Aske and Buckminster Park - Update!

First weekend of July and we were competing at Aske Hall Horse Trials with Donnermere.  He was competing in the ONu18(q), which was the last qualifier for the Northern Region.  Donnermere (Beanie) has already completed two of this regions qualifiers, with double clears in both, so didn't really need to compete in this one, but as we had entered him as a back up qualifier, just in case, we went along for a run.

It was a very hot day and all the flys were out, and despite being covered liberally in fly spray, managed to get a horse fly attached to him in the dressage phase!  This spoilt the halt and walk movements as he was throwing his head around and biting at himself trying to remove the offending fly!  Anyway, not to worry, he got a respectable 38.0, which was a bit average for him but reasonable in the section.

The showjumping was a nice course and he performed a fairly nice round with an unlucky 4 faults at a parallel.

He flew round the cross country finding it easy and finishing well within the time limit.  He finished 5th in the section and it was a good performance overall.  He feels ready for his upgrade at the end of the month to Intermediate at Cholmonderley Castle and we look forward to see how well he copes.

In the meantime, he has been invited to compete at Haras du Pin in France in August by British Eventing as they feel that some promising combinations could benefit from International experience so we are very excited about that and are looking forward to it enormously.  This will be at 1* level.

BUCKMINSTER PARK

The following weekend we took Louis (Kellys Lad) to compete in a 5yo class at Buckminster Park.  We have never competed at this event before and were very impressed at the good organisation, cross country courses and excellent ground conditions.

Louis felt a bit quiet and flat in his test and didn't show off his work as well as he ususally does and this resulted in a mark of 37.0 which was his worse mark of the year so far and was very average in the class.  His showjumping was not much better with an unusual run out at fence 2 when he clocked what he thought was a very spooky filler!  He finished the course though, after getting a telling off, with another fence down so got 8 faults.  This was an unusually bad round for him as he is a very careful and clean showjumper and had jumped clear the week before in the BYEH class at Richmond to get a jumping score of 36/40 which was the highest in the 5yo section and that had been a much bigger bolder course.  Anyway, he's only 5 and still learning.

He redeemed himself on the cross country course though with a lovely clear and within the time.  He feels much more confident with this phase now.  Anyway, needless to say, he didn't get placed and finished 21st.

Louis - Buckminster Park

Anyway, Louis is competing at Burgham in the BE100 next and Beanie is competing in the OIu21 at Cholmonderley Castle at the end of the month.

Phoebe Powell and the Eventing Team

June Event Update!

Another month of the eventing season has past and it seems like i've only just got started!  I've had a great year so far and I feel really lucky to have the horses performing as highly as they are.  I hope you are all enjoying your horses too.  We have been busy this month at Brand Hall and Skipton...

Brand Hall Horse Trials:
We took Donnermere down to Shropshire for our first international event (FEI), the CIC*.  It was a very different atmosphere to what he was used to in the dressage.  There was only two arenas next to each other with two judges per arena and with shops around the outside and spookier boards and flowers, but thankfully it was a quiet atmosphere as there was only dressage going on.  I was very excited to wear my new top-hat and tail-coat and was hoping for a good photo!!!  He performed a lovely test besides his silly rider going wrong once, and scored 59.4 which I was fairly pleased with looking at the stiff competition.  Unfortunately, going wrong costs a minus 2 off each Judge, so a fairly expensive mistake, I won't be doing that again!  He found himself in the bottom third of the board going in to day 2, so not such an amazing start!
We stayed at some friends yard in Shropshire overnight and set off bright and early next morning for showjumping and cross country.  The showjumping was probably his worst round of his eventing career, not in the score as he only got 1 down, but he hated the hard ground and felt insecure on the take off as it felt quite slippy so was a little cautious, we have decided to double stud him behind from now on.
His cross country was amazing as always, he flew round finding it really easy and taking all the straight routes.  He finished well within the time and pulled himself well up the board to finish 21st.  Not a bad first attempt at this level.

Skipton (1) Horse Trials
Two weeks later it was off with Kellys Lad to Skipton.  There has been some major course changes this year and the course made more use of the natural features and included some nice hedges to jump.

Louis performed a very good dressage score of 33.0 leaving him high on the leader board in his section.  He showjumped clear and flew round the cross country with 3.6 time faults which was good enough for 2nd place in the section.

The following day Donnermere went to Skipton for the ONu18(q).  It was his second qualifier of the Northern region and he needed a good clear in front of the Regional Co-ordinators.  He did a lovely dressage to secure a good score of 35.5, the best in the section tied with 2 others.  He showjumped clear, and a nice round, double studded up behind, but unfortunately incurred 1 time fault.  His cross country was faultless with a foot perfect round but got 6.8 time faults, which I was surprised at because he felt like he was flying and it was one of his best cross country rounds this year.  Anyway it was good enough for 4th place and a double clear was what was needed.

The day was rounded off to a bad finish however as when we arrived home Leo, a young 5 year old of ours, unfortunately was badly injured in the field and when the vet arrived it was confirmed he had broken his leg which meant we had no choice but to have him put down.  This was just the worst thing imaginable as we had high hopes for this young horse and had grown to really love him.  It was a really upsetting experience for the whole family and something I would never want to experience again.

Anyway, with a lighter note, Donnermere is off the Aske next and Louis will be out at Buckminster Park in the 5YO class.  If you see us out eventing please come and say hello!

Phoebe Powell and the Eventing Team.