A whoops at 70 cm Elmwood Eventing

It was an incredible windy day today at Elmwood near Oxford. Lots of horses spooking in the wind.

Elmwood is super prep for BE Eventing, the courses are superbly built, banks, ditches, water and its a really interesting course to ride, mainly on flat ground which is perfect for an unbalanced, green, young horse but with a few man made grass tumps so we can educate them on undulating ground too. The dressage and SJ are both on a level fields with plenty of space to warm up a youngster safely and calmly. 

Despite the blustery conditions my 4 year old, Alvescot Massimo, remained level headed and calm throughout his day. He continues to impress me with his unbelievable trainable, want to please attitutude. His 28 dressage meant he led his section after a clear SJ.

He is still one of the boldest, if not the boldest, young horse I have ridden and he popped round the XC like a horse twice his age. There was plenty to spook a young horse too, every XC fence was dressed with colourful flowers blowing about in the wind.

Sadly I hadn't walked the course correctly and missed out fence 6B a small step down, as I completed the commentary announced I had been technically eliminated. 

Slightly amusing (and annoying) as we had walked the XC and had stood on the bank discussing how much nicer it would have flowed had they included the step off. It was not numbered fence 6B when we walked it. Our numbers were orange but the step was only numbered with a yellow number. We should have realised there might have been a problem as when we got to fence 11 the wind had blown the number round so it couldn't be seen. We spotted the error and turned it round but it never occurred to us this may have happened on another fence that we had already walked.

Even when I was warming up I could hear people being Eliminated for missing a fence, I carefully went through the course in my head.

It would have been lovely to have had a placing, so early in his career,  I feel I let Massimo down, but at least I have come home feeling excited about having a potential top class horse again.

Had some fantastic news today from pony rider Saffron Cresswell who I coach jumping. She finished 2nd in the Pony Trial at Weston Park yesterday and is looking a strong contender for GB Team selection for the Pony Europeans this summer.  Saffron and her Mum called to see us this evening, they were buzzing with news of their brilliant day Eventing. 

Howick BE90

Spring arrived in a frantic hurry on the Sunday of Howick, near Chepstow.  It seemed the sky turned a beautiful blue, the grass a luxurious green and all the daffodils and primroses all burst out into flower just as we arrived in Wales.

The event had done wonders to run, they had a huge amount of rain a couple of days before and I was convinced they would cancel, Goring Heath and Llanymynech had both already been abandoned due to water logging. But the organisers at Howick had faith in their well drained ground and had worked incredibly hard over night and between classes during the day with all the various machines and tractors to keep the show on the road. In addition almost all of the 200 lorries needed towing out, I was told only 6 got out on their own! We didn't.

Timeforasharpexit did another super dressage test for a 30. He show jumped early in the day before the sun had got a grip on drying the ground and he tipped down 3 show jumps. As he felt a bit green in the sticky mud I decided to withdraw him XC.

Rif Raf The Dragon did a nice dressage for 33. Show Jumping she was amazing, she pinged them all and yet again didn't touch a single pole. I took some rather odd lines to avoid the mud and chose a line to the penultimate that didn't quite work, I gave Rif Raf a kick and she went "hey you have Spurs on" she shot sideways making the line even more unworkable and so I had to turn a circle giving Rif Raf her first ever SJ fault along with 9 time!!!! This was the first time I have competed her in Spurs although we did practise at home this week.

XC she was super, so bold and confident. I let her plod round and I chose lines that avoided the sticky patches, she was late on in the day and the ground was pretty cut up by then. The ground felt energy sapping and she was trying so hard. A lovely clear with just 8 time which surprised me as it felt that we went very slow. The XC was super for a first 90, the 90 fences were mixed with a few shared BE80 & shared BE100 fences too, there was a super dew pond water complex, a coffin and an interesting log drop down a steep slope to a tall but inviting brush skinny.

Lands Eventing

Feeling exhausted this evening after 3 days eventing out of the last 7 days! 

Today we took the lovely Massimo to do his first ever event, the 70 cm at Lands Eventing near Warwick.

He is only 4 yet behaved like a horse twice his age, he scored 34 in the dressage then jumped a super clear show jumping. Massimo has only been XC schooling once before when I took him to Bissell Wood a month ago.

So although I thought he would cope with the dressage and show jumping I was very unsure if he would cope warming up on grass in a busy enviroment. The small shows he has been to so far only ever had about 3 others warming up with him and it's been on the safety of an enclosed sand arena, today he was going to have to cope with 20 or 30 other horses in a huge open field. 

He was a complete star, calm and yet interested in what was going on. XC he was so impressive, I came home believing I now have a future top horse to dream about. He spooked a bit at the water but otherwise he didn't glance at anything and just flew round, the boldest 4 year old I have ever ridden.

Exciting to have a potential new star, especially as I have sold my best horses during the last 12 months to pay for renovations on our new house.

Click the link to see a short XC clip http://youtu.be/890fYN9uvrM

Stafford British Eventing

Both my green youngsters were doing hopefully their final 80 Training classes at Stafford today prior to doing their first BE90. Rif Raf did a super test although lost marks when I stopped mid canter as I thought judge had blown her horn to tell me I had gone wrong. She hadn't, it was the arena next door, it meant I lost 3 marks. Even so my cob scored an impressive 29, she followed this up with her usual double clear into 3rd place.

