The Dark Duchess proves to be the perfect pupil

April 2015

 

 

 

I've had a brilliant time this month, really enjoying combining being busy with the horses and being a mum.  It's great not only being back in the saddle but also back out competing and catching up with everyone, the horses are feeling fabulous after their little rest and performing brilliantly.  Cornets Steal has managed to jump her last discovery double clears just before the cut off date despite becoming very exuberant and us parting company in the collecting ring at Bishop Burton.

 

It was great to catch up with Florina a lovely 5y/o who I sourced as a 3y/o on one of my outings.  She is looking stunning and appears to be all set for the coming event season. Eleta and Tracey have been in the line up a few more times this month as well, even picking up a prize at the big area show.  It's great not only that she is one I produced but also that I still train this pair and seeing them progress so well is just awesome.  I love teaching and helping people and it's so rewarding when achieve their goals. It was exciting to see one of my regular clients young horses go on to win recently at the Bedale Point to Point. The Dark Duchess owned by the Brader family came regularly to my clinics last year to begin her jumping education with her rider Charlotte Lawson. The mare won on her debut at the Bedale Point to Point winning the Maiden race impressively with substitute jockey Emma Todd on board whilst regular rider Jack Teal watched from the side-lines after a recent injury.

 

It's all stations go now with the season getting well underway, Cornets Steal is getting set for Chatsworth and Bramham BYEH and also the young horse British Dressage qualifiers along with a new ride for this season Moss Farm Studs lovely 4y/o Ginacolada. Dayton will have his first BE run at Richmond in a couple of weeks and Ebolensky and Dipinahoe are getting set to gain some experience at some of the smaller county shows in showjumping classes as well as contesting in BS regional finals.

 

As I'm sure everyone can imagine fitting in all this and being a mum is quite exciting at times, luckily Charlie seems to have enjoyed coming to shows with us and Im enjoying being a Mum as well as being back out and busy again.

 Sam x

Final preparations for Badminton start with a visit to Tiny Clapham

March 2015

 

 

Well, I said in my March blog that things were set to get busy and I was absolutely right! In short, in the last month we have:

1.      Been to Cambridgeshire for intensive training with Tiny Clapham

2.      Bought a new lorry

3.      Welcomed our first home-bred foal into the world

4.      Won our second event on the trot

Back in March I was lucky enough to head down to fellow Fulmart Feeds rider, Tiny Clapham for some intense training to help our preparation for the Badminton Grassroots Championships. We had a fantastic time down there and learned so much! We had a flatwork session where Tiny helped us no end, giving me some new exercises to work on at home. On the second day we had a jumping session where she put us under more pressure and created some tricky exercises. Herbie didn’t find them easy but by the end was really getting the hang of them and I could feel his brain working quicker which was one of the key objectives. All in all I felt we improved a lot over a short space of time and would like to thank Tiny for the time she spent with us.

 

While we were at Tiny’s our broodmare, Umber, was getting closer and closer to foaling but in the end made us wait a whole 10 days after her due date before giving birth to the gorgeous Ginny Rumba! Although I am very biased I think Ginny is totally beautiful and have spent hours watching her in the field and taking countless photos and videos!! We are now ready to put Umber back in foal so the long 11 month waiting game starts all over again! Follow me on Twitter @lmstepho if you want lots of cute foal pictures!!

 

Following my training with Tiny and also lots of sessions with my regular trainer, Zoe Rymer, we headed off to our second event of the season at Norton Disney. Herbie showed that his win at Askham Bryan was not a fluke by performing a lovely dressage test (for a score of 23) followed by a double clear to win our section. Whilst I know Badminton will be a real challenge and the standard of competition will be high, it’s nice to be heading there with two great results under our belt. We head to Badminton in 2 weeks so it’s very much ‘all systems go!’

 

Our next blog will include the low down on Badminton so let’s hope it’s a positive one, for now I’ve got a lot of training still to do and then a mammoth lorry packing session before the adventure begins!

Best wishes,

Lucie (and Herbie!)

 

Fulmart's sponsored riders Lucie and Tiny get together for some pre-Badminton Grass Roots training

March 2015

March has been a nice month for the young horses.   We have been show jumping training and the horses impressed me giving some very mature performances over the coloured obstacles, but we still have plenty to work on over the next month.   Cross country schooling has also been introduced, this proved to be very exciting as the horses were very fresh the first time out.   Needless to say there was a great improvement at our next sessions and we are heading in the right direction ready for their first outing later this month.

We took one of our more experienced horses on the cross country schooling sessions, this enabled the babies to have a lead over the ditches and banks, and through the water complexes giving them plenty of confidence.

23 and 24 March we met Lucie Stephenson the Fulmart Sponsored Blogger who came for some training in preparation for the Badminton Grass Roots Championship Final.   The first day was spent working on the flat encouraging her horse to be more weight baring on his hind legs, this produced some really good work with the horse improving his self-carriage and balance.    Lucie has done a great job on this horse so far so they were a pleasure to train.   The second day we had a show jumping training session, this was a little more challenging as her horse needs to be a little quicker on his feet enabling him to adjust his stride naturally.   We worked on some bounces and related distances to encourage this, we achieved what we wanted, but this is still work in progress, but he is a great project. 

Thank you Lucie for being such a great pupil, you were like a sponge and took everything on board.

A former pupil of mine Steven James has been to the yard and ridden most of the horses due to my back injury, which I am now glad to say is on the mend.  Watch the movie, and see if you can spot the change of riders!

http://www.magisto.com/video/agMGZF4NRjZoDk1gCzE?c=e&l=mmr1&o=i&trydeeplink

Tiny