Belton

I had Mo Cuiske in the Open Intermediate, Creevagh Cooley in the CIC** and Persimmon and Ceylor LAN in the CIC***.

Persimmon did a lovely test in an atmospheric arena. He did some super work, but had two tiny breaks into canter which was a huge shame. He scored a 46.6 which left us in the top ten in a huge class of over one hundred going into the show jumping.
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He then jumped the most fabulous clear in the show jumping, I think it was possibly the best round he has ever jumped.

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He then absolutely flew round the cross country. He made it feel very easy, he was rather keen and loved every second of it. We picked up just 0.8 of a time fault which moved us up to an excellent 3rd place.

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Ceylor LAN did some lovely work in his test but through a bit of greenness at this level he got into a little bit of a muddle with his changes and had a little spook in his medium canter which meant he changed legs when it wasn't required. It was a real shame as he showed some quality work. He scored 55.5 which left us in 60th place.

 

He then like Persimmon jumped a superb clear in the show jumping. He really helped me out after jumping a triple bar rather big and ran out of a little room at the upright following it, but he was extremely neat and careful at it.

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He gave me a fantastic ride round his first CIC*** and made it feel very easy. He didn't seem to find it anymore taxing than an Open Intermediate which was brilliant. He picked up 3.2 time faults which moved us up to a super 16th place.

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Mo Cuiske did a very good and consistent test scoring 30.

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He then jumped a great round in the show jumping and was extremely unlucky to have one down.

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He then stormed round the cross country to pick just a couple of time faults up and to finish in 10th place.

 

Creevagh Cooley after her fantastic test at Weston was a little full of herself in the very busy and atmospheric CIC** arena. She showed some quality work, but also made some rather large errors when she was lacking concentration on me. She scored a disappointing 66.3, but she is still very green at this level so we have plenty of time and plenty to work on.

 

She was rather keen in the show jumping and had one down due to being a little too feisty. As she had only run the week before we chose against running her cross country. 



Sapey

I had Vendredi Biats and Acis in the Novice and Cooley Plan B and Darustud Cooley in the BE100.

Vendredi Biats did a lovely test, he could have showed a little more in his mediums but he found the slope of the arena a little tricky with his balance.
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He then jumped a great round in the show jumping and was unlucky to have one down when he lost a little balance coming down hill to an oxer. He then jumped a super clear round the cross country to finish in 8th place.

Acis did a superb test showing some lovely work, he broke in his medium trot which was a real shame as I asked for a little too much. he scored a 27.3.

He like Vendredi Biats he found the unbalancing show jumping arena a little tricky and had a very unfortunate one fence down. He then flew round the cross country and finished just outside the top ten.

Darustud Cooley did another super test and scored 23.5.
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He then jumped a lovely clear in the show jumping.
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He gave me a great ride round the cross country, but unfortunately I was a little too speedy and picked up 4 time faults for going too fast!! This dropped us from the top few to 10th.

 

Cooley Plan B did a good test in a tricky arena for young horses so I was rather disappointed with her score of 32.3.

 

She then jumped a lovely round in the show jumping and like the novices horses had one down when she lost a little balance jumping down hill.

 

She jumped very well round the cross country but unfortunately had a green stop at a step combination into a quarry, she dithered a little on the edge and was given a 20. She then flew round the rest feeling really confident.   

Weston Park

I had Creevagh Cooley in the Intermediate, Ard Core in the Open Intermediate and Ceylor LAN and Persimmon in the Advanced.

Ceylor LAN was a star in only his second Advanced, he did a lovely test in absolutely atrocious wind, he is still a little green in his changes and he didn't quite get them as well in the test as he is at home but he just needs more experience in the arena with them. The rest of his work was all of a high quality, he scored a 28.2, even with me making an error of course!
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He then jumped a superb clear in the show jumping and felt fantastic.
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He then jumped a fantastic clear round the cross country and made it feel easy. He picked up a few time faults as I didn't want to chase him due to having an entry in Belton's CIC*** the following week. He finished in a super 6th place.

 

Persimmon was also fabulous in the Advanced, he did some lovely work in his test, but found the wind a little spooky, particularly when all the flowers blew over! He scored a 28.6.

 

He then jumped a brilliant clear in the show jumping and skipped round the cross country giving me a superb ride. Like Ceylor LAN he also has an entry at Belton so he didn't run fast and finished in 10th place.

 

Creevagh Cooley did her best test to date, the wind certainly didn't effect her. She scored a brilliant leading mark of 18.9.

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She then jumped a great clear in the show jumping, she was a little feisty and keen to get on with everything but was extremely careful.

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She was fantastic round the cross country and made it feel easy. We picked up a few time faults as she is only 7 and I don't want to chase her for the time at this point in her career. Our time faults dropped us down to 2nd, but I was thrilled with her performance.

