Tattersalls

Last week we set sail for one of my favourite events, Tattersalls, in Ireland. COOLEY LORD LUX was competing in the CCI* which was his first three day event. PAMERO, CONTROE and OBOS COOLEY were all doing the CCI**.
The 4 boys all travelled over there really well and the weather looked set to be good. Unfortunately we had to withdraw CONTROE before the trotup becuase he just wasn't quite right and with him only being 7 years old we decided to save him for another day, I was so gutted for his lovely owners Karen Bartlett and Margie Gibb. They flew over anyway and were a huge help and great suppport team to my other horses!
COOLEY LORD LUX tried really hard throughout his dressage test and scored 44.8 which left him in 10th place after dressage, he flew round the xc inside the time which moved him up to 9th. I was really pleased with how he showjumped but he had a really unlucky fence down, I didn't hear him even touch it so it was a real shame! He finished up in 12th place which was great for his first CCI*.
OBOS COOLEY was producing a really lovely test but made a couple of mistakes with a lack of concentration at times which left him in 14th place overnight with a score of 47.4. The CCI** cross country was pretty decent and the first water was the same as what the CCI*** horses jumped last year! He gave me a great ride and helped me out when I didn't give him the best ride through the first water... he was clear inside the time which moved him up to 10th place. He jumped one of his best showjumping rounds which meant he ended up in 10th place... he felt very grown up and he now steps up to CIC*** at Barbury!
PAMERO was a superstar, he came here with very little ecperience having only done 3 Intermediates and 2 CIC** but he found the whole event ridiculously easy! I was over the moon with his dressage but a little disappointed with his mark of 41.3 as I felt he deserved better marks.. this left him in 8th overnight. I was nervous setting out on xc becasue I think an awful lot of this horse and was hoping it wasn't too big an ask for his lack of experience, but he made it feel like a pre-novice!! He nearly had me in tears coming through the finish line after jumping clear inside the time and showing me just how exciting he is for the future! He lay in 6th place overnight. I was really cross with myself becasue he had a rail down the next day which was my fault because I just turned a bit tight and didn't get him straight off the turn, so he came down on the back rail of an oxer... this dropped him into 7th place. I was thrilled with his whole performance though and really hope he gets selected for Le Lion 7yo World Championships at the end of the year now!

I'm so lucky to have some really lovely young horses who all performed brilliantly... Roll on the rest of the season!

PAMERO - 7th CCI**

COOLEY LORD LUX - 12th CCI*

 

OBOS COOLEY - 10th CCI**

Retiring my horse of a lifetime.....

Last month I made the hardest decision of my career so far when I retired my superstar horse RAYEF.... Having had him for 9 years and gone from BE100 to Badminton, I know him inside out! He just wasn't loving eventing any more and I owe it to him to give him what he wants! He is fit and well in himself and I couldn't bare the thought of anything happening to him if I carried on trying to make him event when he didn't really want to any more!

RAYEF has been the horse of a lifetime for me, back in 2005 when I had to sell my legendary pony NOBLE SPRINGBOK, I remember Yogi Breisner telling me that if I sold SPRING, I could set my career up for life by buying 4 or 5 young horses, one of which would take me to Badminton.... he wasn't wrong!! RAYEF was bought a few weeks after selling SPRING and in the middle of 2006 I was approached by Jason Houghton who wanted to buy him off me... I refused to sell him at first because I was convinced he was a 4* horse but when Jason explained that he would buy him but I would keep the ride, I wrote a contract and agreed to sell.

2006 was his first year eventing and he racked up 6 wins and was only out of the top 10 once!

2007 was when RAYEF stepped up to the plate becuase my Junior European Champion from 2006, FERNHILL SOX, had picked up an injury. RAYEF did me proud and after only one year of eventing he went to the Junior European Chamionships and won me Team and Individual Gold! He finsihed the year by winning Gatcombe CIC** and picking up 9th place in his first CIC***.

2008 RAYEF won an OIu21 and an Au25 before sadly picking up an injury at Bramham CCI***.

2009 he picked up 13th place at Saumur CCI*** and then headed to Young Rider European Championships where I had a massive point to prove... In 2008 there had been a mix up with qualifications for FERNHILL SOX and I got a phone call whilst at YR final training telling me I couldn't go to the Europeans. In true RAYEF style he proved that point for me and won another Team and Individual Gold Medal!!!!

2010 was a write off because he had picked up another injury at the European Championships, but the plan was set in place to miss the whole year with the aim of producing him for his CCI**** debut at Badminton in 2011.

