2014

Lots has happened since my last blog....

MARMITE has been sold to a lovely home just 500yds from our gate. He will be out eventing with Tori this season. He is a fantastic little horse and we still see him every week for lessons and out and about hacking.

Photo courtesy of DHB photography

Anya has been hunting her horse Bean over the winter. He has been going very well, and Anya has been having lots of fun with him.

Christmas we had planned to have a quiet time leaving a few of my eventers out in the fields, however, this was not to be with an emergency phone call to help out a fellow eventer and have two of his to stay...so much for a quiet time. We had a fantastic Christmas party at The Greyhound in Bromham. This was well attended and was thoroughly enjoyed by owners and very important team members (yard staff, farriers, vets, parents etc).

The St. Mary's ponies have now returned. We have two new faces in Polo and Buddy and hopefully Toddy will find a fab new home where he will have as much fun as he did with Sylvia. Sparky has also returned and is looking and going very well, hopefully this continues in the arena competing which starts next week.

Bailey's Horse Feeds nutritionist, Lorna came to the yard this week and looked at all the horses. She thinks they are all looking fantastic, great coats, condition and topline. Thank you so much to Baileys, who i have now used for 10yrs. They have transformed the way my horses look and go and I will never be feeding anything else. Great sponsor!

We have a new arrival..... HEY ARNOLD has arrived. He is a 4yo bay shetland, standing at 8.3hh, who I have rescued from the Blue Cross. He is a lovely little character and has settled in very quickly. He will be coming on the lorry to some of the events to keep the big boys and girls company. He will no doubt be getting lots of attention as he is mega cute. Jane and Ian (my landlords) have made him the perfect stable with a mini door, lowered waterer, haynet ring and feeder. He is totally spoilt and a complete time waster!

Arnold meets Ben

DAUNTSEY PARK

PENCARDER SILVER STORM was competing here, in the intermediate, as her last event of the season. She performed her best test to date scoring 37.7. She was jumping a good round sj until the treble where she seemed to get stuck in the mud which was quite tacky. Sadly she had 2 parts of the treble down which she didn't really deserve. XC she was absolutely flying and was feeling rather full of herself taking the odd stride out which at an intermediate sized fence is quite scary! However she is more than capable.

Photo Courtesy Ultimate Images

We came to the double of corners which had caused problems all day, I was going the straight route...she jumped in over the first one bold...

Photo Courtesy Ultimate Images

Maybe a touch too bold... then she made up too much ground between the two corners and left her off fore leg on the fence...

Photo Courtesy Ultimate Images

Twisted...

Photo Courtesy Ultimate Images

and went splat...

Photo Courtesy Ultimate Images

Luckily she is very careful and managed not to go right over me, just led on my left leg. Luckily both of us are absolutely fine and I think she may be a little less cocky next time out!! She will now have a good winter rest and we will try and improve her dressage over the winter months.

BLACK EYED PEA II was doing the open BE100. He got stung just before his test and went mad. Luckily I just about got his brain back on the job before we went in. He did a nice test scoring 29. He then jumped a very confident double clear picking up just 3.6 time which left us in 7th position.

Photo Courtesy Ultimate Images

NASEBY was doing the BE100. he did a good test scoring 31.5, I saw a bad shot to one fence sj resulting in him having a pole down. Xc he was giving me a fantastic ride until 2 from home where he couldn't take his eyes off all the people on the bank opposite, sadly this resulted in him not going any further, which doesn't reflect how good he had been.

HARTPURY NSEA

Huge congratulations to Sylvia Rutherford who won the 80cm class at the schools Jumping and Style competition on Saturday at Hartpury, she represented St Mary's, Calne. Sylvia jumped a classy clear on her super pony "Hot Toddy" resulting in her winning the class which had 131 competitors in it. She also jumped clear in the 90cm narrowly missing out on a placing. Well done Sylvia and Toddy.

