STONAR

PENCARDER SILVER STORM was taking part in the novice here. Sadly our dressage judge turned up 40mins late and Rosie was well and truly irritated with life considering her normal warm up is 10mins. Sadly the judge was not lenient at all and Rosie scored a 41. She jumped a classy double clear to finish 11th. Her next run will be back at Intermediate level.

BLACK EYED PEA II contested the novice as well. He is a new ride for me, having been recently bought by Julie Wookey. He did a good test which sadly the judge was in disagreement about, scoring a 37. He then had an educational round sj. I am very excited about this horse he will be one for next year when we have spent the winter ironing out a few creases. I didn't run him xc as the ground was rather on the firm side and I want to save him for the future. Rosie loves the firm hence why I ran her.

NUNNEY INTERNATIONAL

PENCARDER SILVER STORM took part in the novice as she has had some time off following her tweeking her back in the lorry at Belton. She was pretty excited to be at a competition and managed to just about contain herself in the dressage scoring 40. She then show jumped well for a clear, over a very testing track that claimed its fair few victims. Cross country she couldn't wait to get started and absolutely munched up the course making it feel so easy. She never broke her rhythm and finished 9 seconds inside the time. This left her in a credible 6th place.

KINGTON was also in the novice. He did what I thought was quite a nice test but the judge disagreed and he scored 37. He also jumped a fantastic clear show jumping showing how classy he is. He then popped brilliantly round the xc adding just 6 time faults where I had had to be cautious where the ground had become slippery with the huge showers we kept having.

Photo Courtesy James Pyne

BRAMHAM

ZEUS OF RUSHALL took part in the CCI3* section. Bramham is where Jimmy and I took part in our first CCI3* together back in 2010 so I knew how hilly it was and how huge Ian Stark always builds his tracks. This year was no different...

TROT UP. Jimmy flew through the first trot up. He always grows about 2 hands when he knows he is on show and he didn't disappoint, he stormed down the run way.

DRESSAGE. Jimmy did what I thought was a good test with just one mistake in his first change. I was disappointed with his mark of 53 but it left us in 13th place and having walked the xc this was going to be no dressage competition!!

Photo courtesy ES Photography

CROSS COUNTRY. There was a lot of talk in the stables about how huge the xc was and the distances that the combinations were built on. I for one was very nervous to see the first 3 horses out all incur problems at various points around the course. Roo Fox did a fantastic job bringing her horse home with the first clear of the day, collecting a small handful of time faults. Warming Jimmy, up he felt great so setting out the start box I was able to ride positively and really attack the course. He took on all the fences the whole way round. At 5mins I found myself 30secs up on my clock. The ground was particularly fast and Jimmy being very fit and well was eating up the track. He jumped huge into the second water and I found myself having to take the long route for part 'c' this left us with just 0.8 of a time fault and moved me up into 6th position over night.

Photo Courtesy E S Photography

Photo Courtesy Tim Wilkinson

TROT UP

Jimmy felt fantastic after the xc and trotted up very well showing no signs of tiredness. He flew through this stage of the competition.

Photo Courtesy Tim Wilkinson

SHOW JUMPING The show jumping was causing problems both with poles and time faults. I walked the course and decided that I was going to take the slightly longer route into the treble at fence 10 going around the outside of an upright. Having watched the U25 section I knew this was going to make the time hard to get but knowing Jimmy so well I thought it was doable. Sadly I doubted my own judgement and with many of the other riders and trainers informing me that I shouldn't go round I decided they were probably right...Jimmy was jumping his socks off all the way round, I cut inside the upright as advised, killed my canter and ended up having the last two parts of the treble down, to make it worse I finished 6 secs inside the allowed time thus I am still kicking myself for doubting my own judgement. Had I gone round who knows what might have been!!

Photo Courtesy Tim Wilkinson

We finished in 9th place which is very credible and hopefully we will now have enough points to get into Badminton 2014!! To top off  great weekend Dani Evans, who was 2nd in the U25 section narrowly beaten by Tom McEwan, and I won the Pro-Am pairs competition where they combine the two scores and the lowest score wins. We won a lovely trophy and lots of lovely goodies from Horse Health.

Photo Courtesy Tim Wilkinson

Jimmy and his Trophy back at home!!

Huge thanks to Katy Cooper who groomed for me up at Bramham, Anya Thursby and Michael Smyth who kept the yard running at home. My fantastic sponsors for supporting me and my Mother for all her help and cooking skills! Finally my fantastic owners who have allowed me to ride this incredible horse for the last 7yrs. I can't do it without you guys!

