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Wow, how time flies when your having fun!

We’ve had a brilliant few months here! All the horses are going exceptionally well.

Uzboj qualified for both the regionals at novice and the area festival at elementary. At the regionals he finished just outside the top ten, which I was pleased with as we did make a silly mistake in one of the canter transitions!

At the area festival he finished 6th which exceeded all our expectations as he has only just started competing at elementary!

Jultan has just come back from the VHS championships in derbyshire, he had qualified for both the medium and advanced. We went there hoping for some good placings and he won both classes! Fantastic!

I’ve been very busy with a new ride, a lovely coloured called Bobby Dazzler Man. He came to us in November to be broken on behalf of his owner and is now showing such talent he is being aimed at British Eventing’s 4 year old classes this summer. He went to his first ODE last weekend and finished an amazing 6th place out of 30 starters! He scored 34.8 in his dressage (his first ever test!) and went onto jump clear in the showjumping and cross country to finish on his dressage score. An amazing achievement for his first ODE!

I’ve been working Redsea Laurilie hard at home and having monthly training sessions on her to really get the wow factor into her before she is registered with British Dressage. All the hard work is paying off as she won the Prelim down at Oldencraig a few weeks ago

We’ve just stepped my other ride up to PSG! He has won quite a few mediums and advanced mediums with me now so his owner and me decided to take the plunge and step up to the next level! What an amazing opportunity, we took him unaffiliated for our first go at that level so i could have a practise run if you like, having never competed at that level before! It was something else, wearing my top hat and tails for the first time and the test went very smoothly with just a mistake in the tempi changes and one of the canter pirouettes. All in all i was very happy with the way it went!

So far a great start to the year with all the horses, lets hope it continues!

Its been a very busy few months here. Uzboj won his last two classes at Limes Farm and is now heading to the British Dressage Regionals next weekend. He has had a nice rest since his last competition and is now in serious training as I’m hoping for a good result and if were really lucky a ticket to the Nationals!

Redsea Laurilie has been out showjumping alot and has come on really nicely. She always seems to manage to find a fence though at the moment which is very frustrating. She was second in a discovery on one of her last outings though at Golden cross where she also jumped fantastically round the Derby there which i felt was over quite a strong course! Hopefully we may of had a break through with her! She went to Stilebridge today for her first dressage outing where she won the Prelim on 75% and was second in the Novice on 70.83% with a few green mistakes in each test. Not bad for her first tests! I am over the moon with her and am thinking perhaps dressage maybe the way forward with her! Katie Westgate also came with her horse Clondargan Boy and scored an excellent62% in one prelim and 59% in the other which was a brilliant result for them as they have been working very hard on there flatwork and it is paying off. Both Redsea Laurilie and Clondargan Boy head off to Wales and West in a few weeks time for a few days showjumping so we’ll see how she goes up there and decide which way to go in her career!

I’ve also been kindly given the ride on a new horse! He has previously been competed up to Grand Prix level, but has been out of competition for a few years. We’ve been working him at home for the past two months, bringing some enthusiasm back to his work, aiming for a very ‘No pressure just fun’ outlook on his schooling and he is really starting to enjoy it all over again!! So much so that he is back in the show ring winning his medium and advanced medium at Oldencraig on only his second outing with me with some very good scores. We are thrilled to bits with his results and how happy he is in his work again. A very very huge thank you to his owner for the wonderful opportunity you have given me. He is being aimed at the Oldencraig Championships which he has qualified for with his wins there and I’m really hoping for a great result as both he and his owner deserve it!

On the 21 May i left for Keysoe with Uzboj. After a 3 hour journey we arrived and settle Uzboj into his new home for the next few days! He is quite used to going away so settled very quickly and i thought it best to give him a quick ride around.

It was boiling hot weather and you had to ride in an indoor school so i just gave him 15 mins work. He felt lovely, really buzzy so i was pleased and feeling confident!!

The next morning i was up early as his first test was at 8 am! He was quite tense warming up and wouldnt really let me ride him properly. After 25 mins warm up it was our turn, I walked him out of the indoor school and into the competiton arena, about 3 strides in he just exploded! Bronking his way down to our arena, not the best start!! He did calm for the test, with some very pleasing marks  but there were one or two moments or silliness which really let him down.

