Rif Raf The Dragon 3rd at her 1st ODE

Rif Raf competed in her first ever ODE today at Solihull unaffiliated 80, she did a lovely calm and accurate dressage test for a 35 and then jumped double clear. A really good girl she couldn't have gone any better.

Several photos and a movie clip of her being super bold at the water are shown below.

Other results from the weekend for riders I coach were a huge well done to Holly at Howick BE90 who gained a RF qualification on only her 2nd event on her new horse. I am hugely proud of Becky Amos, 8th at Howick on a young horse at her 1st ode. I have coached Becky since was a very little girl on a naughty grey pony! Becky, now all grown up, and qualified veterinary nurse, chose Annie from a herd of 3 yr olds at Hartpury College, Annie Oakley is a potential 2* (or more) horse in the making. She is sister to John Wayne a horse I used to ride before I sold him on. Well done to Sue another clear XC and a super dressage on a youngster she has bought on herself. Also fab riding from Fae, winning best junior at Solihull (1st outing on her new pony) and also Carla 2nd at Soilhull whom I coached on Friday in a simulated XC clinic for Wyvern Riding Club.

Wow a fab weekend.

 

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Middleton Learning to Jump

Here is a video of 4 year old Middleton learning to jump his first ever course at home. He was only backed around a month ago and he is making excellent progress. This is the first time he has jumped spread fences and the 2nd time he has jumped a double.

He will be ready for a mini competition outing very soon.

 

 

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Hartpury Take It 2 The Top Video Clip From Aldon Intermediate

A short clip taken by Eventing Video Company Harvey Wet Dog.There is a longer 19 min video on the harveywetdog utube channel showing the entire intermediate course with lots of different riders negotiating the various fences.
Also on same utube channel lots of other Eventing videos, Hartpury etc.

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Eventing Gatcombe March 2014

It was feeling cold when we parked the lorry up at Gatcombe this morning, riders who had got there before us said it had been snowing earlier. One or two large lorries were towed on but we drove in quick making sure we had no chance of getting stuck!Hartpury Take It 2 The Top did a fab test 31 he anticipated a transition down and trotted in the middle of his 2nd canter, my fault, he is incredibly timid to ride, if I breath in the wrong place he will try and do a downward transition!He show jumped lovely, I didn't feel his canter was as consistent as last week and consequently I allowed him to get unbalanced on the last related distance and he kicked out the front of the final fence. Very pleased with him though.

We had a dilemma whether to run him XC or not., I don't normally like to run 3 weeks running. We had intended to just dressage and show jump to gain more experience in a grass atmosphere. But we are wait listed for our next event and I was worried we only need one event to cancel and it could be over a month before he gets another run. I walked Gatcombes XC and decided that despite it being a novice track it was testing enough to warrant running him. The big, flower decorated, log into the water would be a good test for him especially with the added atmosphere as it had attracted a decent audience. Also the ground was perfect and the course looked very inviting.

He found it all pretty easy and went clear. It felt a nice easy run. Without big complex combination fences to worry about I felt he should have made the time easily, he finished very fresh and certainly can gallop fast in-between fences, but I find he still gets very unbalanced as he gallops and needs setting up a long way from the fence, thus wasting time.

Ant and I had a chat about this in the lorry on the way home and decided that maybe we haven't yet got his bitting right and also due to his size and lanky build, he is still learning to balance. So long as he is gaining experience and remains confident then I shouldn't worry. He is so much more balanced than 12 mths ago, and it's probably just a case of waiting for him to get physically stronger as he matures.

 

 

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A New Horse Called Middleton

Very exciting as I have just bought a lightly backed, bay gelding, 4 year old called Middleton.

He was bred by Carole Broad from Huntley School of Equitation and is by Meadow Studs stallion Chaos.

His brother, who still owned by Carole, is called Molakai & is already 2*, they have 3 advanced event horses on the Dams side. His grandsire is the advanced sire Daywell Pacific Gold and his great grandsire, also advanced, is Welton Crackerjack. His Granddam is Welton Free And Easy whom Carole rode to advanced in the 1980s. I will see if Carole can send me a photo.

Middleton has settled in really well and is a really lovely chap, moves really well too, he had just began trotting under saddle when I bought him a week ago. He is now cantering confidently around the school and the field and is just learning to jump some tiny fences. So far he seems very trainable and very brave with exceptional good balance.

I am itching to get going on him again as he is having a few days off this week, due to a wolf tooth removal on Monday.

 

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Aldon Intermediate

The sun shone gloriously from dawn to dusk, it was fabulous. Aldon is one of my favourite events and Hartpury Take It 2 The Top was a complete star.

He had one proper wobble in the dressage, threw head up and shot off in 2nd medium, but otherwise a good test for a 33.

