Aston Le Walls (2)

I had Caeleste and Ceylor LAN doing the Intermediate at Aston, I also had Persimmon entered in the Advanced, but decided not to run him after his fabulous performance at Barbury and save him for Hartpury CIC***.

Ceylor LAN did a fantastic test, he is finding the intermediate tests easier and easier. He scored a very impressive 23.2.

He then jumped a lovely clear round a twisty and technical show jumping track.

As it was his first Intermediate cross country and although the team at Aston had done a fantastic job with the ground it was still on the firm side, so I chose to run steadily. The track was tougher than I have seen at Aston, but Ceylor LAN jumped brilliantly round and took all the direct routes. With his time faults we finished in 5th place, 0.6 off the winner!! It was tight at the top!!

Caeleste was also a star she did a lovely test to score 31.8, this left her in a very competitive place near the top of the leader board. She is getting stronger all the time and her self carriage has improved hugely.

 

 

She then jumped a lovely round in the show jumping and was unlucky to have one rail down when we lost a bit of balance and canter round a corner.

 

 

 

 

She then pinged round the cross country, making it feel easy although this was her first round at this level. She unfortunately pulled a shoe off round the course so we went fairly steadily. As a result of our time faults we finished just outside the top ten.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upton

I just had Bondi Beach in the Novice at Upton. He did a lovely test and is feeling a lot more mature and balanced every time he goes out. He scored a very competitive 30.

He jumped a lovely clear in the show jumping making it feel easy. He was then foot perfect cross country and gave me a great ride. We picked up quite a few time faults as it was pretty firm, but even with these our performance was good enough for 10th place.


Photo courtesy off  Hoofprints-Photography by HR

Tweseldown

I had both my two lovely six year olds Caeleste and Ceylor LAN at Tweseldown doing their first Intermediate. Both were fantastic in the dressage. 

Ceylor LAN scored a 25 and Caeleste scored a 23.2, both led their respective sections after the dressage. They then both jumped fantastic clears in the show jumping. 

I didn't run either horses cross country as the ground was incredibly hard and I didn't feel it was worth risking such lovely young horses. 

As I was leaving to go home I heard Laura Collett had a very nasty fall. My team and I would like to send Laura, her family and her team our best wishes. We hope for a good speedy recovery and we look forwards to seeing you back on the circuit soon. 

Barbury International

I had Persimmon doing the CIC*** and Mo Cuiske doing the CIC** at  Barbury. 

Persimmon was doing his first CIC*** and was outstanding, especially as he is just eight years old. It is lovely to be able to compete at such an amazing venue and it is fabulous for owners to be able to watch the whole cross country course so easily. 

Persimmon had an early draw and did his test on Thursday. It was quite a blustery day, but he coped well and did a very good test with just a few green mistakes. He scored 38.2 which left us in 4th place. 

 

Persimmon didn't show jump until Saturday and he jumped a fabulous clear  and moved up to equal 3rd. 

 

 

The cross country was run in reverse order of merit so we had a long wait on Sunday. Persimmon absolutely flew round the cross country and didn't feel green or notice the step up to three star at all. As he is so young I didn't push him too much for the time and we picked up a few time faults. This dropped us a place to 4th, but I was thrilled with his performance in what was a very competitive section. 

 

Mo Cuiske was doing his first CIC**. He also did his test on the Thursday in the wind. He didn't cope very well in the blustery conditions, he found the flags flapping and atmosphere a bit too much. He scored a 59.7 which was a little disappointing. 

Show jumping didn't quite go to plan either. He jumped well, but was quite fresh and didn't quite concentrate and had a couple down. 

 

As it was firm and we weren't in a competitive position we just ran slowly cross country. He gave me a lovely ride and didn't find any of the tricky combinations hard.