Today was a very very sad day for me as Belvedere went to his new hunting home down in Kent. We never ever planned on selling Belv but eventing can be a harsh world and the black and white reality of it was if I wanted to keep eventing, he had to go.

On a much happier note, I have found a new horse! His name is Gorgeous George IV (George) and I will be campaigning him at Intermediate/2* this season and aiming to upgrade to Advanced in 2012. Watch this space!!

His previous rider had him entered for the Intermediate at Salperton on Saturday, so I am going to take over the ride there so as not to waste his entry fee. The following weekend I will do the ON on him at Purston and then crack on with some OIU21's, hoping to finish the season with the CCIYR** at Weston Park.

Please follow this link to view my first ride on George (1m20 SJ track).

Firstly I am very sorry for the rather lengthy delay in writing this report! But things all got a bit hectic with organising everything for Burnham Market 2* which turned out to be a rather non-event anyway. But I will explain what happened there in my next report!

I went to Sapey with high hopes that Belvedere would continue to put in another very respectable & very correct performance like he has done at all his other BE100's this season. 
He didn't warm up brilliantly for the Dressage so I hastily got Mum to run and fetch Tor to give me a hand warming up. We got him going a bit better and went in to do our test. It was very correct with very few errors and thankfully the judge liked him as a horse and we ended up with a very respectable mark of 32. Actually one of his best marks with BE!

Onto the Show Jumping, I wasn't worried as am very happy jumping him at this height and thought that although the course was cleverly built with some downhill related distances that we would be fine - I was mistaken! We didn't have the best prep because the person before me had a very nasty fall and so we ended up hanging by the entrance for quite some time. Something which Belv doesn't really like doing, but in we went and quickly into a nice forwards bouncy canter. Jumped the first really well and then I'm not really sure what happened. We got deep to a couple, but nothing horrific and we maintained a nice rhythm and energy all the way round but came away with a very very disappointing 12 faults. I have not had more than one fence down on this horse since 2009! Not ideal and so I was in two minds whether to run him XC or not because we were now not in contention for a placing and the ground was quite hard.

In the end Mum and Tor persuaded me to run which probably was the right thing to do seeing as this may have been my last event on him. Anyway he flew round in his usual Belv style coming very comfortably inside the time!

Thankfully Howick is a pretty local event for us so although I had very early times we didn't have to leave at too much of an unearthly hour! Saying that, we still lhad to leave at 6am, even though I had walked the course the day before!

Belv warmed up very well for the Dressage but unfortunately had 5 minutes too long and so just wasn't giving me his complete attention for the test. That combined with a sloped and tacky (due to the mud) arena meant that we made a number or little errors/mistakes which brought our mark right down. We ended up with 37 which was very fair in the section as it was quite a tough marking judge.

The Show Jumping was a fair track, not too big, not too small and it flowed nicely enough. Had a quick warm up and then in we went. We hit everything on a good stride and popped around for a nice clear. Belv was a little bit 'tappy' but I think that is because he finds it quite small. I'm not complaining though - I quite like this BE100 lark - much more relaxing than 2*!!

Quick change of tack & clothing and it was off to the Cross Country! The aim was to set out like we meant it so that he was going a bit more forwards, rather than sauntering round in a pretty little canter! So 5,4,3,2,1 and off we went! Kicked on more than I have done on his other BE100 runs and he did a lovely round. Very sweet and happy and as it turns out, it was just as well that I kicked on because the time proved quite tight! We finished a very good 14 seconds under the time, although on the downside, I finished on the same score as someone else but they went slower XC and were closer to the optimum and so beat me!

All in all another very successful outing! We finished on our dressage score and came 3rd, gaining 12 foundation points! Belv's next run is Sapey BE100open and then he is heading to Withington to have a crack at a novice! Exciting stuff!

I took both horses to Aldon on the weekend and day one was Belv's turn. He was doing the BE100 running HC because the BE100open was on the Friday when I was at school!

He warmed up really well for the Dressage and I was pleasantly surprised to find him incredibly fresh! Last weekend at Tweseldown he had been decidedly dull and bored so it was nice to see him looking and feeling more enthusiastic about it all! He was doing extended trot everywhere which, although may look pretty, wasn't what I was going for! Anyway, I went over to do my test, went down the centre line and then had a massive panic. The arena had been moved across after Friday's tests and so the marks made on the Friday were visible in different arenas in the arena and I had a massive panic thinking that I was no where near the centre line and thus leg yielded over to the previous days centre line...then realised I was wrong again and leg yielded back! Needless to say the judge got out of her car and I started again! Opps! Not the best start and I lost 2 marks for error of course. After the centre line fiasco Belv did a very pleasing test and after we had finished got some nice comments from some onlookers, so I was a bit disappointed to get a mark of 38 which isn't brilliant for him considering it was BE100. But never mind!

Then everything started to go wrong....!
The Show Jumping was running 20 minutes late so we decided not to go over and warm up until later than originally planned so that we didn't have to hang around up there, what we hadn't taken into account was that I was one of the last few to jump and that if they caught up we were in trouble. I wandered over there and arrived a few minutes after my allocated time to find to my horror that they were packing up and that I had completely missed the show jumping! Completely out fault and an important lesson to learn, but how horrific!!! My mum then went and grovelled and they allowed me to go cross country!

