Showjumping for eventers is a necessary evil, so instead of watching the Australian Open Men’s singles final in front of the fire today, we packed off to Alnwick Ford with the boys to take a temperature check on our winter training to date.
Boys felt fab with a rail each in their warm up classes and a clear for Cruise and one down for Pea Pod in the 1.20.
Plenty to work on but happy with where we’re at and the boys were good and keen. 🦄🦄🤩
Can’t wait to get back to some serious training for next season. Just this darn Christmas thing to get get out of the way first! 🐎🦄 💪🏻👊🏻
Video compilation from last summer with thanks to Benjamin Clark Photography and Caroline Moore Event Coach 🙏🏻
Pea Pod and Cruise being fab in their last training session before the penultimate event of the season this weekend 🦄🦄❤️🤞🏻🍀
Ten hour round trip for an hour’s training today at Vale View, Leicester, but it is soooo worth it! 🤩💪🏻
Caroline had her work cut out whipping us back into shape after a few bad habits picked up over the summer but Cruise was of course his usual awesome self and took everything in his (enormous) stride 🦄⭐️
7th place for Cruise in the Intermediate at Hopetoun today ⭐️ 🏆
Not our best performance by far but a relief to get the cross country completed without drama!
Cruise was very genuine, despite maybe not being quite his enthusiastic self, but we got all the flags in the right places, so job done and something we can move forward from ✅
Cruise will have a break now after which we will re-evaluate our plans for the second half of the season depending on how he feels 🏖️🌱😎
Both boys did me proud today in their dressage tests at Belsay International Horse Trials.
Pea Pod sits in a respectable 12th going into the jumping phases tomorrow in the 2*. We have struggled with tension in the dressage since his enforced lay off last year but he stayed relaxed and with me and tried his best as always 🥰
Cruise produced a beautiful test in the 3* finally mistake-free and good enough for 8th overnight with the remaining half of the class to do their tests tomorrow 🤩
Pea Pod jumps at 2.05 and goes xc at 2.40 tomorrow.
Cruise jumps at 2.42 and goes xc at 16.52 on Saturday.
🤞🏻🦄🤞🏻🦄🤞🏻🦄🤞🏻🦄🤞🏻🦄🤞🏻🦄🤞🏻🦄🤞🏻🦄
We spent two days this week at Floors Castle International with Pea Pod in the Novice and Cruise in 3* 🏰
One of my favourite events of the season and exciting to have my two big boys back on the wagon together 😍
It wasn’t the fairytale event we wanted though. I felt I rather let Cruise down in the showjumping causing him to have a couple of rails but he returned the favour cross country by uncharacteristically finding a way round the fence into the water, rather than over it, resulting in the dreaded big fat E on the score card and the walk of shame back to the lorry park 😞🙈
Pea Pod faired better with a more relaxed dressage test this time out and gosh did he try in the show jumping until I got over anxious to the last causing him no option but to have it down. I’m gutted because he deserved a clear and it doesn’t happen often. I still feel a little like I’m remembering how to ride him cross country so there was a bit of experimenting going on as we went round but he was his fabulous and genuine self and jumped a lovely steady clear to end the day on a positive 😍
Everyone home safe and sound for another day which🤞🏻will be Belsay.
We’ve had a really enjoyable few days at Kelsall Hill International Horse Trials in Cheshire - what an amazing venue combining world class indoor and outdoor arenas with a galloping cross country track on good ground. The weather just about stayed on side too! 🤩
Loved doing the dressage in the huge galleried indoor and was enjoying a really good test until a costly error in a downward transition to trot (couldn’t get the trot and had to walk to regroup) effected two movements and dragged our score back to mid 30s, again 😕
I knew the showjumping could cause us problems as the related distances were tight, which doesn’t suit super-Cruise and his super-ginormous stride but after an unfortunate back rail came down early on Cruise jumped his socks off and really helped us out ✈️
The 3* cross country was not the biggest, or most technical we’ve faced and I thought the right time to let the handbrake off and test the brakes from a faster rhythm in preparation for our summer three day. It felt great having upped the tempo and Cruise was jumping as bold and confidently as ever through everything… until the vertigo-inducing ‘ski jump’… a huge step down with the ground sharply dropping away on landing. I never doubted Cruise would tackle this in his usual ‘I’ve got this’ style, but it did make me slightly dizzy when I stood at the top of it walking the course! 😵💫 He did question my sanity however and as he dithered at the top picked up some annoying penalties before taking a time out and popping off neatly. After that we took our foot off the gas slightly and finished just 30 seconds over the time, so without the hiccup I’m confident we would have made the time on this occasion, which was the aim of the day.
