We have been busy getting the horses back fit in preparation for the coming season which is only 3 weeks away!!! Errigal Hill Boy (Dougal) and Kington (Stanley) are ahead of the others in terms of fitness and have been out to unaffiliated jumping competitions with many wins and placings. Stanley qualified for the JAS BE100 final on his first attempt with a 3rd placing at Hartpury at the end of January, and Dougal had just one pole in both the BE 90 and 100, pretty impressive for his first attempt at anything like this.
Today we returned to Hartpury to take part in the second JAS competition there, Dougal did the BE90 again and scored an impressive 8 for style with just one time fault, sadly I have to compete in 90 HC as I have ridden at Advanced level so I was unable to claim my win but he would have won by 3 marks. In the BE100 again he jumped fantasically this time going inside the time and claiming the win, a brilliant achievement for a horse who has not been in work all that long and has certainly never done anything like this before. He is definitely an eye catcher and well loved by us and his owner Simon Hall. Kington just had one pole down in the BE100 leaving him just out of the top 10. I decided to withdraw him from the Novice as I am struggling with brakes since his winter hunting!!
Thanks to Baileys for their support of the JAS series, very useful as we already feed all of the horses their feeds and they definitely make all the difference.
Other very exciting news....Jimmy (Zeus of Rushall) has just started cantering in the school- a massive thrill for me having gone through 9 months of him testing my patience, he feels fabulous and I can't wait to get him out eventing again later in the season.
