Happy Times

I've had such a magic month back on my wonderful ponies since the dreaded ankle.


Fresh from Highclere we took 4 to Goring Heath, Chance placed 2nd and both Jack and Fish did 29 dressage and double clear. Rowan was a little green in places but is gradually regaining his confidence after Borde Hill's tumble.

On to Blenheim where Willy Do and I were selected to represent NZ at the Olympic Qualifier and as first team member to ride. He did a super test for a slightly disappointing mark of 55, jumped a wonderful clear XC with just 5 time faults and his best ever show jumping for 4 faults. He finished in 19th place qualifying him for Badminton and The Games and his score counted towards NZ winning team gold, definately a feeling I could get used to! So thank you Greenlees for a wonderful year and thank you Toddy and my girls for preparing him so beautifully.


Sprouty ran in the CIC at Blenheim and was a little rusty in the dressage but then jumped lovely double clear to finish 8th in this hotly contested class which was a great thrill.

From Blenheim we went to Purston where Chance won his first ever novice which was hugely exciting for his lovely owner Gail Lothian and I. From Purston on Thursday we spent three days at Gatcombe where Gill Watson's horse Jack came 4th in the Intermedite with a super double clear Fish jumped a double clear in the novice, Rowan was again a little green at the water after a super test and clear SJ, and Luke gave me a great run around the 2* for 5th place.

All in all I couldn't be more thrilled with the boys. I'm so grateful to Fran and Lyd for keeping them going for me and am now really excited for Little Downham and Pau to round the season off, fingers crossed the ribbons continue to head our way!

We're Back!

Hooray for Highclere!
Just over two weeks since I was released from the dreaded plaster cast my wonderful ponies were all placed at Highclere Castle this weekend:
Latest Chance was 8th in the PN, Master Rowan 4th in the PN and Sprout narrowly beat Animator into 3rd and 4th respectively in the OI.

Three other members of team Jackson were competing at Highclere: Lyd and Missy had a day of experience in the Intermediate, Missy just taking a while to find her feet in the mud, but they both rose to the challenge and came home wizer, Amy had a super win in the intermediate on Fernhill Rockstar, and Rowan Hendry sensibly decided not to run as she was very late in the day by which time conditions were less than favourable!

My horses being on such great form is a huge credit to my incredible support team, Lyd, Luc, Fran, and Gill have done a fantastic job of keeping the ponies going in my absence, THANK YOU. I also couldn't have done it without chiropracter extraordinaire Juliet Lock from The Practise in Thame, or Mr Keys surgeon from the JR. Thank you everyone, i'm so thrilled to be back in the saddle and so grateful to have had a successful start.

We now have 4 running at Goring Heath, 2 at Blenheim and 4 at Gatcombe to look forward to, so its back to work...

Fingers Crossed for Wednesday

Thankfully 6 weeks has nearly passed, and I am due to have a review with the orthopaedic surgeon on Wednesday to give me the all clear to ride, drive and walk (probably my order of priorities to be honest!!).

In the mean time best of luck to Little Luc competing at her first three day event at Hartpury next week, Lyd who runs Missy Moo in the intermediate at Aston and Scott who takes Chesney to his first Intermediate, also at Aston.

Watch this space for updates! This lovely shot shows fellow Kiwi Clarke Johnstone and I discussing the finer points of his dressage test at Barbury last month, amazing what a sideline expert i've become on crutches!!

ups and downs

After such a great result for Sprout in France, I have really experienced both ends of the rollercoaster!

Bramham was a disappointing show for me, Q tried hard in his dressage once he settled, but cantering his way through the first three movements left him on 68 and near the bottom of the field. Willy did his best ever test for a very pleasing 48. Q flew round the first 2/3 of the XC and unfortunately his bravery and scope caught up with him at a technical double of corners and we had an annoying tumble. Willy jumped a fabulous round with a frustrating error from me resulting in 20 penalties at the first water. He then tried very hard on the final day but was quite tired and knocked a few rails. Not my best weekend at the office, but two lovely horses came home safe and sound having learnt an awful lot, as did I!!

