Well, it was Foxcote Unaffiliated Pre Novice on Tuesday! It had the potential to be a very very bad day because a) Ross can nap and refuse to do anything and b) Rosie hasn't competed at this height for a while because she doesn't have much confidence at the moment so we would easily have been eliminated in the SJ!!

Well I got there to do my Dressage on Rosie at 1:30, she did a very nice test so I hoped we would get a good mark! We got 34.4 which was fairly good in the section but I was a bit disappointed with. It turns out the judge wanted her to work more from behind...
I then had a THREE Hour wait before Ross' Dressage. So we walked the course in the scorching heat and had ice creams!
Ross wasn't feeling very obliging when I warmed up and the test was horrible to ride. He fixes his neck and locks his jaw against you. However, the test apparently looked really good. We got 34.8 which I was very disappointed with. The judge even gave Ross a 6 for his paces and said ''correct paces'' which for Ross is in my mum’s words ''very naughty'' because Ross has the most amazing elastic paces. You literally would struggle to find better paces! Sigh!
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Ross Dressage
I then jumped off Ross and got on Rosie for the Show jumping. It was an up to height course but mostly uprights which is good for Rosie's confidence. So I wasn't too worried. She was great over 1,2,3,4ab then I came round to a narrow style at 5 and I went for a long one which you NEVER do with her so she put another stride in and had it down. Totally my fault. Great over 6, the double at 7 was a bit hairy, 8 and 9 were fab. So four faults. Totally kicking myself!
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Rosie SJ
I then changed quickly for the Cross Country and went over to the start. She flew a little hedge at number 1 and 2, backed off but jumped well over a large number 3, perfect over a wall at 4 and a box at 5. Popped down over another wall at 6, 7 was a bullfinch type thing which she jumped HUGE as she didn’t want to touch the brush bits!!! Then sharp left turn over 8 a large palisade. Popped down the step to skinny at 9, flew 10 and 11 a ditch log to tyres. Launched over the palisade at 12 which apparently had a drop behind that I didn’t know about and almost fell off!! Popped 13ab and 14 the ditch palisade. Launched over the drop over stream at 15, great over 16, hesitant over the 2nd drop stream at 17 and lovely over the last. Super clear!!

I then leapt off Rosie changed and leapt on Ross for my Show jumping. We went in and jumped off perfect strides over 1, 2 and 3. 4ab was a little deep, and the rest of the course was really good, so a great clear. It turns out the SJ caused carnage and out of 25 people there were only 5 clears.
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Ross SJ
Got back to the lorry got off and changed AGAIN and took him Cross Country. It was fabulous. No napping, no hanging, just lovely round he was really enjoying himself! Super over everything, no dodgy moments at all. So he got an awesome double clear!

Results!! Rosie finished on 38.4 and was 7th and Ross finished on 34.8 and was 2nd, so two rosettes!! Unfortunately had I not been a Muppet SJ on Rosie, she would have been 2nd and Ross 3rd, Oh well!
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Well Knaptoft on Friday and Saturday, and Intro on Rosie on Sunday. Busy times!!

Well, unlike at Knaptoft it was nice weather all day, sometimes cloudy, but no rain! Because it had been wet the show jumping was moved onto a tiny arena and so some fences were jumped multiple times in the round!!

Well the Dressage with Rosie is normally much less stressful than with Belvedere but I was slightly concerned as she hasn’t done much recently, and hasn’t had a lesson in a while. I was also riding her in Belvedere’s dressage saddle as mum says it looks an awful lot better. However I needn’t have worried, she warmed up really well and was her normal super little self in the test. She’s so easy to ride in comparison to Belvedere. In the end we got 34.5 which is okay, but for her I was a little  dissapointed with as she normally gets low 30’s or high 20’s. However sometimes she does tend to get a bit over bent and we were penalised for this.

Pictures (Click to enlarge)
Show jumping she is normally very careful, the only worry is whether she will stop or not. She doesn’t have all that much confidence with show jumps and although we used to compete bigger she can’t really go above this height anymore, we just take her to have a pootle about and have fun. However, no stops, super little clear over an incredibly long and fairly up-to-height course. (14 jumping efforts). Afterwards we bumped into Rosie (Thomas) again who we see competing regularly and seem to be following around at the moment. She said Rosie looked lovely!

Pictures (Click to enlarge)
The cross country was very short course, 16 jumps and 5 of them were hedges!!!!! The hedges were all quite a reasonable height and this is the best part, she doesn’t like hedges. She won’t go anywhere near a hedge out hunting because she has had too many bad experiences falling in ditches behind hedges (she doesn’t have a big spread). However these all had rails in so I wasn’t too concerned, as when they have rails and flags she trusts them more!!

