Laura - Petplan Equine Ambassador

The start of September saw me heading off for some late summer sun in Mexico. It was a well needed relaxing break and I came home feeling refreshed and ready to get back out competing.

I certainly didn’t have much time to rest or suffer from jet lag after arriving home on the Tuesday morning. I had a quick nap, then rode both Ransom and Finley. This was then followed by a night shift at work.

The following day Ransom and I headed to Oldencraig Equestrian Centre for a training session with the UKCC level 3 trainee instructors. This gave us the preparation we needed before heading to Pachesham Equestrian Centre on the Sunday to compete in the Advanced Medium and PSG classes. He was very excited to be out again and although he provided me with some lovely work; we also made some huge mistakes due to over enthusiasm! We still managed a second in the Advanced Medium and a first in the PSG. This was a successful outing before the Petplan Equine Area Festival Finals the following weekend.

The day arrived for our Petplan Equine Area Festival Final at Oldencraig. We were competing in both the Advanced Medium and PSG classes. Ransom behaved impeccably well and did not put a foot wrong in the Advanced Medium. As always, I am biased and think he deserved a better mark but we finished just outside the top ten in a very large, high standard class.

We then rode our PSG test. He improves each time I ride this test; and with only one mistake in his three time changes, we ended up coming away with a fifth place rosette! This is something I never thought would happen with my twenty year-old ex-event horse. He owes me absolutely nothing, yet gives me over 100% each and every time we go out.

In the interim period between the Petplan Equine Area Festivals Finals and our next competition, I continued to work hard on our canter pirouettes and tempi changes. This showed in our next outing to Step Aside dressage in October. I decided to just compete in the PSG class this time around – we performed our best test to date on a personal level with no errors! I was slightly disappointed with the mark but it was still enough to win the bronze section which was a huge high!

Our winter training and progress will be to continue to develop at PSG level; as well as entering some freestyle to music classes in the New Year which is something we haven’t done for a while and I have missed!

FINLEY

Our first competition post-holiday was at South of England International in the Novice. This was however our last British Event of the season. I cannot believe how quickly the year has flown by and was sad that it was coming to an end. The weather was very kind to us which was a bonus considering how late my times were! Finley was a little tense in the dressage but performed an obedient test to score in the top half of the section.

The show jumping demons continued but he jumped really well in soft, muddy conditions for a couple of poles. We then headed to our favourite phase. We sped round the cross country as quick as we possibly could and produced an absolutely fantastic clear. The ground was extremely holding which slowed the majority of the horses down and led to a few time faults. We finished the season just outside the top ten and with a huge smile on both our faces! Never did I imagine that I would be successfully competing at Novice level again. Bring on the 2018 season!

With the end of the season also came the finalised South-East Eventers League Table. I was thrilled to be placed 6th in the Ex-Racehorse section; and am looking forward to receiving my prize for all our hard work.

Finley and I then quickly started our winter campaigning with our first combined training of the season at Felbridge. We competed in the Novice 1.10m class and produced a lovely test with a few poles for fourth place. I decided to jump again as we were both a little rusty and we produced a fantastic clear.

Our next outing was to a pure dressage competition run by our local riding club. Finley’s mini break after finishing his eventing season certainly proved to be positive as he produced two fantastic tests. We came 2nd in the Novice with over 67%. He then wowed me in the Elementary test with another plus 67% and a win. I feel I may have another dressage diva on my hands!

Our latest competition took us back to Felbridge to compete in the Novice 1.10m combined training. He continues to produce a very obedient consistent test which was then followed up by a brilliant clear to win! I was thrilled with the four rosettes we managed to gain in the space of week; and I hope this will continue throughout our winter season.

We have lots of training planned as well as plucking up the courage to compete in some 1.15m show jumping classes. This will be some essential ground work before our next season eventing.

NELSON

He has had a rather relaxed summer with lots of hacking and jumping but he has decided to head back to his Welsh Mountain Pony roots and has gone feral refusing to be caught! He has been running rings round me on numerous occasions. This does however make me smile as it shows how young he is at heart!