A Win for Louis

Well I said I wanted to get some better results and coming first in an Intermediate does not come much better than that!

Kellys Lad (Louis) did a good test with just one mistake, doing a flying change coming back to the track in the second counter canter.  We have been doing changes with him occasionally at home, so they are well established for when he needs them, unfortunately he enjoys doing them a bit too much!  He still scored 30.5, which was one of the best in the section.  He posted yet another clear in the showjumping, this phase has become very consistent for him now he is more mature and can sit himself back in his combinations.   He gave me a lovely ride round the xc, only having one hairy moment in the double of corners when he slipped quite badly in the middle of them, but managed to hold his line and jump, clever boy!  He finished full of running and getting 0.8 time.  Needless to say I was absolutely delighted that he won as he so deserved it as he is so talented.  He also got his picture in the Horse and Hound and will be the lead story in Eventing Magazine!

Louis -  Richmond Intermediate

Louis next event will be Belsay where he will run in the Intermediate Novice, and then to Catton Park for the OIu21.   Sadly, I cannot make it to Houghton for the Junior Championships as it clashes badly with my GCSE's and this will put me out of contention for the Junior Europeans this year, but thankfully I still have next year.   He has also qualified for The Festival of Eventing at Gatcome in Novice and the Intermediate sections, but he will compete in the Novice as that runs as an Intermediate anyway.

Pi my young strawberry roan gelding, has come back into work after tearing a blood vessel in his foot.  We have no idea what happened to him but he did it in the field.  He is currently doing a bit of flatwork and has jumped a few small fences, we are hoping he makes it to the 4yo classes now he has missed quite a bit of time off, but he is showing all the signs that he will be ready in time.

Pilgrim my 5yo bay gelding is coming along well.  His dressage is very good and he has developed better self carriage.  He is showing a much better technique over a fence and is starting to use his neck.  He has been cross country schooling a couple of times with some positive results, and he will need a bit more time in this phase.  He has been entered for the Burghley Young Event Horse class at Yorkshire Sport Horse next.

Congratulations to Philippa Wittrick for a great double clear on Billy at Richmond Horse Trials and her first BE placing!  Keep it up.

Phoebe Powell and the Eventing Team

A Rather Late Update!!

It has been a while since my last update and I have had a few outings not all of them sucessful!

Louis made his Intermediate debut at Weston Park in the OIu21 section.  He performed a rather tense test due to the Selectors all being parked close to the arena with all of their doors and tailgates open, but the Judge obviously liked him as he scored 33.6 which was a top ten score on the board.  The next morning we were back for the showjumping and it was a rather twisty track very up to height and in a rather small space.  He jumped well just having an unlucky 4 faults.  He jumped amazing around the cross country taking all the direct routes and finding it rather easy, he got a few time faults, which you would expect at this stage and he finished in 11th place in a strong section.

Next for him was Belton International.  This is probably my favorite event and the cross country would suit Louis with his big bold jumping.  He did a lovely test, probably his best this year, but the Judge was not so keen scoring him 36.4 and putting him about half way down the class before the jumping.  Again, it was back next morning for showjumping and cross country.  The showjumping was as always at Belton was up to height and beautifully presented.  He did a spectacular clear in a section where there were very few clears!  Then off to cross country where as usual he was jumping boldly and bravely, even taking a stride out in the combination under the trees to the corner.  He found the water complex easy and it had caused some problems for a lot of horses, but his boldness was to be his undoing as he had a double of very narrow dog kennels under the trees and he jumped the first massive and I couldn't make the turn to the second so we ran out.  I then represented him badly and he ran out again.  On the third attempt he jumped it well and finished the course full of running and enjoying himself far too much!  It was gutting as he would have been well placed and he had jumped so well round the cross country, he still doesn't find the fences big enough to back him off!

