Marmalade, having never seen a water jump before, leading Holly through! Although Marmy did try to side-step around the very small verge!
All in all they were both amazing ponios! I was so proud of Marmalade, as she is so willing to do anything you ask of her and just has the nicest attitude towards life! And Holly’s aim was to get through the water, which we did. And she even coped with a lot of other horses around her!
14th October 2015
Sorry it's been a while again!! I'll continue with the updates as I've been up to lots recently with the youngsters.
After Firle, I had a few weeks off as Mum and I went to Blair Castle for the FEI European Eventing Championships, which was great fun, albeit rather cold and wet!!
My next event after that was the Pony Club Eventer Challenge at Blenheim Palace with LADY BOUNCE. Our Easton Harriers team actually did quite well this year which was a nice change, as Blenheim is often one of those places where it never quite all goes to plan on the day! This was my third attempt at the Eventer Challenge, and second time in the Pony Club one, with both attempts before resulting in 4 faults! I thought this was going to be somewhere I could never go clear, but guess what…Izzy pulled it out of the bag!! It was quite small for her but that’s often when she doesn’t bother to pick her feet up so I was chuffed! Although, for such a long striding horse, I managed to get a time penalty!! I must have been setting up so much in order to try and go clear that I ended up 1 second too slow! But anyway, we were pretty happy as she jumped her little socks off, which stood us in good stead for our the prospect of our FIRST EVER INTERMEDIATE a few weeks later!!!
Sorry it's been a while again!! I'll continue with the updates as I've been up to lots recently with the youngsters.
After Firle, I had a few weeks off as Mum and I went to Blair Castle for the FEI European Eventing Championships, which was great fun, albeit rather cold and wet!!
My next event after that was the Pony Club Eventer Challenge at Blenheim Palace with LADY BOUNCE. Our Easton Harriers team actually did quite well this year which was a nice change, as Blenheim is often one of those places where it never quite all goes to plan on the day! This was my third attempt at the Eventer Challenge, and second time in the Pony Club one, with both attempts before resulting in 4 faults! I thought this was going to be somewhere I could never go clear, but guess what…Izzy pulled it out of the bag!! It was quite small for her but that’s often when she doesn’t bother to pick her feet up so I was chuffed! Although, for such a long striding horse, I managed to get a time penalty!! I must have been setting up so much in order to try and go clear that I ended up 1 second too slow! But anyway, we were pretty happy as she jumped her little socks off, which stood us in good stead for our the prospect of our FIRST EVER INTERMEDIATE a few weeks later!!!
30th September 2015
EVENT UPDATE NUMBER 2:
On 29th/30th August mum drove us all the way to Firle Place for mine and LADY BOUNCE’s first CIC*. We did our dressage on the Saturday and this was my first time wearing my tails from Tiggas Saddlery! They are amazing and I felt so smart! This was also our first sitting trot test….and for anyone who knows Izzy, you will know that sitting to her trot is nigh on impossible because she has such a long stride! We were near the end of the section and I don’t think we managed to wow the judges in a good way…more like wow them with how bad we were haha!! I couldn’t get her connected enough and the arena was on a slight slope which inevitably did not help our cause! Izzy also thought that the cameraman clicking away was of far more interest than doing any of the poncey dressage movements! :S So we ended up with a mark of 59.8 (FEI marking). But it was still sub-60 so I was happy!
Then on the Sunday we had the SJ and XC. The SJ was causing a lot of problems, with clears few and far between because the course was built up-to height, in a sloping arena, with trade stands literally 5 metres away from every side of the arena. This didn’t bode well for Izzy and I, because she found the atmosphere a bit too buzzy, and jumping directly towards trade stands and crowds was rather off putting. She actually jumped quite well, but we ended up with 4 down, as she just rolled them all behind through lack of concentration!
Despite our not so great attempt at the SJ, I decided to run her XC and just see how we got on because this is usually her best phase by far. And what a good decision that was!! I’d walked the course and thought it was a fair ask for a 1*, but the first half was pretty simple, and then the second half was combination after combination after combination, all with skinnies and off set fences. Izzy flew round the course making nothing of it, and even when I rode like a plonker she never once drifted off our lines or thought about not going through the flags!!
Overall, despite our performance not looking great on paper, we were really pleased with how she went as it was only her third event back this year, and we had plenty to learn from it! I have also now FINALLY completed my first 1*, finishing in the top half too, and to do it with Izzy is amazing because we have been through a lot together!!
EVENT UPDATE NUMBER 2:
On 29th/30th August mum drove us all the way to Firle Place for mine and LADY BOUNCE’s first CIC*. We did our dressage on the Saturday and this was my first time wearing my tails from Tiggas Saddlery! They are amazing and I felt so smart! This was also our first sitting trot test….and for anyone who knows Izzy, you will know that sitting to her trot is nigh on impossible because she has such a long stride! We were near the end of the section and I don’t think we managed to wow the judges in a good way…more like wow them with how bad we were haha!! I couldn’t get her connected enough and the arena was on a slight slope which inevitably did not help our cause! Izzy also thought that the cameraman clicking away was of far more interest than doing any of the poncey dressage movements! :S So we ended up with a mark of 59.8 (FEI marking). But it was still sub-60 so I was happy!
Then on the Sunday we had the SJ and XC. The SJ was causing a lot of problems, with clears few and far between because the course was built up-to height, in a sloping arena, with trade stands literally 5 metres away from every side of the arena. This didn’t bode well for Izzy and I, because she found the atmosphere a bit too buzzy, and jumping directly towards trade stands and crowds was rather off putting. She actually jumped quite well, but we ended up with 4 down, as she just rolled them all behind through lack of concentration!
Despite our not so great attempt at the SJ, I decided to run her XC and just see how we got on because this is usually her best phase by far. And what a good decision that was!! I’d walked the course and thought it was a fair ask for a 1*, but the first half was pretty simple, and then the second half was combination after combination after combination, all with skinnies and off set fences. Izzy flew round the course making nothing of it, and even when I rode like a plonker she never once drifted off our lines or thought about not going through the flags!!
Overall, despite our performance not looking great on paper, we were really pleased with how she went as it was only her third event back this year, and we had plenty to learn from it! I have also now FINALLY completed my first 1*, finishing in the top half too, and to do it with Izzy is amazing because we have been through a lot together!!
28th September 2015
Hey guys, so here goes with the event updates! I have about a month's worth of excitement to update you all on!
EVENT UPDATE NUMBER 1:
On 23rd August we took HIGH HOLLOA to Great Witchingham to do her first ODE. We only did the little class (2ft6) as it was a whole new experience for her. She did an ok test to score 41.5 which was probably fair because her walk and trot work was nice but not overly relaxed, and her canter work didn't really exist!
Then being in an arena surrounded by banners and people was rather daunting for poor Holly and so we had 3 down, but she barely noticed the fences as they were so small!
Next was the fun bit...she absolutely stormed round the XC, being a bit babyish and green in places but always wanting to go! Until the water...anyone who knows Witchy will know that you have to go down a slope across the flowing river!! Considering she wasn't a fan of still water at this point, this was quite a big ask! I attempted to follow two other horses through with no luck! Someone then tried to lead me down, with no luck! Then mum tried to lead me through, even going in the water herself, but Holly being a chestnut mare was very stubborn and would not go through! So I got off...in my brand new riding boots...and she walked straight through with me!!!! Don't you just love ex-racehorse chestnuts mares!
So I got back on and walked her through the next water with no problem whatsoever, and then quietly cantered over the rest of the course! The organisers were very kind and waited for me to finish, because I had held up the class for quite a long time!!! :S
All in all it was a pretty good learning curve for both Holly and myself and hopefully she will have learnt a lot from it!
Hey guys, so here goes with the event updates! I have about a month's worth of excitement to update you all on!
