Somerford Park a very sad day

Somerford is just about my favourite event and it was good to have a run here after our spring run was snowed off. The courses here are all outstanding, beautifully built, inviting and super to ride round.
Saturday saw Top Gun doing his best to finish 4th in the open 100, not bad against advanced horses, although my 2 time faults were annoying and cost us 3rd.

Sunday we went up to watch Hartpury Take It 2 The Top with Bill Levett compete in the 1*, Monty show jumped really well with just one rail down, the atmospheric main arena was fab experience for him.

Tragically when I was out walking the course a rider in the 1* Tom Gadsby had a fatal accident jumping fence 5. There was immediate help for Tom so I caught the horse and took it back up to its lorry where I stayed to help untack him and check him over.

It was some time before we heard the terrible news that the air ambulance had taken off empty. An awful awful day and I cannot begin to imagine how his friends and family are coping. There are some lovely tributes to Tom one in particular written by Lissa Green. http://eventingnation.com/home/lissa-green-remembering-tom-gadsby.html

Broadway - Ledbury Pony Club go Area Eventing

I took on the task of training the enthusiastic Ledbury Pony Club children for their area ODE at Broadway. Several weeks of training seemed to go by in a flash, its an enormous task to train 14 of them in all 3 phases in just a few sessions, training was held every other week and not everyone could attend, due to holidays and exams etc etc. We walked the course as a group the evening before and they all walked it one more time on their own the following day. They were amazing, several had not competed in an ODE or even a dressage test  before and coped really well. There were lots of smiling faces at the end and I think we have a few new eventing addicts. Two qualified for the Pony Club Championships and several others had really good placings. I was exhausted by the end of he day running up and down Broadway Hill. I have also been training several of The Malvern Pony Club members. They also had a really good day taking home their share of the Rosettes and missing out on qualifying by one place. A huge thankyou to The Croome PC for running such a fab event and to all those who gave up their time to make it run so smoothly.

Ledbury Pony Club Mini ODE Stolen Red Ifor Williams Trailer

This was taken from Gadbury, Eldersfield, Glos. A ladies handbag was stolen during the mini ODE held there yesterday - Sunday 11th August 2013. The bag contained the keys to the car towing the trailer. With no keys the owner was forced to leave the car and trailer at the showground over night and it was during this time it was stolen. The gates to the showground were heavily padlocked and these were cut through, the trailer was forced off the cars tow hitch. The car was not taken.

The trailer contained an Ifor williams trailer grey tack box, some brand new riding boots.

If you were at the ODE and saw anything suspicious or took any photos that may help us identify vehicles or even the thieves at the show please contact West Mercia Police or email me and I will forward the information on.

Trailer is a 511 similar to the one below, with side ramp opening on the left.

Many thanks.

Win or E? Pippa Funnell At Hartpury CIC 3***

For the 2nd week running I have managed to capture another controversial piece of video. I only took my camera along with me to Gatcombe and Hartpury to video a couple of friends who were competing. I hardly took any footage at Hartpury as I decided it was looking a bit geeky! I did however geekily run to the 2nd water to get a shot of Pippa Funnell jumping through as she was leading at the time.

The rider before her knocked the flag off the skinny after the water. Pippa wasn't far behind and the judges didn't manage to either stop her or replace the flag. The missing flag was fairly significant as it also held the fence number and the letter (A) giving a thicker wing to the fence than just a single flag.

 What happened next can be seen here http://youtu.be/2Fw218-g0fY

Pippa was awarded 20 for a run out and then eliminated for continuing without representing.

The fence was not flagged and the BE rule book page 45 states all obstacles to be negotiated by the horse must be numbered or lettered accordingly. A horse is only considered to have ran out if its head and shoulders fail to pass between the flags.

Lets hope the rule book is updated so we will all know what to do if it happens to us. There is a question on the BE forum way back in 2009 which clarifies.
If a flag is missing riders should either
a) stop and ask to have the flag replaced.
b) or try and jump the jump but prepare to take the penalties if penalised for a run out.

Not jumping the fence is not an option!

More info on link below, means we will need to take our iPhones with us xc to check forum stuff like this on way round as its not in the rule book!

http://www.britisheventing.com/messages.asp?topicid=3374&section=00010001000200490001

Rif Raf & Annie Oakley XC schooling Manor Farm Glos

 Rif Raf loved it she is by Old Leighlin who is the sire of Icon and as you can imagine she just loves to jump. Also pictured is Becky on her lovely 4 yr old mare Annie Oakley who is by Ragazzo, she is half sister to John Wayne who I rode as a young horse, both girls were very brave XC,  Becky and I were thrilled to bits as it was their first outing XC. Sorry two pics the same of Rif Raf but blogger won't let me take it off!!!!!

Gatcombe Going Viral on Utube

A 26 second video I took at Gatcombe of a horse refusing the steps in an interesting way has been retweeted on twitter by so many people its now had 12,000 views in under 36 hours.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eImu0UeU8sg

Not sure if that means its gone viral as I don't know enough about it but it has been exciting watching the figures fly upwards. Eventing NZ tweeted it last night and figures shot up to 7000 while     UK were asleep so I assume it was those down under watching it.

Meanwhile rubbish news on my eventing front as I am withdrawing from Homme House, Top Gun has bashed his knee in the box and its very swollen a the moment.

Video Clips from Gatcombe Novice Champs 2013

Not much eventing news....

News this week is I have sold Sweet William, he went off happily with his new owner last Friday after passing a  very thorough 5* vetting. Vetting a horse these days seems to take longer and longer as vets need to go over them with a fine tooth comb in much more detail than they did a few years ago.
It was sad to see him go although I have to say I am glad that I now only have one Skewbald horse left to keep clean. Although I must say I loved all he attention William had at shows when he was turned out sparkling white, he has the most stunning thick white flowing tail.....gorgeous.

Rif Raf is going really well and it's easy to forget she was only 3 this month, she is jumping a small course and hacking out nicely all on her own, she seems to love attention and doing stuff especially jumping so a good omen for the future. Here she is lunging over a fence as I didn't have anyone around to photo me on her jumping.

Amazing Mika (Rif Raf's older brother) whom I sold in May this year has qualified for the pony club show jumping champs. He finished 2nd in the qualifier out of 140 competitors.
Picture below, well done Poppy.