Bicton

I had Virage Des Falaises in the Novice, Vendredi Biats and Mo Cuiske in the Intermediate and Snow Wind SN in the BE100.

Virage Des Falaises kicked the event off well with a super test, he made one mistake in his counter canter when he got a little excited as thought he should be doing a flying change! He has been learning them at home so I was pleased he was thinking about them, but it was a shame it was in his test. He scored a very competitive 26.
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He then jumped a lovely clear show jumping.
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He jumped beautifully round the cross country and gave me a lovely ride. We picked up a few time faults but he still won his section well!

Vendredi Biats did a fantastic test to score 26.4 and led his section.
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He then jumped a wonderful clear in the show jumping and made it feel easy.
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He stormed round the cross country in pretty wet and muddy conditions. He made the course and the testing conditions feel very easy and gave me a great ride. We picked up a handful of time faults to win the section by 9 marks!

Mo Cuiske did a really good test and was much improved from his first outing of the year. He did some really consistent and solid work. He scored 32.3 to be well up with the leaders and to tie with Chilli Morning!

He then jumped a wonderful clear in the show jumping, pinging round and feeling really good. Unfortunately the cross country really didn't go to plan, unlike Vendredi Biats who really enjoyed the sloshy wet conditions Mo Cuiske really didn't enjoy the ground and lost confidence in it when he started slipping and loosing his feet. He had two very uncharacteristic stops at relatively straight forward fences when he lost trust in the footing. It was a huge shame as it was so unlike him and he had gone so well in the first two phases. Most importantly though he is back in one piece and will now head to Withington where hopefully the ground will be more in his favour.

Snow Wind SN did some very nice work in her test and is getting more supple and consistent all the time. She made a couple of baby mistakes in her two halts which dropped her marks down which was a shame, but otherwise she was great. She scored a competitive 31.5.
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She then jumped a fantastic clear in the show jumping.
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She jumped a super clear round the cross country, she was extremely bold and straight and made the course feel easy to finish in 2nd place.
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Belton CIC***

I had Ceylor LAN and Persimmon at Belton doing the CIC***. It was a massive section with 122 starters!

Ceylor LAN was a star all weekend and posted his best 3* dressage mark to date, a 41.5. He did a lovely test, but he made a few little mistakes, including spooking at the mud splattered bored! There is still room for improvement, but he is getting stronger and more established every time he goes out.

He then jumped his socks of in the show jumping and jumped a lovely clear in the time.
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He jumped a super and quick clear round the tricky and very cleverly designed cross country track. We picked up 3.2 time faults which left us in a brilliant 8th place.
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Having only had one run so far this season Persimmon was I little fresh and feisty in his test, he still did some lovely work, but just not quite to the standard that we know he is capable of. He scored a 45.1.

He jumped an absolutely perfect round in the show jumping giving everything feet and felt on springs.
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He then flew round the cross country and was pretty foot perfect. He was a little keen so I didn't fully allow the handbrake off! We picked up 10 time faults and finished in 20th place.
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Portman

I had Virage Des Falaises doing the Intermediate Novice and Snow Wind SN doing her first BE100.

Virage Des Falaises did some super work in his test and found the step up to the trickier intermediate test relatively easy, he made a couple of baby mistakes, like cantering out of his halt wen he was being too keen to please. He still scored a very competitive 28.2.

He then jumped a good round in the show jumping, but was very unlucky to have two down when he got stuck in the pretty tacky ground. He gave me a great ride round the cross country, but as we had had two down and weren't overly competitive we just hacked round as the ground was quite wet and tacky.

Snow Wind SN was a star in her first event, she did a very relaxed and pleasing test to score 24.3. She tried really hard and only made one slight mistake, when I hadn't been clear enough in what direction we were going in and she thought she was meant to go outside the board at C.
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She then jumped a lovely round in the show jumping and was extremely unlucky to have the very last fence down when she slipped on take off and had it down behind.
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She flew round the cross country and gave me a very mature and confident ride, which was extremely pleasing. She finished inside the time and in 6th place.

Burnham Market

I had Ceylor LAN in the CIC***, Persimmon in the Open Intermediate and Vendredi Biats and Billy Bounce in the Open Novice.

Ceylor LAN did a much improved test in the three star compared to last year, he felt much stronger and more up hill and did some great work, we made some annoying mistakes in his rein back and last halt which were costly. He scored a 46.6 which I was a little disappointed with as I thought he'd shown some lovely work.
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He jumped a super clear in the show jumping, absolutely pinging round. 

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He jumped brilliantly round the cross country and gave me a lovely ride. We didn't go flat out as its still early in the season, so picked up 7.4 time faults. This left us just out the top ten in 11th place. 

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Persimmon was having his first run of the season, he was a little fresh and feisty in his dressage, but still did some super work to score a competitive 27.5. 

He then jumped a great clear in the show jumping and felt on great form. 

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He was very keen to get going round the cross country and whizzed round, he really enjoyed himself and was very pleased to be out again, as he was rather keen I had the handbrake on a little. We picked up 7.2 time faults to finish in 5th place. 

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After being a little cheeky the week before at Gatcombe Vendredi Biats was having an extra run at Burnham to get back into the swing of the season. He did a lovely test again and scored a very competitive score of 28. 

He then jumped a super clear round the show jumping. 

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He skipped round the cross country, finding it all very effortless and easy and his concentration was much better than Gatcombe! We picked up a couple of time faults which left us in 3rd place.
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Billy Bounce was a little more excited in his test than at Gatcombe, we made some silly little mistakes through lack of concentration, but over all his work was very good. He scored a 33.5.

He then jumped a super clear in the show jumping, it was so nice to finally get I'm out on the grass and jumping in a competition at last!

He jumped a lovely but steady clear round the cross country and felt very pleased and happy to be finally going cross country again.

Gatcombe (1)

I had Mo Cuiske in the Open Intermediate, Vendredi Biats in the Intermediate, Virage Des Falaises in the Novice and Billy Bounce in the Intermediate Novice.

Mo Cuiske was a little fresh having his first run of the year, he did an accurate test to score 35. 

He jumped a super clear in the show jumping:

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He then skipped round the cross country finding it all easy. We picked up a few time faults to finish in 8th place. 

Vendredi Biats did a super test making just one small mistake. He coped with the new intermediate test which included half passes and pirouettes. He a scored a very competitive 27.1. 

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

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He jumped well round the cross county but was very cheeky at a double of corners early on and had a naughty glance off. He was just lacking a bit of match pratice and concentration. He finished the course really well. 

Virage Des Falaises was doing his first event in the UK. He did a superb test to score 23.5 and led the section. 

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He found the tacky ground a little have to jump out of but still jumped a lovely clear. 

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He then jumped a super clear round the cross country and won his section really comfortably.

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Billy Bounce did a really good test in pretty muddy ground and led his section on a 25.2. 

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Unfortunately after warming up for the show jumping the heavens opened whilst they were changing the course and the event made the frustrating but right decision to abandoned this final section of the day. It was a real shame but the ground had deteriorated a lot so this early in the year it was definitely best to save the horses for another day. 

Lincoln

I just had Ceylor LAN up at Lincoln, he was doing the Advanced intermediate. He was a little jolly to be out at an event again, but still did a very solid test. He scored 28.4 which put us in second after the dressage.

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He then jumped a super clear round the show jumping and felt on great form. 

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He flew round the cross country and gave me a great ride. He didn't feel at all rusty and picked up just two time faults to win the section comfortably.