EVENT UPDATE NUMBER 1:
On 23rd August we took HIGH HOLLOA to Great Witchingham to do her first ODE. We only did the little class (2ft6) as it was a whole new experience for her. She did an ok test to score 41.5 which was probably fair because her walk and trot work was nice but not overly relaxed, and her canter work didn't really exist!
Then being in an arena surrounded by banners and people was rather daunting for poor Holly and so we had 3 down, but she barely noticed the fences as they were so small!
Next was the fun bit...she absolutely stormed round the XC, being a bit babyish and green in places but always wanting to go! Until the water...anyone who knows Witchy will know that you have to go down a slope across the flowing river!! Considering she wasn't a fan of still water at this point, this was quite a big ask! I attempted to follow two other horses through with no luck! Someone then tried to lead me down, with no luck! Then mum tried to lead me through, even going in the water herself, but Holly being a chestnut mare was very stubborn and would not go through! So I got off...in my brand new riding boots...and she walked straight through with me!!!! Don't you just love ex-racehorse chestnuts mares!
So I got back on and walked her through the next water with no problem whatsoever, and then quietly cantered over the rest of the course! The organisers were very kind and waited for me to finish, because I had held up the class for quite a long time!!! :S
All in all it was a pretty good learning curve for both Holly and myself and hopefully she will have learnt a lot from it!
22nd September 2015
Sorry I haven't posted in nearly a month... life happened and I'm now at uni! However a lot has happened since the last update and so I do have lots to update you all on! I will do the updates as and when I can, in separate posts. In the meantime thank you all for your support, it really means a lot, and I hope that you enjoy my news!!
Sorry I haven't posted in nearly a month... life happened and I'm now at uni! However a lot has happened since the last update and so I do have lots to update you all on! I will do the updates as and when I can, in separate posts. In the meantime thank you all for your support, it really means a lot, and I hope that you enjoy my news!!
27th August 2015
Massive thank you to Liz Leggett from Mill Saddlery & Country Wear for coming out at short notice on Tuesday morning (when she got a cancellation) to fit Izzy and me with new jumping and dressage saddles. They are both amazing and I love them - not sure Mum was quite so happy though!!
Massive thank you to Liz Leggett from Mill Saddlery & Country Wear for coming out at short notice on Tuesday morning (when she got a cancellation) to fit Izzy and me with new jumping and dressage saddles. They are both amazing and I love them - not sure Mum was quite so happy though!!
27th August 2015
Now for something different - just little fun picture ...
This is Holly and Marmalade on a regular basis ... Unfortunately in Marmalade's case it has resulted in a bruised foot which means that she has had to have a few days off work and then only go in the school and not jump so we can't go back to Topthorn tomorrow evening. Hopefully she will be ok to go XC schooling at Boundary Farm on Monday ...
Now for something different - just little fun picture ...
This is Holly and Marmalade on a regular basis ... Unfortunately in Marmalade's case it has resulted in a bruised foot which means that she has had to have a few days off work and then only go in the school and not jump so we can't go back to Topthorn tomorrow evening. Hopefully she will be ok to go XC schooling at Boundary Farm on Monday ...
21st August 2015
Today I took Holly and Izzy to a XC schooling clinic at Ely Eventing Centre (Lt Downham) with John Bowen.
Holly and I started off a bit rusty and I was riding like a complete plonker so when she decided she didn't like a certain roll top with a hole at the bottom, I went flying out of the side door..twice! Not my finest moment! However I did at least prove that my Point Two Air Jacket is still working. After this little hiccup she then went on to be amazing for the rest of the session and even walked straight into the water (with a lead from another horse though) for the first time!
Next it was Izzy's turn and she was just insane all session!! She jumped everything so easily and made me feel like we were flying when we jumped both Intermediate water jumps! I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to be back out on her and the fact that she's feeling better than ever is just the icing on the cake!
All in all it was an awesome session with both of them and has made me feel a lot more confident about going Intermediate in a month with Izzy!
Today I took Holly and Izzy to a XC schooling clinic at Ely Eventing Centre (Lt Downham) with John Bowen.
Holly and I started off a bit rusty and I was riding like a complete plonker so when she decided she didn't like a certain roll top with a hole at the bottom, I went flying out of the side door..twice! Not my finest moment! However I did at least prove that my Point Two Air Jacket is still working. After this little hiccup she then went on to be amazing for the rest of the session and even walked straight into the water (with a lead from another horse though) for the first time!
Next it was Izzy's turn and she was just insane all session!! She jumped everything so easily and made me feel like we were flying when we jumped both Intermediate water jumps! I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to be back out on her and the fact that she's feeling better than ever is just the icing on the cake!
All in all it was an awesome session with both of them and has made me feel a lot more confident about going Intermediate in a month with Izzy!
12th August 2015
So ... we spent a good few hours in Rossdales yesterday having both Izzy and Felix re-assessed by Andy Bathe, resulting in some good news and some bad news ...
The good news is that Izzy is good to carry on competing so our next event will be Firle Place International CIC* and then to Burnham Market for our first ever Intermediate.
The bad news is that Felix is still not right and had to stay in overnight for treatment to be followed by 1 week box rest, 7 weeks pen turnout, review back at Rossdales and then, all being well, another 6 months in the field!! I guess it is just destined not to be ...
So ... we spent a good few hours in Rossdales yesterday having both Izzy and Felix re-assessed by Andy Bathe, resulting in some good news and some bad news ...
The good news is that Izzy is good to carry on competing so our next event will be Firle Place International CIC* and then to Burnham Market for our first ever Intermediate.
The bad news is that Felix is still not right and had to stay in overnight for treatment to be followed by 1 week box rest, 7 weeks pen turnout, review back at Rossdales and then, all being well, another 6 months in the field!! I guess it is just destined not to be ...
10th August 2015
We took Izzy to Chilham Castle yesterday to do our first BE event since Milton Keynes last August! I'd heard that it was quite a tough Novice XC course but we felt like having a challenge for our second event this year!
We took Izzy to Chilham Castle yesterday to do our first BE event since Milton Keynes last August! I'd heard that it was quite a tough Novice XC course but we felt like having a challenge for our second event this year!
Izzy looked very smart ready for the dressage in her new Tiggas Saddlery saddle cloth! My boots, hat, jacket, jodhpurs, basically anything we need, we always get from Tiggas, so a massive thank you to them for always being there when we need them!! We are looking forward to wearing our saddle cloth at many more events this season now!
Izzy did an ok test considering the slope, hardness and slipperiness of the arena to score 33.3, just had the planks down SJ as she was feeling really rather well and I didn't have much control or say in where we took off! But then she absolutely stormed round the XC course for another incredible clear, despite the really low sun (it was after 6pm!) meaning I couldn't see the water jump or the coffin! Sack the jockey though as I got a bit lost going to fence 13!
Absolutely love this mare, she tries her heart out for me all the time! Fingers crossed for the vet review tomorrow so that we can plan some more events!
Izzy did an ok test considering the slope, hardness and slipperiness of the arena to score 33.3, just had the planks down SJ as she was feeling really rather well and I didn't have much control or say in where we took off! But then she absolutely stormed round the XC course for another incredible clear, despite the really low sun (it was after 6pm!) meaning I couldn't see the water jump or the coffin! Sack the jockey though as I got a bit lost going to fence 13!
Absolutely love this mare, she tries her heart out for me all the time! Fingers crossed for the vet review tomorrow so that we can plan some more events!
31st July 2015
Marmalade, my gorgeous little chestnut mare, has had a major breakthrough this week with her jumping! I jumped her a couple of times at home and for the first time she just jumped what was in front of her without hesitating ....fillers, water trays, everything!!
