ITS THIS WEEEEEEK!

Its Monday, the sun is shining and there is a little event happening in Gloucestershire THIS WEEK! How exciting. I have been sorely tempted to put my boys in the lorry and leave them there in bubble wrap and cotton wool with hypo allergenic duct tape until Wednesday but have decided against, just! Since putting pesky Hambleden behind me I had a super week starting with a hugely exciting 5yr old 'Carlifax' doing his first intro at Milton Keynes, 27 double clear. He is owned by Willy Do's owners the wonderful Greenlees family and we all agreed that score would do nicely this weekend as well. I had two super days dressage training with Andrew Fletcher on Wednesday and Thursday at Ann & Nigel Taylor's fantastic Aston le Walls followed by jumping a couple of more technical XC fences with Nigel following my virtual Badminton course walk. I have to say Luke and I both needed the tune up, too much dressage can be damaging to one's brain I think! Friday we did our last real 'piece of work' at Adrian Smith's gallops before enjoying a reasonably leisurely Saturday of hacking and stretching at home. Yesterday I took Luke and Willy to do dressage only at Withington. This proved a worthwhile exercise with Willy scoring 26 in the 3* test and leading a competitive section, Luke did a presentable test but there's room for improvement. I took their stable mate Sprout who did a very respectable test, one down (pilot error) and a fab XC round a reasonably testing track to take 10th in the Advanced. A very satisfactory day. We were glued to our FEI TV screens all evening to watch the Rolex Kentucky action unfold. What magical drama and excitement. I personally think its incredibly good for our sport to have a duel of such epic proportions. William FP's dressage on Chilli Morning was an inspiration and Andrew's two jumping rounds were as close to flawless as we could hope to witness. Next week is going to be just AMAZING.

A Hambleden full of hiccups

A Habmleden full of hiccups was about the size of my weekend! With 6 rides at this stunning venue I managed 6 reasonable but not dazzling tests, four show jumping clears and two with just 4 faults and ONLY 2 XC clears. Seriously frustrating blips on all those in contention. I guess I have to put it down in the great book of life under the chapter of experience...experiences NOT TO BE REPEATED! These lovely photos from Point Two and Tim Wilkinson taken at a happier moments of my pesky weekend: With 3 alarms pre 4am this weekend, and each day finishing with rides on my precious Badminton boys at home post 6pm I was mighty relieved to only wake at 6am this morning with a lovely trip up the gallops on Luke and Willy to look forward to. They smoked up the hill at Wendover and gave me a real boost. This is the start of a new week and we have huge excitements ahead. Tomorrow they will have a hack and do some stretching work in the school in readiness for 2 days dressage with Andrew Fletcher and a canter and jump on Friday with Withington to look forward to on Sunday. The realization is dawning that the great event is now only days not weeks away, and I am utterly determined to enjoy every step. I am very much there to do a job and produce my very best with firm goals for each phase, but its a poor show if I can't make sure I appreciate just how lucky I am to be in the position of having 2 horses to take to my very first Mitsubishi Motors Badminton.

Blustery Belton

Well Belton was a show of two halves...a really rather rubbishy Friday, and a magical Saturday and hugely satisfying Sunday. On Friday Dippy did by far his best test and a super clear XC but marred this with a dramatic spook at a very unscary photographer resulting in 8 faults. Chance did a super test, clear SJ and blitzed the XC to finish only 9 seconds over WITH A STOP. Seriously frustrating last minute change of heart at the coffin and he would have been second! Jackpot then decided to make me look like a total muppet experimenting with a snaffle in the 3* dressage with disastrous consequences. He ran away and we were last out of 113!! Thankfully Sprout rescued us on Saturday with a thrilling 2nd in a hot OI to none other than WFP himself on Cool Mountain. Sprout I believe was the only horse all day to finish on his dressage score, and it was his best test for a long while to boot. Jackpot equally redeemed himself with a super days jumping on Sunday. A pesky 4 faults in the middle of the treble two from home, but lovely clear all the direct routes XC. We seem to have the brakes sorted with just a few more runs needed to smooth out the round as we get to know each other better, I can't wait as The Bullman's and I have decided that he should join Sprout and The Sprout's in Tattersalls at the end of next month. Exciting times ahead. We are now full steam ahead for Hambleden with 8 this weekend between Fran and I, then MK on Tuesday for baby Carl and baby Stiker's BE debut, then the three big boys at Withington, with no XC for Willy and Luke as they hopefully set sail for sunny Gloucestershire on the following Wednesday.

Breezy Burnham Market

Burnham Market was extremely chilly but the run was hugely welcome after cancellations at Swalcliffe, Gatcombe and Somerly. We took Rio for her first 'away game' in the BE100. One of her lovely owners Jenny Burrall is a Burnham Market local. She and the rest of the syndicate were in fine form and despite taking fright at a leaf in the dressage she scored a respectable 36 followed by a very grown up double clear. Both my 2* boys are heading home with dressage practise at the top of their priority list!! Willy Do and Luke had their final run before Badminton. Both did reasonable tests, there is always room for improvement but 44 and 45 in the 3* were presentable marks! Willy then went on to put in a really confident and strong clear in both SJ and XC which put us in 10th in a hugely competitive field so I was over the moon with him. Luke unfortunately was wildly excited and as our team coach Luis Alvarez so succinctly put it...I don't think his mind was connecting with his body! He had 3 down in the show jumping, unable to contain his exuberance, but made up for it with a storming clear XC. So we are now balancing the fine line between having these two Badminton boys super fit, happy and healthy for the next four weeks and counting! Sprout, Jackpot, Chance, and Dippy now head to Belton this weekend, followed by Hambleden, Milton Keynes and Withington before YOU KNOW WHERE!!!!! Pressure's on!