Brocas North Farm and Friends

31/05/2017

What an amazing couple of weeks this little gang have had!!!

Fizz was back at Tweseldown on 20th May after coming 4th at her first event there back in March. Feeling incredibly emotional and mareish (the horse not the rider ... for once) our performance in the dressage was questionable to say the least, saluting to the judge somewhere between G and the A3 :-/ She went on to flllyyyyy the SJ and XC and finish in 3rd on our dressage score.

Now on to the busy bank holiday weekend, a week on from her success at Tweseldown Fizz and Madeline Heath went to work their magic in the main ring at Heathfield show - competing in the concours d'elegance against some of the most beautiful side saddle horses they held their own. Fizz was sure the crowds forming were all there especially for her! Whilst parading round the edge of the main ring Fizz and Mads managed to adopt a very excitable young horse, legs flying and costume flapping.... Fizz behaved impeccably (of course) and finished in 6th place. MASSIVE WELL DONE to the pair of them for taking to side saddle so well.

The next morning, hooves still sparkling and plaits sewn in (I'll definitely be leaving the sewing to Madeline!) we headed for Borde Hill Horse Trials - We love this event although always do particularly badly (first year I managed to make a detour on the xc through the string fence and missed 3 fences - not my proudest eventing moment). Plodding about in the dressage warm up we were greeted by lots of friendly faces - Fizz seemed happy with chatting for 20 minutes rather than dodging all the other excitable horses. We followed the very talented Tom Cousillas in the dressage - I wasn't too happy about this, have you ever watched a test so beautiful you wonder why you bother even trying? It was close to that... so I put on my best Charlotte Dujardin impression and Fizz pulled it out the bag. We bounced our way back to the lorry for our tack change and headed for the jumps... Clear! Unfortunately we were a little slow on the XC due to the heat but still managed to finish in a very respectable 2nd place behind Tom. Gold and silver for the Old Surrey & Burstow Alumni!!!

Still high from our brilliant week we decided to go hunting for ice cream on the forest. The ponies made friends with lots of children whilst we enjoyed our Mr Whippy on horseback.... Meanwhile over in Surrey Rachel Bond and Jade Colvin were busy winning more rosettes on their lovely baby ponies!

With Rackham just around the corner for me and Brightling Park UA Horse Trials next month for the girls we are off to Comphurst Cross Country this afternoon to brush up on our XC skills and have a paddle in the water :-)

I hope everyone else enjoyed the past week as much as we all have xx

16/05/2017

This is a truly heartwarming story of an old friend of mine, her gorgeous son and a pony of a lifetime. Grab some tissues before reading.

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/true-rags-riches-tale-neglected-pony-crowned-windsor-champion-620789?utm_content=manual&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=horseandhound

Pumphill Fandango was "underweight, neglected and miserable” when he was rescued by the RSPCA in 2010

16/05/2017

Only a few months to go .....

16/05/2017

Serious event prospect .... Dundee is back in action and is absolutely loving life! This little chap hasn't left the ground in years and is finally sound enough to enjoy his veteran years.

16/05/2017

Apologies to you lovely people who actually like to follow our goings on for going so quiet over the past month. I'll try my hardest here to give you all a short but sweet summary of everything that has been going on.

At the end of March we took a bit of a knock, Munstead Horse Trials did not go quite the way we had planned ... After spending an emotional few hours (and I mean HOURS!!! So many hours my very good friend Sebastian Eade was sent an SOS call and came straight to the yard with wine and chocolate) prepping Fizz and Muzzy the night before we set off in the darkness to Surrey. Fizz performed beautifully as always and we finished on our dressage score, or so we thought, strutting back to the lorry I heard an angry voice from behind me ... I won't bore you with all the details but we ended up with an unfortunate 10 penalties being added to our score for checking my watch and slowing to a trot over the finish line - this I have now been informed is cheating - talk about learning the hard way. We went from 1st to 22nd place :-( All eyes turned to Muzzy following our hiccup with Fizz, could he pull it out the bag and show those judges how great he really is? No, after an incredibly unenthusiastic dressage test we had a stop in the SJ but went on to fly the XC (I made sure not to let him drop into trot over the finish line and ended up cantering all the way back to the lorry!). This is the last I will ever mention of that day....

Following our disappointing day at Munstead we decided to go out and enjoy ourselves. We headed out in force to have some fun in the sun at Home Farm EC Cross Country Schooling Course. Muzzy, Fizz, Sam, Archie and Joey spent the morning playing over the lovely new course designed and built by the very talented guys at Sussex Courses. Needless to say we all left with the biggest of grins after enjoying a little bit of cake and bubbly in the sun after our ride. Anyone looking for an inviting schooling course head to Home Farm! Nice and quiet with some dinky yet quirky jumps that are great for a few pictures.