So we decided to take her out for a little outing to Topthorn this evening! This was her first ever round of SJ so we kept it really small at only 60cm but she did really lovely clear and then just knocked the first fence in the jump off, meaning we came 3rd and she got her first rosette! I'm really excited about this little girly..next stop is XC schooling, and a few more jumping competitions, and then she will be FOR SALE as I'm off to uni.
Marmalade, my gorgeous little chestnut mare, has had a major breakthrough this week with her jumping! I jumped her a couple of times at home and for the first time she just jumped what was in front of her without hesitating ....fillers, water trays, everything!!
So we decided to take her out for a little outing to Topthorn this evening! This was her first ever round of SJ so we kept it really small at only 60cm but she did really lovely clear and then just knocked the first fence in the jump off, meaning we came 3rd and she got her first rosette! I'm really excited about this little girly..next stop is XC schooling, and a few more jumping competitions, and then she will be FOR SALE as I'm off to uni.
26th July 2015
Today Izzy and I competed in the Pony Club Open Area SJ at Ickworth. She was feeling rather full of herself, but didn't jump as well as she has been! We just rolled a pole in the first round, and then again at the same fence in the second round!! Not too bad for her, but unfortunately the course was pretty easy, so wasn't causing any problems, and the Easton Harriers team would've found a tougher track easier! Overall we came 3rd as a team, so missed out on qualifying for the PC Champs. However, being as amazing as we are, we won the Tack and Turnout and won some amazing goodies from Forelock and Load, including some rather nice Mark Todd socks, and Mark Todd ears with Forelock and Load on them, which Izzy will definitely love to wear soon!
Today Izzy and I competed in the Pony Club Open Area SJ at Ickworth. She was feeling rather full of herself, but didn't jump as well as she has been! We just rolled a pole in the first round, and then again at the same fence in the second round!! Not too bad for her, but unfortunately the course was pretty easy, so wasn't causing any problems, and the Easton Harriers team would've found a tougher track easier! Overall we came 3rd as a team, so missed out on qualifying for the PC Champs. However, being as amazing as we are, we won the Tack and Turnout and won some amazing goodies from Forelock and Load, including some rather nice Mark Todd socks, and Mark Todd ears with Forelock and Load on them, which Izzy will definitely love to wear soon!
19th July 2015
WOW! What a day!! Words can't even describe how insanely awesome my beautiful mare Izzy was today!!
11 months ago I never thought I'd be able to ride Izzy again let alone compete her but today she not only completed Pony Club Open Area Trials but did a 31.8 dressage and an awesome double clear!! ... She's not fully eventing fit so I went her speed and got 9.2 time (but no one went inside the time) to finish 3rd, just missing out on qualifying for the champs! But to be beaten by Alicia Wilkinson and another experienced horse is fine by me for our first event in 11 months!
I'm so proud of this amazing horse, she really is ONE IN A MILLION!!
WOW! What a day!! Words can't even describe how insanely awesome my beautiful mare Izzy was today!!
11 months ago I never thought I'd be able to ride Izzy again let alone compete her but today she not only completed Pony Club Open Area Trials but did a 31.8 dressage and an awesome double clear!! ... She's not fully eventing fit so I went her speed and got 9.2 time (but no one went inside the time) to finish 3rd, just missing out on qualifying for the champs! But to be beaten by Alicia Wilkinson and another experienced horse is fine by me for our first event in 11 months!
I'm so proud of this amazing horse, she really is ONE IN A MILLION!!
10th July 2015
I've been so excited about our new team mascot arriving that I've been slack on updating everyone on the horses' progress, so here goes...
Izzy started jumping again after 10 months, at the beginning of June but I hadn't wanted to put anything on here, so as not to jinx it! She went to a Pony Club SJ rally and then a XC rally last week and was absolutely incredible! Her first time XC since Milton Keynes last August and WOW ... if anything she has got better! Her jumping is the best it's EVER been!! Then we had a trip to the vets, where we were told to get on and go with her!!!! Sooo....Izzy and I are off to the Pony Club Area Trials next weekend at Isleham to do the Open Eventing! Izzy has won there twice, at intermediate and then open level, and I have won the open eventing for 2 consecutive years, but unfortunately I'm not going to be able to be overly competitive this year due to it being Izzy's first event back and not being fully galloping fit!! Anyway fingers crossed. On Wednesday we took her jumping at The Jays as a warm up for the event next weekend and she jumped amazingly well, just rolling one pole in the 1m10, which was my fault!!
Holly also went to the PC XC rally and despite having only seen XC fences twice beforehand, she was absolutely amazing! She had never done steps before, but after her first slight confusion, she went up and down with ease! She was used to show everyone how it's done bless her! .... Apart from the water again ... she still doesn't quite like it! Once in it she was fine, and was eventually jumping up and down a step into and out of the water! But we will take her schooling a few more times before going to another event!
I've been so excited about our new team mascot arriving that I've been slack on updating everyone on the horses' progress, so here goes...
Izzy started jumping again after 10 months, at the beginning of June but I hadn't wanted to put anything on here, so as not to jinx it! She went to a Pony Club SJ rally and then a XC rally last week and was absolutely incredible! Her first time XC since Milton Keynes last August and WOW ... if anything she has got better! Her jumping is the best it's EVER been!! Then we had a trip to the vets, where we were told to get on and go with her!!!! Sooo....Izzy and I are off to the Pony Club Area Trials next weekend at Isleham to do the Open Eventing! Izzy has won there twice, at intermediate and then open level, and I have won the open eventing for 2 consecutive years, but unfortunately I'm not going to be able to be overly competitive this year due to it being Izzy's first event back and not being fully galloping fit!! Anyway fingers crossed. On Wednesday we took her jumping at The Jays as a warm up for the event next weekend and she jumped amazingly well, just rolling one pole in the 1m10, which was my fault!!
Holly also went to the PC XC rally and despite having only seen XC fences twice beforehand, she was absolutely amazing! She had never done steps before, but after her first slight confusion, she went up and down with ease! She was used to show everyone how it's done bless her! .... Apart from the water again ... she still doesn't quite like it! Once in it she was fine, and was eventually jumping up and down a step into and out of the water! But we will take her schooling a few more times before going to another event!
9th July 2015
Our new team mascot arrives!! 400 miles and 9 hours of driving later, James Bleese and I have been to Barbury Castle, picked up the pup and driven back again! Lots of rush hour traffic to contend with too! But now to introduce you all to....MOWGLI!!!
Our new team mascot arrives!! 400 miles and 9 hours of driving later, James Bleese and I have been to Barbury Castle, picked up the pup and driven back again! Lots of rush hour traffic to contend with too! But now to introduce you all to....MOWGLI!!!
24th June 2015
Holly was such a babe at Keysoe on Saturday in her first ever event (unaffiliated 80cms)! Having warmed up for the dressage like a nutter, she did a lovely calm test and got a 36.5, which isn't amazing but she was so relaxed and calm it was a miracle! Then she jumped out of her skin in the SJ, but I kept her going forwards so unfortunately we got a bit too onward bound and tapped two poles! And finally, cross country she was an absolute babe, jumping everything beautifully (once she had got over the fact that she was ALL BY HERSELF out in the open haha!!) However, despite jumping clear, we didn't manage to get through the water...but that was my fault for only going schooling once, and quite a while ago, before my operation! But overall I am soo pleased with how she went and am so unbelievably excited about her future as she proved to be an absolute xc machine!!!
