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

Rain Stops Play!

Well there hasn't been a lot of eventing lately to blog about, the rain has been pretty endless and the horses have had just about all their events cancelled...

The good news is that Louis' bruising has healed well and he is back in full work, but both events he was due to run in were both cancelled so as of yet he has not evented since his 1*.  He has been re-registered with British Showjumping and has jumped well getting some more double clears in Newcomers, we have upgraded his bit in this phase as he has become too keen and won't always come back in related distances and this has made him much easier to ride.  He has cross country schooled and despite being really excited, jumped amazing!  His next event will be Aston Le Walls on 10th August and then hopefully the INu21 at Somerford Park.  He has been out to dressage too, getting a 1st and a 2nd.

Cairngorm (George) has managed to have two BE runs since I last blogged.  His first was Burgham, which is a fairly stiff BE100 test. and entered in the 5yo section.  He performed an amazing dressage test to score 27.5 which we were really chuffed with as he kept good concentration and tried really hard; his showjumping was fairly good, although lacked a little attention as he was too busy staring at the people and tradestands around the arena, so he has the first fence down but jumped beautifully around the rest of the fences.  I was pleased with his cross country as I felt he was a little green for the course, but he coped well just having a run out at the third from last fence which was a corner through a gateway with a big bale of very bright, green shavings on the top which were obviously going to eat him as he jumped through the gap, so although he was unplaced I was very pleased with him!

His next trip out was Thornton Watlass where we got a great double clear from George and a fifth placing with a 36.5 dressage which did lack a little concentration!!  His next event will be the 5yo class at Richmond.  George has also started going to British Showjumping where he has got double clears in British Novice and Discovery.  He has finished all his BYEH qualifiers unfortunately not managing to qualify for the finals at Burghley, which is a shame as he is a lovely young horse and just the type to do well in these classes.

Teddy is still being retrained and has progressed considerably since I last blogged.  He is cross country schooling quietly and staying nice and calm and has been placed regularly in showjumping.  He is doing another unaffiliated ODE in a couple of weeks and taking him on a trip to Thornton Watlass BE event to be worked in the warm up has made him more settled and relaxed in the atmosphere.

Boysie, my little grey Connemara is coming along nicely, but we have decided to put him up for sale as I dont really have enough time to devote to another youngster this season, hopefully he will go to a lovely home.

Anyway, fingers crossed I may have an event to go to soon and im sure im not the only one to be praying for dry weather! Until next time....
Phoebe Powell

Boysie- XC Schooling NEC July 2012

JUNE SO FAR

Since I last posted, Louis has completed his first 1* at Brand Hall in Shropshire.  This is a lovely event with good bold galloping cross country courses.

He had to perform his dressage test in the main arena and it was a bit more atmosphere than he is used to, but good practise for the future.  He performed a fairly good test with a couple of mistakes in the medium trot and some resistance in the rein back, which is usually a very secure movement for him, but on the whole we were pleased with him.  He scored 59.4, which was a respectable mark and after dressage put him exactly half way on the board.

His showjumping was very early the next day in which he had a pole down coming out of a double and then unfortunately he slipped taking off to a oxer, crashed through it and skidded along the floor, he was a little star though as he carried on as if it had never happened and completed the rest of the course clear!  So 8 to add.

I took it slowly with him on the xc, but took all of the direct routes and he was amazing.  He did however get  20 penalties, as I galloped past the 'b' element near the end of the course and had to circle.  I was very pleased with him though as he found it easy.

When we got him home, he had a small cut on the back of one of the front of his legs which had happened in the showjumping and it looked a bit swollen so we took him to be scanned at Minster Vets just to be on the safe side.  He has a small bruise around the tendon area where he caught himself and the vet prescribed two weeks off, then two weeks hacking and then resuming normal work.  Unfortunately this means that he will miss his next event at Catton Park and then Aske ONu18q.

Because of Louis's small injury I will now be riding Ramera (mums horse) at Aske in the qualifier.  I had to ride her at Skipton to get my qualifying run in and she was a star coming 3rd in the BE100 Open.

George (Cairngorm) made his debut at Skipton with a very pleasing 29.5 dressage, 4 faults showjumping and clear within the time cross country, he was amazing, particularly as the ground was very muddy and he is still quite green.  He will go to Hutton in the Forest next.

George also went to Yorkshire Sport Horse Show for the BYEH class.  He was 3rd going into the final judging out of a strong field of 5 year olds, but missed out on a Burghley qualification this time.  His next qualifier will be at Richmond Equestrian Centre.

My new little grey is coming along great, his name is Boysie and he will hopefully come out to compete toward August time.  Here is a picture of him at home.

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Anyway until next time, I hope you enjoyed reading my blog,

Phoebe Powell

Richmond and Bishop Burton

Since I last blogged, Kellys Lad (louis) has been out a couple more times.  He was balloted from Chatsworth, so got a late entry into Richmond.  He ended up running on the Monday in the Novice, as the weekends classes were cancelled.

He was unlucky in the dressage as he got the only 10mins of the morning when it was sheeting down with rain, so he was a little unsettled and had his quarters in in most of the canter work.  He scored 40, which was not as bad as we thought it may be!  He did a poor showjumping round for him, getting a bit strong and not really listening and had 2 fences down.  We put it down to the fact that he goes to Richmond to jump fairly frequently and was a bit over confident!  He redeemed himself with a fast accurate cross country round within the time.  Needless to say, he was out of the placings for the first time since he started doing Novice.