Our next outing was the TCN** competition at Kelsall Hill.  This was entered to enable him to get his qualification for CCI** in good time for Osberton.  He did a fairly nice test but there was a bit of tension and as it was scored Internationally he got 51.1.  Again he did a gorgeous clear in the showjumping.  We set off cross country feeling full of confidence and he was jumping amazing.  Unfortunately his flash strap broke as he jumped a table and it was hitting him in the face, this was not something he could deal with as he is a very sensitive horse!  I jumped the A element to the water and I noticed that his bridle had come off over his ear on one side where he had been shaking his head so I had to pull him up before the B element.  I couldn't believe our bad luck, I pulled his bridle back on and took off the flash before representing him to the drop into the water which he then refused, poor boy, he had got himself a bit upset.  I then gave him a bit of encouragement and he jumped in and carried on round the course taking all the straight routes and finding it easy.  It was so unfortunate as he would have easily gone clear and got his qualification.

Lastly, I took him to Burgham to do the TCN**.  This was a last minute decision as he had not gone clear at Kelsall Hill.  He did a good test with a good score of 34.6, for some reason this was not scored Internationally.  He did a cracking showjumping round and went clear.  Unfortunately this is where it ended as he set off cross country thinking he was mint and jumping far too big and that again was his downfall as he jumped a fairly big drop into the water and jumped me off by pecking on landing!  So that was that.

It is such a shame as his results don't do him justice as he is the best horse I have ever ridden by far and he has the jump to go to the top level.  He just needs to not be so enthusiastic as he keeps getting himself into trouble!!  Anyway, his next outing is the Intermediate at Richmond and I am hoping for a less eventful outing!

Louis Burgham

I have also been riding a friend of mines horse, Sir William V.  He is owned by Philippa Wittrick and she has been doing her exams.  I did two BE90's with him and he was placed 4th in his second outing at Northallerton with a lovely double clear.  Philippa will now take back over as she has passed her exams, but I was pleased to have the ride on him.

I have also been sent a mare from a yard in Shropshire.  She is called Taggi and is a 17.2hh Holstein.   I thought she may be too big for me but she is not strong and is very level headed and is not wide to ride.  She has showjumped to Newcomers but has never done cross country and her dressage training was non existent and she is used to going in a fairly strong bit.  I have had her 3 weeks now and she absolutely loves cross country and her training sessions have been very sucessful.  Her dressage is really starting to come and she is a great natural mover with a very good canter.  She did an unaffiliated ODE and came 5th and performed well in all 3 phases.  She has now been registered and been entered for her first BE90 at Belsay on June 1st.

Anyway, I will blog again soon, hopefully with some better results!!

Phoebe Powell and

the Eventing Team

Season Starts

Well its all change here in that I have a couple of new rides for this year and I have sold Cairngorm to 3* rider Jamie Lee Day.  He has settled in well to his new home and had a sucessful outing at Aldon with a 2nd place in the BE100.

My new horses are, Pilgrim, a 5yo 16.1 bay gelding by Medoc.  He is a lovely stamp of a horse with a willing and trainable temperament.  I bought him privately and he has done very little in his past home, but has come on in leaps and bounds since we started training him.  He will be aimed at BYEH and also BE 5yo classes this season.

My second new horse is Temple Lakeshore Crest (Pi) a 4yo 16.2 rose grey gelding by Lakeshore Road.  He was purchased from Ireland unseen, apart from on video, and he is a classy horse.  He is very much in the same stamp as Kellys Lad, and is a tremendous mover and jumper.  He will be aimed at the 4yo classes this year with a view to him qualifying for the finals.  He will definately be one to watch for the future!

Well the season has got off to a great start, with Kellys Lad winning at his first outing at Oasby.  He was in the ONu18 class with a strong field of riders.  He scored 30.0 in the dressage, and was double clear with a handful of time faults, he feels much stronger this season and ready to step up to Intermediate.

His second outing was the Novice at Great Witchingham in Norfolk which was a bit of a long journey!  He had the most appalling weather to contend with and if we hadn't travelled so far we might have withdrawn him, but we thought we might as well run him.  He did 3 massive bucks in the middle of his dressage test as he did not appreciate the howling wind and sleet across his arena!  He had 1 down in the showjumping as it was a blizzard when he jumped and was clear on the xc and found it too easy.  He wasn't placed due to time faults.  But he performed well considering the weather!

