I’m just recovering from a nasty bout of ‘man flu’, which put me in bed and out of action for three days! With a packed 2010 competition schedule, I can’t really afford any downtime so I’m pleased that I’m now feeling much better!
Earlier in the month my plans to compete at Goring Heath were somewhat scuppered by the event’s cancellation. The prolonged wet weather had forced the organisers to take the decision to cancel the event. Having ridden at a few events previous to this and having first hand experience of the horrible weather and tough going I am sure that they did the right thing.
This meant that the horses didn’t compete that weekend but I’d booked to go to Larkhill the weekend after and had a great day despite feeling very under the weather! HHS Foracruise was third in the BE100Open, which was a great result. He went very, very well in the dressage and had a double clear inside the time. This is his third time out and I was thrilled. Les Bossons was 4th in the BE100, finishing on his dressage score of 32. I was really pleased with his dressage test and thought that the judges were a little mean with that mark. Floating Island also competed in the BE100 and despite this being her first run at this level; she went very well too. She’s a bit green and although we had an unlucky fence show jumping (which I take the blame for) she had a great cross country run. Floating Island is a homebred of mine out of Temple Island, a mare that belongs to Holly Farr and Sue Rutter, that I rode at *** level. She’s by Jumbo and she’s a great horse- I’m so proud of her and the fact she’s a homebred makes it all the better!
The last horse I took to Larkhill was Simply Sox who competed in the Novice section. He did a good dressage test but went a little wayward in the show jumping phase and had two fences down. He went on to go clear cross country and we finished 18th.
The following weekend I went to Belton with Arctic Monkey who competed in the Intermediate. He did a nice dressage test and then a double clear with just 11 time penalties. The time was very tight, hence the faults, but we came 4th and I was really pleased. Lord Of The Owls also competed at Belton and tackled his first Advanced. He was a little bright in the first two phases but was brilliant cross country. I retired at fence 10 because his fitness wasn’t at the level I would like for a horse competing at this level- he’d missed a bit of fittening work due to his white blood count level being slightly out- but he’s certainly back on form now! I’m taking him to Withington this weekend for his second Advanced and now he’s at full fitness, I’m keeping everything crossed.
Since my last update we’ve had to overcome an awkward feeding issue which is never ideal at the start of the season! That said, I’m confident it’s sorted now thanks to our change to Allen & Page feeds. The horses are looking great and I’d like to thank Bryony at Allen & Page for all her help. If you like to find out more, have a look in my ‘suppliers’ section and click on the link!
Last but not least, I’d like to thank Laura and Robyn, my head girl and very able groom. We were let down by a new member of staff earlier this week, so both of them have had to work incredibly hard to keep all the horses on top form.
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