Salperton was the polar opposite end of the spectrum with Lyd placing 3rd at Missy's first Intermediate, Luke coming 3rd in the Advanced Intermediate, Fish jumping a lovely couple of rounds, and Scott coming 5th in the Novice. A happy weekend for the whole team.

Beyond all my nighmares I then broke my ankle schooling a young horse at home two days after Salperton, meaning I missed riding at the London Olympic Test event and 7 other events in the next 5 weeks. Annoying would be an understatement.

I have booked in to teach at several clinics, went to support Luc and Scott at Barbury who excelled themselves jumping ace double clears, I have just returned from supporting Team NZ in Aachen at the incredible CHIO where they rode brilliantly to come 2nd and following my surgical review next week hope to begin swimming thanks to my super dooper removable plaster and very modern surgeon. D day for returning to the saddle is 9th August and my revamped Autumn program is set to include Highclere, Gatcombe, Little Downham, Blenheim and Pau as my three day events.

I am feeling very lucky indeed to have my amazing team of girls, thank you Lyd, Luc and Fran, under the watchful eye of Gill they are keeping my ponies ticking over. And more huge debts of gratitude to my wonderful owners who are patient enough to wait for me to get better!

Choux de Brussell .. aka Sprout

Well my darling Sprout surpassed all expectations by placing 9th in his first CCI3* last week in France. He performed the best test of his life to score 54, although a little green in places his mind set was faultless and he did all the movements to the best of his ability in considerable atmosphere, an achievement in itself. We can now get braver and aim for higher marks with this stage of his development complete.

Cross country day was a long one. We didn't run until 5.11pm. The dear boy scorched around an incredibly testing track to finish 4th fastest, just one second over the optimum, which moved us into 8th place. However the drama didn't end as we crossed the finish line, poor Sprout suffered a bout of heat stroke and took a good 20 mins to cool down and regain his composure after finishing. An incredible team of experts from all around the world were there to assist in the process, thankfully resulting in no lasting ill effects. A worrying time for us all, especially as he'd shown no sign of it during his run, crossed the line full of beans and then a minute or so later became unwell.

His true grit, bravery and brilliance was on show for all to see on Sunday when he trotted up as fresh and a daisy and bounced around a testing show jumping course giving the fences feet to spare. Unluckily for Sprout I didn't quite get him balanced enough before the second last which he just rubbed to end with 4 faults, but a faultless performance by him resulted in a well deserved 9th ribbon and subsequent Badminton qualification for next year.

I was lucky enough to travel with fellow kiwi's Tim Price and Jonelle Richards who both had successful weekends and thanks to their hospitality and great driving skills I had the energy to arrive home on Monday morning at 9am and leave again at 10am for two days dressage training with Andrew Fletcher, and test riding and jump training with Gill Watson. Poor Gill had a nasty scare with her Ma being taken ill whilst Gill was helping me in France, thankfully all was well on her emergency return.

The home team have done an incredible job looking after Luke, Q and Willy in readiness for their three day events, so we're all set for Borde Hill on Monday and then to set sail for Bramham on Tuesday with three horses, via the gallops!

Magical Madness..

As the season progress the madness intensifies but thankfully with some excellent form to show for all the hard work. This week our alarms have been pre 3.30am more often than not with Andrew Fletcher dressage lessons in Leicestershire at 6am on Monday morning, Luis Alvarez show jumping clinic in Wiltshire at 9am on Tuesday morning, a show jumping show at Onley on Wednesday, Aston le Walls Intermediate on Thursday and then Chatsworth for the weekend!

My training with Andrew and Luis is funded by the New Zealand federation and feels as though their help, coupled with Gill Watson's regular input at home, is making a huge difference to the way my horses are performing.

So the jumping show at Onley saw Lyd jump a nice double clear on Missy, Little Luc had a slightly frustrating time on Ginge with him jumping three lovely rounds with the irriation that Ginge took exception to a green oxer in each round, and I rode Fish round for a nice double clear and Bonnie had the last rail in her second class.

Aston proved to be a somewhat frustrating day with Parker and Fish both doing their best ever tests, both jumping super clears show jumping and unfortunately both having hiccups on the cross country which is normally their guaranteed strong phase! I think it was to tune me up for Chatsworth.

