The past week has flown by and has been jam-packed for the team with various competitions, training and exams! Last Saturday Joss and Sam (Rockwood Sam) went and did the pairs at their first ever hunter trial at Firle Place. This was also Edward's first time cross country and Joss was the best horse for him to go round on to give him a safe ride and give him a taste of the adrenalin. I was very pleased with how Sam behaved, he was totally relaxed and took on the course like an old pro. Waking up at the crack of dawn to be at Firle for 8am was worth it much to my relief as the next day I was to be at Littleton Manor in Reigate at 8.30am. This meant having done morning stables to leave the yard by 7.30am.
Joss and Sam looking very pleased with themselves!
So Mum and I headed to LMEQ for Sam's first combined training which was also his first time ever doing a dressage test (and it was on grass). Needless to say he totally pulled it out of the bag and scored 22 for best dressage. He then followed that with a lovely jumping round, just had one fence down as he was a little bit tired by this point as he had been cross country the day before (the combined training was postponed from the Friday to the Sunday). Sam loves his jumping and isn't spooked by anything. He was rewarded with a 2nd place at his second show. I am delighted with his progress and I think he has a very bright future. Click this link to watch his dressage on YouTube. This week he has been doing a lot of sleeping!!
On Tuesday morning we made a quick decision to take Elvis down to Brendon Pyecombe for the BS senior affiliated show. Usually Elvis does not like pure show jumping shows... he just knows there is no cross country! However, much to my delight he jumped a beautiful double clear in the Newcomers (1.10m) even though we had minor disagreement about going back past the gate so ended up with a technical 4 faults. I'm just glad we kept all the poles in tact! I then took him in his first Foxhunter (1.20m) which was also my first one. We had a couple of poles down but he jumped most of the course very well. I am excited he is now ready to start regularly competing at that level as it has taken a long time to get his show jumping on track.
Completely changing the subject, Ellie and I put our 'trucker's hats' on and had a quick swat up on LGV driving to take our CPC theory tests on Wednesday which we both passed! 2/3 of the way to getting our licence, now all that's left is the actual driving. Yes, that is quite a scary thought...
Back to dressage again, as on Friday I had a dressage lesson with Tessa Martin-Bird on Elvis. She is helping me to keep Elvis relaxed during his warm up and his test by giving me some exercises and routines. The lesson was very beneficial as Elvis worked well and I have come away with homework to practice.
I can't believe how quickly we have become so busy! In between all this the two young horses, Miranda and June owned by Sue Bunn have been coming on leaps and bounds. Miranda (4YO) has done her first trotting poles and even done a small jump, as well as hacking out. Jubilee June (3YO) has now trotted round off the lunge and has also graduated to the big school and is trotting over poles.
And last but by no means the least, Saturday brought about my first event on Skip To The Beat at Munstead in the BE90 which I was very excited about. My dressage time was 8.18am just to carry on the crack of dawn theme this week much to my amusement! Ellie was also competing on her mare at Munstead later on in the day and Mum was driving her in the lorry so I had Edward as my number one helper/ driver/ coach/ photographer. This was no problem for his second ever experience of eventing!! We met Martin Lyne and Skip there at 7am to get her all tacked up and studs in with plenty of time for her dressage warm up as I wanted her to be very relaxed for her test. We were also joined by the lovely Karolina and Lucas from Arka Equipe who had come to support me. It was great to see them again and for them to meet Skip and Martin for the first time. I was over the moon with Skip's dressage as she got a 32.3 with only one mistake in her test. She stayed calm the whole time and worked really well with me as we are still getting to know one another.
Quick walk of the show jumping before it started and I was back on again. She felt soft in the warm up and was listening to me and totally focused on the job in hand. This resulted in a very pleasing clear round jumping. As she is still young and inexperienced she can be easily distracted but she was not distracted at all at Munstead. We then all walked the cross country together and it was great to hear Martin's opinions on the course and how he thought Skip would cope. This was my first cross country round on Skip so I didn't know what to expect. Luckily I had absolutely nothing to worry about and Ellie, Mum and Sue arrived in time to watch Skip's foot perfect round inside the time. She gave me an awesome ride and never hesitated at anything. We finished in 10th place on our dressage score; I couldn't have asked for a better debut partnering this cracking little horse. To top it off a great day, Karolina also gave me some beautiful new rugs from Arka Equipe which I can't wait to try out! I am extremely grateful to the support of my owners, sponsors and team of helpers who help keep me on my career path.
On my Facebook page there is a full album of pictures from the day, some taken by Nigel Goddard from KSDigital Photography. You can also watch all three phases of Skip at Munstead on my YouTube channel if you click this link.