An update on our busy life at Membury...

Life at Membury has been a little busy of late. We went to Gatcombe Park for two days, on the first day I took my new ride Eliza Sangster’s Mere Oak (Jambi) to do the novice. He did a lovely test despite being a little ring rusty and scored 28.1. This was followed by 4 faults in the show jumping, he had jumped a flawless round until we got to the last upright when he took his eye off the fence and took the top rail with him. He jumped a super round across the country to finish the day and collected 2.4 time faults but I was delighted with his first run with me. This left us in first place less than one penalty in front. Not a bad start! Uno di Landro (Landro) was having his first novice run the year and scored a very impressive 19.5 in the dressage, followed by one down show jumping. I took him slowly cross country in order for him to read the fences himself and enjoy the whole experience. He jumped brilliantly and came home with 16 time faults. A very encouraging result for him and I am looking forward to his next few outings. Then on Sunday we headed back with Vancouver who had a late entry in the OI. He did a good dressage to score 31.4 followed by a not so good appearance in the show jumping. He stopped in the middle part of the treble, having landed very short and unable to make the distance. Luckily he came round again and popped over it second time round. This resulted in 19 faults but he followed up his misdemeanour with a faultless round across the country. He is heading to his first CIC** at Burnham Market at the weekend.

During the week, I had a jumping session with Yogi at Boomerang. I find a change in venue helps to keep the horses fresh and looking for new things. Then on Wednesday I headed to Somerley Park with GI Master Caster (Caster) and Noble Bestman (Steve). I couldn't quite believe they were running after all the torrential rain we had had over the previous few days. Needless to say we were towed in, albeit backwards!! Both horses tried their best in the dressage, getting stuck in the mud occasionally and scored perfectly reasonable marks. Against all the odds they both jumped super clear rounds in the jumping but when I went cross country on Caster he appeared to dislike the going and slipped into a fence badly so I pulled him up. There will always be another day. So I then decided not to run Steve as his next outing is at the NEC doing a working hunter class!

The week ended with a long drive to Burnham Market with four horses on board. The Lochore family did a fantastic job with the ground and keeping the event going. I had Fernhill Cristal, Vancouver and Ginger May Killinghurst in the CIC** and Mere Oak in the intermediate. Quite a luxury of four horses over three days! Mere Oak was a winner in the intermediate having scored 32.3 in the dressage and then jumped a double clear with a few time faults. He has yet to blot his copybook and is the main yard winner so far! Cristal did a good test despite being very tense in the wind and did not enjoy my tails flapping around on his back! He too jumped a super double clear and came third in his first attempt at this level. Ginger did a good accurate test to score 45.8 just behind the leaders. Her jumping is improving all the time and despite two down I was happy with her overall performance in the ring. Cross country was awesome, but we had a slight miscommunication coming out of the water and she locked onto the advance fence, and when I said no, she argued and dropped her head and by that point we had gone past my intermediate fence. Whoops!! However it is still a learning curve for me with her and I am very privileged to ride such an amazing cross country horse. Vancouver did a good dressage to score 48. However he picked up a stone bruise and so was not presented at trot up on Friday morning so sadly had to be withdrawn. Typically as with horses he was right as rain come Saturday morning, but it was obviously not meant to be. A long way to go for an expensive dressage test!!

The week ahead is fairly hectic as I have been invited to the NEC to take part in the Eventers Challenge on Thursday evening with Jitterbug and also the Saturday I return with Noble Bestman for the Working Hunter class. During all this I am also competing at Weston Park with a couple of horses. We are still trying to sort out the logistics of the whole operation!! At home things are going well and I'm pleased to say Hunters Legend has been coming over for me to ride, I hope to be out eventing on him soon. Also I have been given the ride on Nicky Betteridge's My Mexico. He will have his first run with me at Sapey.

Also this week we have visits from Simon Pratley, the dentist and Leigh Miller, the chiropractor. They are both an essential part of the team to help keep all the horses on the road to being happy and healthy and performing at their best!!

Pictures from a successful Burnham Market...

MERE OAK... 1st Intermediate

GINGER MAY KILLINGHURST

FERNHILL CRISTAL... 3rd CIC**

A hectic weekend...

It started on Friday with an early start for Lincoln. Mum and I left at 4am, alarm clock at 2.45am (seriously unpleasant)!! We went in the little lorry with Noble Bestman (Steve) and Uno Di Landro (Landro) so that the big lorry could be packed at home by Alex and Felicity. Steve did a lovely test marred by a few unasked for flying changes and scored 31.5! His trot work was very flashy!! He followed up his good dressage with a lovely double clear to finish on 31.5 and a rosette for 4th. Landro having his first run of the year scored 33 and jumped a super double clear in the pre novice. He came home with a rosette for 3rd. He is now off to do a novice at Gatcombe on Saturday. Meanwhile back at the yard Alex and Felicity were busy working and washing horses, however Vancouver wasn’t too sure he wanted another early morning on Saturday and didn’t feel quite right when being exercised. So he was carefully examined and some pain was located in his foot and the offending shoe was quickly removed and he spent the day having his foot tubbed and poulticed! However it was obviously not meant to be, as on Saturday morning we trotted him up while preparing the others for travelling and he still wasn’t quite right. I am pleased to report that now he is fine and I hope to get a late entry in an intermediate section at Gatcombe at the weekend, fingers crossed! So the lorry left with Fernhill Cristal, Ginger May Killinghurst, Noble Springbok (Spring) and Blackwater Clover (Sid). Guy Pearson Gregory has been based with me while he is at uni in Reading so we gave him and Sid a lift to Lincoln. Grace and Spring were doing their first pony trial together and I think I was more nervous than Grace was which resulted in a few emotional tears when they finished a brilliant clear xc. They finished 2nd in the trial and have been invited to the final trial which is a great result for them. Meanwhile Cristal was first in the arena in the Young Rider trial and scored 35.5 which I was a little disappointed with. He did some lovely work, notably his shoulder in and canter transitions. However square halts were eluding us this week, so a little more practise required on those I think! He jumped well in the show jumping to have the first upright down which was a shame and we also picked up one time fault. Xc he was awesome and jumped everything brilliantly considering this was his first intermediate of the year. His next run is the CIC** at Burnham Market. My first run on Ginger was a learning experience which I thoroughly enjoyed. Her dressage was very good despite going a little flat in the arena, next time I don’t plan on being on her so long in the warm up. She scored 25.5 to head the Young Rider trial after the dressage. Show jumping was interesting and she had three down, however I am not too despondent as she improved in the arena when I left it more up to her!! Obviously she knows best….. Xc, her forte, was very good and I enjoyed the whole round. It felt a huge privilege to be riding such a xc machine. When everything was done and the lorry packed up we made a beeline for home as we didn’t fancy sitting on the A46 in the roadworks!

