Juliette - Petplan Equine Ambassador

April; my favourite time of year again as we head off to our training camp at Somerford Park in Cheshire, for three days of jump training and meeting with old friends. Jess looked smug as Boodles packed his bags and headed to boot camp. We were in much need of the camp this year after our recent troubles in the show jumping phase, I always find that the intense training with some fabulous trainers really does get things back on track. This year was no exception, and after four lessons with James Sommerville we were feeling much more confident. I had a plan for my approach to the show jumps and Boodles was enjoying himself.... We headed to Horseheath BE90 just five days later to put things to the test, and most importantly we completed! We jumped the first six show jumps brilliantly, then lost balance and rhythm on the corner (rider error) and had the next two fences down as a result, only to re-group for the last fence. I had regained my faith that we could do this, and we went on to post a fast and confident clear cross country round. The first step to us regaining our eventing mojo!

A much awaited trip to Badminton followed in early May, with a lovely few days watching the best eventers in the world in action, it certainly helped to put the BE90’s into perspective!

Boodles and I had a competition packed May and June as we tried to put all we had learnt at camp into practice. Event outings were interspersed with show jumping trips to try and strengthen our weakest phase. I am pleased to report that the hard work has paid off! We managed 3rd place with just one pole down show jumping at Aston le Walls (unaffiliated 90 event), followed by DOUBLE CLEARS at Borde Hill BE90 and Berkshire College BE90 for 2nd and 6th places respectively! We are very excited to have two BE90 regional finals to aim for this autumn, and we have also qualified for the 90cm Eventer Challenge at Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials in September!

Boodles heads into a summer break on a high! He will have two weeks in the field for some physical and mental rest, before we continue our event season in July.

Jess has had a lovely time with her new show jumping career, having had double clears in each of her last six outings at BS Discovery and 1.05 Open level, she hasn't touched a pole all year! She has qualified for the Discovery 2nd rounds, and at this rate will soon have too many points to compete in the Discovery section!

As she has been feeling so well, I decided to take her eventing for a fun day out. She is so enthusiastic with her jumping that she still drags me into the fences especially if we haven't jumped for a few weeks! She begins to get sharp and silly at home, so I know when it's time to take her to a party! She comes home and is much more chilled after a day out, until she's ready for the next one! A day out at Little Downham Horse trials was just what we both needed. We frustratingly rolled the first pole show jumping in the 100Plus class (a bit too speedy...), then set off for a fabulous and fun clear cross country round, 12 seconds inside the time! I particularly loved the commentators comment at the end of our round; 'At 21 years old you might think she was ready to retire... well Guess Again!!'. Fabulous pony, Jess is certainly my pony of a lifetime!

So heading into the summer I have more eventing (and a lot more show jumping...) planned for Boodles. Will we make the step up to BE100 this season? And Jess will be show jumping again, though if the ground is good and she is keen we may just pop up at another BE event this season.