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!!
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