This week there will be an outing to Boomerang to take Eliza Sangsters horse, Mere Oak (Jambi) cross country schooling before my first run on him at Gatcombe at the weekend. Also Hunters Legend (Willy) is coming over for me to sit on him for the first time this year. He has had some issues with his feet and as we all know no foot, no horse so we have been spending a long time to get it all sorted. All being well he will be out and about soon.

Pics from first few events....

Tweseldown...

Last week at home started with dressage lessons and a show jumping session later in the week. On Wednesday we took Vancouver and Jitterbug to The Hand Equestrian Centre to do some BSJA jumping. Both jumped very well and Jitterbug jumped double clears in the newcomers and the foxhunters and picked up 1st and 3rd rosettes. Vancouver jumped double clear in the newcomers to finish 2nd to Jitterbug and in the foxhunters unluckily rolled a pole at the last fence, but I was pleased at his overall performance.


(Noble Bestman competing at Tweseldown)

The weekend has seen a busy few days at Tweseldown. On Friday Vancouver, GI Master Caster (Caster), Jitterbug, Fernhill Cristal (Cristal) and Noble Bestman (Steve) all performed. Cristal finished fourth on 35.9 penalties having added 4.4 time faults to his very good dressage. He will go to his first open intermediate trial at Lincoln on Saturday, along with Vancouver and Ginger May Killinghurst. Vancouver finished just behind Cristal in fifth on a score of 38.1, having rolled one pole in the show jumping. Caster finished just out of the money in 13th, having decided to run him slower cross country and just let him settle into a good rhythm. Jitterbug had her first outing in 18 months and was extremely lively in the dressage which marred her faultless jumping display, however we’re not too worried as her next outing is at The British Open in Birmingham. Steve just had his dressage and returned on Saturday to do the jumping phases.

On Saturday we returned with Noble Bestman (Steve) and Royal Hilarity (Hills). Steve just needed to jump, which he did superbly and did a lovely double clear. However this was a very long drawn out day due to a delay at the event. Luckily the organisers coped brilliantly and were extremely helpful and managed to run the whole day’s competition except one section, by some small miracle! Hills also on his first outing of the season was extremely fresh in the warm up for the dressage and managed some beautiful acrobatic manoeuvres, shame they are not required! In the arena he did settle slightly and managed to score 32, despite being tense. This was followed by a double clear to finish 7th. On Sunday saw a return to the event too, and the lorry now knows its own way there!!

This week there are no mid week competitions and no jumping excursions planned. A small rest for the Membury team! At the weekend the lorry heads north to Lincoln for 3 days of competition. Luckily there is stabling on site so the horses will not have to travel on a daily basis.

Isleham...

On Sunday we had our season debut at Isleham... It was a shock to the system when we worked out we had to get up at 2.30am!!!!!
We had FERNHILL CRISTAL and GI MASTER CASTER in the Open Novice, with VANCOUVER in the Intermediate-Novice.
Cristal started out with a lovely dressage to score the second highest place of the section with a 28.
Caster then followed suit with another nice test, he was a little tense at the start but settled really well in the second half. He scored 32.
Both boys then jumped brilliant double clears. The ground was getting quite deep so I took them quite steady, Cristal picked up 10.8 time penalties which was good enough for 3rd place. Unfortunately they had a mix up with Caster's timing and gave him 53 time penalties, they then realised there was no way I went that slow so changed it to 20 penalties, this in my opinion was unfair on the horse as he deserved a placing.. even with 20 time faults he finished 12th!
Vancouver not letting the side down produced another good dressage, with a 32, which left him lying 2nd. Unfortunately the ground in the showjumping was very deep now and he had 2 rails down, I think he just got a bit stuck in the mud!!
He then flew round the xc but after 2 rails I just went steady and picked up 14 time penalties but he still managed to finish in 9th place.
A good day all round and it was a long journey back with Alex Van Tuyll and myself singing along to the top 40!!! I hope no one could hear us!!!!!!!!!!

Jitterbug is a flying machine!!!

Last night I took Jitterbug for the Eventers Grand Prix Wildcard qualifier... I have already been invited to the British Open so it was just a practise run as she hasn't seen xc fences for a good 18months!!
She was absolutely amazing.. the corners were causing problems but she never wavered off her line! She ended up 4th as I didn't turn tight into the bounce as I wanted her to have a good line to it... she pulled off all the other tight turns and I am now really looking forward to the British Open in April!!!!