His next event will be Weston Park OIu21 and then to Belton for the OIu21 these both being Junior Trials.  But as I write this at the moment, it is snowing outside and I am wondering if this weather is ever going to improve!

Phoebe Powell and the
Eventing Team

Winter Antics

Well its that time of year again, and I am thinking of the forthcoming season.

The horses have had a fairly easy time lately, mainly competing in British Showjumping classes and Louis has been for a few dressage lessons.  But now its time to increase the fittening work.

Teddy (Burway) has now been sold to a lovely home in Sussex and has settled in well.  We have also made the difficult decision to put George (Cairngorm) up for sale in order to invest in some lovely young horses.  This in no way was a decision we wanted to make as we feel he has a huge future in BE classes and is a definate team horse in the making.  I am due to leave school soon and as eventing is my dream, I will need to have a string of horses to progress.

I have been invited to take part in the Junior Training which takes place on 13/14 February at Hartpury College, and I am taking my main horse Louis (Kellys Lad) and also George as he is not sold yet and it will be good experience for him.

Louis first event of the season is going to be Oasby ONu18 class and the entry is in and I can't wait.  He has yet to go cross country schooling as it is just too wet, but will start his canterwork this week.  He has been jumping 1.10 and 1.20 classes this winter, and he has won the last 4 out of 5 Newcomer classes and has some double clears at Foxhunter level which bodes well for a step up to Intermediate early in the season.

The plan for his season is Oasby ONu18, Great Witchingham Int CIC* or IN, Weston Park OIu21, then Belton OIu21.  We have only planned a bit after that as it depends on the weather and how he copes with his upgrade.  He will run at Houghton International in May in the CCI* as that is now the Junior Championships now Glanusk is not hosting this.

If George is not sold he will start his season when the ground dries out, probably after Belton and will run at BE100 for a couple and then upgrade to Novice and be aimed at the 6yo Champs.

Anyway, I will blog after my first run.

Good Luck for the coming season
Phoebe Powell and the eventing team

A Good End to the Season!

This is my final blog of the 2012 season, and its been a bit of a disjointed one what with the never ending rain. 

My next event after Allerton Park was Kelsall Hill and it was not a memorable day!  I was riding George (Cairngorm) in his first Novice class and we were not quite sure whether he was ready, but he had shown good form at BE100 so we thought we would give it a go.  He performed a fairly nice dressage test to score 36.0, although he has no medium trot whatsoever as of yet!  He showjumped well and was very confident, and just had one pole down.  The cross country was a fairly nice course, but with a couple of quite testing fences, a double of corners and a reasonable question at the water, having to jump in over a small log on the direct route or an alternative over a fairly large house at the side of the water jump and then 1 stride to a drop in.  I was unsure which I was going to take, as he had never jumped into water before.  Anyway, I set off and all was going well until he had a fairly sticky jump at the big ditch brush approaching the water, so I quickly decided to take the alternative and he refused it!  I went for a second attempt and he said no again, so I decided to try him at the straight route and he jumped straight in!  I wish I had put him at the straight route first, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.  He finished the course well and found it all quite easy.  I think he is ready for an upgrade to Novice but will run his last event at BE100 just to finish on a good note.  I also rode Ramera, mums horse, who went really well but had an unlucky run out at one of the corners, stopping her from getting placed, so all in all not a great day!

George - Kelsall Hill

Next event was the CIC* at Aske Hall with Kellys Lad.  He had his dressage on the Friday and then back on the Saturday for SJ and XC.  The dressage arena had been put on the only flat bit of land in front of the house which was nice, but the warm up was not good as it was on the side of a hill with no flat land what so ever so you could only do very basic work before going in, which is not ideal for Louis as he needs quite a lot of lateral work to make him more through and soft.  He didn't like the ground in the arena as it was quite wet and holding and got a bit struck in the ground in his rein back so did not score as well as I hoped he would getting 57.7.  But the score was not that bad considering it was a poor test for him!  On the Saturday he had two down in the showjumping, as he was a bit fresh and the ground is quite undulating at Aske, but he did a fab xc round finding it really easy and one of the fastest horses round.  He ended up in 10th place.  This would be his last run before Weston CCI*.

