I am currently on holiday in the Alps on a downhill biking/mountaineering holiday and since we have had a few days of very wet weather I decided to put the free time into making a video for Jack.

I just wanted to say a little thank you to my superstar horse who took me from Novice to Advanced in one year including double clears & placings at Intermediate/2* level along the way!

Jack is now fully retired and mooching around in the field at home! He has no shoes and looks very feral...! He also enjoys the company of George in the day time! I'm not going to lie...I really really really miss riding and competing him and I think he misses it too! So I plan to jump on and have a play in the field with him at some point.....shhh don't tell anyone though!

On the weekend I did my first Advanced at Chatsworth International Horse Trials! What an amazing experience that was, it didn't go quite to plan but I learnt a lot and Jack was absolutely fantastic!

Walking the course

The Dressage was never going to be spectacular as it is by far our weakest phase. However it didn't go too badly and we didn't make an horrific errors and ended up with 44.1 - Clearly not brilliant, but sub 45 so I was reasonably happy.

The Show Jumping was in a very impressive arena with a grandstand and it was a very long and up to height course so I was a little bit nervous! However Jack jumped out of his skin! He jumped all bar one of the fences in foot perfect fashion & clear. Unfortunately I made a mistake at fence 6 and we had it down and I had to circle before the next fence to organise ourselves again so picked up a few jumping penalties & a lot of time faults. So although it doesn't look very good on paper, he actually jumped incredibly well and it was almost a clear round!

Surprisingly I wasn't actually very nervous for the Cross Country. I think because I had already messed up the show jumping somewhat and so I just wanted to get on with it! I didn't wear my watch because I wasn't concerned with how quickly or not I was going as I just wanted to get round! After having a bit of a chit chat with Oli Townend in the warm up it was time to go! 
Jack jumped fences 1 & 2 very well, but unfortunately he was being unusually strong and I just didn't have him where I wanted coming to fence 3 and we came up the bank, turned for the fence and just met it on a completely duff stride. Lucky totally deserted us and he just couldn't jump it. We re-presented and jumped it fine. It was just one of those galling & really unlucky things. However we put it behind us and proceeded to jump clear around the rest of the course over all the direct routes in exemplary fashion! Although slightly disappointed with the 20 penalties I couldn't have been more thrilled with Jack coming through the finish! He isn't experienced at this level having only done one advanced in the UK a few years ago, yet he took everything in his stride and sailed round!

So all in all a very good first Advanced! Although it didn't go quite as I had planned or hoped, we successfully completed arguably the biggest Advanced in the country and so I can't really complain. I made a few mistakes and paid for them, but Jack was an absolute superstar and didn't put a foot wrong so overall I am thrilled and really want to get back out there and continue competing at this level. So if anyone has any ideas of suitable horses/owners then please please please get in touch.

What a horse! Not much more to say really! He was such a superstar once again! He did a very sweet correct Dressage test for the most part. But unfortunately his tension got the better of him at a number of different occasions and so amongst the 6's and 7's were also 5's and 3's and we ended up with a disappointing 42.3 which I thought was rather harsh. But such is life!

Onto the best bit! Jumping time! The course was up to height but not the biggest track I have jumped. However it was very twisty with a lot of fairly technical dog legs and the two people that jumped before me did not have good rounds to say the least so it didn't fill me with confidence!! However not to worry - Jack jumped another superb clear round! 

Finally the Cross Country! It was a lovely course, as it always is at Withington. Nice and big & bold but also good and technical at times! I wasn't really worried about anything except possibly the water as the fence in wasn't very inviting. But Jacked popped around everything very sweetly and even though I went quite steadily, especially over the first half of the course, we only picked up 8.4 time faults. So another double clear - 3rd one in a row! What a super horse!

Next event - Chatsworth Advanced! Exciting stuff!

