Broadway Novice

Hartpury Take It 2 The Top jumped clear round Broadway Novice this weekend. He went round pretty easy although he was still a bit green at the water. Uncertain but had no thoughts of hesitating and I only gave him a tiny kick. He took off a stride early for the step out, making the bounce to the log a bit of a stretch so it's lucky he's got masses of scope and just jumps from anywhere.

His 5th clear at Novice means in theory he is qualified for Intermediate, but we won't be upgrading just yet. The course at Broadway begins with a steep hill, it's undulations mean its difficult to make the time especially on a green horse. The fences at at Broadway seem small compared to other Novices I have done but the hills make them harder to jump. I was pleased with how balanced he is becoming jumping downhill and how he is beginning to learn how to gallop.

We avoided undulating courses last year on him as being so gangly he found it difficult to balance up and down hill but now after a winter of hill work he has certainly improved and he will have learnt from jumping the hillside track at Broadway. Still lots more work to do though.

Broadway BE90 and BE80

Fab day here, Loiuse Calverley, winner of my training award this year, finished 2nd in the 90, with yet another double clear. She now has secured a regional final place, where a top placing could lead to Badminton 2014.

I rode Amazingmika into 8th place in the 90, he went really well, one rail in the sj and a good dressage, clear inside the time XC one of only 7 inside. He is very bold XC, very quick and nippy too. It seemed a smaller 90 than the last one I did at Milton Keynes and much less technical.

Sweet Williams dressage gets better and better today scoring 26, he had the last down sj and then a 20 pens XC for a dither at the water, he's normally fab at water but by the time we went XC the sun had gone off the water and it was looking a bit dark. He gave me a super ride, very bold at everything else, will be outstanding when the green moments disappear!

Badminton Grassroots

Had a fabulous day out at Badminton Grassroots, we went along to support Jeni Clements, she did a good dressage and an amazing foot perfect double clear.
The courses both in the BE90 and BE100 were fab a true championship test, although it was sad to see so many eliminated, the jump into water and the skinnies caught out many, but surely this is the fault of the regional final qualifiers which are run over normal BE90 courses. Perhaps RF classes need to be asked a few more questions.
Photos of the day below. Last one is our favourite trot up outfit from the 4*.

Hartpury Take It 2 The Top Wins a Novice

This was at Bicton today, we were balloted out of our local event Withington and so entered Bicton late and got both horses in just before they closed entries. At least we were in good company both Mark Todd and Matt Ryan were ballotted too and also redirected to Bicton. For us Bicton is 2 hours further to drive!!

So glad we did, super course, big and bold asked lots of questions, including 2 waters. SJ was on a superb surface in the main arena and dressage was on beautifully mown flat arenas with a thick covering of very green grass. All looked very posh.

More to follow but after a 3.30 am alarm I need to sleep, we still can't believe he won.....zzzzzzzz.

Woken up turns out it was not a dream, here he is flying the b element of fence 14. The course was super, the first water at 7 concerned me, it was an upturned boat jumping almost straight in. He is still green at water, however he jumped in boldly, it felt like he did not clock the water the other side until it was too late! The 2nd water was a log carved into the shape of a crocodile, a drop direct into the water, he was very bold and confident, although once in he broke into trot for a stride. Apart from that he felt foot perfect all the way round, he just goes into cruising speed and jumps everything I point him at.

Other news this week is Amazingmika flew round double clear at Milton Keynes to finish 10th, it was a decent track and he loved it. Hartpury Twilight won an 80 Eventer Training class at Allens Hill so the brothers are on winning form this week. It looks like Amazing Mika is sold so that will mean I will have time to bring Hartpury Top Gun back in work who is still on his winter holiday!

Solihull Eventing

Mika went double clear inside the the time although lost marks in the dressage when he tried to peer over the hedge during the free walk! He just nipped round the XC, rode him in a snaffle too. Clever pony. William did an amazing dressage test to be in 3rd place after this phase. A clear SJ put him in a very good position. He went inside the time XC so is really improving but unfortunately locked on to jumping the string at fence 5, it meant I had a squiggley line to the fence. Although the commentary called it as clear the judge on the fence decided it was a 20 penalties. I was really disappointed, as we didn't stop, go past the fence, cross our tracks or turn a circle, just jumped the fence on a peculiar angle.

I did query it as his hoof prints showed quiet clearly the line we had taken, but sadly the judge had gone home so we were not able to examine my excellent hoof print evidence with them. He is still pretty green so a 20 penalties is good excuse to stay at 80 a bit longer.

Ledbury Pony Club Evening Dressage Show

Amazing Mika did a lovely test at our local evening dressage show at Gadbury. A grass show at last and its a busy one with 6 classes so lots of people warming up. He came 4th. Sweet William scored an incredible 77% to be 3rd in the other class. The class was won by Badminton bound Jeni Clements (see previous blog I obviously did too good a job! ) so we were beaten by real high class company.

Then the best bit of the night was riding 4 year old Hartpury Twilight at his 1st grass show. I lunged him and grazed him for a while first. Then braved getting on, he was as good as gold. Not competing this time but will be ready for his eventing debut in a few weeks, better go XC schooling next and find some grass show jumping too.

Getting ready for The Badminton Test

Helped Jeni Clements with a run through her Grassroots BE100 Badminton test yesterday. Had the arena all laid out on grass so it was a real proper practise. Jeni has owned her Mowgli since he was an unbroken youngster and I have helped him her with him all along the way, she has also benefited from working in local event yards, dressage yards and  the excellent training provided by several Instructors from the Ledbury Pony Club. A real local team effort but Jeni can take most of the credit.

We ran through the test and it all looked really good, just a couple of tweaks relating to correct size of the movements in a long arena. It took forever for Mowgli to get up the centre line with his little legs, I joked she will get time faults in the dressage!!!