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