…just snooping about online and I found my testimonial with these pics I took of Jack after I received my SoloGroom kit and gave him a makeover. What a scruffy little urchin he was after his box rest!
…just snooping about online and I found my testimonial with these pics I took of Jack after I received my SoloGroom kit and gave him a makeover. What a scruffy little urchin he was after his box rest!
After a great clear round last weekend at Larkhill I entered Soap for another hunter trial at West Wilts. He loves his XC and I thought the 1m class there would be good prep for our last event of the season BE100 at Moreton. He warmed up well, and got very excited squeaking and leaping into canter in the start box! He started ok but a little inconsistent rushing and then backing up which felt odd, then he stopped at fences 4 and 5. These fences were on the edge of a little copse, and I wrongly put the stops…
A rather exciting DVD shaped jiffy bag arrived in the post the other day, and in it was my Total Recall video from MK3DE! On the DVD is our steeplechase where I give Karen Donkers a run for her money in the ‘vocal encouragement’ stakes. Listen out for my embarrasing outbursts! The XC which after the steeplechase looks positively sedate, and our almost clear SJing round complete with massive rider gaff at the last double! Steeplechase – 2 laps, 6 fences in 1 min 58 secs – Optimum Time 2mins XC – 27 jumping efforts @ a speed of 450mpm…
A biting wind, driving rain, hail, waterproofs, and ‘the big studs’ says hunter trial season to me so it felt very odd yesterday to be setting off XC in the blazing September sun! Knowing how the organisers usually build I was expecting the 3ft to be big with a few Pre Novice/BE100 fences thrown in but sadly they broke with form, and it was pretty much the Intro/BE90 course, it looked like they saved all the big fences for the Open later in the day which was primarily BE Novice height. Soap shot out the start box, and stormed round…
It was a quick turnaround for Soap and I after 10 days at Rosie’s SJ Boot Camp we had just 3 days back at home to get ourselves sorted before we set off for our first 3DE! I met up with my sponsor Jonathan from Equine Premium the evening before and he gave me some promotional flyers to take and an Equine Premium cap to wear so with that and Soap’s ridiculous ‘on tour rider’ (Evian, only the red smarties, and fresh meadow grass) packed we set off. It was a few miles into our journey that I realised the…
After our big step backwards SJ-wise at Highclere I bit the emotional and financial bullet and sent Soap to ‘SJ School’ with my trainer Rosie Moss. He stayed for 10 days during which I had 2 lessons, and he had a mane makeover! I couldn’t believe the difference I felt in him in my first lesson his canter was so much more active, and I could really feel his hind legs coming through and under the saddle. Rosie thinks he is very sensitive, and also needs even more building up to be able to sustain a SJ canter for longer.…
Highclere is a local event to me and I have always wanted to do the BE100/PreNovice course there as it is a fab gallopy undulating course with the real ‘old school event’ vibe to it. In advance of Highclere because I knew it was a tough track I entered Soap for WWEC (2) BE100 and he had completed their unaff ODE over the BE100 track just a few weeks before so I thought 2 runs at BE100 height would be a good level of prep. Unfortunately WWEC (2) was cancelled due to bad weather so we focused our efforts on…
In prep for Highclere BE100 we have been jumping jumping jumping, and on Sunday I found a local show to take Soap to for a couple of rounds on grass. I must have looked like a clueless eventer with my yellow tagged hat, tweed jacket, and list of daft questions which included…’Do we get a course walk?’ ‘yes of course!’ said the baffled looking steward ‘How do we know what order to go in for the JO?…’ ‘Do we have to wear our jackets?’ etc etc you get the idea (I’m a bit rusty at straight SJing) and I’m pretty…
…well maybe not a whole range just yet, but my personalised XC top now has a hoody to keep it company! I plan to wear this as much as possible at events so if you see me please come and say ‘Hi’ as it would be great to meet some fellow local eventers. Big thanks for the hoody go to my friends Emily and Paul who made it and are now probubly thinking they have opened the floodgates! personalised t-shirts, tracky bums, rugs, saddle cloths, wash bag, pants, socks the possibilities are endless….
Today I booked the day off work to take Soap to West Wilts EC for some Eventers Combined Training. We got held up by slow moving traffic and what looked like a drugs bust going on with lots of police in the road so we arrived a little later than I had planned! With only 12 minutes to warm up for dressage Soap was going well but really needed another 15mins to be listening properly, and knock the edge off him. So after warming up to ‘tepid’ rather than ‘piping hot’ we had to start our test. All was going…