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

Skipton, Haras du Pin and Hendersyde Park

Back again.  Sorry I haven't blogged for a while, but its been a busy time.  Horses are all well and I've had some mixed results of late, but this always happens when you are pushing through the levels and trying to improve the horses.  On the whole though, this years objectives have been reached, Donnermere has been selected for Weston Park teams, Kelly's Lad has improved and shows signs of being my top horse of the future.  Anyway, the events have gone as follows:-

SKIPTON (2)

Kelly's Lad (Louis) was entered in the 5yo class at Skipton.  We were sure it wasn't going to cause him much problems as he had already completed Skipton (1) around the same height course and had found it fine.  He performed a nice test to score 33.5, although we think it should have been higher.  He did a lovely clear showjumping and flew round the cross country clear with 2.8 time faults.  He finished 9th in his section to unfortunately did not manage to qualify for the Young Horse Championships at Osberton which is a shame as he must be one of the nicest 5 year olds around.  But at least the 6 year old Championships next year are based on BE results and not on just one competition.

HENDERSYDE PARK

Louis was up at Hendersyde competing in the Scottish Championships at BE100 level.  He had qualified for this with a win at Floors Castle.  This was a day I would rather forget!  He performed a good dressage test for the 3rd best score in the section of 30.5.  He was doing cross country next as it was being run with the showjumping to take place at the end, which meant he was a little fresh going into cross country and was not really listening to me.  It was all going fine until the coffin where he jumped in and said 'no thanks' at the ditch and meant it.  He therefore got eliminated and that was that.  He will now go schooling over lots of ditches as he must need a reminder that they are not that scarey!

HARAS DU PIN (FRANCE)

How exciting it was to be competing in France.  We travelled with Jodie McGreggor and her mum over to France as she was also competing. 

Beanie travelled well and arrived feeling reasonably fresh from the long journey.  He had a full day before his dressage which was unfortunately very early on the first day of the dressage for the 1*, which had a huge amount of entries of well over 100.  He had done the arena walk the evening before his test so he had at least been in the arena, as it was on a surface and quite spooky with lots of flags and banners and wooden huts for the Judges to sit in.  Anyway, he warmed up fairly well and started the test well.  He got a little tense however when a tractor was driving about behind the hedge emptying the bins, but on the whole kept his composure.  We were a little disappointed with his score of 63.3 but most of the early horses were all in the 60's mark wise so we were ok about it.  However, the scoring did get alot better as the day progressed and we did feel that if he had been drawn later in the day would have got a much better mark.

The following day he showjumped well.  He did one of the only handful of clears of the day and pulled himself well up the board.  We were really pleased with him as it was quite a spooky course.

He cross countried well, although we was a little tentative at the first few fences as he had not been out since his bad round at Chomondeley Castle but he gained in confidence around the course and finished really enjoying himself.  It was anounced that he had 4 time faults and that was what our timing was as well, but when it went down on the board he was given 19 time faults, which we knew wasn't correct, so we challenged it but they wouldn't change it and they don't take a time at each fence, as they do in the UK, so there was no way of checking it.  Anyway that put him back down the board.  Although I did get invited to the mounted prize giving and was given a bottle of Champagne for being the youngest competitor at the competition, so that was nice!!  He arrived back in the UK please to be home and having lost a bit of weight so we decided not to compete him again until Allerton Park in a months time.

All in all, my first trip abroad was great experience and I must say a big thankyou to Heidi (Jodie McGreggor's mum) for taking us, Sue Carson for providing us with lovely saddle clothes and clothing, Jane Peters, Caroline Moore for helping me with my warm ups and all the support of the other British Juniors.

Until next time... Phoebe Powell and the eventing team.

July Event Update!

The weather has been good and some rain means the ground has softened off a little.

Burgham Horse Trials
Our next event was Burgham, a new event in Northumberland.  We walked the course on arrival and thought it was a well designed course, making good use of the hills and water features.  We new the showjumping would be a test for a 5 year old as it was next to the busy BSJA rings so there was lots of distractions.

Kelly's Lad was having a run in the BE100 section and we were hoping he was back to his usual self after Buckminster Park.  He performed a very nice dressage test, one of his best, although the judge only awarded him 39.0, which sounds a low score, but was 5th in the section.  He coped very well with the atmosphere in the showjumping with a lovely clear round.  The cross-country was a decent course and was a big enough challenge for him with two waters to negotiate.  He did a confident clear and finished within the time to complete on his dressage score and finish in 4th place overall.  I think he will be easily ready to upgrade to Novice in the near future.  His next outing will be the 5yo class at Skipton.

Cholmonderley Castle Horse Trials


Next outing for Donnermere (Beanie) was the OIu21 class at Cholmonderley Castle.  This was Beanie's first attempt at Intermediate cross country and it was at an event we were unfamiliar with, so we had no idea what the course would be like.

When we walked the course we thought it was big!  But not having walked many Intermediate courses, we were not sure how big it was for the level.  We made a decision to take the alternative at the open ditch at fence 11 (this was like the Cotesmore Leap at Burghley, and not much smaller!) and probably at the water as it was causing mayhem, even with experienced horses and riders at this level.

Anyway, first the dressage.  He performed a quite nice test, making a couple of small errors, but on the whole not bad, I was especially pleased with his leg yield as he has improved a lot in this movement.  He scored 35.0.  Most of the board was around the same mark, so the dressage wasn't going to be the deciding factor in the placings.

He showjumped a nice round, just having 4 faults, which was my fault, as I buried him at an upright.

The cross country started well, until he had a run out an A,B,C combination at fence 4, which was a bullfinch with a tight 5 stride turn to a very narrow tall triple brush, to a steeple chase fence.  He has never had a run out before and he got a bit upset with himself.  He jumped it fine second time, but he felt not quite on the job for the next few fences.  At fence 9, he jumped a hanging log on the brow of a hill and ran down the hill to a large brush corner on the turn, which looked like a maze of flags from Beanie's point of view!  He had a run out at this also, then after he jumped it, I decided retire him and call it a day.

Reflecting on it, the course was just too big for his first Intermediate, and lots of riders, who were much more experienced were struggling to get round without a penalty.  The U21 Trainers said it was a big course and not unlike a 2*.   I was pleased with his first two phases though, and as long as we choose the right course next time out at this level I am sure he will be fine.

Beanie will now go cross country schooling, and then its off to France for his 1* mid August.  I will let you know how he gets on.

Phoebe Powell and the Eventing Team

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.