Gatcombe International

At Gatcombe I had new ride Ard Core running in the Open Intermediate, Vendredi Biats in the Novice, Creevagh Cooley in the CIC* and Ceylor LAN and Mo Cuiske in the CIC**

Ard Core can get a little tense in the dressage so I was delighted with our first outing together. She didn't blow up and tried very hard, there were moments of tension in movements that she struggles with so we have plenty to work on over the winter, but there were lots of positives to take forward as well. She scored a 33.6. We didn't jump as it was never our plan. 

Watch our test here:

Vendredi Biats was doing his first novice and was a star in his test. He did a some lovely work and only showed some greeness in his medium trot and the odd transition. I was thrilled with the over all quality of his work and he scored a very competitive 27. 

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He then jumped a fantastic clear in the show jumping and didn't find the step up to Novice at all taxing. 

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He gave me a very grown up ride round the cross country apart from a miss understanding at a corner early in the course when I changed my whip over before it and got it caught between my saddle and point 2 jacket lanyard. So when he went a bit wobbly I couldn't correct him as I was all tangled up! He then jumped it beautifully once I was able to give him some direction. 

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Creevagh Cooley was a star from the outset at Gatcombe. She did a fantastic test and feels so much more established in her work. She scored a brilliant 41.1 and led the 99 strong class. 

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She then jumped a very keen but clear show jumping round. After doing an intermediate as her last run she found it all rather small, it was great to feel her so confident and full of herself. Her clear meant she retained her lead going into the cross country. 

Watch her round her:

Photo courtesy of MDR Photo and Eventing Stig

Creevagh Cooley looking very pleased with herself after her clear round with her owner Lindsay Caldwell. Photo courtesy of MDR Photo and Eventing Stig.  

After her intermediate run at Wellington she found the cross country very easy. She cruised round really happily and made it feel very simple. We finished one second over the time, but she still won the section really comfortably by nearly 5 marks!! 

Watch her round here:

Photo courtesy of Fiona Scott Maxwell

Mo Cuiske did a very good test in the CIC**, he was second in which wasn't ideal. He scored very well from one judge, but unfortunately the other judge didn't like the test so much and was 25 marks adrift. This left us in 14th place on a 48.8. 

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The two star ran with the cross country before the show jumping and Mo Cuiske didn't quite seem on form round the cross country. He really didn't enjoy the twisty track and never got going. He very disappointingly picked up two stops, having never had a cross country penalty in his career it was a really shame to blot his copy book.

Photo courtesy of Fiona Scott Maxwell

He made amends though with a brilliant clear in the show jumping. I think it was his best round to date and he felt super. 

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Ceylor LAN was fantastic. He did a super test, showing some high quality work. He made some very annoying mistakes in his canter strike offs when we got our wires crossed, it was a real shame as the rest of his work was so good. Even with his mistakes he still scored a brilliant 43.8 which had us heading the 98 strong field. 

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After not having a great ride round the cross country on Mo Cuiske I was a little concerned that the twisty track might knock his confidence before Le Lion, but I needn't have worried. He jumped fantastically the whole way round and was nearly foot perfect. For a big horse he was very nippy and wasted very little time round all the twists and turns. He picked up 4 time faults, but with the track causing so many problems this left us in the lead going into the show jumping with a fence in hand. 

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Photo courtesy of Fiona Scott Maxwell

The horses in 2nd and 3rd place both had a fence down, so I was lucky enough to go into the ring with a comfortable two fences in hand. Ceylor LAN however jumped beautifully and didn't breath on anything. He finished winning the class with 9 marks in hand! 

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Moreton Morrell

I just had Acis at Moreton Morrell in the BE100. It was his last run of the season before going back to his owner for a well deserved break. 

He did a fantastic test again, he has improved so much from his first run at the beginning of August. He kept a lovely swinging rhythm and was completely relaxed and focused through out the test. The judge rewarded him with a fabulous score of 23.5. 

He then jumped a lovely round in the show jumping, unfortunately we had one down when I went for a stride that wasn't really there, giving Acis not much of a chance to be able to jump the fence properly. 

He then flew round the cross country, he didn't look at anything and felt really confident. He finished inside the time and won his section. It was wonderful that we finally managed to get our nose in front as Acis has finished in 2nd place in his last three runs and throughly deserved his win.        