At Chatsworth Lyd peformed brilliantly in her first FEI event on Missy to place 7th in the 1*. I took Luke and Q in the 3* and Willy in the Advanced, although the only difference was in the dressage test!! Luke did his best test to date to lie 9th, Q tried really, really hard and was slammed by the judges and Willy was rather bouncy but didn't score badly. All three boys jumped nicely in the show jumping Luke and Q had one rail and Willy a couple but it was certainly the biggest track he's ever seen. And then all three jumped lovely XC clears around a fairly meaty course. I was delighted. None of them broke any land speed records as it is their last run before Luhmuhlen or Bramham three day events but i was delighted with all of their performances.


So this morning we are unpacking and repacking in readiness to head off to France this afternoon with Sprout for the CCI 3* in Saumur.

Windy Withington

This weekend the team headed to what felt like the highest point in Gloucestershire, Withington Manor. Little Luc on WhistelJack, Lydia on Royal Touch and myself on Castle River all competed on the Saturday in the Novice sections. Luc jumped a super double clear, but had a frustrating time in the dressage, Lyd did a lovely test and tidy double clear with a strategically planned steady run meaning a few XC time faults keept her just out of the ribbons, and Parker did a nice enough test, had a couple down and a super clear XC.


Sunday saw new team member Fran Denning make her competition debut for us and what a successful day we had! Willy and Sprout both performed pleasing tests, followed by a clear show jumping for Sprout and one annoying rail for Willy followed by two super cross country clears resulting in Sprout placing 4th and Willy 13th. Such a thrill to have really cemented these two at advanced level. Huge credit to the Withington team for producing fairly immaculate going in a very testing spring weatherwize!

Sprouty is now hopefully set to 'allez en France' and Willy has one more run at Chatsworth before heading to Bramham. A quietish week ahead before a truly crazy month with Moreton Morrell, Aston, Chatsworth, Saumur, Borde Hill, Bramham, Luhumulen and Great Tew...can't wait!

Hooray for Ribbons

Team Jackson has had a fab week at the office.

Lydia and her lovely mare won the Open Novice at Sapey on Tuesday which is an impressive result indeed on a 25 dressage, and double clear jumping. Little Luc also ran at Sapey with an improved dressage and good jumping performances.

I took Master Rowan in the novice at Burnham on Friday and he produced personal bests in all three phases which was a great thrill. He placed 12th with a good double clear round, and he and his owner Kathy Hoffmann appeared quite at home hanging out with the cool kids at the biggest one day event in Europe!

Willy Do had a nearly brilliant performance in the advanced, his best test to date, a lovely jumping round with an unlucky rail at the last and then rather disappointingly I made a couple of errors cross country resulting in a couple of run outs. That said he felt, scopey brave and careful round a very decent track so I have high hopes for his season from here on in.

On Sunday Sportsfield Quality had a fantastic first advanced, doing a personal best test of 39, some 14 mark improvement on his last start, followed by a super double clear for 9th place, and cementing his qualification for the CIC3* at Chatsworth.

Most excitingly of all Nigel Taylor and Kathy Brown's lovely but quirky Animator put his best foot forward in all three phases for a 3rd place in the CIC 3*..yahoooooo!
We were only beaten by Pippa Funnell and Andrew Nicholson so not in bad company!



We are off show jumping this week and then its Withington the weekend after next.

A few early starts...

Wow, well the last week has involved 5 out of 7 alarm clocks before 5am, the earliest being 2.30am!! So apologies for the lack of a more recent blog but therein lies my excuse.


Belton is one of my favourite events, and with Mark Phillips as course builder the XC reminded me just why I enjoy it so much up there. That and the added bonus of being able to stay with my sister only half an hour away made it a fun weekend. I had a mixed time of it competetively, Master Rowan did a lovely test, had a couple of green mistakes show jumping and then proceeded to unceremoniously eject me on the approach to an innocuous looking table at fence 5 on the cross country! Slightly embarassing mistake by me, but i hopped back on to complete a lovely round over certainly his biggest challenge to date!

