Petplan Equine
Sponsored Rider - Rachael

July and August Update

July 4th - Chaps show with 'My little wing man'
This was Tristan’s first Chaps show, and we were both very nervous! After lots of bathing and making sure his white bits were white, we headed off to Western Lawns. By the time I got there his white bits were no longer white! I could have murdered him! He had somehow managed to poo down his tail bag and then flick it up and over his back! So it called for an emergency bucket bath! Naughty pony! Once clean he was the first one in, in the youngstock evaluation class. As an entire I wanted to find out what chaps registered judges thought of my pony. He has never been in a big ring, alone, and with a panel of tall men staring at him, but he behaved well (apart from one paddy at the tannoy) and I was pleased. We then went in the youngstock and traditional/native classes and came 5th in both. He was very well behaved and everyone thought he was lovely, but unfortunately he just looks small and young against the bigger horses.

July 11th - Arches with 'My little wing man'
For the second weekend on the trot we took Tristan out, again to a coloured show. We had a great day taking two 1st and two 2nd places in our classes and the judges seemed to really like him! One judge was very good with giving feedback, and explained that, in his opinion, Tristan is too fine and too elegant to be a work man like traditional, and suggested that I take his long mane off and some out of his tail and show him as a native! I was shocked that someone would suggest that for the little man, but I went home and two days later, chopped it all off!

July 22nd - Side saddle demo at Eland Lodge
A few months ago, Amanda Chatfield (who owns Kingsclough Masquerade) was invited to do a side saddle demo for the South Staffs pony, so she recruited myself, Kirsty Heathcote, and Chloe Dyche, along with Charlie Parking as our speaker. I have to admit, it was great fun! We all showed different elements of side saddle. Amanda and Kirsty rode Marcus and Destiny as show horses, Chloe rode Kirsty’s other horse Galloglass, and I rode Sleet as the 'working' horse, and did some jumping! Sleet went amazingly, jumped beautifully, and I couldn't have been happier! It was also great practice for the fast approaching nationals! After we had all ridden, three riders were selected to do a ten minute masterclass. I had a lovely young girl who, even though I am fully aware Sleet can be quirky, rode him beautifully! She walked, trotted and cantered on both reins, was balanced and stable and relaxed, and when I joked about jumping, she was actually up for it! But we left that for another day!

July 29th - Trip to Hickstead
This was a great day out for me and my dad. After a four hour drive and getting stuck on the M1 we finally arrived! We saw lots of lovely horses and ponies and spent quite a bit, it was a great day! I also visited the Petplan Equine stand to enter the ‘Responsible Rider quiz’, which I scored 100% in!

Weekend of the 1st of August - Side saddle national show
Well, this year didn’t go as planned or expected. We travelled down on the Friday evening so that Sleet had time to settle and rest before competing. The evening was spent setting up camp and getting everything ready for our tests on the Saturday. Saturday morning came, and it was a disaster! Having no groom this year meant I struggled to get Sleet sorted and myself sorted without getting dirty (which for equitation is very strict). I finally made it to my equitation and had minimal warm up time, and was called in. Sleet threw a massive paddy fit, wouldn’t settle, work nicely and soften, or allow me to carry my cane at all (which has always been an issue but we have worked on it in the past few years and he’s much better). So as a result, I had a meltdown too! There’s a lot of stress around the equitation tests. Your riding is judged and the horse’s way of going, then immediately after your turnout is judged by two separate judges. Ours was very unsuccessful this year. We got very low marks for the equitation, I had to drop my cane as it was upsetting him, and the turnout was not the best. Not something I was proud of, and at that moment in time Sleet was my least favourite animal in the world! But what you have to take away from it is they are animals, they have minds of their own, and if they don’t want to do it, they are not going to! In hindsight there maybe a number of different reasons he was not impressed, the rush to the arena, the fact I was obviously nervous and stressed, or maybe the memory of the ‘ride off’ last year (which he was not happy with) unsettled him. Either way, we wrote our equitation off as a bad day and went back to camp. After an hours break we tacked back up and went off to our jumping class, which is a completely different thing for Sleet, so he flew round like a lunatic and didn’t mardy once! Typical! So for our jumping equitation we had scores of 6s and 7s. In the afternoon we did our final class, the restricted equitation, which is run like a showing class. I chose to do this is our Myler Pelham after the morning antics, and again, he was a completely different horse. Slightly tense, but no throwing himself around or paddy fits at all! We came a respectable 5th place in our section (the class has nearly 40 entries so was split in two halves) which I was happy with. Overall, the nationals weren’t what I expected this year, and Sleets behaviour certainly won’t go unremembered in a hurry. But he’s quirky and ‘special’ like that, and I have to ride the horse as he is on the day, and remember never to expect him to be something he’s not.

