Jack - Petplan Equine Ambassador

Well spring hasn’t quite gone to plan! We’ve had 5 events cancelled so far due to the rain – so not a huge amount to report on.

I did manage to get Jerry (Tambourine Man) to Aston Le Walls where we did dressage and show jumping on a surface. Dressage was fairly good and I was thrilled with how he jumped around a big course. The rain was relentless all day and the ground cross country didn’t suit Jerry, as he’s not a fan of wet, slippery ground. Onwards and upwards!

Next we headed to Calmesden unaffiliated one day event with a new ride for me, Bella (Bellatrix), for her first ever event and Lucy (Curious Cove) who I’ve been schooling for her owners. Both went really well in the 80cm, Lucy jumping double clear to finish 3rd and Bella did a lovely test and went very well jumping but just had a turning issue cross country. We have some homework to do playing with bits before our next event together!

In May I was invited to a lesson with legendry Lucinda Green at Tweseldown. I decided to take another new ride for me Minnie (Key West). I’ve been riding Minnie for a few years at home but have been asked if I’d like to do some events on her. This seemed a perfect opportunity to get to know each cross country and get some expert advice. Lucinda made us do some tight lines and angles. She also made me jump a log into water with no reins to help with body position and balance! She said “I bet you won’t be able to” – challenge was accepted and I was very pleased we did jump the log into water with no reins and stayed dry!

Next we crossed the border to compete at Mount Ballan in Wales. This was Bella’s first British Eventing event and also my first event on Minnie. Finally we actually had some nice weather. Minnie did a beautiful test and jumped a super double clear to finish 2nd. I’m really pleased and excited to be able to compete Minnie and hope we can continue getting some nice results. Bella did a stunning test to be 0.5 behind the leader, still a little green in both jumping phases but came home on the cross country course feeling full of confidence and will have learnt loads to take to her next event.

I’m really excited to have another new horse called Harley (Hallo Harlequin). He’s a very beautiful 17hh Selle Francais. He’s an 8 year old who has done some show jumping and a little bit of eventing. He’s a very big bright horse so we are taking our time to get to know each other. He is entered for our eventing debut together at West Wilts in June.

The spring has felt quite quiet compared to normal but if the weather stays kind to us we certainly will have a busy rest of the Summer!