Holly was such a babe at Keysoe on Saturday in her first ever event (unaffiliated 80cms)! Having warmed up for the dressage like a nutter, she did a lovely calm test and got a 36.5, which isn't amazing but she was so relaxed and calm it was a miracle! Then she jumped out of her skin in the SJ, but I kept her going forwards so unfortunately we got a bit too onward bound and tapped two poles! And finally, cross country she was an absolute babe, jumping everything beautifully (once she had got over the fact that she was ALL BY HERSELF out in the open haha!!) However, despite jumping clear, we didn't manage to get through the water...but that was my fault for only going schooling once, and quite a while ago, before my operation! But overall I am soo pleased with how she went and am so unbelievably excited about her future as she proved to be an absolute xc machine!!!
15th June 2015
On Saturday I took Holly and Marmalade to the Easton Harriers PC show at Westerfield. Holly did a much improved dressage test but we've still got a lot to work on - although mainly she just needs to learn to settle when she is out. She then jumped a nice but a bit scatty SJ round in the 80cm and it was really slippery as it had been mizzling all day so she tipped 3 poles. But we were all pretty happy with how she was jumping. However, by now we were both cold, wet and bored of waiting so we didn't jump in the 90cm.
Marmalade was at her FIRST EVER show. She was an absolute babe; loading perfectly, standing on the lorry perfectly (well, after a little bit of hissy fit when Holly was unloaded), and she even did ride and lead with another youngster. She also jumped a whole course of jumps ... her FIRST EVER course of jumps, and CLEAR. We are very excited about how nice she is and, even if she turns out to not be overly talented, she's a really really lovely mare ... albeit a chestnut one! :S
Holly is doing her first ever proper one day event at Keysoe this Saturday. It's an unaffiliated 80cm so hopefully she will behave herself. And Marmalade will be going cross country schooling for the first time in the next couple of weeks. This is a whole lot of firsts ...
On Saturday I took Holly and Marmalade to the Easton Harriers PC show at Westerfield. Holly did a much improved dressage test but we've still got a lot to work on - although mainly she just needs to learn to settle when she is out. She then jumped a nice but a bit scatty SJ round in the 80cm and it was really slippery as it had been mizzling all day so she tipped 3 poles. But we were all pretty happy with how she was jumping. However, by now we were both cold, wet and bored of waiting so we didn't jump in the 90cm.
Marmalade was at her FIRST EVER show. She was an absolute babe; loading perfectly, standing on the lorry perfectly (well, after a little bit of hissy fit when Holly was unloaded), and she even did ride and lead with another youngster. She also jumped a whole course of jumps ... her FIRST EVER course of jumps, and CLEAR. We are very excited about how nice she is and, even if she turns out to not be overly talented, she's a really really lovely mare ... albeit a chestnut one! :S
Holly is doing her first ever proper one day event at Keysoe this Saturday. It's an unaffiliated 80cm so hopefully she will behave herself. And Marmalade will be going cross country schooling for the first time in the next couple of weeks. This is a whole lot of firsts ...
3rd June 2015
How things change in a short time where horses are concerned! Since my last blog I have had a week's holiday in the Canaries (lots of sun and exercise coupled with healthy eating and little alcohol) and I came back all ready to crack on with the horses ...
On Sunday I took Holly and Bud (a future dressage horse I've been riding for Isobel Norman) to a mini ODE near Ely. Bud has never seen a whole course of showjumps or any xc fences and has only been in a dressage arena a couple of times! Bud did the 60cm and did a reasonable test with lots of positives to come out of it, he was just very looky and a bit green so the more he gets out, the better he will be! Then he was very good in the SJ considering he's not ever seen a course before! He jumped all the uprights beautifully but apparently cross poles are VERY SCARY!! And then in the XC bit there were fences with artificial grass on, straw bales etc and his mind was a bit blown, especially as he had 3 horses in a next door field gallop over to him! Overall though there were lots of positives to take away from it, and anyway he's gonna be a top dressage horse :))
How things change in a short time where horses are concerned! Since my last blog I have had a week's holiday in the Canaries (lots of sun and exercise coupled with healthy eating and little alcohol) and I came back all ready to crack on with the horses ...
On Sunday I took Holly and Bud (a future dressage horse I've been riding for Isobel Norman) to a mini ODE near Ely. Bud has never seen a whole course of showjumps or any xc fences and has only been in a dressage arena a couple of times! Bud did the 60cm and did a reasonable test with lots of positives to come out of it, he was just very looky and a bit green so the more he gets out, the better he will be! Then he was very good in the SJ considering he's not ever seen a course before! He jumped all the uprights beautifully but apparently cross poles are VERY SCARY!! And then in the XC bit there were fences with artificial grass on, straw bales etc and his mind was a bit blown, especially as he had 3 horses in a next door field gallop over to him! Overall though there were lots of positives to take away from it, and anyway he's gonna be a top dressage horse :))
Then Holly did the 70cm as she's only ever done 2 small SJ competitions and I've only just
started jumping again after my operation! Her dressage test was "eventful" and "interesting"
I think are probably the best words to describe how it went! She has never seen dressage
boards and was very very excited about being out at her first party but the judge was pretty
generous with her marking and made some lovely comments about her potential and my
riding of her! But then she got on to the fun bit and did a lovely SJ round bar a slight lack of
concentration from me resulting in her sliding into a fence, but then jumped the rest
beautifully. She ABSOLUTELY FLEW around the xc not looking at a single thing and even
jumped the joker fence (a very narrow skinny with no wings) which meant we came 3rd!!! Overall it was a good day despite the lovely wind and rain and I can't wait to get Holly out at British Eventing now!!
So, as Patrick headed off to Rossdales on Monday with Felix and Izzy, I was all ready to be really positive about how well everything has been going with the horses over the past week ... Felix had just started cantering and was feeling really well, and was beginning to build up his muscle again ... only to find out that the xrays and scans showed that he still isn't quite right and has now got to have 2 weeks in his pen and then another 6 weeks in a field to let things settle down ... However, on a much more positive note Izzy has been given the all clear to start cantering, and then jumping again in 3 weeks ... couldn't be any happier about that outcome, just fingers crossed that she stays good as we increase the work!
started jumping again after my operation! Her dressage test was "eventful" and "interesting"
I think are probably the best words to describe how it went! She has never seen dressage
boards and was very very excited about being out at her first party but the judge was pretty
generous with her marking and made some lovely comments about her potential and my
riding of her! But then she got on to the fun bit and did a lovely SJ round bar a slight lack of
concentration from me resulting in her sliding into a fence, but then jumped the rest
beautifully. She ABSOLUTELY FLEW around the xc not looking at a single thing and even
jumped the joker fence (a very narrow skinny with no wings) which meant we came 3rd!!! Overall it was a good day despite the lovely wind and rain and I can't wait to get Holly out at British Eventing now!!
So, as Patrick headed off to Rossdales on Monday with Felix and Izzy, I was all ready to be really positive about how well everything has been going with the horses over the past week ... Felix had just started cantering and was feeling really well, and was beginning to build up his muscle again ... only to find out that the xrays and scans showed that he still isn't quite right and has now got to have 2 weeks in his pen and then another 6 weeks in a field to let things settle down ... However, on a much more positive note Izzy has been given the all clear to start cantering, and then jumping again in 3 weeks ... couldn't be any happier about that outcome, just fingers crossed that she stays good as we increase the work!
13th May 2015
Whoop whoop - had my first ride back on Felix today!! He was feeling fab so fingers and toes crossed!
Marmalade has come back into work after her enforced holiday whilst I was rehabbing following my knee operation, although she was not too impressed with being lunged in the pessoa today! I am planning to do lots of groundwork with her before getting on her again in June and then we will try to get her out and about as much as possible before selling her later on this summer.
Whoop whoop - had my first ride back on Felix today!! He was feeling fab so fingers and toes crossed!
Marmalade has come back into work after her enforced holiday whilst I was rehabbing following my knee operation, although she was not too impressed with being lunged in the pessoa today! I am planning to do lots of groundwork with her before getting on her again in June and then we will try to get her out and about as much as possible before selling her later on this summer.