We had a panic getting ready as I began putting studs in and mangled the thread, Ant grumbled at me and took over, but he then broke the tap off. It was left solidly stuck in Monty's shoe. Luckily Ant had his farrier kit and managed eventually to remove it. I pedalled off to the trade stands to buy a very expensive £15 tap that is meant to be made of superior steel, less likely to break and the packet says it won't mangle the threads! Ant said the people that made it should have used me as a tester! Huh!

I walked the XC with 4* rider Louise Harwood and then rushed back to show jump Monty. He show jumped fabulously and clear.
Warming up for XC I had a panic, the Pelham Monty had show jumped in was no longer working!! Monty was burying his head in his chest and getting deep to everything. Arghhhh!
I flapped, panicked, felt a bit sick and then cantered back to the Lorry and changed his bit to his snaffle and prayed I would be able to hold him.
Luckily he wasn't too strong today, although I set off cautiously. He soon took charge and jumped the most awesome clear XC taking a stride out at the step down to the skinny, far too bold. At the penultimate a double of big imposing corners he locked on to the smaller novice corner, I had to adjust my line to compensate but lucky he is such class he just worked a bit harder and popped through the double easy peasy.

We finished in 12th place and am feeling very happy and pleased with my star horse this evening.

A Sunny Day at Home Almost Ends In Disaster

Sunday was the most stunningly sunny spring day, there are endless tweets on twitter, with people tweeting about the beautiful weather. I taught in the morning, made some cakes and did our food shopping. I rode Rif Raf, her first day back in work, touchwood her splint seems to have settled. I kept her on the even surface of the school today, just in case riding her on an uneven surface upsets the splint.

Excitingly 3 year old Hartpury Top Gear has gone off to be broken in. I will report on his progress in a few days.

Late this afternoon I went to check on my young stock. Sprout and Wizard (both 2 yr olds) look well and are growing nicely, they have put on weight too. However when I went to check the 3 yearlings they took one look at me in my T Shirt, instead of my normal red puffa jacket and took off round the field at flat out gallop. I stood quietly waiting for them to settle. The field is about 30 acres, they galloped round and round with no sign of settling down. Eventually Dippy jumped out over a 4 foot high gate into the field next door, Diva followed getting her back legs very tangled in the gate, Beetle went next and impressively cleared it completely!  They galloped off so no broken bones, but how badly were they cut and they were now loose in about 80 acres of fields, that didn't belong to us.

It took me about half an hour to take the gates down that they had jumped over and another half an hour to catch them.I led the reluctant 3 to their proper field and put the gates back up, a foot higher than they were before. Luckily the only sign of blood was a speck of blood on Divas front leg! I am expecting some swelling and bruising though.  I have now banned them from practising XC unless I am on board, hope they do as they are told !

The escapees from left to right Dezina Diva, Mighty Beetle and Dezina Double Dip.

Oasby 1st Run of 2014

Had a fab day at Oasby it was so good to be out eventing, BEDE events had worked so hard to be able to run. The show jumping had been moved from the previous 2 days and much of the xc ground had been stoned and rolled. The lorry park was sticky but hardly anyone got stuck and the XC was good to sticky.

Hartpury Take It 2 The Top did a slightly unbalanced test but it was smart enough to be 6th after this phase. He behaved beautifully and he often doesn't first time out on grass, although the warm up was brown so maybe he didn't count it as grass!

BEDE events have introduced a brilliant new idea of an online rolling scoreboard, which meant u could view your scores from your phone etc and also that the commentary could accurately announce your current placing as you entered the SJ arena or XC start box. Good job I didn't hear it SJ or I would have had about 5 down!!! The electronic rolling scoreboards were on big TV screens in the secretary's.

Monty had 2 rails SJ despite having a much better canter, Ant called him a lazy whatsit when I came out, I normally can blame myself for all rails down but maybe not so much this time.

I had a fab ride XC he is so bold. It looked and felt small so fingers crossed we can leave enough rails up in the SJ next time to be able to run XC at our first Intermediate.

Rain, Rif Raf and Rainbows

It just keeps on Raining. My first event tomorrow has been cancelled and my fields are saturated yet again.

We have managed to go to one XC schooling venue but even there it was wet and slippy with quite bad poaching in front of some of the fences. It was good to jump the ditches and water fences and check the boys were still brave and confident. Hartpury Take It 2 The Top and Top Gun were fab, they are both awesome XC and despite the mud gave me a great feel.

Rif Raf stayed at home as is off for a weeks rest, she got cast in her stable, knocked some skin off her face and threw a splint in the process. It's a tiny one but my partner Anthony is a genius on leg injuries and he said she needed a week off before he checks it again and gives the OK to go ahead and ride. He is always right too, annoyingly!!!! I miss riding her though she is lovely.