So kind of mission accomplished and a bit of a ‘nearly’ type result but another building block in the foundations of this level.
Next stop is Floors Castle, Kelso and🤞🏻Cruise and Pea Pod will both be on the wagon
Amazing what a sunny morning and rugs off does!! Roo and Pia enjoying a bit of Spring sunshine, finally! 🐎🐎🫣
First international 3* run of the season under our belts and another double clear for super-cruise 😍⭐️
Slightly disappointed with our dressage score of 35 on Thursday. Not sure why he feels so much better and scores are worse, but I’m trusting the training and hopefully when the wind changes direction so will our scores, such is the way with dressage.
It was a long day ‘off’ on Friday as we watched the rain pour down non-stop and class after class got cancelled and we played the mind game of will-we-won’t-we ☔️ 🌧️ 💦
I think one more drop and we’d of been heading home after a dressage competition but thankfully today dawned dry and Cruise was on springs! He pinged round the showjumping, sadly, but necessarily relocated to the bottom of the lorry park after the main arena became bottomless. And then came out of the start box like he’d been waiting three days for the moment (he had)! He let loose such ‘expression’ at the word ‘go’ that he nearly deposited me before we started and I headed to the first jump without my reins! 😳
I’m not sure I needed them because he felt like he would of jumped anything today and flew through the most beefiest of combinations like mere training exercises (see video!) ✈️
Qualification in the bag for our Summer Three-Day and mission complete 👊🏻
Amazing job from the estate and the organisers, those of us that got to run are incredibly grateful. 👏🙏🏻
It was a solid start to the season yesterday finishing in 7th 👏🎉
Dressage scores were interesting 🤨 Our test certainly didn’t feel 12 marks worse than our highest national score last year, but the impromptu rein back during what was supposed to be medium trot probably didn’t help! 🙈🤷🏼♀️ The judge didn’t seem to like anyone else’s test either so we’ll not take any offence to our score of 38 😛
4 faults in the showjumping out of sticky ground I felt was ok, but note to self - it won’t be be next time! And a steady, easy trip cross country rounded up a very long day.
Nice to have a new, trainee groom with me ❤️Even if he did sleep in the car for half the day and loose my precious horse across the lorry park!!
And of course, huge thanks to my weekend crew for holding fort whilst we were off on our jollies ⭐️ ⭐️🙏🏻
Thoughts to WPF and his team on the sad loss of Oratorio 😢
Whenever I train at Vale View, I’m always paired with some super-talented, up and coming superstar who, at some point in the future, will no doubt be gracing the cover of Horse and Hound.
Imagine my surprise when entering the arena on Thursday to find my companion for the lesson was none other than former World Champion and dual team European Gold medalist Ros Canter! 😳🤩
Cruise was great again, if a bit unruly at times but this was our first xc since last year and we have a bit of time before his first run to do more homework and smooth the edges.
Great to watch Ros at work and a real
Inspiration. She even knew my name 😉
Hector went out for his first walk off the premises today and he was very well behaved but quite jolly, much to the annoyance of grumpy Cruise who had to put up with his joviality at the end of a hard week.
Look how tiny Hector looks next to Cruise! 😂😂
One more month and I hope to be on 😃😨
#hairythelwell
#makingprogress
Roo Bear… the perfect fluff ball for a snow-day makeover 🐻 ✂️ ✨🦄
(Can I just keep her to look at her beautifulness 😊)
Pea Pod airlines is re-open for business!!! 🦄✈️
First little trip away from home since Pea Pod’s emergency eye operation in the spring. No better way to test his one-and-half good eyes than one of Charlotte’s a-million-pole grids!!
As you can see, no problem for my super hero and Dude came for piece of the action too - looking every good as his more experienced stable mate.
Onwards and upwards I think, literally!
😀👏⭐️😀👏⭐️😀👏⭐️😀👏⭐️😀👏⭐️😀👏
Blair rosettes…. 25 years apart!! ✨ 🏆