30th April 2015
Just a quick update on where we are at with all the horses. Holly has been treated for her ulcers and is making good progress. She went back to Catley Cross for another gastroscopy on Tuesday and is showing very significant improvement - the ulcers are almost all healed apart from the glandular ones around the pylorus which are still a bit angry. Treatment is continuing on a reducing basis and we are working on a feeding and management regime for her to reduce the risk of recurrence. She continues to put on weight and can now go back into full work so hopefully it won't be too long before she is out and about again.
Just a quick update on where we are at with all the horses. Holly has been treated for her ulcers and is making good progress. She went back to Catley Cross for another gastroscopy on Tuesday and is showing very significant improvement - the ulcers are almost all healed apart from the glandular ones around the pylorus which are still a bit angry. Treatment is continuing on a reducing basis and we are working on a feeding and management regime for her to reduce the risk of recurrence. She continues to put on weight and can now go back into full work so hopefully it won't be too long before she is out and about again.
Meanwhile Felix and Izzy are both continuing their rehab and hacking out on a regular basis - often together. Izzy has just been back to Rossdales and is making good progress - she can now trot for a month and canter for a month, then back for another review at the end of June before she starts jumping and competing. Felix is trotting and will be going back to Rossdales on 1st June. Fingers crossed that he will then be able to crack on ...
My knee is improving all the time with regular exercise and physio and I have just started riding again. Now I just need the horses to be fit!!
My knee is improving all the time with regular exercise and physio and I have just started riding again. Now I just need the horses to be fit!!
31st March 2015
Poor Holly spent the night at Catley Cross Veterinary Clinic last night being starved ahead of having a gastroscopy this morning. We have been fighting a losing battle to get and keep weight on her so thought it best to try to find out if there was a medical reason for this. Thanks to vet Carolyn Wyse, Mum spent a very interesting half hour this morning looking at the inside of Holly’s stomach, when it was discovered that she has very extensive ulcers – and has probably had them for a very long time which may explain some of her seeming reluctance to race last year! She is now going to start a 4 week course of treatment, with two weeks off work spending lots of time in the field and two weeks hacking out in walk and trot before being re-scoped. Hopefully at that stage all will be well and she can continue with her re-schooling … fingers crossed! Due to Mum's understandable reluctance to drive the lorry in today’s very high winds (gusting up to 60mph!), she is having to spend another night at the Clinic – but not on starvation rations this time! Bet she'll be pleased to be home tomorrow!
Poor Holly spent the night at Catley Cross Veterinary Clinic last night being starved ahead of having a gastroscopy this morning. We have been fighting a losing battle to get and keep weight on her so thought it best to try to find out if there was a medical reason for this. Thanks to vet Carolyn Wyse, Mum spent a very interesting half hour this morning looking at the inside of Holly’s stomach, when it was discovered that she has very extensive ulcers – and has probably had them for a very long time which may explain some of her seeming reluctance to race last year! She is now going to start a 4 week course of treatment, with two weeks off work spending lots of time in the field and two weeks hacking out in walk and trot before being re-scoped. Hopefully at that stage all will be well and she can continue with her re-schooling … fingers crossed! Due to Mum's understandable reluctance to drive the lorry in today’s very high winds (gusting up to 60mph!), she is having to spend another night at the Clinic – but not on starvation rations this time! Bet she'll be pleased to be home tomorrow!
Winter
Update
A lot has happened since I last updated my news page, so I will write a brief note about what has been happening with each horse and myself since my last update.
Marmalade – has been a little superstar. She went from unbroken 4 year old to her first day’s hunting, with the Essex & Suffolk at Wix (see picture), in two months! She learnt quickly and mastered the art of ditch jumping relatively easily, but still has some trouble knowing where to put her legs when jumping a fence. On her first day’s hunting she behaved like a real pro and even showed up some seasoned hunters when jumping some tricky ditches! She had a second day’s hunting at Wherstead, but other things intervened so sadly she didn’t get to go out again this season. She has made good progress at home, both in the school on the flat and jumping, and out hacking, and has now been turned away for a while to think about what she has learned, whilst I recover from my knee operation (more about that later).
Holly – has been working very well at home and is showing great potential as a future eventer. She has been cross country schooling at Poplar Park and has been to a couple of show jumping shows at Newton Hall. She was rather unsettled and excited at her first show, but still managed to be placed in the first class, before getting rather onward bound, green and distracted in the second class. Her second show in late January was much better – she was more settled and had clearly grown up since her first outing. She jumped well to be placed in the first class. Although she got a little flat in the second class, we were very pleased with her progress and are looking forward to an exciting future. She is continuing her education under Debbie Edmundson’s expert guidance whilst I am incapacitated. We are, however, struggling to keep condition on her so Catley Cross Veterinary Surgery are currently carrying out some tests and we will then review her feeding and work regimes.
Izzy – was unfortunately not 100% sound a week after Milton Keynes at the end of August last year and was therefore referred to Rossdales at Newmarket for investigation and treatment. To cut a long and complicated story short, she has had time off and is now just coming back into work. She will be reviewed again at the end of April and hopefully we will then be able to crack on and plan our summer/autumn season.
In view of the injury to Izzy, we decided to look for another horse to compete at BE Novice and above in 2015. In October we were very lucky to find Littletons Diamond Geezer (aka Felix). Having dislocated my knee for the third time in 11 months shortly beforehand, trying him was an interesting experience, but we were delighted when his co-owners Harriet Hammond (his breeder) and Tessa White (his rider) agreed to lease him to us. Mum and I went to collect him on 1st November and brought him back to Suffolk, where he and I set about getting to know one another. Unfortunately less than three weeks later, we had a freak accident on the road and he ended up in Rossdales having a front fetlock joint flushed. He has been making steady progress in his recovery and we have now been instructed to turn him out for a month before bringing him back into work around the end of April. Assuming all goes well we will then be able to start thinking about plans for him for the summer/autumn season.
Having dislocated my knee three times in 11 months, I went to see Mr Mark Bowditch, our local knee specialist at the Ipswich Nuffield. X-rays and an MRI scan revealed that the kneecap was out of alignment and there was some damage to the ligaments holding it in place, but otherwise nothing untoward was found. Mr Bowditch decided to operate at the end of January to stabilise my kneecap to prevent further dislocation, and at the same time he carried out an arthroscopy as I had said that I was sure that there was something moving around in my knee. This turned out to be the right decision as Mr Bowditch removed a piece of bone over 1cm in diameter and 2mm thick which was floating around inside my knee, despite not having shown up on the X-rays or MRI scan!! After 4 weeks being reliant on Mum to drive me around, I am now busy doing my rehab exercises to strengthen the muscles in my left leg so that I am not one sided when I start riding again! Hopefully I will be back in the saddle shortly and I plan to be doing my first competition in early May on Holly.
Plans are afoot to bring Marmalade back into work again shortly and, once the weather warms up, Ben (who has grown well overwinter) will come in from the field to be broken and learn to be a proper horse!
A lot has happened since I last updated my news page, so I will write a brief note about what has been happening with each horse and myself since my last update.
Marmalade – has been a little superstar. She went from unbroken 4 year old to her first day’s hunting, with the Essex & Suffolk at Wix (see picture), in two months! She learnt quickly and mastered the art of ditch jumping relatively easily, but still has some trouble knowing where to put her legs when jumping a fence. On her first day’s hunting she behaved like a real pro and even showed up some seasoned hunters when jumping some tricky ditches! She had a second day’s hunting at Wherstead, but other things intervened so sadly she didn’t get to go out again this season. She has made good progress at home, both in the school on the flat and jumping, and out hacking, and has now been turned away for a while to think about what she has learned, whilst I recover from my knee operation (more about that later).