So popped the first and down to the first hedge, which she jumped HUGE, and didn’t touch a twig. lol. poked over three that was very spooky looking, nice over 4 and 5ab, galloped on, flew the hedge at 6, 7ab was a very spooky TINY log down a slope, up a slope and over a TINY skinny log. Poked through that, launched over the hedge at 8, okay through 9ab, nice over hedge at 10. Popped the tyres at 11 and small log at 12, flew hedge at 13. Popped over log before water at 14, trotted through the water at 15ab, and beautifully over the last PN ditch palisade at 16. And then cantered through the finish (for some reason I didn’t think they were timing it...)

Pictures (Click to enlarge)
Turns out they were timing it and I picked up 0.8 time pens which really annoyed me as had I not been so dense I wouldn’t have got them. Turns out they didn’t matter and we came 3rd. Bless her!!
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Well we took Irish Rose down to West Littleton for a Riding club ODE. We were only doing the Novice (BE Intro equivalent) class to give her an outing and to have some fun! The weather had been awful so we thought we were going to get very wet! But as it turned out it stayed dry for us and the rain had done the ground there the world of good!

The Dressage was a Prelim test which I learnt on the way down there! I was very pleased with Rosie's test. She has turned into a lovely little dressage horse in the past two years and for a while now she has been getting high 20's/low 30's. The test was very nice, one mistake where she trotted in the walk, but other than that pretty much her usual good test. I was very disappointed to see we had an awful score of 42. It was harsh judge, but even so I was very put out. Clearly I have done something to offend dressage judges recently!!! haha!

The Show Jumping wasn't very big but was quite spooky and she hasn’t done any for a while. However she was her normal careful self and popped round for a good clear. (Even if she did almost stop coming into the double--the fillers were awfully scary she tells me!!)

Finally the Cross Country, it was a decent track with a lot of ditches and steps! However she sailed round without any problems. Bless, she really enjoyed herself! I even shouted out to a friend as I passed them on the course! It was a nice change to go round a xc course and not be thinking technically about every fence. Like this is a tricky combination belv, you must have a short bouncy canter and you must turn very quickly on landing. I could just point and shoot and have a good time!!!

So a lovely double clear, that would normally have left us in the top three. But it wasn't meant to be, so we came 10th in the end.

XC Photos (Click to enlarge)

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By that I mean, we decided to take Irish Rose and Cloons Master Plan to a local show in order to give Rosie some fun and to give Ross a show jumping round before our PN at Cleobury on Saturday (considering at the Hartpury 1m SJ championships he refused to jump anything!!!)
We had decided to do the 2'9'' and 3'0'' on Rosie, and the 3'0'' and 3'3'' on Ross. However when we got there they had had loads of entries and so we had a while to wait. So we entered them both in both dressage competitions they were running! Prelim 18 and Novice 24. Warming them up was a bit of a hassle as there was no warm up, but we got there eventually, and I did four tests in the space of about 20mins. Off one, on the next, then learn the next test, then do the test, then off that one and onto the other one! It was all very hectic! However, in the end, although I was very hot, worth it, as I gained a stack on rosettes.

In the Prelim Ross won it, with 68% and Rosie was 5th with 62%. (Around 20 entries).
In the Novice Ross stole the show with an awesome 73% and Rosie was 2nd with 65% (Around 10 entries).

Short video of Ross' SUPERB Medium trot that came as a shock to us all!

Then onto the Show jumping which was very under height! The 2'9'' was more like 2'3'', but hey ho, it was just for Rosie to have some fun! Anyway, I spoke to soon, the little madam had a stop at the first! Bless! The Clear round ring, had suddenly wacked their jumps up so they were a good 3ft-3ft3, with a lot more fillers than the main ring! So we popped her in that and she did a very sweet round and gained another rosette! Good girl!

Video of the Clear round, and Pictures from the 2'9'' (click to enlarge)
There was a very long wait while they did the 85cm Top Score until the 3'0'' class, so we sat and got very hot eating an egg in a roll as they caterers had run out of food- humph! But eventually it came to an end and I warmed up Ross for the 3'0''. He was warming up very well, until he suddenly stopped at an upright taking me totally by surprise and leaving me clinging onto the side like a limpet! He must have spotted some monster and was clearly saving both of us from a terrible fate! haha!
However, he went in and did a super round, double clear, not stops, and definitely no touching any poles!

Next was Rosie, and this time I was not going to let her stop at the first. But she had already done two rounds and had had to wait hours for this, so was pretty switched off. This meant that she found the distance too hard to get in the double, put a little one in that really wasn’t there and had it down. Then on the final line, we came to a reasonable height spread, I could feel her backing off, took my hand off the rein and gave her two smacks of encouragement. But it was the wrong decision to make, as she then took advantage of this and ran out. Came round again, another smack, popped it very well. So eight faults. It caused lots of problems in the end, and Ross won, and Rosie was 4th. Si not so bad!

Video of Ross' Novice Dressage test and 3'0'' SJ round, and images of Ross and Rosie in the 3ft (Click to enlarge)
Finally, it was onto the 3ft3. There weren’t many in the class so I was hoping for another double clear and win on Ross. However, as we came around to the 2nd, there was a crow on the fence wing, as Ross took off, it took flight and caught Ross' attention so he froze, and forgot he had back legs, so knocked it down. He was lovely around the rest of the course though!
As it turned out, no one went clear and there were three of us on four faults, so they did the placings on the times of our first rounds which were not speed rounds, so Ross was the slowest and came 3rd. Ho hum, not so bad! (Photographer left after the 3ft unfortunately!)

