A huge warm welcome from all at MJEventing! A lot has happened here since the end of last season and we have lots of new horses and people to welcome into our team. Just before Christmas we moved to our new base in Ashurst, West Sussex. Mum and I have taken over the existing yard and it has provided a super base for my horses, with a total of 57 acres, indoor and outdoor school, on and off road hacking, as well as the most enormous luxury stables you could imagine! At the end of last season I was approached by Caroline Collins to take on the ride of her young mare, 'Sally Doonaveeragh' aka Cilla. I have spent the winter getting to know her and competing at local shows for dressage where she scored over 67% and 68% in a prelim and a novice. She excelled by winning our first combined training together at Felbridge a couple of weeks ago!
After we moved base we welcomed the second of our new horses, 'Patch Ali' aka Jeff, owned by Peter Rhodes. A résumé of Jeff can be found in 'horses'. He settled in very quickly to his new home and had a little holiday with us before beginning work. I look forward to building a partnership with Jeff and continuing his education up the levels as he gets stronger. He has also excelled winning a combined training at Felbridge! Over the winter I have enjoyed hunting with my local pack who I have been with since I was about 6. We had some great days and even managed to get away and visit some packs. I managed to fit in two quick trips to the mountains for a spot of skiing. It's great to get away and come back with a refreshed spirit! On my return we welcomed another new arrival, 'Craan Bob' aka Bob, owned by Melanie Gatt. Melanie has kindly passed me the reins on her boy whilst she is out on 'maternity leave'. Bob will stay at the lower levels so his eye is kept on the job this season! The 10th (!!) horse to start this season with us is well traveled and experienced up to CCI3*. Owned by Bridget and Martin Lyne, I have been honoured to ride their other horse along side Skip; 'Briarlands Birdsong', aka Rick. In 2017, Rick came home to the Lyne's and enjoyed a well deserved holiday. In January, Bridget and I started the time consuming and laborious fitness work for Skip and Rick to make sure they would be ready for the 2018 season. Rick is a sensitive horse and I will be taking it very slowly to get to know him. He has already achieved so much for his owners who bred him and owes them nothing. So with the team all aboard it was time to start some serious training!!
The horses and I made several trips to Felbridge for the CT's. I like to use these for training purposes to see where the horses are at and how they are feeling. They all performed well and I was feeling improvements from last year. Little Elvis and Hurley were comfortably jumping around the BE100 having stuck to BE90's last year and Des successfully moved up to Novice with a 2nd place. I also competed Lily Furber's 'Woodlands Be Classical', aka Onyx in these competitions. I have been schooling Onyx over the last 6 months for Lily so it was good to see her pick up a couple of 1st places.
In February we made the first trip XC schooling to Tweseldown with 6 horses- Cilla, Des, Hurley, Harry (Suzie's other horse), Dunny and Jeff. It was a busy day with no breaks in between to get them all ridden! They all felt amazing and gave me no problems whatsoever, all comfortably jumping way above their expected level and tackling tricky combinations. For me, there is nothing better than having horses that LOVE XC!
We enjoyed a yard visit from the lovely Nicola Read from Saracen Horse Feeds to do a feeding assessment on all the horses. It was pleasing to know that we have been pretty much spot on with our feeding for each horse. A particular favourite of ours is the Saracen Show Improver Pencil which I highly recommend for horses that struggle to maintain weight but do not need 'hotting up'. I'm fortunate that all my horses seem to have energy in abundance... !
At the end of February I made a road trip for training up to Aylesbury and Oxford. I enjoyed some show jumping training on Rick and Skip with Philip Surl. Philip knows Rick very well so it was fantastic to have some insight from him and invaluable advice. From here, I went on with Skip to Attington Stud for a two day training course as part of the MTBTG scheme. It was absolutely freezing staying in the horsebox in -3degrees... it was the first time I have ever slept in a woolly hat and a scarf! However, it was so worth it to have some very concentrated training on Skip and I learnt so much. The course included dressage, show jumping and heart rate monitor training. Skip was a star and I love staying away with her as she is such a pleasure to do. I think she enjoys her little sleepovers!
February also marked the first major success of the year.On a freezing cold and snowing day, Silken Creme (Dunny) produced a beautiful test to come 2nd in the BD Novice Regionals at Wellington to qualify for the BD NAF Winter Championships to be held at Hartpury College in April! It was incredibly exciting and I am thrilled for Dunny's owner, Carolyne. All fingers now crossed!
That week was SUPPOSED to be the start of the British Eventing 2018 season... however the beast from the east played havoc to the BE calendar, calling for all events to be cancelled before the season had even started! A nightmare!! Jeff and Des were entered for Isleham so a change of plan was in order. Such a shame for all the organisers of the events who work so hard to prepare them.
The following week we finally got to get cracking with Tweseldown! First up was Hurley doing his third ever event and first BE100. It was just Suzie and I together with Hurley on the Thursday as Mum was busy at home looking after all my other horses. We got our timing to perfection and the day started running smoothly. I had walked the course before the dressage and I was happy with the ground and thought the course was perfect for his first BE100- nothing too demanding but fair sized fences and alternating terrain. I was really pleased with how he warmed up in the dressage. He was calm and relaxed into it very quickly. I had had a super dressage lesson a couple of days before so had my warm up exercises well worked out. I was last to go in my section so I was delighted to learn he earned a score of 26.8- a PB for Hurley! I was pleased he was rewarded with the marks he deserved as he did a lovely relaxed test with just one lack of concentration in the final halt! There is only so long a boy can keep it together didn't you know!! He followed this up with a double clear inside the time. The jumping seemed easy to him and although he was a little green still XC he responded to everything I asked of him. So proud of this boy, 6 months ago I was struggling to get him over any fence first time! Suzie and I were busy washing him off when they announced the results on the tannoy. 1st place Ashford Cleave Little Man. What an AMAZING start to the season!! Could not have wished for the first day to go any better and delighted that all the hard work is paying off. Hurley can now join the others in the 'Winners gang'! Start as we mean to go on!
I was back again on the Friday for the Open Novice with Skip. I just wanted her to have an easy, confident run for fitness to start her off as I have not jumped her much to save her legs as much as possible for the season now she is climbing the levels. She did do some lovely movements in her test but got herself in a bit of a pickle with the much more basic movements than she has been performing... She has got so used to doing things like simple changes and half passes that she went into autopilot a little! Unfortunately these movements are not required at Novice level... As I am looking at the bigger picture, absolutely nothing to worry about and I was just pleased she remembered what she was doing! Again she jumped out of her skin on the slightly holding ground in the show jumping which I think is why she just caught two rails slightly and the fact she hasn't jumped on grass since October. As always she was a machine XC. It is wonderful that she has become so amazing at the XC that at this level I am required to simply point and aim- the rest just follows! I spent most of the course just trying to keep her steady and she cruised home with a lovely clear. A very pleasing 'practice' run for Skip and I can't wait to get going properly with her!
That night it was with great sadness the weekend competition of Tweseldown had to be abandoned as just too much rain fell. Poor Jeff missed out again! We now keep everything crossed that nature plays to our hand and no more events have to be lost to the results of the weather. It has been an action packed few months with lots of exciting new things but it is very much full steam ahead now. I have plans and goals for this year with each horse and I will be working towards achieving them. I have the most fantastic network of support to whom I am incredibly grateful including Arka Equipe and Nigel Goddard Photography. Here's to 2018!