Holly – has been working very well at home and is showing great potential as a future eventer. She has been cross country schooling at Poplar Park and has been to a couple of show jumping shows at Newton Hall. She was rather unsettled and excited at her first show, but still managed to be placed in the first class, before getting rather onward bound, green and distracted in the second class. Her second show in late January was much better – she was more settled and had clearly grown up since her first outing. She jumped well to be placed in the first class. Although she got a little flat in the second class, we were very pleased with her progress and are looking forward to an exciting future. She is continuing her education under Debbie Edmundson’s expert guidance whilst I am incapacitated. We are, however, struggling to keep condition on her so Catley Cross Veterinary Surgery are currently carrying out some tests and we will then review her feeding and work regimes.
Izzy – was unfortunately not 100% sound a week after Milton Keynes at the end of August last year and was therefore referred to Rossdales at Newmarket for investigation and treatment. To cut a long and complicated story short, she has had time off and is now just coming back into work. She will be reviewed again at the end of April and hopefully we will then be able to crack on and plan our summer/autumn season.
In view of the injury to Izzy, we decided to look for another horse to compete at BE Novice and above in 2015. In October we were very lucky to find Littletons Diamond Geezer (aka Felix). Having dislocated my knee for the third time in 11 months shortly beforehand, trying him was an interesting experience, but we were delighted when his co-owners Harriet Hammond (his breeder) and Tessa White (his rider) agreed to lease him to us. Mum and I went to collect him on 1st November and brought him back to Suffolk, where he and I set about getting to know one another. Unfortunately less than three weeks later, we had a freak accident on the road and he ended up in Rossdales having a front fetlock joint flushed. He has been making steady progress in his recovery and we have now been instructed to turn him out for a month before bringing him back into work around the end of April. Assuming all goes well we will then be able to start thinking about plans for him for the summer/autumn season.
Having dislocated my knee three times in 11 months, I went to see Mr Mark Bowditch, our local knee specialist at the Ipswich Nuffield. X-rays and an MRI scan revealed that the kneecap was out of alignment and there was some damage to the ligaments holding it in place, but otherwise nothing untoward was found. Mr Bowditch decided to operate at the end of January to stabilise my kneecap to prevent further dislocation, and at the same time he carried out an arthroscopy as I had said that I was sure that there was something moving around in my knee. This turned out to be the right decision as Mr Bowditch removed a piece of bone over 1cm in diameter and 2mm thick which was floating around inside my knee, despite not having shown up on the X-rays or MRI scan!! After 4 weeks being reliant on Mum to drive me around, I am now busy doing my rehab exercises to strengthen the muscles in my left leg so that I am not one sided when I start riding again! Hopefully I will be back in the saddle shortly and I plan to be doing my first competition in early May on Holly.
Plans are afoot to bring Marmalade back into work again shortly and, once the weather warms up, Ben (who has grown well overwinter) will come in from the field to be broken and learn to be a proper horse!
24th August 2014 Holly & Marmalade arrive
So excited! I went with James Pratt in our lorry to collect Holly and Marmalade from Leicestershire today. We duly arrived at Richard Walker's yard near Withcote to collect Holly and, being an experienced traveller, quickly loaded her and set off to Fiona Wilson's stud at Warmington to collect Marmalade. Fortunately Fiona has a loading ramp which made things a bit easier as the angle of the ramp onto the lorry was much flatter than usual and Marmalade only took about 15-20 minutes to load - which I think was very good considering that she has never been anywhere before and didn't know what it was all about. 2 hours later we arrived at Debbie & Patrick's yard at Grundisburgh and got them both unloaded and settled into their new homes. I can't wait to get started with them both ...!
So excited! I went with James Pratt in our lorry to collect Holly and Marmalade from Leicestershire today. We duly arrived at Richard Walker's yard near Withcote to collect Holly and, being an experienced traveller, quickly loaded her and set off to Fiona Wilson's stud at Warmington to collect Marmalade. Fortunately Fiona has a loading ramp which made things a bit easier as the angle of the ramp onto the lorry was much flatter than usual and Marmalade only took about 15-20 minutes to load - which I think was very good considering that she has never been anywhere before and didn't know what it was all about. 2 hours later we arrived at Debbie & Patrick's yard at Grundisburgh and got them both unloaded and settled into their new homes. I can't wait to get started with them both ...!
23rd August 2014 BE Novice at Milton Keynes (3)
Another early start to get to Milton Keynes in time to walk the XC course before doing dressage at 11am. Izzy did a good test in difficult conditions (the arena was on quite a slope towards the F-A corner!) for a mark of 34.0 (only 6 marks behind the leader). The show jumping was causing a few problems but Izzy felt really good and jumped a lovely clear round so we headed off to the cross country full of confidence. She gave me a good ride cross country, with only one hairy moment when she went through a hedge, and we finished with 2.8 time penalties for 7th place. Two double clears out of two runs this year - amazing considering that previously we had only managed 3 double clears out of 17 runs in 2 seasons! So pleased that she is back up and running and looking to be on good form.
Another early start to get to Milton Keynes in time to walk the XC course before doing dressage at 11am. Izzy did a good test in difficult conditions (the arena was on quite a slope towards the F-A corner!) for a mark of 34.0 (only 6 marks behind the leader). The show jumping was causing a few problems but Izzy felt really good and jumped a lovely clear round so we headed off to the cross country full of confidence. She gave me a good ride cross country, with only one hairy moment when she went through a hedge, and we finished with 2.8 time penalties for 7th place. Two double clears out of two runs this year - amazing considering that previously we had only managed 3 double clears out of 17 runs in 2 seasons! So pleased that she is back up and running and looking to be on good form.
19th August 2014 Bonnie - my final ride
I was very sad for Bonnie that things had not gone our way at the Pony Club Championships as she deserved a better result in our last event together - but I was pleased that we had such a great fun round XC (apart from the obvious) and can only thank Sarah Williamson so very much for letting me ride this superstar little mare. We had such fun together, despite the disappointments of Weston Park and the Champs. We went for a lovely ride together this morning and she has now gone back to Sarah to teach her working pupil (also called Emma) the ropes - wishing them all the best and loads of fun as Emma starts her eventing career in the BE90 at Keysoe in 10 days' time.
I was very sad for Bonnie that things had not gone our way at the Pony Club Championships as she deserved a better result in our last event together - but I was pleased that we had such a great fun round XC (apart from the obvious) and can only thank Sarah Williamson so very much for letting me ride this superstar little mare. We had such fun together, despite the disappointments of Weston Park and the Champs. We went for a lovely ride together this morning and she has now gone back to Sarah to teach her working pupil (also called Emma) the ropes - wishing them all the best and loads of fun as Emma starts her eventing career in the BE90 at Keysoe in 10 days' time.
15th - 18th August 2014 Pony Club Championships at Cholmondeley Castle
We headed off on Friday morning with Izzy and Bonnie for a long weekend at the Pony Club Championships at Cholmondeley Castle. Good thing we left early as it took us nearly 7 hours to do what should be a 4.5 hour journey - the joys of the A14 and M6!! Having got there before dark we did, thankfully, have time to get both ponies ridden round the hack track and our 'camp' set up before watching a film and going to bed.
Saturday was the Open Championship Dressage day. The last time Izzy was at a 'big' event was here at the Championships in 2013 and I think she must have remembered the 'buzz' as she was difficult to settle and could, with hindsight, have done with longer to work in. She did a nice test, but not the best that she could have done, and finished 13th individually - one place higher and the team would have been in 10th, instead we finished in 11th.
