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!