Now my season has finished I would just like to take this opportunity to thank my wonderful horses, owners, sponsors and team at home who have made this season so successful and rewarding and without whom none of this would be possible.
Thank you to my amazing horses and their owners:
Persimmon - Jane and Frank Inns
Zidante - Ben Walden
Mo Cuiske - Lindsay and Peter Caldwell
Creevagh Cooley - Lindsay and Peter Caldwell
Ceylor LAN - Samantha Wilson, Jackie Owen and Diana Bown
Vendredi Biats - Sally Lloyd Baker, Diana Bown, Sally Eyre and Samantha Wilson
Acis - Katie Davis
Ard Core - Tim and Angela Porter
Freckleton Mythago - Katie and Jamie Davenport
Burtonhill - Tor Verdin
My fabulous sponsors:
Mole Valley
Toggi
Topspec
Champion
Woof Wear
Wow Saddles
Aqueos
Equiclass
Flying Changes
Hemingbrough Horseboxes
And last but by no means least my hard working and hugely supportive team:
Ceylor LAN was the only horse I had competing out in France. We were drawn thirteenth to go so our dressage was on Thursday. It was rather disappointing to have been drawn quite so early especially as we had an early draw the year before.
Photo courtesy of Uptown Eventing.
Ceylor LAN did a super test, he made very few mistakes and didn't get at all tense in the atmosphere. The test probably lacked a little of the wow factor compared to the test he did at Osberton, but I still felt he showed some high quality work. We scored 46.2 which was a rather disappointing mark for the work he produced. This left us in equal 11th going into the cross country.
Watch our test here:
The cross country course was a beautifully presented track, I don't think there are many other tracks in the world where you jump, owls, hedgehogs, dragons and ducks as well as jumping off a roof of a house! It wasn't the biggest of tracks or the most technical but with the crowds they draw at Le Lion there was plenty for the young horses to look at. Ceylor LAN flew round the course and found it very easy. He finished comfortably inside the time and moved up the 10th going into the show jumping.
Photo courtesy of Uptown Eventing.
Ceylor LAN trotted up really well on the Sunday morning. The show jumping wasn't huge, but it was causing a fair amount of trouble. Ceylor LAN warmed up very well and jumped a lovely round. He found the course a little on the small side and unfortunately had the second part of the double down. It was his first pole since his first run of the season in the mud at Oasby, it was a huge shame to have one down as a clear round would have moved us up to 3rd. The four faults however did keep us in our 10th place.
Watch our round here:
Although it wasn't quite the finish to the season that we had dreamed of I was still delighted with his overall performance and am very excited about moving up the levels with him in the future as he finds it all so easy.
I had four rides at Osberton. Mo Cuiske in the CCI**, Ceylor LAN in the CIC** 7 year old Championships, Creevagh Cooley in the 6 year old Championships and Vendredi Biats in the 5 year old Championships.
The week didn't totally go to plan. Vendredi Biats did a very good test although a little green in places the big atmospheric arena. He scored a very competitive 31.3, which was just a few marks of the leader who was on a 28.
He then jumped very well, but had two uncharacteristic two fences down. Both were towards the commentary box which he was looking at and lost a bit of concentration.
Unfortunately the cross country didn't quite go to plan either! We had a very annoying stop at fence three, some rails! He stopped about six strides away when he suddenly caught sight of the witch behind the fence which was part of the decorations. Once he had got over the shock of spotting a witch he trotted forward and jumped the fence nicely. He then jumped foot perfectly around the rest of the course and finished very happy. He is now going to have some fun doing a bit of cubbing before having a well earned holiday.
Mo Cuiske did some nice work in his test, but got very excited in places which let his good work down. He has done so little this year after fracturing his hind pedal bone in march and he just couldn't quite contain his excitement about being at a three day event again. He scored a 53, which left us half way down the order. As he wasn't in an overly competitive position and the course hadn't changed a huge amount from last year so he wasn't going to learn much his owners and I decided to save him for another day.
Creevagh Cooley worked beautifully all week, but couldn't quite hold it together for her test. After her big win at Gatcombe she was rather pleased with herself and was being some what of a show off in her test. She did some nice work but also made some mistakes when she didn't quite want to listen to me. She scored a 50.6 which was a little disappointing as it want nearly as good as she can do.
She then jumped a lovely clear in the show jumping. As she has had a busy year and has achieved so much in her first season eventing we decided not to run her cross country as she didn't need another run after her fantastic round at Gatcombe. She is now going on a well deserved holiday.
Ceylor LAN was the star of the event though. He did a fantastic test, he showed real expression and felt completely rideable. He made one small mistake in a simple change when he did a lovely transition to walk then thought I had asked for halt, other than that he was nearly perfect. He was rewarded with a brilliant mark of 36.7 and led the class by five marks!
Watch our test here:
He then show jumped a lovely easy clear in the show jumping and could really have done with them being a bit bigger.
Watch our round here:
He then gave me a fantastic ride round the cross country. The track was relatively straight forward and galloping, which was perfect after a twisty turny and slightly trappy track at Gatcombe. He was foot perfect the whole way round and felt in great form. He finished on his dressage score and won his third age title on the trot.
He has now won the 5, 6 and 7 year old Championships a fantastic achievement which I am extremely proud of.