Onto the next test, i was not going to have him lively again so really worked him in the warm up. WQith the help of Sharon Edwards we had him going really well. Into our test this time calm and collected he was a different horse to that morning!! Unfortunately the boiling weather and the fact by now he was very tired meantt he was a bit poll deep in his test for a score of 63.8% I have to admit i was abit disappointed, not with Uzboj as he did his best but i did feel he had been marked abit harshly.

After a good nights sleep for both me and Uzboj his next test was at 9:30. This time i had him spot on for a lovely test and a score of 66.5%. That was more like it! We ended up 19th overall which i am very pleased with, there were some very lovely horses there and Uzboj had really tried his heart out. My Southern Team finished 12th which was an excellant result!

Uzboj went to Oldencraig on the 23rd April, hoping for some good scores to boost his chances of being selected for the Southern Team.

His tests were Novice 38 and 22. He had never been to Oldencraig before but was like an old pro! He produced a nice test in the 38 for 3rd place working well in there International arena but the big test was going to be the 22 in the indoor arena which is far more scary! He took it all in his stride, not spooking at a thing, not even the slightest loss of concentration. He felt brilliant, his mediums are getting much stronger and his whole tests are much more powerful. He got 71% and won the class! Now to just wait and see if we’d done enough!!

Last Friday (30th) i received a call from Sharon Walker (BD Area Rep) to ask if we’d like to be part of the Southern Team!!! I’m over the moon! The first team competition is the end of this month at Keysoe! We need to up our game even more for any chance of success, the next few weeks are going to be very hard work, perfecting every movement to his maximum potential, to gain every extra mark we can that could make all the difference!!

Finally it looks like summer may be here! We’ve had a few warm days now and its been lovely! The flowers are starting to come out, the spring grass is coming through and the evenings are getting lighter. All much appreciated by us and the horses.

Uzboj has been very busy going to Step by Step dressage at Royal Leisure where he was 2nd and 4thin his 2 Novice classes with scores of around 64% and65%. I was very pleased with him as he had to have nearly a week off before the show due to an abscess on his back. There’s always something when it comes to Uzboj!

The following weekend i took him to the Southern Team Trials to try out to be on the team for the regional and home team international. I went not really knowing what to expect but we had a really great time and Uzboj did me proud and went amazingly. First we were watched by 3 judges andtrainers while we worked our horses then we all went off for a private session withone of them. I went with Sharon Edwards andshe helped me work on him using himself better in his transitions, really stepping through from behind and using his back end properly. It was incredible the difference she made, within minutes he was working better than ever before! I really learnt alot from it andnow have lots of homework to be practising with him!!

Fingers crossed now while we wait to hear if we’ve been selected!!

Well its been awhile since I’ve updated the blog but we have had not much of interest to write about except snow, snow and more snow!!! Its been really awful up here, when it is raining elsewhere it has been snowing here! Not fun for us or the horses! Hopefully we have had a few days of sunshine now and the worst of the winter is over!! We are praying it is, as its been very hard work, all we have done is mucked out and hayed all day, and attempted to get some of the horses worked!

The one good thing about the snow is i have caught up on all the things I’ve been meaning to do for ages and never get round to!! Uzboj is now affiliated dressage and headed to Stilebridge Barn for his first outing!

On the 26th February he was raring to go, he dragged me to the lorry and loaded himself then stood squealing and jumping around til we were on our way! He was just as lively when we got there, banging around while he was waiting to be tacked up and let out!

I thought he was going to be very naughty when i got on but he was an angel the warm up and got straight down to work! All was going well so into our test, Novice 22. It started really well, he felt lovely,baring in mind he won last time he did this test! Then into left canter where he bronked his way round the 20m circle!Not impressed! After that there were a few more lively errors and a score of 60.34% and 6 place. Not bad considering his behavior but i was disappointed knowing how well he warmed up and the score he is capable of!

That behind us next was the Novice 38 qualifier. He hadnt done this test before but i thought it would suit him. As if to apoligise for his first test behaviour he went lovely for 67.10% and 1st place! That more than made up for it as he now has his first qualifying score for the regionals! Back onto the lorry much calmer than we started i realised he hasn’t been out in about 5 months so really i cant be to hard on him for his excitement!

Well if i thought Uzboj was a good boy last week, it was nothing compared to what a star he was at this show!

