Feb 2010

Some very good news to report, Maddox has been out doing some more affiliated Dressage and had won 5 out of 5 Novices and 2 out of 3 Elementary. He now has 32 points in just 5 outings. He will definitely be out doing more throughout the year, I think it will be very beneficial towards his Eventing. It will also give us the opportunity to get qualified for the Regional Finals and compete against some strong competition.

Bambi has also done some Dressage, only unaffiliated though but he was super, he is so much more focused and confident now, he scored 68% in his Prelim and 69% in Novice to win both classes. I also took him for a days hunting and he behaved beautifully and did everything asked of him including jumping some big dyke's!!

My plan with Maddox now is to get him cross country schooled and over a show jump course as his first Event is Lincoln on 20th March. I am still really excited about him and can't wait to get cracking this season, my main aim is to be competing successfully at Novice and to get qualified for the Regional Finals, then to upgrade to Intermediate and possibly aim for a 1* towards the end of the season.

Bambi is also going to be cross country schooled this spring and I am hoping to aim him at some Hunter Trials and unaffiliated one day events before affiliating him.

January 2010.

Well not quite the start to the year I had wanted. I had to have another operation on my shoulder at the beginning of December. So the horses had a short break, well Maddox only got 3 days off as I was determined to ride sling and all! Before the operation I took Maddox for a couple of days hunting which he loved, much to my surprise, he was very calm and sensible (very unlike him). I also took him to his first British Dressage competition where he won the novice with over 70% which I thought was incredible as he had done a full days hunting the day before and we went wrong in the test and lost 2 marks.

Other than that the snow has stopped play, so will hopefully cram as much work as possible into the few weeks left before the season starts.

Since my last post I have been very busy with work, I had quite a lot on and was riding up to 8 per day!!

Right back to Maddox's competition, since our little blip at Buckminster he has been xc schooling again and I've been making him jump corners every day in the school. I then took him to Solihull where he performed well with a dressage of 32 then jumped double clear but unfortunately I hadn't realised the time was so tight and we came home with 6.8 time faults which left us in 8th place.

Then it was time for his first Novice at Winkburn, after a bit of a worrying start to the day when Maddox decided to run whilst I was tacking him up it luckily all improved. Joint 1st after the dressage on 32.5, 4 faults sj and clear xc with some time faults which I expected as I hadn't pushed him for the speed and took one long route. So made up with 15th place.

I took him for the BE100 Regional Finals at Cleobury, he again put in another good performance although I could feel him boredom in the simpler dressage test and hoped he wasn't going to do anything silly which thankfully he didn't and finished on our dressage score of 32 for 5th place!

We then went back to Novice for the last couple of events which weren't quite so successful, good dressage tests a 33 at Keysoe and finally a sub 30 at Little Downham, a rail down in both events in the sj. Xc had 2 stops on both tracks so we will be practicing hard over the winter.

Bambi has been out unaffiliated show jumping and is now jumping much better, not quite so big and cat like but with more control and class. He has also been doing a little bit of dressage and went to the summer championships that he qualified for at sheepgate where he finished 6th in the prelim.

Plans for the winter Maddox is going to have some quiet time but no holiday then will do some affiliated dressage and as much jumping as possible. Bambi lots and lots of hacking to increase his confidence and fitness.

I had the all clear from the Dr to start riding again the last week in may, so I got straight back in the saddle. Since then Bambi has been out doing some dressage, scoring 65.65% in his first test and he has done some unaffiliated jumping which he's really enjoying. Maddox has been eventing, first event not as good as normal, but it turned out only 2 people in my pre-novice section completed the xc clear!!!

Next I took him to Little Downham where he did a 32 dressage, an annoying 4 faults show jumping and a really good confident xc round. He finished in 4th place. Eland Lodge was next and another good performance, 31.5 dressage which is what he finished on for 3rd place. Then was Buckinster 32 dressage again, clear sj but a stop at the corner xc, he hasn't been quite as good over these this year so some more home work needed. If he had gone clear he would of been placed 2nd!!

I have been having some training with Lucy Henson for jumping which is proving very useful, currently he is happy just working at 60% of his ability so we're trying to find away to get more. Same with his dressage, I'm trying to get some sub 30 marks as I know he is more than capable of achieving it!

I am now planning on a couple more pn's then moving to novice, I think he will enjoy the challenge as he needs a lot of stimulation to keep his interest.

Well some good news and some bad to report. Good news, all the horses have been performing well, Bambi is jumping round 85cm and 95cm really well, he's ready to affiliate now. Maddox is jumping Newcomers and although couple of rails down he is really trying and giving me some fantastic jumps. Jimmy is broken and riding well, started some hacking which he's enjoying, his owner is now taking over the ride and moving him home in next couple of days.