2011 was what you call a 'Dream Year'.... RAYEF went to Badminton after one OI and one CIC*** run. Yogi had worked so hard with our dressage over the last year with Badminton in mind... I was 5th into the arena at my first Badminton and my boy did me proud, he produced the test of his life and scored 36.5.... this left us in the lead after day 1 and 3rd after both days of dressage! I couldn't believe it!!! He then popped round the xc and made my first Badminton feel like a walk in the park! We had a really annoying rail in the showjumping but it was still good enough for 8th place.... Top 10 on my Badminton debut, the dream had come true! The highlight was getting to sit in the press conference after the xc day between the 2 legends of the sport, Andrew Nicholson and Mark Todd... It was highly entertaining when Mark pointed out that he won his first Badminton before I was even born!!!!
The dream didn't stop there because after finishing 3rd at Barbury CIC***, I got the phone call every rider dreams of "You have been selected to represent Team GB at the Senior European Championships."..... Although it wasn't the Senior debut I had planned for, it still meant that RAYEF had represented Team GB at Junior, Young Rider and Senior European Championships, winning 4 Gold Medals along the way!

2012 was mixed but he took me to another amazing venue at Aachen for CICO***, he led the dressage by 4 marks, beating the likes of La Biosthetique Sam and Opgun Louvo who went on to win Olympic individual Gold and Bronze a couple of months later! Unfortunately we had to take an unplanned long route on xc when my reins slipped which meant we picked up a few time pens and ended up 3rd. This was good enough for RAYEF to be selected as a first reserve for the London Olympic Games!

2013 he came out with a win in the OI at Lincoln but then failed to sparkle for the rest of the year.

What an absolute LEGEND this horse has been for me.... I owe it all to RAYEF..... I'm just so lucky to still be able to ride him and enjoy him!

HAPPY RETIREMENT RAYEF.... xxxxxxxx

April and May update....

After Belton we headed to Weston Park for 2 days, it was full of mixed results but I felt the results didn't tell the right picture becasue I think a few of the horses learnt an awful lot and made big progress!
SANNANVALLEY JUSTICE stole the show with a win in the novice. I had a great ride on PAMERO but had a rail in the showjumping which was rider error! He finished 6th.

Next stop was Hambleden, the main man here was COOLEY LORD LUX who jumped a super double clear to win the Intermediate, he had come on so much since Weston and gave me a great ride xc!
MR BASS also jumped a lovely double clear to finish 2nd in his novice section.
On the Friday we had 3 babies making their eventing debuts.... it's fair to say they were all totally shocked by what was going on but they all completed and will hopefully start to understand the job next time!!
SANNANVALLEY JUSTICE was going really well in her first CIC* but had a really annoying 20 pens at the quarry!

I was really excited about going to Rockingham Castle for the next event because I'd heard good reports about it... it didn't disappoint!!
What a super event with lovely organisers... new favourite event!!!!
OUZO and ORATORIO were having their second event and they had improved enormously, both jumping double clears and ORATORIO finishing in 3rd place.
Unfortunately Withington had been cancelled the weekend before which meant PAMERO had missed an Intermediate run before the CIC** here, but that didn't seem to bother him! He gave me an amazing ride xc and showjumped a lovely clear to finish 3rd and gain his qualification for Tattersalls CCI**.
Also in the CIC** was CONTROE, he performed a good test to score 49.1, had an unlucky rail and then flew round the xc, so he also heads to Tattersalls for CCI**... Botht these horses are only 7yo's so the future is looking bright!
OBOS COOLEY had a last minute entry into the AI after Withington's cancellation but he was having a "teenage" moment in the showjumping and had 2 down but flew round xc!

Aston le Walls was a mammouth few days, we had 11 horses over 3 days there... with 8 of them finishing in the top 10!
PAMERO was a superstar and won the Intermediate, OBOS COOLEY was 3rd in OI, SANNANVALLEY JUSTICE was 2nd in Novice, COOLEY LORD LUX was 6th in Intermediate, COOLEY AGAIN was 8th in Novice, ORATORIO was 4th in BE100, OUZO and BRAWO both finsihed 2nd in BE100.
This was the final run before Tattersalls where COOLEY LORD LUX is competing in CCI* whilst CONTROE, OBOS COOLEY and PAMERO are doing the CCI**... fingers crossed for a good week!

Round up.....

We have been busy the last few weeks with events and training....

Lincoln was a mixed day, OBOS COOLEY was fantastic jumping a super double clear after a 25 dressage, just a steady run xc for his first event so finished 8th.
CONTROE was far too excited about going xc and we had no steering so picked up 2 run outs on the xc... new xc bit needed!!!!
RAYEF was also a bit cheeky and didn't respect a corner fence so we had do a circle before the next fence, they gave him 20 pens even though the fences were sepeartely numbered so that was a bit annoying!