August 9th - Equestrian Life Championships
With another HOYS qualifier looming on Marcus, we decided to take him out to the Equestrian Life Championships for a run out. It was a lovely sunny day, scorching hot, and in an indoor! Not what you want in a full habit and veil! Marcus was great to warm up, worked beautifully and I was feeling good about the day. We went into our first class, and he went reasonably, but for some reason kept getting extremely close to the sides, and I was getting very concerned for the safety of my legs! After coming a great 2nd place we came out the ring and I mentioned it to Amanda. She then chose to tell me, “Oh yeah he does that, he’ll try and take your legs off on the boards!” Thanks for the pre-warning! The rest of the day, although hot and sweaty and on the verge of dehydrating, was a great success, we achieve 2nd place in the Equitation, 2nd in the classical, and then took reserve champion!

August 12th - Stoneleigh International Horse Show
This was another Hoys qualifying class on Kingsclough Masquerade (Marcus). We got there nice and early and gave ourselves plenty of time to get going well. The class was due to start at 12.15. We all went in, and two minutes later we were all sent back out again! We were told that they were holding the class as there was a producer that was still in another who wanted to come in. Personally, and I know others thought the same, we should have carried on, but hey ho! So, after a wait they restarted the class. It has been likened to an episode of wacky races. 18 in the class in not the largest ring, Marcus went really well, I continually put myself in a space and used all the ring craft I could. We were pulled at the bottom of the line unfortunately. He went beautifully for the judge although he was a little tired after a very long go round. Following the class, I spoke to the judge for a few tips/pointers etc, and was told the judge that day was looking for ‘elegance’. Although Marcus is lovely, he is a hunter, and therefore is not as elegant as some of the hack/riding horses. It was an experience, but Marcus was good so I was happy.

August 16th – One day event at Eland Lodge
I was very excited about this one! With such a busy showing year with Marcus, this was the only ODE Sleet would be doing in 2015. We’d been preparing for weeks, practicing our dressage and jumping, and he was going really well! I am glad we had lots of rain to soften the ground up too! Sleet went fantastically! We had a reasonable dressage score, even though I thought he went the best he has for a long time, a clear show jumping, and a lunatic round across the country and we finished a respectable 9th in our section, with the dressage bringing us down.

August 23rd - Hargate club show
This was a bit of a tentative venture to be honest. I had decided to take my new horse Lord Gale out to his first show to see what he was like in a competition atmosphere. It was interesting! I also took Tristan as he’d not been out for a while too. On arrival, Lordie had his tail hanging over the trailer ramp and his head was touching the trailer roof! He had managed to grow to about 17.2hh! We got both horses off and Lordie became very big, very boulchy, and not his usual self. Tristan was just perfect like normal! After breaking out in sweats and having to be walked off Lordie began to settle and then suddenly just switched off. I think he realised he wasn’t there to race (he is an ex racehorse) and just instantly relaxed. In all it was a good day; experience for my new horse who won both his classes, and a day out for Tristan who won two of his classes and got 3rd in the youngstock.