Sad news surrounds Hartpury Horse trials for me. I was supposed to be doing Hartpury on Belvedere and for about two weeks up to the event I had been staying with Belv at Tor's in order to get lots of training to ensure a good run. However on the Tuesday of Hartpury week Belv was diagnosed with a hock injury and will be off for the rest of the season. Not only did this mean that Hartpury was out of the question, but it also rules him out of the JRN National Championships at Weston Park. On Wednesday morning it was decided that I would run Jack at Hartpury in Belv's place.

So on Wednesday afternoon Jack was presented for the first trot up which he passed fine, even if he did spy a photographer, stop in his tracks and leap sideways!! 
Unfortunately because I had been away at Tor's with Belv I literally hadn't ridden Jack since Wilton OI two weeks previously and he had only been lightly hacked by a groom. This meant that our Dressage was not very up-together and we didn't do a very good test and got 66.2 which left us right down the order.

The Cross Country course at Hartpury was a very nice course and fairly big, however it was very straight forwards with only a few testing combinations. The main things to think about were fence 12ab which was a steep downhill combination of a log, then 5 slightly curving strides to a very skinny tripple brush, and also right at the end of the course were two houses one stride apart on a very acute angle and then a corner concealed just after a turn through a hedge. Jack sailed round the track and gave me a brilliant ride true to form. Didn't put a foot wrong and sailed inside the time. He finished well and sound and passed the trot up on Sunday morning without incident.

Jack is such a good Show Jumper so I wasn't overly concerned about the Jumping, but it was quite a long, up-to-height and VERY square track so it was still enough of a question. It caused carnage for the first 20-30 competitors with three people managing to fall off! However Jack did an absolutely class round and was his normal amazing genuine, pingy self! We almost had a clear round but I made a slight error to the last fence and the planks came down. Guttingly the four faults cost us a top 50 finish and a point. However I had a great time and am really pleased with how Jack went.....if we forget the Dressage that is!!! We climbed from 90 something after the Dressage, to 61st after the XC and finally to 54th after the SJ!!!

The next stop with Jack is Gatcombe CIC** and then seeing as Belv will no longer be going to Weston, I will take Jack instead and do the CCIYR**! Very exciting!!
I had some more good news this week too - I did my driving theory test on Wednesday and passed and then I got my AS results today.....four A's!!!! Smiles all round!

I have just had some very good news! Belvedere and I have been re-selected for the 2010 Wales & Borders JRN team at Weston Park! I am very excited and am confident that we will have a much more successful run than we did last year!

Below is a photo from last year!

Well this was a mixed day. It started off brilliantly with the dressage. Tor was riding at the same time so threw some comments to me when I was warming up and Belv went really well. He did a very sweet test but I felt it could have been a bit better in places. However we ended up with 32.5 which is a brilliant score for us and our best ever BE mark together, so I was thrilled with that!

Unfortunately we did rather ruin this in the Show Jumping! We only had one fence down which would have been okay in itself, but we unfortunately picked up a further 4 pens and 5 time faults at fence 4 which gave us a bit of a cricket score. However he flew the XC clear inside the time which pulled us back up the order somewhat and we finished 8th. A double clear would have seen us win and even with the 4 faults we would have been second so that was very irritating and has most likely cost us a place on the JRN team this year. However onwards and upwards to Hartpury CCI* next week!!

Well the dressage had the potential to be quite nice, but unfortunately I forgot to halt on the first centre line and had to re-start which made Jack very tense and upset for the rest of the test, we ended up with 42 which wasn't what I had aimed for!

However, the Show Jumping was much more successful and even though it was very big and Jack hadn't Show Jumped for weeks and I hadn't jumped him on grass since Hambleden, he flew round and didn't touch a pole. What a dudey horse he is! Unfortunately we had a minor miss-understanding over one of our lines to an upright and ground to a halt so picked up a very silly 4 faults and one time penalty. Very annoying as they cost us getting two points for a double clear!