Bad news, I am completely off the road having broken my collar bone last week. A clients horse very kindly pulled me off my feet on the lunge, unfortunately I landed on my shoulder and neck, because of how the bone is now sat I need an operation to straighten it with a plate otherwise it will be deformed and weak.

So the horses are officially on holiday for about 6 weeks then I'm hoping to get some eventing done in second half of the season.

New Year

I now have another horse in called Jimmy, he has come for breaking livery. He is going well under saddle now and has started some pole work.

The new year has started well competition wise, I took both Maddox and Bambi out to do some jumping on the 3rd Jan. Bambi is showing a huge amount of scope, he jumped round the clear round jumping huge over every fence so I entered him in the British Novice where he had just 4 faults at the last due to me not lining him up right. Maddox was double clear British Novice to finish 2nd and jumped a clear round in the 95m open.

The plan now is to get Maddox jumping round some bigger tracks and I also want to do some indoor xc clinics and the JAS class before the start of the event season. Bambi will be out competing in jumping and Dressage, when he is ready he will also xc school.

2008

This has been my first full year up and running. I have been out competing on Maddox, have success in both British Eventing and BSJA. We had a slightly late start with the eventing as Maddox pulled a muscle in his back and had to have some time off. However once up and running has progressed extremely well.

First event at Bishop Burton doing his first Intro. It was a mixed day, riding in strong wind has never been an issue for Maddox and he produced an excellent dressage of 30.5 on his first attempt. It then didn't go quite to plan with a rail down in the showjumping and a refusal, both due to the arena being next to a barn full of cows!! Cross country I was quite pleased with although we picked up 40 faults, he gave me a good ride and showed me that he does have a lot of promise.

Little Downham Intro was next, we had a tyre blow out 25 minutes after we left home and didn't get moving again for nearly 3 hours!! Luckily I was allowed to slot in at the end of the class, he produced another excellent dressage for a score of 30, the best in his section all day. He then managed a double clear to win his section, which I was delighted with.

We were balloted from Catton Park where I planned to run him in the pre-novice so we re-routed to Eland Lodge for another Intro, again another consistent performance from Maddox. 30.5 dressage, double clear but we picked up 8.4 time faults to leave us in 6th place.

Maddox's next run was Buckminster Park doing his first pre-novice. He produced what I felt was a good dressage for him scoring 34.5, lowered one rail showjumping but gave me a fantastic clear cross country, he was really confident and eager to get over every fence. We finished on 38.50 to leave us in 6th place.

I then withdrew from Carlton as Maddox had put his hind leg over the electric fencing the morning before so I felt it was better to withdraw than risk further injury or lost confidence.

Next event was Solihull, another good dressage scoring a 30 again. We had an unlucky two rails down showjumping, both rails Maddox barely touched and they just rolled off. Again he gave me another fantastic ride across country, even jumping the beach balls before the water without even looking at them. We finished in 6th place again on his dressage score.

I was quite disappointed with the show jumping at Solihull so I decided to take Maddox for some training with Dale Burnham, was has actually worked wonders.

I then took Maddox to Draycott House, where we didn't have a great dressage scoring 36, he was a bit upset by the midgies and got a little bit tight through his body. He then however jumped a super double clear to finish on his dreaasge score in 9th place.

I was then planning on running at Winkburn but bad weather meant it was cancelled. So next run was Burnham Market, another good dressage of 30, this time thanks to Jess my dressage trainer, we had worked on the test as Maddox was finding some parts difficult being such a big horse. a lovely clear round show jumping but 40 faults cross country, both I take full blame for, a combination of the 3.30am start and me having flu meant my reactions with not up to scratch. So we had a bit of home work to do.

The last event I ran Maddox at was Oasby, in hindsight I think it was one event too many. An average dressage of 33.8, he didn't have his usual sparkle. One rail down show jumping, again a bit laboured. Cross country was a struggle and we didn't complete. Two refusals at the sunken road was very out of the ordinary for him. We then had a run out at fence 7, which we jumped on the second attempt , I then retired him knowing there were still more questions later on in the course and something wasn't quite right. The fence judge decided we had two refusals at 7 so eliminated us. I have challenged this with no success.

Since then Maddox has been having a well earned holiday and I have been concentrating on getting Bambi going. He was bought as a project in August. So far I have had him out a couple of times jumping to get him used to seeing different things. He has a very big jump but still needs some more work on his technique. Now just getting ready for the indoor season with both horses.