Sunday was the Open Show Jumping day. We started at 9.30am with the first round. The course was causing plenty of problems and this was clearly not going to be our weekend! Izzy got a bit 'lit up' again (she could hear the mounted games commentary from the corner of the field next the collecting ring!) and got a bit strong and flat over a couple of fences resulting in 12 faults. The second round followed after lunch and much the same thing happened - although she was unlucky in a couple of cases, but all in all it was very frustrating as she had been on such good form show jumping this year up until this weekend!
So, on to Monday and it was Bonnie's turn. She did a nice dressage to score 36.9 which was a little way down the scoreboard but still in touch with the leaders. She was very unlucky in the show jumping, having the first and last fences down despite barely touching them - others managed to get away with much heavier knocks but luck just was not going my way ... So, on to the cross country which was, once again, causing major problems and the time was proving very hard to get (indeed only 3 competitors all day made the time and only one competitor finished on their dressage score across all 5 sections!). We set off out of the start box and Bonnie felt like she was on very good form, jumping well and getting away from her fences quickly. Then ... disaster struck ... we came into a hedge and triple brush arrowhead combination on a slight curving line and were slightly off the right stride - Bonnie had second thoughts and we ended up right underneath the arrowhead doing an almost vertical jump to get over it, unseating me in the process. I tried gamely to hang on but Bonnie didn't appreciate my efforts and eventually I hit the deck ... Once she was caught I jumped back on and carried on as if nothing had happened. She jumped the most amazing round (apart from one hairy moment when she left a leg at the coffin) and finished full of running.
A frustrating weekend all round - but at least the journey home went ok and we got back in reasonable time!
We headed off on Friday morning with Izzy and Bonnie for a long weekend at the Pony Club Championships at Cholmondeley Castle. Good thing we left early as it took us nearly 7 hours to do what should be a 4.5 hour journey - the joys of the A14 and M6!! Having got there before dark we did, thankfully, have time to get both ponies ridden round the hack track and our 'camp' set up before watching a film and going to bed.
Saturday was the Open Championship Dressage day. The last time Izzy was at a 'big' event was here at the Championships in 2013 and I think she must have remembered the 'buzz' as she was difficult to settle and could, with hindsight, have done with longer to work in. She did a nice test, but not the best that she could have done, and finished 13th individually - one place higher and the team would have been in 10th, instead we finished in 11th.
Sunday was the Open Show Jumping day. We started at 9.30am with the first round. The course was causing plenty of problems and this was clearly not going to be our weekend! Izzy got a bit 'lit up' again (she could hear the mounted games commentary from the corner of the field next the collecting ring!) and got a bit strong and flat over a couple of fences resulting in 12 faults. The second round followed after lunch and much the same thing happened - although she was unlucky in a couple of cases, but all in all it was very frustrating as she had been on such good form show jumping this year up until this weekend!
So, on to Monday and it was Bonnie's turn. She did a nice dressage to score 36.9 which was a little way down the scoreboard but still in touch with the leaders. She was very unlucky in the show jumping, having the first and last fences down despite barely touching them - others managed to get away with much heavier knocks but luck just was not going my way ... So, on to the cross country which was, once again, causing major problems and the time was proving very hard to get (indeed only 3 competitors all day made the time and only one competitor finished on their dressage score across all 5 sections!). We set off out of the start box and Bonnie felt like she was on very good form, jumping well and getting away from her fences quickly. Then ... disaster struck ... we came into a hedge and triple brush arrowhead combination on a slight curving line and were slightly off the right stride - Bonnie had second thoughts and we ended up right underneath the arrowhead doing an almost vertical jump to get over it, unseating me in the process. I tried gamely to hang on but Bonnie didn't appreciate my efforts and eventually I hit the deck ... Once she was caught I jumped back on and carried on as if nothing had happened. She jumped the most amazing round (apart from one hairy moment when she left a leg at the coffin) and finished full of running.
A frustrating weekend all round - but at least the journey home went ok and we got back in reasonable time!
3rd August 2014 Pony Club Area 8 Open Show Jumping at Ickworth Park
Another early start as we had to course walk at 7.30am and then head off to be judged for tack & turnout - and with Izzy being grey that always means a lot of washing and chalking both the day before and on the morning of the competition! The first round was not too big but quite technical and we managed a lovely clear round. A couple of hours later we were back for the second round which was much bigger and even more technical. Izzy jumped brilliantly and just had one pole down (mainly due to rider error!). The rest of the team all jumped well, with Zac Thorne being one of only 3 double clears, but the rest of us finishing on 4 faults each over the two rounds, for a team score over the two rounds of 4 faults and we had won outright! The double clears then jumped off for the individual placings and Zac won (by only 0.21 seconds!). As there were four qualifying places for the Individual Championships, 12 of us on 4 faults then jumped off for the minor placings. Izzy again jumped amazingly and finished in 6th place overall (3rd of the 4 faulters). So proud of my amazing horse and really excited for the future with her. Next stop the Pony Club Championships!
Another early start as we had to course walk at 7.30am and then head off to be judged for tack & turnout - and with Izzy being grey that always means a lot of washing and chalking both the day before and on the morning of the competition! The first round was not too big but quite technical and we managed a lovely clear round. A couple of hours later we were back for the second round which was much bigger and even more technical. Izzy jumped brilliantly and just had one pole down (mainly due to rider error!). The rest of the team all jumped well, with Zac Thorne being one of only 3 double clears, but the rest of us finishing on 4 faults each over the two rounds, for a team score over the two rounds of 4 faults and we had won outright! The double clears then jumped off for the individual placings and Zac won (by only 0.21 seconds!). As there were four qualifying places for the Individual Championships, 12 of us on 4 faults then jumped off for the minor placings. Izzy again jumped amazingly and finished in 6th place overall (3rd of the 4 faulters). So proud of my amazing horse and really excited for the future with her. Next stop the Pony Club Championships!
27th July 2014 BE100 at Carlton Horse Trials
Having slept in the lorry on the Saturday night, we rolled out of the yard on Sunday morning at 5am to head off to Carlton Horse Trials in Bedfordshire where Izzy was set to do her first BE event this year, taking Megan Rodwell and Aventurine with us. When we arrived Megan and I set off to walk the course, leaving Mum to do the important bits like collect numbers, pay start fees and get the horses ready! I was quite pleased with Izzy's dressage, especially as the arena was quite firm and slippery. Izzy followed this up with a good clear round in the SJ, although she was a little rude at times! Then it was all change for the XC and back down to the collecting ring, where my cousin Imi was stewarding. Izzy jumped a great clear XC, although she was a bit spooky and behaved occasionally as if she hadn't seen a cross country fence before! We didn't go fast as the ground was pretty hard so picked up 11.2 time penalties to add to our dressage score of 30 (8th but only 3 marks behind the leader at that stage), to finish in 17th place with only our 4th double clear since we started BE together in 2012!! I can safely say that the break has done Izzy the world of good and she is currently jumping out of her skin - long may it continue!!
Having slept in the lorry on the Saturday night, we rolled out of the yard on Sunday morning at 5am to head off to Carlton Horse Trials in Bedfordshire where Izzy was set to do her first BE event this year, taking Megan Rodwell and Aventurine with us. When we arrived Megan and I set off to walk the course, leaving Mum to do the important bits like collect numbers, pay start fees and get the horses ready! I was quite pleased with Izzy's dressage, especially as the arena was quite firm and slippery. Izzy followed this up with a good clear round in the SJ, although she was a little rude at times! Then it was all change for the XC and back down to the collecting ring, where my cousin Imi was stewarding. Izzy jumped a great clear XC, although she was a bit spooky and behaved occasionally as if she hadn't seen a cross country fence before! We didn't go fast as the ground was pretty hard so picked up 11.2 time penalties to add to our dressage score of 30 (8th but only 3 marks behind the leader at that stage), to finish in 17th place with only our 4th double clear since we started BE together in 2012!! I can safely say that the break has done Izzy the world of good and she is currently jumping out of her skin - long may it continue!!
