Petplan Equine
Sponsored Rider - Juliette

October to December Update

After a fabulous double clear with Boodles at Munstead BE90 in September leading to a regional final qualification, I decided to finish his BE season and instead concentrate on preparing him for the next level for the spring. I had hoped to step up to BE100 with him this year but the consistency and confidence with his show jumping just hasn’t quite got there yet. Our next outing therefore came mid-October where we headed for the Hunter Trial at Stratford Hills. We opted for the 90-1m class and he produced a perfect clear round on a tough cross country course which incorporated many of their BE100 fences. To round off his season he finished with a day of show jumping at Houghton Hall Equestrian Centre, where he jumped brilliantly to finish 5th in the 95cm-1m, and then 2nd in the 1m-1.05- our biggest round to date!

Boodles stopped at the end of October for his annual holidays. He always feels better after a break, and he has been particularly busy this year. He benefits from time out physically and mentally and always returns with renewed enthusiasm! I generally give him the whole month off before gradually returning to full work with a careful fitness programme.

With the hard ground this summer I had decided not to take Jess eventing again this season; she really has nothing left to prove! So for a fun outing we tried our luck pure show jumping with a round in the Discovery at Brook farm, Essex. A fabulous and fast double clear sealed my decision to focus on affiliated show jumping route with her this winter. We may event next season but it is likely to be a handful of appearances only, although the arena eventing certainly appeals too; so we decided to give that a go.

Jess headed over to Aston- le Walls in Northamptonshire in mid October for their arena eventer challenge. It was certainly a challenge!! She contested the Novice (1.10m) section. The first part of the round was a course of 10 show-jumps, followed immediately by a long and convoluted cross country section consisting of another 20 elements, then finally a ‘joker’ show jump to finish! It was quite tricky remembering the twisting course, which ran though three arenas and took four separate routes through the water complex! It really did feel like a full cross country course – with open ditches, banks/steps and skinnies to test the horses. It was also massive! I tried not to think about this as we set off, but as evidence see photos below...

Jess rolled two poles in the show jumping section, however her cross country round was fast and clear, and we left the joker upright.... leaving us in 1st place! An incredible round from her, and we were very pleased to receive training vouchers for our efforts; Boodles will make use of those this winter!

November was a very quiet month at the yard, Jess having a two week break and Boodles taking a whole month off before returning to some quiet hacking. I get a bit of a rest too!

Jess had her first official British show jumping outing in the first weekend of December at Bury Farm, Buckinghamshire. I felt a bit rusty after our break but Jess was in fine form, to produce double clears in both the British Novice and Discovery, with 2nd and 5th places in very large classes! We got our first prize money too.... wondering now why we didn’t try this sooner! Our next outing was planned for Houghton Hall, Cambridgeshire, on 15th December.

Boodles began his winter training with a dressage outing to Keysoe on 13th December. We attempted 2 Novice tests – and he really rose to the occasion! Unfortunately I made an error of course in the first test, which lost us 2 marks, but we managed 69% (2nd place) in the first test and 70% (1st place) in the second!

He will return to Keysoe this weekend for an arena cross-country clinic. We are quite excited to have a place at Piggy French’s training clinic! Looking forward already to next season with him; he is making excellent progress!

Meanwhile as 2016 comes to an end, my Petplan Equine sponsored rider period is drawing to a close... I have had so much fun as a sponsored rider and the company’s backing has given me the encouragement and extra motivation to get out and achieve with the horses- we have already achieved so much, I am so proud of them!

*STOP PRESS* We have made the shortlist for Petplan Equine Ambassadors 2017... Fingers crossed!!

Festive tip

There is always an increase in colic at the changes in seasons, often due to a change in feed and management. In winter eating less grass and more dry roughage like hay will make a horse prone to impaction colic (faecal build up and blockage of the colon). This is more likely when horses have less turnout and are exercised less. To reduce the risk of colic try and ensure dietary changes are made gradually, increase water intake by damping down feed and hay, and ensure horses have some form of exercise daily. It is better if they can have even short periods of turnout on a regular basis to stretch their legs and encourage gut movement.