All in all, a VERY VERY hot long day, but we came home with lots of Rosettes (makes a nice change!) and ponies feeling very pleased with themselves I think!

I just hope Ross can do the same at Cleobury Mortimer BE PN this Saturday!
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Just a very quick post, to say that Irish Rose (Rosie) and Cloons Master Plan (Ross) were very good and well behaved at our Pony Club Hunter Trial!
They both did the 2'9'' and the 3'3''. And they both stormed around both courses in fantastic form!
In the 2'9'' Ross came 1st, and Rosie came 2nd. In the 3'3'' Rosie came 1st, and Ross came 3rd.
What a good day! Totally wiped the board!!! Good Horsies!

Photos from 2'9'' (Click pictures to view larger)

Photos from 3'3'' (Click pictures to view larger)

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Well, had a very busy weekend. With Hambleden yesterday, and Stockland Lovell today! It was my first event with both Ross (Cloons Master Plan) and Rosie (Irish Rose). And what a good day! Very busy, but good! Started at 3pm with the first horse, and finished by 6pm with the second horse! haha!

Irish Rose: Intro/Pre Novice

Dressage: Well, incredibly pleased with her. We have been working on her Dressage so much, and it has paid off. She got 28 (72%) so clearly very pleased. She was very sweet, her free walk wasn't very good, and her halt I held for one moment too long, so she threw her head about, but the rest was fantastic! Also, the test was a PN test!

Showjumping: Again, she was lovely, popped around very sweetly for a fantastic clear (intro height). Unfortunately, clearly the time was very tight and we got 2 time pens. I was very annoyed with this, as I felt that it would affect my end result greatly!
However, very pleased with her.               

Cross Country: I was slightly worried by a few things on the course for Rosie because it was mainly PN, so many jumps like the corner, trakhener, and a very wide (depth) skinny, to a big box, were definitely over Intro height and quite substantial. However, she popped around the course. Although the first water was slightly interesting, as it was a wall, turn right to a roll top into the water, then a roll top out. She backed off the wall, then jumped massive into the water, and took a stride out of the water. So it was very much sit tight despite. But I was very pleased with her, she took it all in her stride and finished inside the time. I was very happy to discover that we came 2nd!! (Out of 30) Also the two time pens didn't make any difference to the placings! What a good girl for her first ODE since last summer!

Cloons Master Plan: Pre Novice/Novice

Dressage (novice test): It was a bit of a rush after Rosie’s prize giving, but it turned out I needn’t have rushed, because they were running late, so it meant I had to end up warming him up for an incredibly long time. However, even though ross was the only one left in the dressage warm up he did a fab test. I was amazed because I have ridden him about three times in the last two months, and all he has been doing is hunting and team chasing. We got 30.5 which turned out to be the best dressage! Out of a section of 40, I was thrilled!

Show jumping: Well, I was slightly worried because at ODE’s he can be very unpredictable and nap and refuse to do anything. However, he was brilliant. Lovely round, I just made the mistake of asking him for a long stride, so we had a silly stop, so unfortunate 4 faults. But it could have gone a lot worse, so happy enough! He also didn’t hang or fix his neck in the round. So very pleased.

Cross Country: Again, like with Rosie, this was a mixture of Pre-Novice and Novice, with some jumps/combinations clearly being the novice BE track. I was also worried about him napping here, and before I went in the start box he started rearing and napping. However, he never thought about it on the XC, and flew around. Gave me fantastic round, didn’t hang, nap or pull much. It was 500mpm and he wastes time in the air and approaching jumps, so just got the 3.2 time pens. But very very pleased. Turns out I also came 2nd with him. Couldn’t believe it! I also won a pair of snazzy white woof wear tendon boots.

So it makes up slightly for my bad day at Hambleden, but it is typical, the bad days on record, the good days not! Haha! I hope to do some more eventing with these guys this season, and hopefully some BE.

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Well, the other day a friend came round for a few days to ride my horses etc! And we were jumping Belvedere in the field, and he put up quite a big upright, at least 1m20, probably more like 1m25-1m30, which Belvedere popped very sweetly. Next Jonny put up a spread, which was very big. However I did not realise just how big it was untill i was cantering towards it!! Belvedere, being so scopey, just popped it very easily. However, we measured it and it was 1m50!!! (Well 1m48 to be precise!) Crickey!

Anyway, here are some photos!

Belvedere 1m20-1m30 Upright

Belvedere 1m50 Spread

I then did some jumping on Rosie (Irish Rose) and she was lovelly! She is so easy to ride bless her!! The spread at the end was quite big for her, shes only 15 3hh and rides like a pony and is not very scopey. She also has had some confidence issues, so very pleased with how she is going at the moment!

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