We had a early start with his first test at 9:08 (class started at 8am and didn’t finish til 3:30). He felt great the minute he stepped in the arena and tried his heart out. I thought it was good but never in a million years as good as 72% and enough to hold the lead for 6 and a half hours while over 50 competed!! He won his first ever sash and lots of fantastic prizes including a trophy, rug, vouchers and a lesson with Kirsty Meopham!

His second test was the novice which he done the week before at Stilebridge! At 7:30 pm!! He was abit shocked to be loaded back onto the lorry to go back to the show but with 10 and a half hours between his tests it was unfair to keep him stood on the lorry there so we went home in between! As i said before we had to do the test we did the previous week which he had changed legs in. I was not confident about it going much better this week, especially as there was not alot of time to practise in between shows! Plus i saw an amazing test whilst i was having a cup of tea when we arrived back at the show which i was sure would win. Never mind i thought, hes won once already!

We had a very short warm up to keep his energy levels up with a quick counter canter practise which did not go well! Left rein went fine, right rein he kept changing! Not a good sign! I think he managed it once! Into the arena and he grew about a foot once again and powered through his test, i could feel it was going well, he was feeling great in his mediums, lovely free walk and into the canter…. started well, nice medium then the dreaded canter across the arena….. half way and he was still in front of my leg and in a good rhythm….. we made it to the other side all we had to do was keep it up the long side. I couldn’t stop smiling, we made it!! If it all went down hill from there i didn’t care! Then it was onto right canter….. again he felt nice, good rhythm going forward and really listening to my every move, across we went….. we made it 3/4 of the way easy, then in a split second i felt him start to jump into the air, ready to change, i don’t no if it was a luck or if i managed to catch him just right but he landed back on the right leg, i didn’t dare move an inch as we straightened up for the long side. Once more he felt like he went to change but still he kept it!! My little star!! This class was not quite as long as the prelim (Novice went on for about 5 hours!) We waited around for the results as he had done a great test and i thought he would get a place. The scores went up and he was on 69%! What a shock, he was leading again!! Luckily this was not an agonising 6 hour wait like the last class! The results were out, he had won again!! More sashes, trophies, jumpers and a lesson with Amy Stovold!

We arrived back home at around 10:30 all exhausted after a very long day, still in utter amazement at how good my boy is!!

On the 18th October i took Uzboj to Stilebridge Barn Dressage Championships which he had qualified for at Prelim at the beginning of the season. He hadnt had an outing for afew months so i took him ther the week before for a quick outing and he won the Novice qualifier so we had both classes to contend.

After a full clip, bath and lots of pampering we were off. He did a really lovely Prelim test and held the lead til almost the end where he was beaten by 1 mark! Although it was very annoying i was over the moon with him as he is not a dressage horse and i no with more training he still has alot more to give and im excited at the thought of how good he will be!

In the Novice he produced possibly his best trot work ever but unfortunately being a showjumper he just does not get the concept of counter canter. My fault i no as since he was 5 i have always taught him to do flying changes whenever we change direction! He is slowly coming round to the idea of it at home but unfortunately in his test changed legs both times in counter canter! The judges marked him down alot for this but we still ended up with a 10th rosette. Never mind he still went fantastically and i wasn’t disappointed with him. We are now practising this alot in preparation for 23rd where he is off to the BYRDS Southern Open.

We were up bright and early mucking out and sorting the horses for the day then it was off to Windsor for the European championships. We Were there by 10 so we had plenty of time for a good shop before the showjumping at 2.

It was a really tough class with only 2 clears out of a top class field which was amazing to watch and really enjoyed by everyone! Helena Lundback riding Madick won the class an truly deserved the win jumping the only double clear and made it look effortless.

After a nice picnic back at the car we were back to watch the dressage to music. It was in a different league to dressage most of us have seen before and totally different to watching it on the TV. It was won by Edward Gal on Moorlands Totilas who scored an amazing 90.750% and broke the world record. He scored 29 10’s! Can you imagine getting that?!

We arrived back at the yard about 1am all very tired but feeling truly inspired!

The next day i took Simone (one of the horses we have for sale) to Cobham Manor, she jumped brilliantly and was 3rd in 1.05, her first time jumping at that height and has qualified for the Championships next month.