Hutton BE report

Photo by Grossick Photography.  Isn't it brill!

Hi All

I just wanted to write a quick report. Took J to Hutton on Saturday for the BE100, as our times were 1pm, 4pm and 4.30pm it wasn't such an early start for me!

OH decided to come along too, but he spent the journey listening to his audiobook

Bathed, plaited and loaded to be on the road for 9am. arrived at 11.30 as we stopped for fuel. Well laid out venue, lorry park in between the dressage and jumping.

Did dressage first, BE102 test. pleased as we got 33.5 which is our best yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmSTu...6ePl1Tl6mJ2o6g

Still lots to work on - walk transitions and canter in general.

Showjumping was good, ground a bit sticky. had loads of time between sections so I gave him a feed. As it was hot he drank alot too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuOs8...=ULHuOs882NY4E

One down SJ, really need to break this 4 faultitis-at-events problem!!

Onto XC, he was brilliant. I tried for the time more than normal, we still picked up 5 time penalties but better than 12 which is what we usually get and I felt he was fitter this time. there were a few good fences, the corner, skinny out of the water and a box brush fence - it was large - and typically the one fence we stood off a mile from!

Anyway, he never backed off or looked at a thing!


So pleased we finished 7th :D

Pro photos to follow once I've bought them!

Here are hubbys pics:

Cumwhinton...... pants. BS....Fun!

Well, as I had travelled down to Cumwhinton I thought I'd do a report.......






.......It was cancelled!



So on Friday night, I had booked stabling close to the venue so following a 5pm on-the-dot finish, I shot home and loaded up.

I was pretty organised so had loaded the lorry in the morning, except for saddles, and it didn't take long to grab the horse, dog and remaining tack so was on the road south by 6pm

Once arrived I settled him into his stable, and headed off to the pub for tea. My Mum came up from Cumbria to stay the night and a friend was also stabling so we all went for a drink/bite to eat. It was really nice catching up but only after a couple of drinks were we tucked up in bed

I had a leisurely morning as dressage wasn't until 12.36 but my friend was on at 8.30. Got up, fed J and bathed him, it had started to chuck it down around 3am and didn't stop so I had planned to bath/plait then head over to the showfield early to check out the ground. Anyway half way through plaiting, another friend called (pro 'tog) to say they were an hour behind but there were riders warming up - apparently the paramedics hadn't arrived
So decided I could have an even leisurely wander round the xc now. finished plaiting, left J in the stable and went to the truck for a cuppa. Cue another phone call from my friend who had been warming her horse up - was now soaked and was now untacking as it had been abandoned

Ah well... had the cuppa anyway, then took the dog (chief coursewalker) and Mum over to the showfield.

The lorry park was trashed they had been towing lorries on and it was already very boggy. Felt v v sorry for the organisers.

Walked the xc, apart from the surface water, the ground underneath was absolutely perfect. But due to the water they couldn't run it.

SJ ground looked brill





XC showing surface water




So after a wander, and a cuppa I headed home. Poor Jack had a 5 hour round trip for a night in the stable!

Once home I turned him out - he decided to show me that I wasted my time in bathing him - brought him in after an hour:






Anyway yesterday I decided that I may as well make use of the weekend and headed over to Rowallan for the day. They had BS on and as we are registered I thought it would be useful.

It was in their outdoor which I have never jumped in, arrived just in time to do the 90cm amateur qual and the 1m amateur qual. They were both single phase and Jack jumped the 90cms double clear to come 6th. Was really pleased with him as he popped round for fun. He was calling alot when we set off, I even opened the door into the horse end so I could speak to him - think he was fed up with travelling tbh. Anyway he was perfectly happy on the way home so I guess he just wanted to get out and do something!

Went into the 1m, again a single phase and what a brill round. Unfortunately I was distracted going in as a rider was bucked off in the collecting ring and I helped them catch their horse. I should have popped another fence but went in anyway so stupidly we had the first fence down
the rest of the round was just lovely though. He jumped out of his skin Finished 5th

Its been a while (since Apri) finally a BE report!

Hello all

Its been a rubbish summer so far with the events being cancelled. I ran Jack at Eden Valley in the BE90, then took him to Scone to do the unaffiliated BE100. since then he has had no events due to cancellations (Central Scotland, Balcarres, Floors, Oatridge) and when we did get an entry into an even that ran, he developed an abscess in his foot so we had to withdraw! Typical

Anyway, for various reasons his fitness has slipped as galloping has been a bit lacking so I set off yesterday to Hendersyde hoping to go clear XC. Not bothered about time I just wanted to go clear.

Usually we have Dressage scores of 38, which is something we have been trying to work on but its a slow process as I'm not a dressage diva, and J is 'workmanlike ', however to start the day we did get a 34

We even got an 8 for centre line, and 7's until the free walk in the middle of the test (BE test 106) where he had a fright, leapt forwards and proceeded to do the rest of the test tense, mainly 5's and 6's. Pleased though as the canter work has improved as well as the trot.

Onto SJ. Helen M (big thanks for the tea making/entertaining) came along for the day and we walked the SJ track following collecting my number. Thankfully she noticed the track had changed later so I managed to walk the new course (with more fences) so at least I didn't go wrong . Unfortunately for my friends, one jumped the wrong course and the other missed the last fence, cantered round, pulled up only for someone to point this out so then picked up, cantered round to pop it - she jumped clear, with 24 dr and ended up with 37 time faults in sj such a shame as she was leading after dr, went clear inside the time xc so would have won.