 

Ard Core warmed up very well for her test, but made some rather frustrating errors in her test and scored a 44.6.

 

She then jumped a lovely round in the show jumping and was very unlucky to have the 2nd fence down. She jumped a super but steady clear round the cross country so didn't finish in the top ten.

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Portman

I had Very Special Z, Acis and Vendredi Biats in the Novice and Darustud Cooley and Cooely Plan B in the BE100. 

Very Special Z did a good test, but didn't perhaps show as much expression as he can do. He scored a competitive 30. 

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He then jumped a fantastic clear round the show jumping and popped round the cross country making it feel easy. He picked up 4 time faults which dropped us out of the top 10. 

Acis did another really consistent test and showed some super differences in his medium canters. He scored a very competitive mark in his section of 29.8. 

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He then jumped a super clear in the show jumping, the course was very airy with very short distances but he coped really well and enjoyed the good ground after a muddy Gatcombe. 

He jumped a great clear round his first Novice cross country and just picked up a few time faults to finish in 8th place. 

Vendredi Biats did another great test, but lost a little concentration from time to time. He scored a top mark in his section of 28.3. Unfortunately I forgot to charge the video camera so it ran out half way through his test. 

He then had a very unlucky fence down in the show jumping, but jumped a good consistent round. 

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He then flew round the cross country making it feel very easy. He finished inside the time and in 9th place. 

Darustud Cooley did a fantastic test and scored a leading mark of just 19.8. 

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He then jumped a super clear round both the show jumping and cross country to complete on his dressage score to win his section. 

Cooley Plan B did a good test, but lost a little bit of concentration from time to time as she was quite keen to watch the golfers play golf next to her arena. I also managed to go wrong so she scored a disappointing 34.5. 

She then jumped a super clear in the show jumping and felt a lot less green then the week before at Somerley. 

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Again like in the show jumping she had come on in leaps and bounds with her cross country since her first run and jumped a fantastic clear, feeling really confident. 

Somerley

I had Mo Cuiske in the Open Intermediate, Creevagh Cooley in the Intermediate and Darustud Cooley and Cooley Plan B in the BE100.

Mo Cuiske did a lovely test showing some super work staying settled and relaxed to score 29.6.
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He found the ground a little tacky in the show jumping, but tried really hard and jumped a super clear.
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He then jumped a super clear round the cross country picking up eight time faults to finish 6th. 

Creevagh Cooley did a great test to score 30.5. She has a lot of power and at times is still struggling to control it but she is getting more balanced all the time. Watch our test here:

She then like Mo Cuiske found the ground quite hard work as it was a bit tacky and dead, but she tried her best for me and jumped a super clear. 

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She then popped round the cross country finding it all easy, she to picked up eight time faults and finished 5th. 

Darustud Cooley who is a new ride for me was having his first run. Unfortunately after the Intermediate day Somerley had a quite a bit of rain so the ground had got rather deep. The arenas were pretty muddy but he did a lovely rhythmical test with very few errors and scored a super 24.3. 

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He then jumped a great round in the show jumping but found the ground really tricky and was very unlucky to have one down when he got a little stuck in the mud. 

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He then flew round the cross country jumping a lovely clear for 3rd place. 

Cooley Plan B was having her first ever run and it was also her first ever competition. She did a fantastic test for her first time in white boards and scored a leading mark of  26.5. 

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She then struggled a lot in the very wet ground in the show jumping and went a little green. She jumped clear over the fences but had a very unfortunate stop in the double when she got stuck in the mud. 

She then went very green at the start of the cross country and got rather shell shocked by the jump judges and everything going on so had a couple of baby stops early on the course. Once she had jumped the 6th fence she started to really grow in confidence and really enjoyed the rest of the track and finished extremely well. She will have learnt a lot and will hopefully come in hugely for the experience.   

Gatcombe

I had Very Special Z in the Open Novice and Vendredi Biats and Acis in the Novice.

Very Special Z did a super test and scored a leading mark of 25.3

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By the time we show jumped it had got pretty muddy and disgusting, but he coped extremely well with the testing ground and jumped a lovely clear. 

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He jumped a lovely clear round the cross country but we just went slowly as the ground had got very deep. 

Acis was doing his first Novice and did a fantastic test. He coped with the more technical test really well and scored a top mark of 27.3. 

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He found the ground a little testing in the show jumping and lost a little balance, but jumped very well and tried really hard. He was unlucky to have one down when he got a little stuck in the mud. 

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I didn't run him cross country as I felt the ground had deteriorated a lot and as it was his first run at this level I wanted to have a nice experience. 

Vendredi Biats did some lovely work in his test but got a little stuck in the mud at one point and broke into canter. He scored a 31.5

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He jumped a super clear in the show jumping and coped very well with the tricky ground. 

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Like with Acis I decided against running cross country due to the ground.