Little Luc, one of team Jacksons working pupils came and jumped a fantastic double clear in the novice at her first BE event of the year and made us all very proud, well done Luc.

Willy Do really went brilliantly for 8th in a very competetive OI section adding just 3 time faults XC to his lovely dressage of 33 so I was delighted with him and feel he is well ready to make the step up to advanced at Burnham Market next week.

Animator performed his best test EVER. He was relaxed and rideable and had it not been for the hinderance of his jockey would have been right up there with the big boys. I managed to go wrong not once but TWICE. What a school girl error. I am sure someone up there has a master plan to make sure I've made every mistake in the book so i'm thoroughly prepared to win something big SOON. Well, that's what i'm hoping! Luke then didn't jump a bad round show jumping but had two rails which i was disappointed with, and Cross country we had an annoying stop, again I'm putting down to early season rustiness on my part. I am looking forward to putting it all right in the 3* at Burnham next weekend. Having had a show jumping clinic with team trainer Luis Alvarez, and a XC session with Nigel Taylor by then we should be back on track!

Sprout was horrendously naughty in the dressage at Belton and then zipped around both the SJ and XC in only his second advanced as if it were tiny. I was thrilled to bits with him, and also very grateful. Having watched a terrible fall two horses before I set out, I rode the first 6 fences like a muppett and only thanks to Sprouts athletecism managed to get away fault free. It was the wake up call I needed and we then had a fabulous round in great harmony.

Meanwhile Lyida was competing at Goring Heath on the Sunday and had a great win in the pre novice on Owt for Nowt, which is a really good achievement and Scott Ralph had a super pre badminton run in the novice on Radical Approach, so all in all a good weekend for the Team.

On Tuesday I set out for Portman with River Mill and Castle River and have to admit to wondering what on earth i was doing as i was walking the course in the pouring rain at 7am!! Anyway, the clouds cleared, both horses did pleasing tests, and Fish did a gorgeous double clear in complete control which I thoroughly enjoyed, Parker had a couple down and jumped a lovely clear XC. We had a delicious picnic with mum's cousin Jen and her husband Cliff, who were also super grooms for the day!

The final early start was yesterday for squad training in Wootton Basset with Luis Alvarez, a really productive day with Willy, Luke, Sprout and Rowan. I thoroughly enjoy his way of teaching and can't wait to jump some super rounds on them all at Burnham.

Gatcombe and Beyond

Just a quick update as we set off for Belton..

I had a fairly unremarkable weekend at Gatcombe, running Willy Do and Sportsfield Quality in the Intermediate. Willy did a nice test for his first proper outing, had an unlucky rail in the show jumping and popped round the cross country easily for 11th place. Sportsfield Quality did what I thought was an improved test from Tweseldown but scored an all time record worst for me with 53!! He then proceeded to jump a fabulous double clear with a technical 20 creeping in on the cross country thanks to my blondness mis reading the fence numbers!! He really is a jumping machine so I shall be doing all I can to improve his dressage marks before he makes his advanced debut at Burnham Market next month.

Congratulations to Lydia who came 7th at Somerly Park with her lovely Mare on Tuesday, and as Friday dawns we are setting sail for Belton with Luke and Sprout in the Advanced, Willy in the OI, Rowan in the Novice and little Luc riding Whistle Jack in the novice, so it's a step up for us all. Fingers crossed we pull some good results out of the bag...I am in the mood for some ribbons now!

Well true to form a good dress rehersal did not always result in good performances!! My ponies were mainly completely wild at their first proper event of the season at Tweseldown this weekend. There were some rather 'expressive' tests, a nice way of saying they were little rebels! That said Luke performed like a seasoned campaigner to do a lovely test, as did Jack and Rowan.

Luke and Jack jumped lovely showjumping rounds and the others were all continuing their wild streak with Rowan trying very hard at his first attempt in a main arena, and thankfully the rebels all proceeded to redeem themselves with five fabulous clears cross country. Poor Jack managed to tread on a stone on the way to the start of the XC and we had to withdraw him, such a shame for his owner Gill Watson as I'm sure he would have come home with another ribbon to add to his collection, especially after such an immaculate show jumping round!

