After a shaky start to the season I'm pleased to say that
things are ticking along quite nicely right now. As I'm writing I'm just on my
way for a very exciting experience... a lesson with the world class duo that is
Tim and Jonelle Price, hoping that I can learn lots after the 4 hour journey.
After I last checked in with everyone Brahman was my next
big event, unfortunately things didn't quite go to plan, with 5y/o Freddie
still well out of action the two 4y/o found the whole experience a little bit
much. They both behaved well but just not as focused as I would have liked
which at 4y/o sometimes you have to accept they just aren't quite ready.
With that behind us we set about getting busy with the
whole team. Skipton was next on the agenda and we had a great
weekend, quite a long one with competing both days but it was worth it, both
Uppsalls Lorna and Dayton were brilliant. They were both placed with not quite
perfect performances leaving me with a little homework. The babies were back
the following day and were all fabulous, Jasmine rode my own Houdini for the
first time in competition and flew round, he's quite a big lad for such a
little jockey and having only had him two weeks they had improvements to make
but a good solid start. Both my own Fleur and Joanne Pullan's Charlie Harper
did brilliant tests and jumped double clears to finish in the prizes as well.
The next week was the week we had been waiting for but
with his final bloods due it was a little nail biting waiting to get the go
ahead for Freddie to return to competition. We had been working him quietly at
home and had a catch up plan in mind if he was strong enough and he surprised us
all, even the vets, with everything coming back clear and his muscle enzyme
levels back to normal so it was back to business. We took him to Sykehouse for a
quiet round to see how he felt and he loved it, it was like he had never been
off although afterwards he was exhausted bless him, time and patience and lots
of TLC was all we could do.
After a light week he headed off to his first BYEH class
at Weston Lawns, he was such a good boy. The dressage was less than perfect
after he stumbled in the medium but I really felt he tried hard and he jumped a
beautiful clear round. After a long wait for the top 10 he did feel pretty
tired but he pulled it out to put in a great performance and after giving me
100%. I was gutted for him to finish 4th and miss his ticket by half a mark but I
was obviously thrilled by his performance and how well he coped. It would have been a fairytale achievement for him but with more chances
later on I remain hopeful.
Eland lodge and Aske were interesting events, Charlie
Harper was a dude at Eland scoring his best dressage ever and showing huge
improvements and flying round the showjumping and cross country to finish 5th
in the open section. Grafiba can only be described as frustrating. After doing
the most beautiful test to score 18 he couldn't give the showjumping the same
level of concentration, finding a demon behind a banner. At this point I
didn't know about my amazing score so happily plodded round the cross country
thinking 'oh well he's only a baby and it's his first BE - we will practise more' but after
his lovely clear Neil informed me of my score - he finished 3rd missing qualifying by one place, very frustrating! At Aske the following day I started to feel that I was a show jumper that definitely couldn't show
jump any more! Both Fleur and Lorna did great dressage tests but both had a
pole down with clears inside the time cross country; Fleur even managed to
catch up to the one in front of me on the course! They both finished in the top
5, so I suppose I could use the excuse that everyone was clearly having the same
problem as me.
Freddie cleared up my virus the following week by jumping
another lovely round this time at Field House in the BYEH his dressage was
beautiful and in a tight class where all 10
in the prizes were separated but 4 marks we finished 7th. A slight change
in scenery saw Dayton head to Aintree for the Petplan Elementary Regional, he
did one of the best tests he has ever done to finish 2nd. I was early to go in
the class and led the whole way to the last one to go and was pipped by .2 of a
mark, obviously I was thrilled but gutted too!!! I like winning😉
An early start at Buckminster, one of my favourite events
proved worthwhile. Upsalls Lorna won her section on good company and her
performance was pretty faultless. She gave me the best ride all day
and as all the evening riders out there know, it's not often you have a ride that makes you smile from
dressage to cross country. This little mare is growing in confidence every time
out now. Freddie made his BE comeback, I was worried about him and how he would
cope as he hadn't had much training and only two runs in 2016. I thought it was a big ask going straight round the 100 but he trusts
me and I know he's a jumper so I figured we should be ok. He did an awesome
dressage in a tough 5y/o section to be in with a chance at qualifying. A beautiful showjumping clear followed but a couple of time penalties cross country cost us and we finished 6th. Sadly for us, just 5 qualified - a scenario which was starting to become the story of my life. I was thrilled with Freddie though, he
tried so hard and didn't doubt me once. Dayton also won a prize in his section,
he did a beautiful test but his showjumping demons caught him a little but he
redeemed himself with a smashing cross country round.
Northallerton saw me start my new ride Sue Cliff's Doodle
on her BE adventures. With this event being only her second show in her
life we had absolutely no idea what she would think and being only 5y/o she would
either love it or hate it. She was a dream from start to finish with her dressage score of 26 to finish 2nd. Fleur was her usual confident self to
finish 6th and Shelley Cleave and James Askew's Bollywood made her BE
competition debut a brilliant one with Jasmine riding, it was a sink or swim
approach and she definitely swam.
Ryedale proved successful and Freddie finally got his
Burghley ticket finishing 2nd and this must have been all the warm up he needed
to go on to Frickley and win his 100 section with a 26 dressage. Frickley was
probably the best weekend eventing we have ever had. All the horses were super
consistent with all 8 winning a prize. Lorna was 4th on her section after
getting reverse time penalties. Dayton
finished 5th with two slow time penalties, the jockey definitely forgot how to
use the stop watch! Jasmine beat me on my own horse!! Houdini won his section
with a 26 dressage beating me on Doodle at her second event finishing on 27.
Fleur was 2nd finishing on a score of 27, Charlie Harper finished 7th and
Jasmine on Bollywood finished 9th in their sections. To say I was proud of them
all and Jasmine is an understatement, it's not often all the plans
come together at once with horses, they like to keep things interesting.
We were a little disappointed that the event at Skipton
this weekend was cancelled but I have to admit to enjoying less rushing round
and actually catching up on a few jobs. We did sneak off for a bit of practise
to the local cross country facility with the new boy who has come to sell, Kate
Musgrave's Larry.
We are still very busy but things are winding down a
little now, the whole team now seems focused and they all are enjoying the
routine of training and shows. Let's hope the rest of the season runs smooth
and we can enjoy what's left of the summer, with lots of lovely events coming up
and all the horses feeling smashing it's looking promising.
Sam
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