Well, I am afraid this isn't much of a report! Jack had been going well on the flat leading up to the event so I was hoping that we could improve on Somerley 2* and try and get a late 50's double clear. However it was not meant to be! Early Friday morning we drove (well mum drove) the 4.5 hours all the way to the coast! (Norfolk). Unfortunately when we got there we were very unimpressed by the state of the ground, particularly the Dressage and the Cross Country. And as Jack is an old boy who had stiffened up quite a lot on the journey anyway we decided it was prudent to withdraw rather than to hammer him round on some rough hard ground. 

We stayed the night to give Jack some time to rest before setting off home again on Saturday morning. Albeit a slightly delayed departure because the lorry decided it didn't wish to start and we had to get the help of a local mechanic! All in all not our most successful weekend!

On Wednesday morning we set off at 5am on the fairly long trip down south to Somerley Park Horse Trials to do the CIC** with Jack!

My Dressage was at 10am but we weren't jumping till around 4pm so luckily we didn't have to get there in time to walk the XC first! But on the downside it meant hours and hours of sitting around getting more and more nervous as I waited and getting soaked! It rained pretty much all day! 
Jacks dressage has taken a bit of a knock recently for one reason and another so I wasn't holding any high expectations. He warmed up sweetly enough, but unfortunately was very tense during his test and there were a number or errors. Mainly in his straightness (or lack of!) and we also had an incorrect canter strike off which is very unlike him! But all in all it wasn't too bad and we got a fair mark of 61.7.

After a horribly long wait it was time to Show Jump! The weather was vile and the ground very slippery so the Show Jumping was built fairly small to take this into consideration. Even so it still caused enough problems. Jack however posted another fabulous clear, even if we did have a slightly gung ho moment down a line of 3 fences after I saw a flyer into the first element!

Finally Cross Country time! I was pretty nervous for this because it was only our second event of the season and it was quite a tough track! It was pretty technical in places and the technical bits were big as well!
However I shouldn't have worried, Jack flew round for a superb clear! Made absolutely nothing of the big angled brush palisades at 7, the very spooky water or the massive skinny triple brush to corner combination! Chuffed to bits! He finished strongly and picked up just 8.4 time faults which I was quite pleased with because I didn't really push for the time as I was aiming for a clear! The course caused a lot of problems for the other competitors too with a lot of people getting eliminated or retiring!

So all in all a very good outing! Another double clear from Mr Supplejack! But the good news doesn't end there....it turns out we finished in the top 25% and so were placed 12th and in the money! Result! 

Next outing for Jack is Burnham Market CIC** so let's try and do a similarly good performance!

Whilst Belv snoozed....

Jack got to work....!
The Dressage was very disappointing in the end. He had schooled really really well the day before but unfortunately both he and I became very tense in the test and it did not go to plan and we got a very disappointing 40.5. Generally our flatwork has come one leaps and bounds from last year and is of a good 30's standard. So this obviously doesn't reflect how we have come on over the winter :(

Next up was the Show Jumping (we actually managed to get to jump this time!) It was quite big, well relative to the BE100 courses I have been doing with Belv and as it was our first time out this season I was a little nervous! However he warmed up well so we went into the ring feeling positive! Wow what a horse, he absolutely flew round for a fantastic clear! Thrilled! Although our SJ last year was good, we almost always ended up with 4 faults and this was our first clear SJ at Intermediate!

Finally cross country time! Jack duly posted a fabulous and pretty quick clear and we came home with just 4 time faults which was quite reasonable in the section. We did all the quick routes without any issues and so got our first Intermediate double clear - gaining two points! Our dressage wasn't good enough to get placed, but we ended up 13th which was about half way which I guess isn't too shabby for an official Young Rider OIU21 trial!
So all in all very pleased! Next stop Somerley CIC**!

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!! 

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

We haven't been able to do much, well anything, recently due to the snow and so resorted to cantering/galloping around the fields in the snow! I did quite enjoy it though, because it gave me the chance to a) play with my little TB ex-racehorse and b) whack my stirrups up to jockey length and indulge in my slight love/obsession for race riding! 
Even better I managed to get my brother to take some awesome pictures of Jack playing! Bless him! Having said that, he isn't that innocent (Jack that is). He got so exuberant one time that he did the most expressive flying change, unseated me, went off bucking and catapulted me out of the saddle! Sad times!