Petplan Equine
Sponsored Rider - Jack

July and August Update

The last two months have been by far the busiest this year. July started off with soaring temperatures, and I took a quick trip up to Lyneham Heath to give MGH Rococo (Rocco) his final cross country school before his first event. There are three big water complexes there so it was great preparation, he felt amazing, making light work of every question asked. Having left at 11am the quick trip turned into a rather long nightmare of a trip. We had a blow out on the lorry on the way home. We waited and waited for recovery but they were struggling to find the right sized tyre. By 8pm we started to panic, we had four horses on board and we were wondering if we'd get rescued. Luckily, with the help of friends pulling together, we managed to get a 3.5 ton lorry and a trailer to come and collect all four horses and get them home safely. Lesson learnt; keep a spare tyre in the lorry!

Back on the road and off to Chepstow Horse Trials for two days. I entered Landsman (Scooby) in the BE100 and Rocco who was making his 2015 eventing debut in the BE90. Scooby was slightly harshly marked for his dressage test getting 33.3, so after super jumping rounds, he was outside the placings. Rocco rode a lovely test to score 26, putting us into 2nd place, one down show jumping and a great confident and bold clear cross country. Luckily we still finished in 2nd place.

The next event was one of my favourites, not only because it is local but I also love the bold cross country course, Dauntsey Park. Rocco produced another super dressage test scoring 26. He jumped a fantastic clear show jumping even with my breastplate breaking and flapping between his legs which left us in the lead. Sadly it was not our day as he spooked during the cross country at fence four picking up 20 penalties, which is most unlike him. As previously mention in my blogs, Dauntsey hasn't been a lucky place for Scooby and I. So after a good dressage and show jump round, I must admit I was slightly apprehensive, but third time lucky he flew around clear making it look so easy!

Rocco always very playful in the field and unfortunately he got kicked just after Dauntsey Park, it was not anything major but it did mean I made the decision to withdraw him from his first BE100 at Calmsden. I still had Scooby entered in the BE100 at Calmsden and he rode a great dressage test and scored 29.8. He had his spooky eyes on for the show jumping so unfortunately had a fence down but then he had a great round on the cross country course whizzing round, riding well over the jumps.

With Rocco missing out on Calmsden, he headed to Homme House for his first BE100. It was a very hot day and he was slightly idol in our dressage test but we still managed to score 28. Show jumping unfortunately did not go to plan knocking two down – maybe Rocco hadn’t realised the jumps were bigger. We finished with a steady clear cross country as the ground was firm. Onwards and upwards.

West Wilts Horse Trials is always in my eventing schedule and I took both Rocco and Scooby, one on each day. Scooby was second to go at 8am on day one, I thought he rode a really nice test; however the judge did not share my views. The less said about our show jump round the better, I really let Scooby down, he is such an honest boy! Scooby sped around the cross country as per usual making it feel all too easy. Day two, Rocco had the dressage at 5pm in the torrential rain but this did not affect his test as he felt amazing and consistent and scored 24! He jumped better than previous events but we did have a few time faults due to the persistent rain resulting in us finishing in 9th place.

Once again we were back on the road to compete at Wellington International Horse Trials with both Rocco and Scooby. Half an hour away from Wellington we heard yet another bang! We had another blow out! Thankfully it was an inside back tyre so we managed to crawl to the event before getting the tyre changed. Stress you don't need at an event, luckily we arrived in enough time to still walk the course before the dressage. Rocco was first and pulled out yet another score of 28 in the dressage, now every event so far he has been in the 20's. Annoyingly we had one pole down in the show jumping but we rode clear in the cross country to finish in 7th place. Scooby did a super test scoring 32, we could have achieved a slightly better score if we hadn’t kicked the dressage board going into canter. Scooby got a little upset but we managed to keep it together. A theme at the moment is having four faults which can be frustrating but he made the cross country course feel nice and easy; he really is fun to take cross country.

Outside of my eventing news, I have bought a lovely unbroken three year old, who I have named Cuba. I bought her half-sister, Chilli, last year so that drew me to her along with her super bloodlines and the sweetest temperament. All she wants is fuss!

After having a busy July and August, I plan to have a quiet September and just attend West Wilts before a busier October fitting in our final few events of the season. It is scary thinking about the end of the season and winter creeping upon us.