Dressage Louis -Aske 1*

Louis last event of the season was Weston Park CCI*.  He was selected to represent the Northern Region as part of the team so we were hoping for a good score.  He settled in really well and enjoyed hacking round the park and doing some flat work before his test which wasn't until Friday afternoon.  He warmed up really well for his test on Friday, and we were hoping he wasn't going to get tense when he entered the main arena as it was a bit more of an atmosphere to what he is used to.  We need not have worried though as he performed the best test of the year for him, it was just about perfect he was engaged and balanced but also relaxed and confident.  His lessons he had had with Ian Woodhead had really paid off and is canter work was the best it had been to date.  He scored a fab 45.3 which left him in 5th place over all out of about 80 horses before xc. 

I was quite nervous on xc day as I wanted to hold on to his good place but I had never ridden him over a 9min course before and as he is only 6, I was unsure how he would cope.  He felt amazing though, I just let him coast round and he felt fit and attentive the whole way and concentrated really well at the arena fences second from last as he had a table to a skinny brush to a table and there was quite a lot of people spectating.  He finished with 1.6 time faults, which I know I could have avoided, but I wanted to look after him as it was a bit wet and he is only a young horse.  He was in 6th overnight to showjumping.

The final day and he was 6th from last to showjump, he warmed up well, but felt a little more tired than usual, but did a good round, just having 4 faults in a double.  I was so pleased with him, he is such an amazing horse and he finished in 7th place, the youngest horse in the class!  He was the best of the Northern Team who finished in 4th place.

Louis - Weston Park

The last event of the year was Oasby.  I took George and Ramera,  George was in the BE100 which he scored a really bad dressage score of 40.0, as he found the dressage really exciting for some reason and was squeeling and did a couple of flying changes in the canter work.  But redeemed himself with a double clear in the jumping phases and finishing 9th.  Ramera did a lovely test to get 33.5 and was about 3rd after dressage, she had her only pole down of the year as the sun was low and she couldn't see a fence properly and unfortunately had a 20 on the xc, which was a shame as she would have had a good placing.  All in all though, not a bad day!

The horses will have a bit of a rest now, and over the Winter will do some dressage and BSJA classes.  Louis will be aimed at Intermediate and a place on the British Junior Team next season, George will move to Novice and will be aimed at the 6yo Championships and Ramera will go to Badminton with mum and then hopefully be put into foal.  So lots to look forward to!

Thanks for reading,

Phoebe Powell and the Eventing Team

A Bit More Eventing!

Well, since I last blogged, some good news and some not so good news ....

The good news is that Kellys Lad has been selected for the Northern Team at Weston Park in October.  This is what we hoped would be a good round off to the season for him, so fingers crossed for a good result. 

The bad news is that my last two events with him didn't exactly go as planned.  Let me fill you in.  Firstly, Milton Keynes.  We set off the day before we were due to compete with 3 horses, Louis, George and mums horse Ramera.  First to go on the Saturday was Louis in the Novice.  He performed a good dressage test with a very good score on the board of 32.5.  He jumped a lovely clear round in the showjumping to put him in pole position before going cross country.  He set off his usual brave and confident self on the cross country and everything was going amazingly well until .....  I fell off!!  Yes, he jumped into the coffin, on a downward slope under some trees and span out from underneath me in a microsecond!  He saw the ditch was not just full of water, but very noisy water, a bit like a waterfall gushing through it and was having none of it, not even any negotiating with him as when I stood up he was gone, galloping up the cross country to be caught be some kind person in the showjumping warm up!  So that was the end of that, oh dear!  George was good, just suffering a little tension in the dressage test to score 33.0 but a lovely double clear within the time left him in 11th place in the 5yo class, and just to cap it off mums horse would have been 2nd but had a run out at the corner, so all in all a very unlucky weekend!