Sadly, our hunting season is over :-( it's fair to say that Rachel Bond and I are somewhat lost and are already having serious Sloe Gin withdrawal symptoms. Our hip flasks are sitting joylessly on the side awaiting their next trip out on horseback. The Coakham Bloodhounds put on a brilliant closing meet welcoming lots of new excitable jockeys. Little Sam and I have really got the hang of the whole hunting thing this season and consequently ended up helping a few bodies back on their rides over the day. In true Brocas style we ended the day with egg sarnies, cornflake cakes and more bubbles of course.

ATTENTION!! Over the past year Rachel and Archie have spent lots of time coming down to the farm for lessons. When we first started Archie had a habit of throwing himself to the ground in protest .... we're still not exactly sure what he was protesting against but he was very persistent! Despite his somewhat tricky attitude Archie always had his sights set on becoming an eventer like his friend Muzzy, so, a year earlier than initially planned Rachel decided to get her little star out competing. Off we went with our ponies to Munstead unaffiliated horse trials. I was first to go on little Sam (he was great but we got stuck at the water so we won't talk about that... back to the hunting field for Sam, where's my gin?), Jade Colvin followed on Joey making their eventing debut and what a debut it was! 38 dressage (amazing considering Joey decided last minute to do his best rodeo bull impression before entering the arena), clear SJ and just one very unfortunate stop at the first XC. Rachel and Archie were last to take the stage .... Rachel had been terrified before entering the dressage arena so it didn't help that when she rode over to her judge she was turned away for having biscuit rings on her bit. Panic not... Kit Chambers was there in Rachel's moment of need! With the biscuit rings swiftly removed off they went to perform their first ever dressage test. Jade and I watched on, riding every step, squealing in excitement and pride. Another score of 38, and a double clear! (don't worry Rach, I won't tell everyone that you actually jumped the wrong first fence in the wrong direction... woops). Archie did his best Mick Jagger impression all the way back to the lorry as the showground was deafened by the sound of our girly screams. POP!!! as soon as we got back to the lorry the celebratory bubbles starting flowing (can you see a trend here?) we left that day feeling fabulously proud of what the ponies had achieved. For those of you that don't already know, Archie was bought for £400 and Joey not much more... it really just goes to show that you haven't got to spend a fortune to find the pony of a lifetime. Well done to Rachel, Jade and those remarkably talented little ponies.

Fizz has a busy month ahead of her with Tweseldown this weekend and Borde Hill next weekend... oh and just as a bit of fun she'll be strutting her stuff with Madeline Heath at Heathfield show in the concours d'elegance side saddle class on 27th May. From this point on I will be keeping you all informed of upcoming events and fun goings on.

Thanks to everyone who has made the start of this season so memorable. Onwards and upwards... now someone get me a glass of bubbly!!

19/03/2017

Brilliant day out with Coakham today with lots of money raised for the air ambulance. Aren't we lucky to spend our Sundays tearing across beautiful land in great company.

08/03/2017

Finally back in the gym after my 'little' tumbles on Christmas Eve. Time to get back to full Hulk strength 💪

05/03/2017

The gang were feeling absolutely fabulous today!!! Muzzy started showing a bit of maturity jumping the combinations and tricky fences with such bottle. Fizz .... Well, would someone like to tell her she's 21 years old!!?? Flying about like she owned the place. Just 1 week until her 2017 eventing debut and I couldn't be more excited.

05/03/2017

Muzzy popping a nice little skinny combo today. So excited about about this young man 😍

03/03/2017

Off to Lodge Farm tomorrow with our good friends Rachel Bond and Archie to try out the new water complex and have a little play before Tweseldown next week.

03/03/2017

HELP!!!!
We are short of fence judges for the Thursday and Friday (March 9th & 10th) for our BE Event next week! If anybody fancies joining our amazing team and having a day at Tweseldown judging some of the top riders in the country please email us on [email protected]. Please can you SHARE this with your friends so we can reach as many people as possible! Many thanks, Rachael

02/03/2017

http://www.ror.org.uk/competitions-series/eventing/grassroots-eventing-series/

Fellow ROR riders and fans of racehorses have a read .... Exciting things Muzzy and I will be aiming for in the near future 🏇🏇

: Former racehorses with an RoR registration number, is open to all former, GB raced horses, registered with RoR and British Eventing. The final for the BE90 and BE100 section throughout the country.

02/03/2017

After a stressful morning on the yard we had a brilliant morning out with Fizz doing some speed training at Lingfield Park Racecourse. The sun even made a brief appearance 🌞 Only £20.00 to hire it's a perfect way to put a smile on your face!

23/02/2017

Little Sam made it into this month's Local Rider 🤗 show-jumper to hedge hopper. This little man is an absolute star - so versatile and so kind. Who needs a 17hh Warmblood when you can have a 14.2hh Connie?!

23/02/2017

Not long now until the start of the event season! Every time the sun shows it's face we all get a little bit more excited. Time to start perfecting those piaffes (if only!).

14/02/2017