Petplan Equine
Sponsored Rider - Juliette

September and October Update

After a mid-season break, the horses returned to work at the beginning of September with renewed enthusiasm.

Boodles had decided that he knew best when we returned to Little Downham for a cross country training session mid-September. We began to introduce some trickier questions to make him think as he was rushing the easier fences and refusing to listen! I was enjoying his obvious enthusiasm as he really seems to be relishing his job now. We successfully tackled the BE100 coffin combination and several skinny jumps and also found we had much more confidence approaching water. Tina Ure was training us this time and suggested we trot to the spookier fences as he is much more confident jumping from trot and this strategy gave us a much improved jump over fences that we had previously struggled with. It is very tempting to rush a green horse into fences they are worried about to prevent a refusal, but I have now learnt that with Boodles exactly the opposite is required.

We attempted our second BE90 at Little Downham a few weeks later and the training paid off. Boodles managed a respectable 28.5 dressage, improved in the show jumping to have just one pole down and went clear cross country for 16th place!

That was the end of Boodles eventing season, but we still had a couple more �practice� outings to consolidate his new skills. We headed next to Stratford Hills for a hunter trial at 85cm over the BE course there. My day at Stratford Hills brought home the highs and lows of this sport; whilst I was walking the course a pony competing was sadly badly injured and as I realised the severity of the injury my heart sank. I helped as much as I could whilst waiting for others to arrive- as a vet I am never truly �off duty�. The accident had dulled my enthusiasm for the day and I contemplated whether or not I should carry on and compete.

Once I had returned to the lorry I decided we should run as Boodles needed more experience and although I felt a bit lacklustre I got on to warm up. Boodles responded by going extremely well, his enthusiasm still at a high! He tackled even the tricky fences well (including a roll top to water), also managing his first competition trakehner and a technical offset double of roll-tops brilliantly; he was foot perfect. Just inside the optimum time, we finished in 3rd place.

The following weekend we went to our final show jumping outing for 2015 at the College of West Anglia. Boodles jumped two careful rounds and was finally listening and able to adjust his own strides. We managed two double clears for 3rd place in both classes at 80-90cms and qualified for the grassroots show jumping championships at Arena UK. A brilliant end to his autumn season!

Jess started September with a trip to Blenheim Palace for the Equilibrium Eventer Challenge, consisting of an up-to-height course of show jumps and arena cross country fences. This was great fun and as ever she jumped very well, unfortunately just rolling the last pole (the �joker� fence). I blame the commentator, who can be heard on the video of my round exclaiming as I approached the last �And this could be our first clear...�! Sadly not to be! It was a very early start and we were jumping in an eerie mist, but the day was fun and we were all finished by 9am, so we had lots of time to watch the 3* action unfold.

Mid-October, Jess and I paid a visit to Littleton Manor for the BE100. I think it is a good idea when stepping up a level (as we had in August at Aston le Walls) to keep returning to a level at which you are entirely comfortable (for horse and rider) until the next level also feels easy. We are definitely pushing ourselves competing at Novice but have been very comfortable at BE100 for some time. Today was no exception and Jess produced a lovely dressage test to give us our best ever score of 28. A double clear followed and we posted our first ever sub -30 finishing score! It was lovely to hear the cross country commentator announce that the fence judges had decided Jess was the horse they would like to take home that day... who could argue with that! It was a hotly contested section though and our best score ever took us just into the prize-money in 6th place.

The last day of the eventing season saw Jess and I heading to north to Norton Disney for our third attempt at BE Novice. Not for the first time this season Jess surpassed all expectations! We posted another good dressage, achieving a score of 32- our best by far at this level. Our show jumping has been consistently improving this year and we posted another amazing clear round (our first at this level). At 19 years old she is incredible! This year has seen our best ever jumping performances; she has only touched four poles all year. We started cross country in a competitive position, the course was lovely, but there were several technical elements as expected, and several �rider frighteners�. Unfortunately we had a run out at the corner between two skinny fences on a curving line, I looked right towards the next fence on our approach to the corner and she saw a way round it. I have learnt from that one! She always nips out to the right if there is ever a difficult skinny and so I should have planned that approach better. We re-presented with better focus and completed the course with no further problems. I am over the moon with her but being so close to her first BE point I am hoping we can have another go next year.

So concludes the eventing season 2015, and looking back I am very proud of both horses who have achieved so much this year, I am very lucky to have both of them! They look forward to an autumn break in the field now to rest and relax. I typically give them 4-6 weeks completely off after a busy season and we will look forward to more competitions in the New Year.

Top tip for the festive season

This time of year brings fireworks so I try to keep my horses in their usual routine to avoid stress, but I do try to find out when/where firework displays are planned to try and keep my horses as far away as possible and safe. Many horses will barely respond to distant firework noises, whilst others appear to become very stressed and agitated. Stabling horses can help stop them from panicking in fields where they may escape or injure themselves on fences. Playing a loud radio in the stables may help distract them from the noise. I would advise contacting your vet if your horse is particularly stressed by fireworks to discuss specific coping strategies and medication which may help.