Timeforasharpexit had an unfortunate experience in the dressge warm up. He was next in to do his test and a loose horse appeared from the lorry park, it lapped the warm up at gallop 3 times before it was caught. Timeforasharpexit stood like a rock even when the horse came within inches of him, but it still meant he entered his test a little tense and getting deep. But the judge liked his test to score him 31 and he then went double clear to finish 2nd.

The XC in the 80 caused plenty of trouble. When I walked it I felt the first 5 fences in particular looked more like a 90. All these fences were going away from home including a wide imposing painted house at fence 2 and at 5 some white rails before the water. There was also a distant, but huge, wind turbine right on horses eyeline at fence 2. It spooked Rif Raf slightly (and she's not normally a spooky horse) so when I warmed up Timeforasharpexit I made sure he had hacked down past fence 2 for a look at it. His eyes were on stalks, but it meant when he was out on XC he never gave it a second look. Phew! After the water the fences seemed to calm down, although some pearl coloured cushions, that shone in the sunlight, on the penultimate chair caught out a few spooky horses. A pretty good day for the babies, Staffords XC is beautifully built and presented but it's always meaty and I am pleased I made the right decision not to upgrade them to 90 here.

Show Jump videos and XC clips here later today

Puppy injured - Hurricane Hugo

Some of you will have already heard that my lovely 5 month old border collie puppy Hugo suffered a horrendous injury two weeks. It's been so upsetting I have not felt up to recording it on here.

Hugo is quite a character, happy, bouncy, enthusiastic, full of life and always wanting to be by my side at all times. His entire life is spent being in a huge hurry to do this!!!

2 weeks ago we were rolling our fields to smarten them up and it also helps the grass to grow as grass doesn't like growing much on poached ground. Hugo was sat in the back of the 4 wheel drive loving the ride, when we had finished I got out of the truck expecting Hugo to jump between the front seats to follow me. He didn't instead he tried to squeeze between the back of the front seat and the door frame. He didn't fit and got stuck on his ribs and he screamed and screamed in pain. After what seemed an age I managed to calm him and persuade him to go backwards until he was free again. But something was wrong he was shaking and very quiet. I picked him up and gave him a hug and noticed he had cut his back leg above his hock, it clearly needed stitching and I took him straight to Masefield's vets. 

When I arrived it was just the worst possible news. He had severed both his Achilles tendon and his superficial flexor tendon. John the vet was horrified, he said anything but this would have been better, it was an injury so rare John and his Partner had only come across this a small number of times in his career and never in a puppy.

He was rushed straight into surgery and it is now a waiting game to see if the severed  tendons join back up. Keeping Hugo on rest is a difficult task. Sadly after 4 days Hugo managed to break the splint supporting the stitched together tendons. The tendons tore once again and Hugo was rushed back in for surgery, so twice in 4 days he had to have the exact same operation. Poor puppy.

It's ten days now since the second operartion and with a stronger splint all looks good to me so far. 

We have a check up at the vets today along with a bandage change so it's all fingers crossed for good news.

Good news, he is home from the vets with a nice new blue bandage (see below) and the tendons are showing promising signs that they are starting to join back together. Miracle puppy, few more weeks of careful TLC to go yet though. 

Swalcliffe BE Eventing

It was a very Sunny Swalcliffe today, lovely weather and perfect ground, we didn't even need studs. 

Timeforasharpexit scored an amazing 25 in his dressage, which included a 9 for some of his trot work. Rif Raf jumped a super and very enthusiastic double clear & put her best foot forward in the dressage but only scored a 37. 

Timeforasharpexit finished in 12th spot, they both gave me a super ride SJ and XC! It was fantastic to ride two very bold horses round a fairly imposing BE80 track, which included fences dressed with flowers, a half coffin with a decent ditch, the water was really inviting and towards the end of the track there was a super Trakener suitable for my two baby horses to learn over.

They were both so much less green than last week and just bounced round, they have one more BE80 to do then are upgrading to BE90.

As you can see below they rather over did the flower decorations!!!! Stunning, it was just the most amazing event, all the fences were dressed more like a championship event.

Rif Raf's day can be seen by clicking this link http://youtu.be/mLAV2DRnkGw

The Season starts with Aston Le Walls

We had a fab day at our first event of the season with my homebred Rif Raf The Dragon and Graham Potts horse Timeforasharpexit. Both horses were competing in their first BE event, Graham was working so his friend Nikki came along as owner, groom and good cake maker!!! Yummy shortbread too!

The dressage warm up was pretty hectic with far too many horses being naughty and excitable in a tight area, meaning it was impossible to avoid anyone having a problem which then snowballed into more horses getting uptight. Rif Raf was a little tense but managed to contain herself to do a reasonable test. I allowed extra time to warm up Timeforasharpexit thinking I would need to settle him. He was incredible calm so the time I allowed was far too long and he went off the boil. Consequently he was feeling rather bored and lacking sparkle by the time we entered the arena.

Both horses show jumped well, Timeforasharpexit clunked the first fence down and then went clear and Rif Raf jumped her usual super clear round.

Rif Raf and Timeforasharpexit both gave me a lovely ride XC, green at times but bold and keen. It was a super first timers course, the time was pretty tight and both went clear with time faults. Really pleased to see when we got home that Timeforasharpexit finished in 20th and Rif Raf in 6th.

Timeforasharpexit trying very hard in his dressage and Rif Raf lining up to pop a fence judges car. BE80s are looking bigger every year!!!!!!

Super pic of Rif Raf The Dragon concentrating in her test.