Aston Aston Aston and a bit more Aston

Aston
Steve and I had the best time at Hickstead in the Grand Prix Class – we had a ball but Steve got a little confused and although we had the fastest time, we had a few fences down which left us in 8th.

Friday saw us at Aston with the novices - Outward Bound was 5th and Noble Skyboy jumped a lovely double clear in his first novice!

The weather was grim and the Taylors deserve a huge thanks for carrying on – the course it self held up well and both horses felt great

Saturday was a busy day taking 5 horses to Robin Dumas amazing xc facility.

Sunday saw an early start with galloping Henry at home and then off to Aston with Allora for her first Advanced – yikes. She was going brilliantly until we came to a double of box fences... She jumped in so well that the 4 strides came up very quick and she just caught her front legs on the way up which shot me out the front door, I got back on and completed a perfect round apart from that - she will have learnt a lot from the experience and we will head to Hartpury CCI** for our next outing

Monday saw Controe, Nankin and Maisie out – Controe had a silly rail then an awesome xc, Nankin jumped a fab double clear... Both are only 5 years old making their novice debut so I was thrilled with how mega they were xc! Maisie unfortunately didn't want to play on the xc and had 2 stops.

Tuesday was guess what – another trip to Aston for Event Training – top effort to the Taylors for having the energy to run so many days! I had my exciting new horse from Ireland there and he jumped double clear in the BE100 section
This week is busy at home and I will be glued to the TV to watch Team GBR at the weekend – fingers crossed they win Gold at Greenwich.   The TV coverage can be found here

Laura

Gt Witchingham

Well the trip to Gt Witchingham was not without incident - bad weather and traffic meant the trip took twice as long as it should – whilst driving there we heard the bad news that the novice classes had been cancelled – we were losing the will to live worrying we would get there and it would all be off. We consoled ourselves with the perfect athlete meal – MacDonald’s!


The organisers performed heroics and we are very lucky we got to run in the 1* They deserve a huge thank you for keeping going.

Brookfield Cult King was doing his first CIC* and was annoyingly given 20pens for shuffling down the steps into the water... but he was fab for the rest of it

Obos Cooley was fab in CIC* 48.1 dressage and double clear just adding 6 time pens to finish 8th

We head to Aston this weekend – lets hope it dries up

Laura

Aachen

Aachen is one of the most amazing venues I have ever been too for an event!

The whole trip was such fun and I am thrilled with Henry’s performance.

We traveled out with Francis Whittington – and had a laugh all the way there.

Henry really tried in the dressage and did his best test to date and it is exciting that there is still some improvement to come. He Showed jumped really well too.

The xc out there was a big test – full on course and plenty of opportunity to have a silly run out but Henry was a star, we had to take an unplanned long route 4 fences from home when my rein slipped so incurred 4.4 time pens.... we finished on the same score as World and European Champion Micheal Jung but finished in 3rd... I am over the moon with his performance. Team GB were just 4.6 pens behind the winning German team.

We travelled home over night on Saturday and then it was back to reality with a bump on Sunday when I fell off one of the youngsters at home!


Team GB is on a roll at the moment – Charlotte Du Jardin did a stunning test at Hartpury as a warm up for the Olympics – you can watch it here
The plan this week is Great Witchingham but with all the continued rain and a bleak forecast I am just keeping everything crossed we get a run!

Laura

Barbury

Barbury


Well Barbury this year was like the Olympics will be in a few weeks time

Everyone who is anyone was there and many nations were using it as a final trial/run

I had a good day on the Friday with Longbarn Maisie and Brookfield Cult King both winners! The sections were very hot and I was thrilled to win them

Obos Cooley did a lovely double clear

Alorra did a 41.7 dressage in the 2* - she really will be smart when she gets it all together – one down and a great xc round saw us finish 8th

Henry did a nice test in the Olympic Combined training but was a little harshly marked for 45 - he then jumped one of his best rounds this season and won!!!! It was nice to beat a lot of Olympic team horses! He heads off to Aachen this week

A huge Thankyou to Holly Farr and all involved for making Barbury one of the best one day events in the country ... I love riding there ...

Laura