Petplan Equine
Sponsored Rider - Juliette

May and June Update

Our British Eventing Season has finally gotten underway, with Jess (Guess Again) having her first BE100 of the year at new venue, Whitfield in Northamptonshire. Taking over the end of April dates previously held by Milton Keynes, I took a day off from my day job as a vet to go mid-week eventing, and for the first time ever I was without any friends as grooms and support crew! Mid-week eventing makes it harder to find available helpers, but I was keen to see the new venue, and there were no other suitable outings that I could attend that month, so I took the plunge and went alone! I need not have worried, the event was lovely and I soon got chatting to fellow competitors in the neighbouring lorries. Jess was on good form as usual, and after a moderate dressage of 34.5, she then show-jumped a foot-perfect clear round, leaving us in the top 10 going into the cross country. The cross country course was interesting with some technical combinations- I was a little anxious about fence seven which I thought was particularly challenging- a step down to a skinny and well up to height double hedge, however with some focused and positive riding it actually rode pretty well. Jess was feeling on great form and I let her run on around the rest of the course at her own pace and we finished clear. On completing though, I was surprised and disappointed to find that we had actually gone too fast and incurred speeding penalties! We often struggle to get inside the time as she is a cob- cross and not naturally fast, but maybe being small and manoeuvrable we had taken a few tighter turns and cut corners so unfortunately we dropped down to 20th place, a costly mistake!

A couple of weeks later Jess and I headed to Houghton Hall for some show jumping practice with the goal of jumping some bigger tracks to see if we might be ready to tackle another BE Novice course later in the season. We had a lovely afternoon jumping the 1.05-1.10m and 1.10-1.15m classes. We had a couple of poles down but overall I was very pleased with our performance- Jess jumped brilliantly, I find the challenge over this size of course is to try and keep my nerves under control so that I don’t interfere too much and mess it all up for her!

In the middle of May I headed to Somerford Park in Cheshire with Boodles (Bubba Gump), for my annual eventer training camp organised by friends and former clients of mine in the north. A lovely opportunity to catch up with lots of people that I don’t see enough of at a great training facility with excellent trainers! This year we had the brilliant Louise Lyons giving us encouragement and advice. Boodles showed his greenest behaviour on day one and illustrated the problems we were having. However, after a couple of sessions with Louise we were much improved, using grid work in the school really helped his confidence and ability to adjust his own strides when jumping cross country. I also re-learned the importance of the neck strap! What a difference a few days at boot camp makes; a week later we were competing at Keysoe in their unaffiliated 80cm ODE and Boodles behaved impeccably with a 31.8 dressage and then produced a double clear round to finish second!

My next outing with Jess came in the BE100+ at Little Downham, one of the closest venues to me, and the scene of my best ever BE result having finished 2nd in a BE100 there previously. I had a few nerves on the day which I cannot explain, but Jess got us out of trouble in the show jumping to get round clear after I managed to get us in very deep to an oxer- the first part of a double- she is very athletic thankfully and found an extra leg! The cross country saw us almost lost after a minor pilot error at the first water- I turned too tight before the water and nearly ran past the ‘A’ element! Luckily I realised I had taken the wrong line and diverted course in time! We then had a great round, nearly spoilt by a slight disagreement heading to the last- Jess had taken a keen hold (she was feeling great and was still a little too full of running!) and when I tried to steady we ended up on a half stride and very deep to a square final fence- she hit the front with her knee but scrambled over- a heart-stopping moment which I was kicking myself for! Overall a great day and we finished with our dressage of 33 plus 0.4 cross country time for a respectable 7th place. I was thrilled with Jess but I felt I could have ridden better, so resolved to do some more cross country schooling before our next outing.

June finished with my first ever BE outing with Boodles! We headed to a slightly damp Stratford Hills for the BE 80T. I had prepared as well as I could with grid work at home and an outing to practice jumping a course at a clear-round jumping day at Fenning Farm in Soham- he has been going so much better since camp, so I was optimistic for a good day! The dressage was a little stressful, not helped by my studding problems (after trying for 40 minutes to get the last two studs in I finally relented and paid the on-site farrier to do it- such a relief, he managed it in less than two minutes!). Anyway all that left us with a shorter warm up and we then found our arena was next to the track to the cross country field- I found we had a few issues with attentiveness in that corner! Despite all this we produced a test I was pretty happy with, I was a little disappointed with our score of 35.8, I am confident that with time and practice he is a horse easily capable of tests in the 20’s. Our show jumping round was relaxed and flowed well, and he was confidently taking me into the fences. Unfortunately we had 2 poles down, the first was a little too relaxed a jump and the second was the first part of the double, he was concentrating hard on the second element and not enough on the first! I was really happy with his improved jumping style though. We headed to cross country looking for a confidence- building round. We set off well and the first 2 fences rode nicely, however the third was a spooky wall out of woods into an open field, and we had a silly stop. It felt like he just had too much to look at and not enough time to work out what to do! Still, we were over safely at the second attempt, and he approached the rest of the fences with some caution, but not backing off too much, just having a good look! As the course went on he felt bolder and happier, and despite all the hills he finished with plenty left in the tank!

So plenty to work on for the rest of the season, I have cross country and show jumping schooling sessions planned for both of them, before hopefully heading out for another BE100 with Jess while I contemplate a Novice entry and another BE80T for Boodles to ensure he is confident at that level before we move up to BE90.

Juliette’s top tip

When trying to keep horses fit for eventing it is important to keep a training diary, this ensures you are keeping the work varied and that you are doing enough work with them. I find it useful to work back from the date of the competition and ensure they have an easy week before an event. With mine I try to fit in 2 x hacks, 2 x canters and 1-2 x schooling/jumping sessions per week, although every horse is different- Boodles needs less canter work than Jess, and Jess knows her job so will rarely jump at home.