I have to confess I wasn't all that worried about the cross country. After Glanusk it seemed quite tame and straight-forwards. Big in places, yes, but not too technical. In true Jack style he flew round and gave me a fantastic ride apart from the first water where he was very spooky and we clambered in and out over the boat in a very unorthodox style! I have also begun to trust him more and consequently we did a very speedy round just picking up 4.8 time faults. Unfortunately because it was a hotly contested OI section we finished right down the order, but in most other Intermediate section we would have been placed. 
We now head to the CIC** at Gatcombe, and if the ground isn't too hard the CIC** at South of England as well.

Well I had been looking forward to this event for a number of reasons. Mainly because it was a Pony Club event and therefore no record to worry about and so I felt less pressure! I was also fairly confident that we could pull off a 30's dressage double clear. Well, how wrong was I!!!

The Dressage had been the bit I was most worried about....in the end it turned out to be the best bit. He stayed calm and relaxed warming up and during the test and did nothing untoward in the test! We scored 36.4 which was fair enough, although I had hoped it would be 35 or less.

Next up was the Show Jumping, it was a very tricky, long and fairly up to height course and we had an appalling warm up where I nearly fell off. Having said that, I was still fairly confident about it. We went in and jumped clear over fences 1-7, then we came round to fence 8 and he didn't lock on and I couldn't find a decent stride and we ended up stopping and crashing through it. On the second attempt he jumped it really well, we then turned to fence 9 the planks and he stopped again. I hit him when I re-presented to ensure that he jumped it and consequently hollowed and had it down, he then popped through the final treble really well. So what should have been a nice clear ended up as two stops, a pole and 11 time penalties! Not quite what I had planned to be honest!

The Cross country was a brilliant track, nice and technical and big in places so I was looking forward to it, especially as Belv & I won when we competed here in 2008 (the only clear XC!!). Unfortunately a girl fell just as I was about to start so I was held at the start box for a while, but finally we got under-way. He jumped fences 1, 2 and 3 sweetly enough but did lack spark. He then came down to the sunken road at 4abcd and although we had the perfect shot in he did back off on the last stride which is very unlike him, but no major issues. We went through the hedge down past  the collecting ring to the ditch palisade at 5 and as soon as I went through the hedge he started hanging, backing off and napping. We never actually made it as far as the fence, a few meters away he stopped dead span round and launched upwards in a huge rear. Luckily he didn't go over and I managed to pull him down sideways. He then proceeded to continue rearing and going backwards and eventually we were eliminated for resisting for over 1minute. As I don't need to tell you this is so unlike Belvedere it is unbelievable. He is such a XC machine and has always excelled at and loved his cross country...! So this leaves us in a bit of a sticky situation as something clearly isn't right, whether it be mental, physical or both. Either way I am so gutted, we were just starting competing again and getting him back on track and then this, the last thing I ever expected, happens.

Well it was Belv's second event of the season on the weekend but we did exactly the same as we did the week before at the first event of the season - 40 dressage, 4 faults SJ and clear XC with a few time!!
It was a strange event, because Tor took Belv down for us, so me and mum drove down separately in the car (well actually I drove, can you believe it!!)

He warmed up really well for the dressage, but unfortunately in the ring we had two ''moments'' that dropped our score from 33.7 to a 40.0. So that was very disappointing, however it just goes to show that the good work is in there and we will get those low 30's very soon!

Next up was my nemesis, the Show Jumping! I was nervous because quite a few people I know were watching, however he had warmed up really well. Popped fences 1-7 really well, just tipped fence 8 and then got very deep to fence 9 but he tried really hard and cleared it. Then clear over the final double. So just an annoying four faults again!!
Pictures below (Click to enlarge)

Finally, the best bit! Needless to say, he absolutely flew around the XC for a fabulous clear with just 3.6 time penalties because he isn't all that fit. I do love him XC, he just takes everything in his stride, which is clear to see from how he jumped through the water! Totally foot perfect! All in all a slightly disappointing day due to the mistakes in the dressage and the pole SJ. It would have been nice to do a double clear and get a point, but hey ho!

