A quick update on the boys progress so far this season.

Maddox competed at Lincolnshire in the Novice, he went lovely in his Dressage test and I think that was the best he'd ever gone at that level but only got a mark of 33.5, having looked at the scoreboards I think the whole section was harshly marked. He then produced a lovely show jump round just lowering one fence which he barely touched. Across country we had one silly run out at 4b, a narrow fence under the trees which was a bit spooky. I took a couple of long routes on him at difficult fences as he can be a bit sticky at his first couple of events, unfortunately I crossed my tracks at one of the long routes therefore collecting another 20 penalties.

Burnham Market was next, it always seems to take forever to get there and I think Maddox felt the journey, he came out for Dressage a bit flat and didn't go very well but still managed to get 33.5. I had a couple of hours before my show jumping so I fed Maddox and a new horse came out of the lorry raring to go, he jumped a beautiful clear round which I was delighted with as the ground was getting pretty deep. Cross country didn't go to plan, some how Maddox managed to forget how to jump at first fence and laid on it getting his foot stuck. It was then evident by fence 8 he wasn't comfortable so we pulled up. The next day he had a swelling between his front legs and was quite stiff, so he had some treatment and rest.

I had already done my entry to Belton so decided to take him for the Dressage and Show jumping, he produced an accurate test for 35.5, again I feel the judge was possibly marking a bit harshly. He then jumped a lovely round with just one down. His show jumping has improved so much recently, I have been changing how I ride him and it seems to be paying off. I withdrew from cross country as he had missed a whole week of work and lost some fitness.

Maddox is now going to have some quite time as I don't want him to burn out too soon from Eventing.

Bambi has been super, I have taken him for a couple of schooling sessions at Arena UK over show jumps, he jumped everything put in front on him. I also cross country schooled him, I am pleasantly surprised with how good he's been. I have also done 2 Hunter Trials with him, both went better than expected. I will now keep building on this and go to some different places schooling so he can see as much as possible. He has been entered for 2 unaffiliated ode's then depending on how they go I will look to get him registered and out to do some BE90 classes.

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.