Petplan Equine
Sponsored Rider - Jack

July to September Update

The past few months I have been very busy eventing. July began with Rocco and Scooby both running at Chepstow Horse Trials. Both boys rode nice dressage tests, Scooby scoring 29.8 and Rocco scoring 31, luckily it was a harsh marking section as this was the first time Rocco had been out of the 20's for two seasons. The show jumping proved quite costly with them both picking up expensive poles. Rocco went on to do a lovely clear cross country. Scooby took a dislike to the rail before the water picking up a rather annoying 20 penalties. More cross country schooling for him!

After Chepstow, Rocco, Scooby and Jerry all headed to a local event at Dauntsey Park where we were there for three days eventing. Day one started very well with Rocco doing a beautiful test to score 24, and then went on to jump a wonderful double clear to clinch his third win of the season. I am hugely proud of him! Day two I was competing Jerry in the open section, he did a nice test but scored a rather harsh 35 and picked up an annoying pole show jumping. The cross country really didn't go to plan... I galloped into fence one and saw a bit of a long one, but instead of kicking on, I sat there meaning Jerry tried to pop another stride in. There really wasn't room for another one so I flew over fence one without Jerry. I have never rushed back to the lorry so fast with a bright red face of embarrassment! Trying to put day two behind us and still having a sense of humour failure, I headed back for day three this time with Scooby. I haven't always had the most success here with him over the last two years so hopefully I've got my Dauntsey fall out of the way. He did a lovely test scoring 30 putting him straight into the lead. He jumped a fantastic clear round show jumping. I left the start box and saw the same stride to fence one as I did on Jerry but lesson learnt I kick, VERY hard, and he was outstanding finishing clear to win! Two wins and one fall not bad odds I guess?!

After confident runs at Dauntsey, Rocco and Scooby went to another local event, Calmsden. Rocco did yet another lovely smooth test scoring 26 and a really great clear round show jumping. I made the grown up decision to withdraw him before the cross country as his next event is to be a regional final and I wanted to save him for this. It was a hard decision when he was in a potential winning position. Scooby also scored a great 29.5. He jumped amazingly. We were clearly enjoying ourselves too much as we added four time faults cross country for going too fast costing us a win! Gutting it dropped us to 5th place. I was rather cross with myself!

We were up bright and early for Homme House in August. This was a big day for Rocco as it was his first regional final. He really pulled out his poshest trot on the right day and scored his personal best of 22. A double clear inside the time meant we finished 2nd in a very competitive section. Meaning he's qualified for The Mitsubishi Cup at Badminton 2017. It wasn't all about Rocco, Scooby scored a very good 31 in his section, also jumping a double clear to finish 4th overall. Both boys finishing on their dressage scores on the same day seems a rather occurrence for me!

With Rocco qualified for Badminton the pressure is now off him for the rest of the season, he can just go out and have a few fun runs, so just Scooby headed to West Wilts. We scored a 31.8 and an unlucky pole show jumping. I set out of the start box the same as ever and for the second time this season I fell off at fence one, surely this is well and truly crossed off the ‘what not to do’ eventing bucket list. For some reason Scooby just never locked on, I put this down to the fact we were going away from the warm up arena.

Onwards and upwards we went to Wellington next, an event I have always really enjoyed. Rocco did another lovely test to score 28.8, a little deep into an upright show jumping meant we had a pole down. Scooby also did a nice test scoring 31, frustratingly two lazy poles show jumping. The cross country walked very big, by far the biggest we've done this season. Scooby was first out and I made sure our attention was on fence one and getting over it! He was very spooky and took a dislike to a gravel and later at a spooky log drop combination, unfortunately I ended up on the floor once again! The air jacket is certainly earning its keep! Rocco was next out on course. He was full of himself leaping out the start box, I'm really getting the feeling he's starting to enjoy the cross country. At the same gravel Scooby spooked at, I slightly over rode meaning he put in a huge jump over the ditch and I overshot my line to a skinning brush. A really annoying 20 penalties he really didn't deserve. But he felt full of confidence around the rest of the big track.

Next outing Scooby headed to his regional final at Goring Heath. Sadly we didn't do our finest test scoring 34.5, which isn't competitive in a regional final. He felt absolutely fantastic show jumping and jumped one of our best clear rounds of the season. Off to the cross country and again it wasn't our day. I fell off again! This has been very out of character for Scooby as he normally loves the cross country phase, so we took him home and investigated what may be wrong with him. It turned out he had bruising in his feet so wasn't wanting to land on the harder ground. He's now having a few months holiday out in the fields and will come back into work near to Christmas (which isn't actually that far away!) and hopefully be ready for next year.

With Scooby now enjoying his holidays, I took just Rocco to West Wilts. He was first into the dressage at 7.30 in the morning! Ouch! I slightly over warmed up meaning he was a bit too lazy in this test. I went show jumping and cross country without know his dressage score (due to being so early!). So I used his rounds as schooling rounds as I wasn't hugely pleased with our test. I later found out we scored 31, just 0.5 behind the dressage leaded Kitty King. But with his time faults we still finished in 10th place.

Well that's been all the eventing throughout July, August and September, it seems like we've done a lot. In other horsey news, I bought a potential superstar in five year old, 15hh dun, Jackson. I bought him in August and he's taken to life on an event yard very well. He is a real joy to ride and is a very fast learner. He is really enjoying schooling and jumping. In reality he's too small for me long term, I bought him because he was stunning looking and has a wonderful personality, not because of his size. Dingo has continued his success at dressage, never yet coming worse than 2nd and I also took him to a local show to get him use to a busier environment. This was my first and last time doing showing! I think I enjoy galloping far too much and there seems to be far too much standing around! But Dingo learnt a lot about the world.

The season is very nearly over for us with Rocco and Jerry running at Dauntsey Park, Calmsden and Broadway throughout October.