Wow, what a week! I had both horses at Glanusk from Wednesday last week until very late on Sunday evening. Jack was doing the Junior National Championships CCI* class and Belvedere was doing his first event since Weston CCIJ* in October, a JRN class.

The full report of the week can be seen here (click for link), but in short I had a brilliant, but quite emotional and trying time! Jack did a fair dressage test but got a disappointing mark of 59.2, which equates to 39.5 in British Eventing terms. Pictures are below (click to enlarge).

He then proceeded to do a fantastic XC round clear inside the time, doing all the direct routes over an incredibly big and technical track. However, later that day he became lame and although he was much better the following day, he was sent to the hold box during the trot up and I withdrew him from there. He had a slight sore point on his tendon, and although there was no heat or swelling there was no way I was going to run him and risk breaking him. So that was very gutting, but it doesn't take away how good he was on the cross country. Below are some pictures of him on the XC and of the course.

Finally, on Sunday it was belv's turn to party. The dressage was very dissapointing, he got slightly freaked out by the competition atmosphere and the test was below par. We ended up with 40.0 - not quite what the last 6months of hard work has been aiming for. Anyway he redeemed himself by jumping well in the SJ and just rolling at unlucky pole. As expected he romped around the XC and just had 5.2 time penalties because he is not very fit. We ended up 8th so it was nice to get a rosette! 

Below are some pictures of him earlier on in the week.

Well it has been a while since I have talked about how Belv is doing. A few months ago he was seen by a chiropractor and had a few weeks just walking and trotting in a long and low outline to re-build up his muscles etc. He came back very well from this and was very supple and submissive. However he suddenly became rod-like again and we went back to Tor for help and in her words we were ''back to where we were six months ago''. Needless to say I was absolutely gutted by this and it meant that we had to withdraw him from Longleat JRN. However, it's not all doom and gloom! We got Sam Smith to come out and give Belv some treatment and this has helped hugely. We think that Belv just needs regular appointments to keep him in shape! Anyway, he has been going fairly well and is entered for Glanusk JRN next weekend which I am very excited (and nervous) about! 

Yesterday morning, in preparation for Glanusk, Tor took Belv to Summerhouse for an SJ schooling round and I came up before school to ride him. I was very pleased with how he went, he felt good over the fences and was generally being very careful! Although I often fired him at the fences making him flatten on the last few strides, so I need to work on that. Below are videos of him jumping and schooling yesterday.

Finally, I travelled up to Tor's after school today and had a play with him on the flat. He was going okay to begin with but a bit stiff in his neck and was being a bit argumentative. Tor then got on and had a play and got him going really nicely and then plonked me back in the saddle! I was quite pleased with how he went but I don't think he was as soft and submissive in his neck as he was before his most recent 'episode'. It didn't really feel like he was consistently round and relaxed, however I was pleasantly surprised by how it looked on the video, so we shall see how it goes in the next few days and at Glanusk! (Video below!)

Some photos (courtesy of my Brother) from Pontispool Open Intermediate on Jack last weekend, where we came 9th! 

Dressage - 41.4 (Click to enlarge)

Show Jumping - 4 faults (Click to enlarge)

Cross Country - Clear, inside the time (Click to enlarge)

Our old Horsebox was a very basic, very old two horse tin with no living really to speak of!! This always made staying away rather interesting, and not in a good way! It was always cold, wet, dark and miserable! My poor mother even had to sleep in the horse area if we didn't take a tent! So we decided it was time to upgrade and after looking at lots of websites we found one that looked perfect for us which was also local! We immediately liked it and after our mechanic vetted it for us we bought it!!

It's an Iveco converted by Oakland, two horse, 7.5 tonne lorry. It has full living - toilet, shower, TV, gas hobs, a grill, fridge, loads of storage space, heating, seating, a removable table and sleeping space. I absolutely love it and think we are very very lucky to have found it and for a good price too! Can't wait for our first outing in it and we will be able to fully put it through it's places at Glanusk where we will be away from the Wednesday through to the Sunday!