The following week we headed to Gatcombe where the star of the show was PAMERO, he led the dressage by 4 marks on 22.5 and jumped a lovely double clear to win.
The next day was full of hail storms and the ground in the showjumping got quite deep and slippery, this upset COOLEY LORD LUX so we didn't run him xc.
OBOS COOLEY had lead the dressage by 4 marks on 22.3 but he struggled in the ground so had 2 down, he then flew round xc to finish 5th.
NANKIN was having his first run at Intermediate level, he scored 30.9 in the dressage and jumped a fantastic double clear... just steady for his first run at this level but I was so pleased with him, its special because I have had them since a 3yo!
CONTROE was going brilliantly in the new bit xc but I was having such a lovely ride that I completely forgot to ride properly into the water so he came to a stand still... Thrilled that the bit worked but now the jockey needs to ride properly!!!!!

Our next run was at Goring, I ran COOLEY LORD LUX in the novice and he was so happy to have nice ground! He did a great test for 25 and had an unlucky rail to then finish 4th.
CONTROE went for a spin round the novice (hc) to check our brakes out again before he did his first CIC**, he was cheeky in his dressage but jumped a fantastic double clear!
I also rode SANNAN VALLEY JUSTICE for Karen Huyten and she made a couple  of mistakes in her dressage to score 30.5 and followed that up with a great double clear for 3rd.

Belton Park is such a lovely event and a huge Thankyou must go to Stuart Buntine and his team who ran a brilliant event! I had PAMERO doing our first Intermediate together, he finsihed 2nd after just picking up a few time penalties on the xc to add to his dressage of 25.5.
CONTROE was doing his first CIC** and I was pleased with his dressage but he didn't get a good score, he then was a bit cheeky in the showjumping and had 2 down but redeemed himself by flying round the xc (in control!!!!!)
OBOS COOLEY found the atmosphere all a bit much and was unsettled in his dressage,  he tripped into the first fence showjumping so had it down and then rolled another pole ealry on before jumping really well. He totally redeemed himself round the xc when he was totally awesome, it was his first Advanced and he made it feel easy!
I've had CONTROE and OBOS COOLEY since they were 4yo so it means alot now they are stepping up the levels and feeling grown up!!!

Training and first event.....

Last week we had 2 days of World Class training... I took PAMERO, CONTROE, COOLEY LORD LUX and OBOS COOLEY.

It was jumping both days with Yogi Breisner and Philip Surl.... all the horses improved so much by day 2. We really concentrated on the ridability and control round the turns.

Yesterday we headed off to thr first event of the season... COOLEY AGAIN and PAMERO in the Novice and CONTROE in the Open Novice.
After a very early start leaving for Isleham at 3am, all the boys behaved beautifully and the sun was shining!
All 3 boys managed a top 10 placing and all felt fab xc.
PAMERO - 4th
COOLEY AGAIN - 6th
CONTROE - 9th.

Now a couple of weeks before we head north to Lincoln.

"Bucking fun"!!!!!

Claire Lomas asked me to ride in the eventers vs jockeys bucking bronco fund raising evening.... It was a fantastic night and I hear she raised over £10,000.
When asked by Claire, I didn't need to think twice... she's a total inspiration and anything I can do to help her I will.

On the jockeys team they had 'The Champ' (A.P. McCoy), Andrew Tinkler, Choc Thornton, Sam Thomas, Mark Bradburne, Alice Fox-Pitt and Dominic Elsworth.

Joining me on the eventers team were William Fox-Pitt, Tina Cook, Lucy Jackson, Jonty Evans, Pheobe Buckley and Bruce Haskell.

As you can imagine it got very competitive!! Luckily the eventers came out on top and I managed to win after staying on the bronco for over 6mins 30secs.... I tried to explain that the last time I fell off, I ended up in a coma, so I have learnt to sit very tight!!!!!!!!

For full report and videos following this link....

http://www.eventingstig.co.uk/1/post/2014/02/laura-collett-dominates-at-bucking-fun.html

I'm now looking forward to Claire's next fund raiser!!

First competition.....

We had our first competition at the weekend... we headed to West Wilts BSJA with 5 horses! They were all cracking form....

COOLEY LORD LUX jumped 2 super clear rounds in 1m05 and Newcomers, he was only on a ticket so no prizes for him!
OBOS COOLEY was 2nd in Newcomers and had an unlucky rail in 1m15.
RAYEF was on flying form and enjoyed being a showjumper for the day!! He won both the Newcomers and Foxhunter classes.
CONTROE was out competing for the first time since 8th July, he had the first fence down in 1m15, I think he was a bit shocked he was actually out jumping!! He then finished 2nd to RAYEF in the Foxhunter.
I was super excited to make my first competition with PAMERO a winning one! He won the 1m15 and then got a bit forward in 1m20 and had a rail, he was very cool and just need to get to know each other a bit more!

All in all a successful first trip out.... let's hope this winning form continues throughout the season!