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
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