Anyway getting back to J, we jumped a nice round - he had a lazy fence down at number 2 (on video below) and then backed off fence 3 so I smacked him with my stick, which worried him and we ballsed up fence 4 but managed to leave it and the rest of the course up to finish on 4. Warm up was very sticky, but the ground was fab apart from that. I jumped 5 fences in the warm up - 2 cross poles in trot, an upright and the spread off both reins. didn't want to do any more.

Oh yes, forgot to mention the rumbles of thunder which made J worried too - thankfully they stayed away long enough for us to remain dry. sadly for hendersyde, the rain came down heavy the following morning and it was abandoned

Onto the xc. Well as it was my birthday I decided to change my P2 and buy a hybrid. Spent ages looking into it and P2 were extremely helpful - answered all my questions openly on Facebook. I felt with my racesafe and P2 I had too much bulk so I am pleased to say the hybrid is very comfortable. Just waiting for the orange customised cover to arrive (I'm sure that comes as a big surprise to you all)

Must also say it was lovely to catch up with Mark and Adam who I haven't seen for YEARS!!!  and thanks to Helen for making them coffee (I'm pretty rubbish at it!)

For the xc, I just wanted to go clear - Jack hasn't had a fault xc (except for his very first unaff one which we can forgive him for) and I would like it to stay that way but I knew that time would be hard for us to get as we are both a little out of gallop/xc practice. I had entered hopetoun xc schooling with David Gatherer but that was also cancelled

the course at Hendersyde is pretty nice, I even thought the novice course was nice (in preparation for next year) with the exception of the trochaners they are eeenormoous!
Jack jumped round for fun, except he backed off fence 5 - a log at the top of a hill - as I tried to jump across it to save time. He still jumped it when asked so no complaints. came home clear with 12 time penalties. To be honest, he recovered quite quickly once finished so I think lots of strengthening uphill work would boost his fitness more than just galloping so from now on its wed night galloping up my fields!

all in all a good day, lovely to get a run at last - felt a bit rusty, both of us a bit unfit, its a long time between a noon dressage and 5.30pm xc so Trudy was brilliant to chill out in. I gave Jack a small feed between sections (recommended by my Mum) and he thought this was pretty cool. Think he might get demanding if I keep doing it!

http://youtu.be/Lt3jE9QclUU

Summer - ups and downs

Following on from the Royal Highland Show, we had entered the sheep for the Great Yorkshire, and John and I were planning on heading down with Trudy the truck to spend the week on the show ground. More on that later.

Having spend the earlier part of the year focusing  on getting Jack fit enough for eventing, we have so far only managed to compete at Montrave, Eden Valley and Scone.  Having said that, Jack has gone very well each time.  Floors, Balcarres, Central Scotland,  and Oatridge all had to abandon due to the weather, so I waited with my fingers crossed to hear that Burgham was running - and it was!
Unfortunately I headed over to SNEC to take Jack to a BS show the week before only to find that he was
 lame. It turns out he developed an abscess, so poor Mum who was house sitting during our few days in Barcelona had to poultice his foot every day - thanks Mum! 

Unfortunately we still haven't managed a run since May but I have just entered Cumwhinton, Drumclog and Hendersyde so everyone keep your fingers crossed!

The local area side-saddle group ran their summer show recently and Helen had kindly offered to lend me Mack to ride. The weather was awful and I had wondered if we should bother going, however it was probably a good job as there were competitors from Cumbria and Aberdeen there – we had only driven 15 minutes up the road!!
Mack was a star, it is his third time with a side saddle on and he went beautifully.  Coming 1^st in the novice horse class

Ready to go:

Judging:

 

Afterwards:

Video of our show: copy and paste in a new browser - http://youtu.be/gzbewB0kEcw

Big round of applause for Mack

So onto the Great Yorkshire:

We loaded up the lorry and headed down. Managing to squeeze the sheep in the horse end of Trudy.  They travelled really well:

Once we arrived and they were settled in the barn:

We managed to park the lorry up – amazingly very close to the sheep so only a short walk to the pens! 

As it was our first time away, it was a good chance to try out all of the gadgets.  We checked the water heater, the tv, dvd player, oven and grill – everything works!

On Tuesday morning, after a great nights sleep we got the sheepies ready for showing.  What a fabulous result, Rudolph – our champion at the Royal Highland – was pulled in to Breed Champion at the Great Yorkshire.  I have to admit I was jumping up and down with excitement. 

Sadly following the showing on the Tuesday the Great Yorkshire organisers had to abandon the rest of the show, so our week away was shortened to two nights!  This turned out to be a good thing as our poor house sitter had returned from work on Tuesday evening to find Islay – aka the-best-dog-in-the-world – had been ill and there was vomit and diarr all over the house.  She rushed her through to the vets school and was admitted with pancreatitis.  Poor Islay was very ill and I couldn’t hold her paw as I was in Yorkshire so after heading up on Wednesday night (had the show not cancelled I would have headed home anyway) I drove through to see her.

Thankfully she was much brighter and came home on the Friday to lots of TLC:

She is a fab dog. :D

So now we are heading off to the Border Union this weekend, and then the national sheep show in a fortnight. Will keep you posted!

Just before I go, I’d like to introduce you to Spock.  I don’t think I have mentioned him on here before but I bought Spock as a companion for Jack following the loss of Charlie.  Spock is a yearling and is very funny! He won’t let me catch him in the field, preferring to follow Jack into the building, then into his stable!  Apart from that he is a perfect companion (although I think jack would argue he’s a bit small!)