ASCOTT UNDER WYCHWOOD

NASEBY was competing in the RoR BE100. I have never competed at this event before and it is certainly one i would return to. His dressage was very settled and he showed some  glimpses of really smart work. He scored 32. The show jumping was proving to be fairly testing with it being on the hill, Jerry jumped a really nice round for a clear. Xc he was really good jumping a clear. He is really growing up and is enjoying his new life as an event horse.

Photo Courtesy Anya Thursby

HOUGHTON

ZEUS OF RUSHALL was taking part in the Nations Cup CIC3* at this beautiful venue in Norfolk. He did a smart test in a pretty cut up arena where the mud was drying so had a similar consistency to glue! He scored 49.9 which left him 17/72. The following day we show jumped in the morning. Again the ground was drying from the huge amounts of rain but this left it very tacky and was causing many to have rails down. Jimmy  jumped a fantastic clear and really showed his scope and ability. That afternoon we went xc. The track was fairly straight forward but again the ground made it testing. Jimmy made it feel like a BE100 and finished full of running collecting just 2 time faults leaving him in 7th position (3rd best Brit).

Photo Courtesy Tim Wilkinson

Photo Courtesy Lazy Photography

ASTON LE WALLS

ZEUS OF RUSHALL had another easy run round the OI, he did a slightly unsettled test scoring 32.7 he then jumped another fantastic double clear finishing inside the time and collecting 4th place is this hotly contested section. A perfect pre run before Houghton CIC3*.

Photo courtesy Matt Nuttall

KINGTON was competing in the novice. He did a 36 test which I thought was harshly marked. He then went on to do a confident double clear taking everything in his stride. I didn't push for tie being that he wasn't competitive enough after dressage so we collected 6 time faults.

Photo Courtesy Matt Nuttall

NASEBY took part in the BE100. He did a 33 dressage, he really is improving in this phase. He then was unlucky to have one rail down. Xc he was flying and I perhaps got a little complacent, he was cheeky and had a glance off at the second last-naughty boy!! He is definitely one to watch for the future .

WITHINGTON

ZEUS OF RUSHALL did the OI at Withington as an easy run. He did a fantastic test scoring 26.4. He then jumped an amazing clear round a very testing show jumping track, he followed this up with a solid clear xc collecting 9.6 leaving us in a credible 3rd place.

HAMBLEDEN

KINGTON was in the Novice class. Due to some sat nav errors his test was a little higher marked than it should have been-38, he then jumped a fab double clear. Sadly xc my reins came undone and despite trying to do them up whilst galloping, I had to pull up and sort them out so we collected rather a lot of time faults but never the less a good run for him.

Photo Courtesy Gareth Powell

ERRIGAL HILL BOY was competing in the BE100. He warmed up well for the dressage and sadly got very distracted in the arena and decided bucking and flying changes were necessary. He scored a 39.5 which was fully deserved. He also went on to jump a great double clear picking up just 2.4 time faults.

NASEBY was also in the BE100 he did a sweet test scoring 35, sadly although actually jumping well he dislodged 4 poles. He jumped well xc to go clear although i didn't go for speed so collected 15.2 time. He is coming on well but sadly his record is not reflecting this just yet.

Photo courtesy Uptown Eventing

MILL TIME with my apprentice Michael Smyth did a fab job round there first BE100 scoring a 33.5 was unlucky to have one pole and jumped a fab clear finishing bang on the optimum time. Michael has really clicked with Moose, who will now have a small amount of time off to have his sarcoids treated.

BELTON

ZEUS OF RUSHALL started the season at Belton in Lincolnshire, a spectacular venue. He took part in the CIC3* which wasn't an ideal event to start at but with me being ill and the cancelations I had little choice. He performed a personal best in the dressage scoring 44.4, had 2 down show jumping in gale force winds and had a silly 20 xc where I wasn't sure whether his shoulders had gone through the flag or not and because of the wind I couldn't hear the fence judges so circled and re-jumped it making up the fence judges mind for them. He jumped a fab round and the score doesn't really justify how good he was.

Photo Courtesy esphotography.co.uk

PENCARDER SILVER STORM took part in the intermediate here. She was very unsettled on the box when Jimmy was taken away and when she performed her test she was very grouchy. I show jumped her and she jumped badly having four down, we then discovered she was very sore through her back most likely from crashing around on the lorry so I withdrew her. She normally jumps with such spring and loves it and today she didn't.