Bishop Burton was next for Louis.  He did a slightly tense test and scored 40 again, but cheered us up with a lovely clear in the showjumping arena on Bishop Burton's amazing surface.  The cross country was a fair test of the level, but again he flew round stopping the clock on the optimum time exactly!  He finished in 8th place and he felt really confident.  He has his first 1* next week, so fingers crossed it will go well.

The youngsters are coming along well.  George (Cairngorm) was entered for Richmond, but didn't get a run due to the bad weather.  He had a run the week after in the unaffilliated at Northallerton around their BE90 course in which he had 1 showjump down and was clear on the cross country.  He has now been entered for Skipton and Hutton in the Forest in June and will contest BYEH classes at Bramham (currently on the waitlist) and Yorkshire Sport Horse.

Teddy (Burway) has taken a step back in his training in that now he is much fitter he is finding it quite hard to control his excitement when out with lots of horses.  His recent cross country schooling session was interesting in that it was very busy and he just wouldn't settle.  Since then though, he has been out showjumping and stayed very calm and produced a double clear.  We will have to take it more slowly with him and maybe just play about with him this season until he starts to calm down and take things more in his stride!

We have taken on another 5 year old to produce now.  He is a 15.1 roan grey Connemara from Ireland.  He has lovely big paces and a super jump and is level headed.  He will hopefully do some BE events towards the end of the season.  I will put a photo of him on soon.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading my blog and keeping up with my progress this season.

Phoebe Powell and the
eventing team.

UPDATE

Good news, Kellys Lad (Louis) has made a very successful transition up to Novice level.  He completed his first Novice at Belton, which is a fairly strong test of that level, and performed a lovely fluent dressage test scoring 34.5 and putting him in 5th place after dressage.  He showjumped a lovely round but had an unlucky 4 faults, and completed the cross country easily but getting a handful of time faults.  He finished the day in 9th place and earned his 1st BE point!

His next Novice was at Kelsall Hill where he ran in fairly testing conditions.  He did a fairly nice test with a couple of small errors and he was not enjoying the deep going, he scored 39, which was a little disappointing.  He had 4 faults to add showjumping, but again flew round the cross country finding it all rather easy and finishing in 10th place. 


He is showing us he finds Novice rather easy, just as we thought he would.  He has also upgraded at BSJA to jumping 1.15 and 1.20 tracks at which he has been getting clear rounds.  He also recently won his first elementary dressage test with a score of over 65%.  Quite remarkable for a 6 year old!    He has now had his next events cancelled due to the bad weather, but hopefully he will run at Richmond, Bishop Burton in the Novice and then he will have a go at his first CIC* at Brand Hall in early June.


The youngsters have had their first run at an unaffilliated event where George (Cairngorm) was double clear with a 31.0 dressage score to get placed and Teddy (Burway) got a bit tense in the dressage, showjumped with one down and clear cross country, but so far neither have had a BE run as their events have been cancelled due to the heavy rain fall of late.  George is entered for Richmond BE90, fingers crossed it will run, if not both youngsters will be entered for Skipton in June.


Thats all for now, hopefully I will have some events to blog about soon, if it stops raining. x

2012 SO FAR.......

Sorry haven't blogged for a while, its been all change here.  As you will see from my horses page, Donnermere has now been sold, and I have two nice new horses to bring out this season.  It has enabled us to have a much needed cash injection into the yard and the horses as well as a lovely new lorry!

So, now Kellys Lad (Louis) has to fit into some rather big shoes and be my main horse for 2012 season, quite a responsibility for a 6 year old.  He will be moved up to Novice at Belton and if all goes to plan will contest the ONu18 classes this year and hopefully qualify for Weston Park CCI* at the end of the season.  There is no doubt he has the ability, but whether he is mature enough to gain consistent results, we will have to wait and see.  I also have a lovely new warmblood by Sandreo from Laura Colette, who has amazing paces but is still quite green as he was not backed until nearly the end of his 4yo year, he is coming along nicely though and first indications are good, we are hoping he will be out in May. 

My other new horse is an ex-racehorse called Burway (Teddy) who is very bold and a nice mover, but can't quite seen the point in dressage just yet, hopefully he will also come out about May time.

Anyway, first outing of the year was to take Louis to the JAS at Bishop Burton, he was very excited and jumped fairly well, but was unplaced, probably due to some bucking and squealing as he did his round!  He has done a fair bit of BSJA over the Winter, but for some reason finds this class really exciting!

His first event of the year was the BE100 at Oasby.  He did a fairly nice test, but got a mean Judge scoring him 38.  He was hyper in the showjumping (first time on grass for a while) and had an uncharacteristic 2 down, and then redeemed himself with a lovely clear on the xc.  He finished in 17th place and so did not disgrace himself too much.

Then it was off to Burgham for his last BE100 before his upgrade to Novice.  I must confess I forgot the test and went wrong, so I was really cross with myself, but he scored 36.5.  He did a lovely clear showjumping a near perfect round and then followed this with a lovely clear xc well within the time.  He finished the day in 8th place, so first rosette of the year for him.

His next outing will be Belton on 30th March, and then after that Novice at Kelsall Hill.  I will keep you up to date with my progress.

Until next time,
Phoebe Powell and the Eventing Team.