Louis - Milton Keynes

Next to go was Hutton in the Forest with Louis.  He had been over to Heidi Woodheads during the week just to remind him that ditches were not frightening and he had been very annoying by hopping over them all without a care in the world!  Anyway, Hutton.  Great dressage, an amazing score of 24.0, nice to prove the last one was not a fluke!  Good round in the showjumping again putting him in pole position before going cross country, sound familiar?  Set off great, really going for it and jumping confidently, had a fence downhill towards a water splash which he took a stride out at and then I lost my brakes and he ran straight past the narrow fence into the water, the cheeky monkey could still probably have been placed but he ran out at it again, this time being a bit naughty and picking up 60 penalties.  He popped it lovely 3rd time, wondering what all the fuss was about and finishing confidently with no red rosette and a million time faults!  Good job we love him.

Anyway, just to finish on a good note, Allerton Park, always one of the nicest events of the season was last weekend and Louis and George were both entered.  Louis was in the Intermediate Novice and the U18 selectors were coming, so we had better do well.  He performed a great dressage to score 32.3, not the best on the board, but competative.  One down in the showjumping, which I thought was good as it was very airy and not many fillers, and a great clear cross country with a fairly fast time, despite having to cope with torrential rain, he finished 9th in a very strong class.  George was 32.5 dressage, one down in the showjumping and I got lost so got 4 time faults, I really should have looked at that course before I went in, and a great clear cross country within the time.  Good boy!

George - Allerton Park

Next events are Aske 1* for Louis next week end to have a practice for Weston Park, he will only run cross country if the ground is good and George is doing his first Novice class at Kelsall Hill on the Sunday and I am also riding mums horse in the Novice as well.  So wish me luck, I think I may need it!!

Until next time ....

Phoebe Powell and the Eventing Team

Some Eventing At Last!!

Kellys Lad didn't have the best start to the month with Cholmondeley Castle and Skipton Horse Trials both cancelled, so we made the best of things with some outings to British Showjumping competitions. Kellys Lad has all his double clears in Newcomers now and Cairngorm all his in Discovery, so may do some second rounds with them next year!  Good news also is that Kellys Lad has also been longlisted for the U18 Champs at Weston Park, pending qualification.

Kellys Lad (Louis), got his much awaited run in the Novice at Aston Le Walls.  We had a very eventful journey down there as we had a front wheel tyre blow out on the M1, which took some of the lorry with it, thankfully nothing ran into us on the hard shoulder and it was all repaired and we were on our way in about an hour.  We amazingly were still in time, and Louis did a lovely dressage to score 32.5, clear showjumping and clear xc to finish 5th.  We were really pleased with him and he has made a massive improvement in his dressage just in the last few weeks of being out of eventing.  This has been his weak point on grass as he is such a big horse and is only 6 and can become unbalanced so easily, he really seems to have grown into his frame lately though.

Louis - Aston Le Walls

Next week it was off to Somerford Park in Cheshire for the INu21 class with Louis.  He scored a fantastic score of 22.7 in this is first Intermediate test, and felt really secure in all the movements, he will do better at the higher level tests as he is so secure in his lateral work and his medium paces are really starting to come good.  He showjumped clear round the higher height showjumping, although I thought he probably would though as he is used to doing 1.20 courses regularly now, and he is much more controllable in his new bit.  He was in for a win before going cross country but I deliberately took him steady as I knew he was not 100% fit because of missing so much of the season due to cancellations, it was tempting to go for it, but I have to remember he is only 6 and is being produced for much higher things in the future.  Anyway, with his time faults he finished in 6th place, so a good result for Louis and he is now qualified for Weston Park and Intermediate.

Louis - Somerford Park

The following day, it was off to Richmond Horse Trials with Cairngorm (George) for the 5yo class.  He felt good and scored an impressive 27.0 in the dressage, although he needs more practise on grass, because if it was on an arena he would score so much better.  He was clear in the showjumping and felt really keen and forward cross country and gave me my best ride on him so far in this phase.  He came in well within the time just coasting round and finished 9th.

Both horses are off to Milton Keynes next weekend so fingers crossed for some more good results.

Hope the rain manages to stay away and we can get some more events in before the end of the season!

Phoebe Powell and the Eventing Team