Purston Manor

I just had Acis at Purston and he was doing the BE100. 

He did a fantastic test and is now feeling so established in the arena. He kept a wonderful swinging rhythm and showed some lovely work. He scored the leading mark of 22.5!!

Unfortunately having never had a pole down since starting eventing this summer he had one down when he found one if the distances a little short. He jumped really well so it was a real shame for him when he had done such a good test. 

He then stormed round the cross country and found it all very straight forward. He finished on a 26.5 and finished 2nd by 0.5 of a mark!! 

         Photo courtesy of Dave Murray 

Blenheim CCI***

I just had Persimmon doing the CCI*** at Blenheim, after his couple of hiccups at his pervious CCI***'s in the spring the original plan was to contest in the CIC*** for 8 and 9 year olds as I felt he could do with a confidence boost. However after him storming round Wellington Advanced and feeling on top form Persimmons owners and I decided to move him to the main class.

He did a fantastic test and only made a couple of very small mistakes. He coped with the atmospheric arena really well and did some lovely expensive work. All three of the judges marked him very evenly and he scored a very competitive 38.2 which left us in 6th place going into the cross country. 

Watch our test here:

The cross country was in typical Blenheim style, it was big and bold and had plenty of tricky combinations on it to catch you out. Persimmon gave me a fabulous ride round though and was near on foot perfect everywhere. As he wasn't   prepared for the CCI until only a few weeks before it started I felt he lacked a gallop or two so I was a little concerned with his fitness as Blenheim is hilly and long course. Due to this I just took him at a sensible pace and gave him a little time to fill his lungs at the tops of the hills. I needn't have worried though as he was plenty fit enough and finished full of running, so a rather large lesson learnt, I have my horses far fitter than I think and probably don't need to do as much canter work as I believe I need to. He finished with 6.4 time faults which put us in equal 6th with Vittoria Pannizon. After Persimmons blips in the spring I couldn't have been happier with the way he jumped round and he felt very much back to his best! 

Watch our round here:

On the Sunday morning Persimmon trotted up really well and felt really jolly when I have him a little loosen up and jump in the morning. We then jumped in the afternoon. Persimmon jumped a beautiful round and didn't look like touching a twig, but unfortunately he went a little green when he had to jump towards the members enclosure over the second last and just lost a little concentrating which resulted in us having it down. It was a disappointment to have a fence down when he had been jumped superbly but he is still very young and will have learnt a huge amount from it. The show jumping caused plenty of trouble so we maintained our 6th place. 

Watch our round here:

I couldn't have been more delighted with Persimmon and his performance over the entire week. He tried his up most through out and felt absolutely fantastic. Having not thought he would be ready to step back up to CCI*** level in July to come to Blenheim and finish 6th in September and to do it in such a classy way made me feel extremely proud of him. He is now going to have a well earned holiday. 

Goring

At Goring I had three doing the BE100, Vendredi Biats, Acis and Cooley Delta and one horse a new ride Freckelton Mythago doing the Intermediate Novice. 

Acis was a star again he did a lovely solid test with greatly improved transitions. He scored a 30. 

He then did a fantastic double clear, although he only started eventing this summer he already feels like a pro! He finished on his dressage score and took 2nd place. 

Vendredi Biats did a nice test, but was feeling a little uninspired compared to his normal performances. He lacked a little concentration at times so made a couple of annoying errors. He scored a 32.5. 

He then jumped a very solid double clear. He felt very confident which is great as his next run is round a novice. He to finished on his dressage and picked up 5th place. 

Cooley Delta is getting better and better. She is still weak, but is improving all the time. She did her best test to date and scored a very competitive 29.5. 

She like the boys jumped very confidently round both the show jumping and cross country and posted a lovely double clear. Unfortunately the scorers had made an error with our dressage mark and put on the board that we had got a 41, as this wasn't a competitive score I just hacked round the cross country and we picked up 1.6 time faults. This was really annoying as if I had known our dressage mark was so good I could have easily got the time. Her time faults dropped her down unfortunately to 6th place. 

Cooley Delta pinging around the cross country. 

New ride Freckleton Mythago did a very pleasing test and scored a 31.8.

She then jumped a lovely but steady double clear.