Congrats to Lydia for a good weekend at Tweseldown on her 3 ponies, she posted some good results so very well done.

To back track slightly our mad week began with 11 of the team running at Aston followed by 2 days at Squad training for a show jumping clinic with Luis Alvarez. I took Luke, Q and Sprout and found it really helpful and inspiring to be working with such a great coach and to be training along side the 'A'listers of NZ eventing. That said I was really proud of my ponies and although we came away with plenty to work on I don't think they were outshone by the cool kids, and I can't wait to start putting what we learnt into practice.

So, looking forward we have Gatcombe and Belton to focus on, they are all now able to start some outdoor show jumping training on grass after a winter on the all weather, and all the ponies are very much looking forward to being turned out in their fields again after a long winters stabling, always a great way to relax them and help them perform better, so heres hoping we see a marked improvement over the next month!



Much love to all luc x

And they're off...

Hooray, after what seems like a very long winter Team Jackson's season started with a bang this weekend at Aston le Walls unafilliated horse trials. We had 12 runners across the various divisions, and excitingly we managed 11 double clears, winners and a couple of placings! Congratulations to Lydia for winning the PN on her lovely mare My Royal Touch aka Missy Moo, and I was really chuffed to win the Novice on Gill Watson's Wellshead Munnings.

Our new 2 legged recruits, Liv and Little Luc were amazing under pressure, they certainly had a baptism of fire as my times meant I had to ride 5 rounds of show jumping and 5 rounds of cross country within an hour and a half. The girls ran a slick show with help from Mum, Dad, Kathy Hoffmann and the Greenlees family. Huge thanks to all.

Sunday saw Team Jackson hitting the road, moving all 14 horses back to Tetsworth. Again thanks to the girls this proved a far less stressful manoever than I had anticipated. Another huge thank you.

Onwards with the mad week, and Liv and I set sail for Marlborough with three horses for our first official team NZ squad training. A jump clinic with Luis Alvarez Cevera. Watch this space to hear how we fared, and a full update from Tweseldown and our first affiliated outing of the year..let the games begin!

Well spring is nearly here, and Team Jackson will be moving from Aston le Walls back to Tetsworth in a fortnight, my how time flies! We have been out competing at last, with three dressage shows and a few show jumping shows. The ponies are getting fitter and a good deal friskier, and their first eventing run is just around the corner thank goodness. Two highlights of the last few weeks are Sprout's win in a Medium class with his best score ever of 73%, it would seem that our work with Gill and Andrew Fletcher this winter is paying off and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he can maintain the new and improved version through into the season. Our other excitement is a new equine recruit Sportsfield Quality, who is owned by Paul Donovan and with whom I hope to aim for Bramham. So we're starting 9 horses in the Unafilliated horse trails here at Aston le Walls and then on to Tweseldown later in the week.

Nearly Spring?

Well Team Jackson has had an interesting winter. We have had a changeover on the staff with Mary Mason setting out for a career in drama and she has been replaced by Olivia Lee who seems to be settling in well in her first month with us.

Thanks to the inclement weather we have moved the entire team including 15 horses to Aston le Walls for January and Febuary to take advantage of Ann & Nigel Taylors expertise and their fabulous indoor school, XC course(which we hope opens soon), dressage shows and the unafilliated horse trials. Oh and I nearly forgot to mention the benefits of having some very friendly local pubs in which to while away the long winter evenings!

With Luke now on the official NZ squad we have made the most of some very welcome funding by having once fortnightly dressage lessons with Andrew Fletcher, although less welcome are the 4am starts to make it there in time for 7am lessons. Still his help has been much appreciated and the fruits of our labours will hopefully be plain for all to see as we aim for all our FEI marks to be in the 40's this year!

Gill Watson has continued to be incredibly supportive, although we haven't been based with her, she has trekked up the motorway to keep an eye on our gang and with any luck we'll be jumping many many clear rounds as a result.

We have been making tentative plans for the season ahead, and with the chance of going to Burnham Market, Chatsworth, Saumur, Houghton, Bramham and Luhumulen for spring FEI's life is about to get pretty exciting. Fingers crossed, so its head down to continue with our dressage blitz and see you all soon once the season gets underway.