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.

.

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.

Weston Park U18 Championships

After some hard work on Donnermere (Beanie)'s dressage with Rachel Lupton, we felt ready for Weston Park CCI* Under 18 Championships!  Beanie was newly clipped out and looking very fit and smart, and we had been cantering him regularly to prepare him for the 9 minute cross country at Weston.  He was competing as part of the Northern Team of 10 riders who had been selected from the qualifiers that ran earlier in the season.

We arrived at Weston on the Wednesday and he was due to run on the Thursday in the dressage (day 1), 2nd to go out of the Northern Team.  He settled well into his stable and has now started to get more used to going away and competing.  After a light dressage session on the Thursday morning, he trotted up well for the ground jury.  We decided not to work him too hard before his test as often he produces his best work within the first half an hour.  He performed a very nice, relaxed and consistent test, with only one small mistake in one of the counter canter movements,  but other than that we were delighted with him and he scored his best FEI dressage score to date of 52.2.  He was well placed on the scoreboard after day 1. 

Day 2 and he had a hack round the park, while dressage was on all day again in his section.  At the end of day 2 he had slipped down to about 30th out of 77 starters so still plenty to play for!

Day 3, xc day!!  The course was quite long and up to height for a 1* but his xc is always very keen and enthusiastic so I was looking forward to it.  He was amazing, really enjoying himself and making it all feel really easy.  He completed the course 30 seconds under the time and recovered really quickly, showing that all the fitness work had really paid off.  He had moved up the board quite a bit too!

Day 4, he was not due to showjump until after lunch, so after his trot up in the morning, he just had a bit of grazing in hand.  He warmed up well for the showjumping, but unfortunately just before he went in he overreached quite badly and his foot was pouring with blood.  We managed to stop it but he felt quite sore on it.  He did showjump well, however he did have 2 fences down, but the course was causing havoc and there was hardly any clear rounds at all.  So all in all we were pleased with him and felt he had performed very well in the whole event.  He finished a respectable 24th and the Northern Team were second in the country by 0.8 of a penalty, so a good team result as well.

Beanie is now having some time off work in the field, for a well deserved rest with the other horses!

Reflecting on the 2011 season, its been a great year for the horses and they have performed very well.  Louis is ready for an upgrade to Novice/1* next year and Beanie hopefully will run at Intermediate/1* and maybe try a 2* next year, fingers crossed!

I hope you have all enjoyed your year eventing and have liked reading my blog this season.  I will start writing early next year, when the horses are all back in work and getting out and about a bit.

Phoebe Powell and the Eventing Team

September Event Update!!!

Allerton Park

We had the whole weekend at Allerton Park in Yorkshire, Saturday with Louis (Kellys Lad) in the BE100 and Sunday for the Intermediate Novice with Donnermere.  We were hoping Louis would do a better cross country round after Hendersyde Park with his green moment at the coffin, and he has been over to Heidi Woodhead's for two training sessions dealing primarily with steps, sunken roads and ditches which are fences he can still be a little babyish with.  He went well on his training sessions and his confidence improved lots.

When we walked the course at Allerton they had built a new sunken road on the BE100, so it was time to test the training!  He started with a fairly good dressage test and was given 37.0, which was a good score in that section.  As usual, he did a lovely clear in the showjumping.  His cross country was lovely, and he felt the most established at this level that he has so far, he did the sunken road beautifully and finished with just 0.8 time faults.  He finished 4th overall in his section, which was a great result!!!

We were back early the next morning with Donnermere.  He had his dressage really early, but unfortunately when I went to get on him I realised that I did not have my boots with me.  Anyway, after a quick call home, my dad brought them up to Allerton where they arrived only when the horse in front of me was doing its test, and they could not manage to move me in the section.  So with no warm up I went in to do my test and I can't say it was one of our best ones!  He was a little tense and the sitting trot wasn't helping matters either!  Anyway, somehow he got a score of 40.5, so not as bad as I was expecting.  The showjumping was a fairly ok round and he just had one down.  His cross country was amazing though and he flew round well within the time and feeling amazing.  Needless to say he was out of the placings that day.

I wore a hat-cam at Allerton on Louis that weekend and I will upload the video on to my website and facebook page asap.

Kelsall Hill (2)

We went up to Kelsall Hill for the weekend, it was to be Louis last event of the season in the BE100 regional finals and we decided to enter Beanie for one more run before Weston Park CCI* as we wanted another practice of a dressage test!

Beanie was first to go, and we have had a couple of dressage training sessions with Rachael Lupton since Allerton and he was starting to feel more supple and connected.  He performed the best test of the season so far scoring 29.5, which was the best score in the section.  I was really pleased with him as he really tried hard.  His showjumping was a faultless and lovely round and he had nothing to add.  He bounded round the cross country finding it really easy and finishing with 0.8 reverse time faults and coming 1st in his section!!!!!!  It was a great result for him as he had come so close to winning a few times this season, but it had not quite happened until now.  He now has moved into Intermediate points.

Louis was next to go and he didn't perform as well as usual in the dressage phase as he spent the time whinnying at mums horse who was doing dressage at the same time as him in the next arena!  He was given 38.5 which was probably a fair score.  He did a lovely double clear to finish on his dressage score, but unfortunately did not qualify for Badminton Grassroots Championships.  Thats him finished now for the season and will have some well deserved time off  in the field relaxing before preparing for next year.

Last event of the year for Beanie next which will be the British U18 Championships CCI* at Weston Park, I will blog and let you know how it went!

Phoebe Powell and the
Eventing Team