However, that did not go to plan either. Off we set, flew around the first half of the course, and through the water. It was as I was approaching one of the fences after the water that I noticed to my horror that me cheek piece (which attaches my bit to the bridle) had come undone and was flapping! So I had to pull up and retire as the bit was only in his mouth due to the flash and my reins!!


Photos below courtesy of Izzy Mears

So all in all a bit of a pa-lava of a day! One not to be repeated ever again please!

I have just realised that I have been very lax and haven't yet done my Tweseldown report! I do apologise! It turned out to be a very good start to the season. It is quite a trek to Tweseldown for us but I didn't mind because it meant sleep time because my mother drove. Belv was only doing the BE100 because I want him (and me) to have a nice, easy and enjoyable time!

He warmed up for the Dressage in his own quirky manner but without any issue or drama and proceeded to do a very acceptable test. I was originally aiming for a low 30's test but unfortunately I messed up the halt quite badly and we got a very fair mark of 35.5.

The Show Jumping was small, but this was perfect for Belv as I wanted a nice confident clear. And indeed that is exactly what he delivered. We tapped a few and were lucky at the second last but the poles all remained in their cups and that's what counts! So we were on our dressage score going into the cross country - excellent!

Finally the XC - after a few rears in the start box we set out and I very nearly went the wrong way along the intro course. Opps! After a hasty change of direction we popped fence one, kicked on and flew round the rest of the track. Unsurprisingly no problems, and we finished around 8 seconds under the optimum if I recall correctly. Unfortunately had we been a bit slower we would have been better placed in the end as there were four of us all on 35.5!

All in all a very successful first run - we finished on our Dressage score of 35.5 and came 12th. So no rosette unfortunately, but it was all very close! 8th was on 35.3 and 13th on 35.5!!
Now I am looking forward to Aldon on the weekend where Belv is doing the BE100 (HC) on Sat and Jack is doing the OIU21 on Sunday.

On Wednesday I went with Tor to Summerhouse to do some show jumping training with my boys. They both went really well and so I am looking forward to the forthcoming event season! Videos can be seen below. 

I am also really pleased with how they are both going on the flat which is good. Belv really turned a corner the other day, so here's hoping that his sudden change in character continues!

Today we took them Cross Country schooling at Lincomb and they both jumped flawlessly, so all bodes well for the coming months! On a sad note, my half term is coming to an end which means my time at Murrells end with Tor is also coming to an end - gutted! Even if I am knackered due to five 12 hour days in a row without even a stop for lunch...!!

Well it was time for Tor Lessons today!
First up was Belv - He wasn't going brilliantly on the flat tbh, just not quite round enough for what we wanted. So I was quite disappointed with that, but then again I have started to expect quite a lot from him! We decided to move on and get him off the ground and over some fences. Last week it was just a simple fence with placings poles on take off & landing, but this week we decided to do some grid work to try and make him work his legs a bit more & make him put more effort in!

It did take a while but eventually we got there (see below!) and generally I was very pleased with how he went!

Next up was Jack - we didn't do much with him on the flat, just a lot of canter work on a circle changing the pace and then leg yielding in and out of the circle whilst keeping him upright and doing canter-walk-canter transitions and such like. He went very well and I am hopeful that after my week of intense training during half term at Tor's that he will be set up well for the event season!

We also decided to do grid work with Jack and tried to work on me getting deep to the first element because I tend to stand off fences with Jack. He went really well and is such fun to jump!! 

Last week I had a Tor lesson and jumped Mr Belvedere for the first time in six months! It was all very exciting...if a little nerve-racking! I can only just hold him together in canter so had no idea if I would be able to cope when jumping! However I was really pleased with him, still such a long way to go but considering it was the first time in months & how hard I find him to keep together, not too shabby!!

I need to work on riding more leg to hand, softening with my elbows and sitting and waiting for the stride/fence to come to me and not pushing & panicking. I have another jumping session tomorrow so will report back on how that goes but hopefully it will continue to improve getting us well on our way to the first event of the season - an OPN at Tweseldown. 

Jack is also going well, his flatwork is beginning to come back together after his time off over Christmas and hopefully it will be fully back on track by the time his first event at Aldon comes around! I can't believe the event season is already upon us! Very exciting, although the bad news is that my weekends will now be fully booked so I will have to quit my weekend job working for Venetia Williams (until next season hopefully) - gutting as I really enjoy it....and I will no longer have any money!

Now that we have finally shifted all the snow, ice & frost I have been able to having some lessons with Tor in preparation for the rapidly approaching event season! Argh!
On Thursday I drove up and jumped one of Tor's horses for a bit of general jumping practise to get my eye in seeing as I haven't jumped since Weston 2* and haven't Show Jumped since Gatcombe!

Then I had lessons on both Jack & Belv. Jack has done minimal schooling for over a month due to a foot abscess so we didn't do much with him. However I was pleased with his basic trot work, he picked up well considering how little we have done. Below is a video of us doing some leg yielding -

Belv has been coming on quite well and as the event season starts soon we figured it was about time we started doing some jumping with him. So to introduce it gradually we did a lot of pole work. Before I can jump him I have to learn to keep him together over the poles as he tends to poke his nose and get longer and longer which is where we come unstuck when jumping. I was really pleased with how he coped with the poles and it was a definite improvement on last year. So onwards & upwards and fingers crossed!
Video of the pole work -

Belv - Flatwork