20th July 2014 Pony Club Area 8 Open Eventing at Isleham
What a day! I had walked the XC course with Mum on a very hot and sticky Saturday evening, bumping into Clem Thomsett (landowner and long standing DC of hosts Soham & District PC) who predicted that around 45% of the entries in the Open would have problems on the XC (in the end it was around 53%), then headed home for some sleep before a nice early start on the Sunday morning! The day dawned a little grey but warm and humid, although fortunately there was a little bit of a breeze at Isleham. Bonnie did one of her better dressage tests and, on 38.8, was not far behind the leader in 5th place. She then jumped a nice clear round show jumping and we got ready for the XC. It was clear that the time was very tight (and we can't wear stopwatches at PC) so our instructions were to go as fast as we comfortably could go and hope we got close to the time! I can safely say that Bonnie was amazing, jumping brilliantly and galloping all the way to the line to finish 6 seconds inside the time. We then waited to see Issy Clarke on Mounted Pearl and Zara Lye on Tiny Tom (the other Easton Harriers PC team members) cross the line having gone clear, although with some time penalties. For a team of only 3 (one had dropped out on Saturday), we were thrilled to all go clear, especially when it became apparent that only one other team had managed to do the same and some experienced combinations had picked up unexpected penalties. We were on tenterhooks ... then came the amazing news that Easton Harriers PC had won the Open Area Trials for the first time since 1999! To cap it all, Bonnie and I won our section (being one of only 3 combinations to get inside the time on the XC and one of only 2 combinations to finish on our dressage score)!! This is the third consecutive year that I have won my section (having previously won at Intermediate and then Open with Izzy), but this time I am off to the Championships with my team and not just myself!
What a day! I had walked the XC course with Mum on a very hot and sticky Saturday evening, bumping into Clem Thomsett (landowner and long standing DC of hosts Soham & District PC) who predicted that around 45% of the entries in the Open would have problems on the XC (in the end it was around 53%), then headed home for some sleep before a nice early start on the Sunday morning! The day dawned a little grey but warm and humid, although fortunately there was a little bit of a breeze at Isleham. Bonnie did one of her better dressage tests and, on 38.8, was not far behind the leader in 5th place. She then jumped a nice clear round show jumping and we got ready for the XC. It was clear that the time was very tight (and we can't wear stopwatches at PC) so our instructions were to go as fast as we comfortably could go and hope we got close to the time! I can safely say that Bonnie was amazing, jumping brilliantly and galloping all the way to the line to finish 6 seconds inside the time. We then waited to see Issy Clarke on Mounted Pearl and Zara Lye on Tiny Tom (the other Easton Harriers PC team members) cross the line having gone clear, although with some time penalties. For a team of only 3 (one had dropped out on Saturday), we were thrilled to all go clear, especially when it became apparent that only one other team had managed to do the same and some experienced combinations had picked up unexpected penalties. We were on tenterhooks ... then came the amazing news that Easton Harriers PC had won the Open Area Trials for the first time since 1999! To cap it all, Bonnie and I won our section (being one of only 3 combinations to get inside the time on the XC and one of only 2 combinations to finish on our dressage score)!! This is the third consecutive year that I have won my section (having previously won at Intermediate and then Open with Izzy), but this time I am off to the Championships with my team and not just myself!
6th July 2014 Pony Club Area 8 Open Dressage at Cottenham Racecourse
Having spent most of the previous day recovering from my Leavers' Ball at Framlingham College and the subsequent After Party, we had a civilised start to Sunday morning. Earlier in the week we had been privileged to have Liz Mills, Chef d'Equipe for the British Pony Dressage Team, as our teacher at our annual Associates' Dressage Rally and Izzy and I had struck up a good rapport with her. You can therefore imagine my delight when I found she was not only at the Area Competition, but that the Thetford Chase PC did not have any competitors in the Open Dressage so she was able to help me with my warm up! I can safely say that Izzy did her best ever test in competition and, but for a stupid lapse by her rider forgetting to do free walk (which was a double mark movement!), should have won her section. As it was, we came 2nd, but as a team we all did really well and ended up winning by a decent margin, and qualifying for the Championships in August. Our Intermediate team were third and also qualified for the Championships, so we are already looking forward to a massive party at Cholmondeley Castle!!
Having spent most of the previous day recovering from my Leavers' Ball at Framlingham College and the subsequent After Party, we had a civilised start to Sunday morning. Earlier in the week we had been privileged to have Liz Mills, Chef d'Equipe for the British Pony Dressage Team, as our teacher at our annual Associates' Dressage Rally and Izzy and I had struck up a good rapport with her. You can therefore imagine my delight when I found she was not only at the Area Competition, but that the Thetford Chase PC did not have any competitors in the Open Dressage so she was able to help me with my warm up! I can safely say that Izzy did her best ever test in competition and, but for a stupid lapse by her rider forgetting to do free walk (which was a double mark movement!), should have won her section. As it was, we came 2nd, but as a team we all did really well and ended up winning by a decent margin, and qualifying for the Championships in August. Our Intermediate team were third and also qualified for the Championships, so we are already looking forward to a massive party at Cholmondeley Castle!!
7th June 2014 Easton Harriers Pony Club Annual Show at Westerfield
I had a great day at our Pony Club Annual Show with Izzy and Bonnie, even managing to miss the horrendous thunderstorms first thing! Izzy did a very nice test in the Dressage Novice 24 class to finish 3rd and then jumped double clear in the 90cms BS Club Jumping to finish 2nd and take the Mark Partridge Trophy for the highest placed EHPC member. She also jumped clear in the 100cms BS Club Jumping, at which point we thought that she had probably done enough as the day had turned very hot and humid so we withdrew her from the jump off, but she still got a rosette for 6th place. Bonnie also jumped clear in the 100cms BS Club Jumping and we were first to go in the jump off - had the first fence down turning in mid-air so thought that we had better get our skates on and ended up winning the class as the other four couldn't manage to catch us or jump clear! Bonnie was also 3rd in the 1m10 Open Show Jumping. All in all a very good day!
I had a great day at our Pony Club Annual Show with Izzy and Bonnie, even managing to miss the horrendous thunderstorms first thing! Izzy did a very nice test in the Dressage Novice 24 class to finish 3rd and then jumped double clear in the 90cms BS Club Jumping to finish 2nd and take the Mark Partridge Trophy for the highest placed EHPC member. She also jumped clear in the 100cms BS Club Jumping, at which point we thought that she had probably done enough as the day had turned very hot and humid so we withdrew her from the jump off, but she still got a rosette for 6th place. Bonnie also jumped clear in the 100cms BS Club Jumping and we were first to go in the jump off - had the first fence down turning in mid-air so thought that we had better get our skates on and ended up winning the class as the other four couldn't manage to catch us or jump clear! Bonnie was also 3rd in the 1m10 Open Show Jumping. All in all a very good day!
26th May 2014 Easton Harriers Pony Club ODE at Poplar Park
Izzy had her first competitive outing since the PC Champs last year. We only did the PC Novice class but she was second after dressage (should have been in the lead but, riding the simplest test I have done for years, I managed to go wrong twice and thus lose marks!), then jumped a super clear show jumping and cantered slowly round the XC for a clear round with 23 time penalties to finish in 10th place. Really pleased with her and looking forward to our first BE outing this year - probably at Carlton in July.
Izzy had her first competitive outing since the PC Champs last year. We only did the PC Novice class but she was second after dressage (should have been in the lead but, riding the simplest test I have done for years, I managed to go wrong twice and thus lose marks!), then jumped a super clear show jumping and cantered slowly round the XC for a clear round with 23 time penalties to finish in 10th place. Really pleased with her and looking forward to our first BE outing this year - probably at Carlton in July.