Photo Courtesy Heather Rutherford

NEW FACES ON THE YARD

BALLYBEG PLEASURE
I have been bought "Ed" by Barbara Whale and Gareth Powell. He is a 4yo Irish Sports Horse and is bred to event. He has lots of presence and elevated natural paces. He is also proving to be bold and scopey. As with most youngsters he also has some natural flare (not all of it welcomed) but I am very excited about his future.

 

HIO LUCKSWELL
I bought a 4yo project that caught my eye whilst out horse shopping. "Marmite" is a 15.3hh, coloured Irish Sports Horse gelding. He is an absolute poppet and has taken everything is his stride. He has been xc schooled, is jumping fillers etc show jumping and works in a natural outline. He really is too good to be true. We have taken him cubbing with a 50+ field out with the Beaufort and he was admired by all for his striking looks and his immaculate behaviour. Sadly as a project Marmite is for sale. Please give me a call if you want to know more 07941 865688

  

STONAR ISODE

The St Mary's girls from Bosmere did fantastically well at the recent Stonar ISODE. Sylvia Rutherford riding Hot Toddy was in the 80cm, she performed a good dressage scoring 36, she then went on to perform a double clear and finished inside the time.Sylvia ended up in a credible 8th position. Her team also did well to finish in 3rd position.

The following day Frankie Swallow riding Voyagers Sovereign performed a very good test scoring 28, she also went on to jump a double clear and finished inside the time. Frankie was individually 3rd and her team also finished 3rd.

Flora Guy riding Ballymore Charles did a credible dressage scoring a personal best of 37. Flora also jumped a double clear and collected a few time faults. This was a great result for Flora who is relatively new to competing at this level.

Photo Courtesy Photo Synergy

GATCOMBE

PENCARDER SILVER STORM took part in her first CIC** at local event Gatcombe. We went with realistic goals with the first being a qualifying score in the dressage (75). Rosie managed to hold it together for the trot work scoring 7's, however, we then had to walk...Rosie didn't!! Sadly this marred our mark as there was a fair amount of walk in the test. Luckily the canter work was ok and we managed to score 70.8 which left us in 90th out of 100 (yes there were 10 combinations worse than us!!) Anyway mission accomplished we had a qualifying mark...

Next stop the xc. Having walked the course, I realised that 2 stars are actually quite a lot more demanding than your average intermediate track. Luckily I knew I was sat on a jumper and she has always been bold so I was hopeful she would step up to the mark.
We had done our dressage test on the Friday so Rosie hacked Saturday before returning to Gatcombe on the Sunday for the jumping. I walked the course again on the Sunday morning whilst the first few ran...it was not filling me with confidence as none of the first few finished clear and it became obvious very early that this was no dressage competition.
We set off on xc late due to a few holds on the course. Rosie was full of arrogance over the first few and hit the third hard. Luckily this made her respect me rather than scaring herself. She gave me an incredible ride round the whole course. Through the corner complex where so many combinations came apart she cruised through like a pro. She felt tired towards the end but kept jumping. I couldn't have been happier with her. We finished with just 14.8 time which catapulted us up the order with only 37% of the field going clear across country.

Photos Courtesy of Katy Vincent

 After the xc had finished we had to trot up. Rosie flew through this and surprised me with how much energy she still had. The show jumping was in reverse order so we had a few to watch before we were on. Considering she was still in xc mode I was thrilled with just 2 poles being knocked. One was her and one was me just coming a little too forward into the final treble. We ended up in 30th position moving up an incredible 60 places from day 1. I am excited about her future she continues to impress over a fence I just hope this winter we can find some miracle to sort her dressage....Any ideas anyone??!!

PURSTON

NASEBY went to do the BE100 at the beautiful setting of Purston Manor. He performed a good test scoring 34.5. He sadly lost his concentration show jumping resulting in some rails hitting the deck. I withdrew him from the xc as he was out of a competitive position.

BLACK EYED PEA II was in the BE100 Open. He did what I thought was his best test to date, he was very settled and flashy. I predicted a 29 so you can only imagine my confusion when I found a 38 on the board!! Blackie made one minor mistake in the showjumping taking just one rail. He flew round the xc and finished up 11th (just one place ahead of recently sold Kington).