Whirlwind

Since we completed THE ONE, life has been hectic as usual, until this week...silence! I'm currently undergoing a mandatory stand down after a little snooze on course at Bramham. Poor Jackpot pecked on landing at fence 3 and I popped out the side door 100 yards of stumbling later only to bump my head. Failure to answer even the simplest of questions in the following moments means a pesky 21 day break from competing. As I feel 100% I hope to have my sentence reduced after a neuro review on Monday...watch this space!! Most frustratingly of all I have therefore had to withdraw Willy Do from Luhumuhlen, the poor long suffering Greenlees family (Willy's ever patient owners) are due the wildest successes this autumn, here's hoping as we look towards a podium finish at Burghley!

In the build up to Bramham I had a fun and successful Rockingham in its inaugural year. 7th in the 2* aboard Wellshead Munnings and 7th in the Novice on Corazon our mighty exciting 6yr old, as well as a pleasing run from Mercury Bay. Houghton followed with the added excitement of being part of the nations cup team for NZ, as anchor man in 4th slot! Clever Willy Do did a beautiful test and magic double clear to finish 4th and best of the kiwi's. I was left ruing a few time faults that held us back from both an individual and team bronze, but such is life..grr! Tattersalls was a wonderful experience, and I ticked a long term goal of finishing on my dressage score at a CCI..unfortunately it wasn't the dressage score i'd dreamed of finishing on but Sprout decided home turf was very, very electric indeed! With a bit of time on my hands I was lucky enough to attend a dressage demo by Carl Hester today, and have tried to catch up with some long overdue paperwork. At present Willy Do and I are 1st reserves for the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen (plan B after our Luhmuhlen withdrawl) and will compete at Barbury, and Hartpury in preparation for Burghley. If wishes were horse shows Team Jackson will also be competing at Ballindenisk, and Le Lion three days this autumn but we all know the dangers of rustling entry forms too loudly! For now i have my own personal trot up to pass on Monday before I can get too excited.

So the biggest event in the world has been and gone, done and dusted. I am hugely proud to report that I have ditched my L plates having completed on Animator in 41st place..just inside the top 50% For full details of the week I was Horse and Hound's official online blogger so please feel free to have a read there http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/blog/lucy-jacksons-badminton-horse-trials-blog-its-all-over/ Suffice to say it was an intensely exciting week, I enjoyed the high's, survived the lows, learned an enormous amount and was hugely proud of my team of girls, owners, trainers, supporters, amazing pony and I feel honoured to be a kiwi! This week has been back to earth with a bump running 9 horses at Aston le Walls. Fran and I enjoyed a successful week with Willy proving he is none the worse for his Badminton experience winning the OI. He will now head to Houghton 3* and Luhmuhlen 4* as his plan B. Also in the OI Sprout came 2nd, Jack 5th and Jackpot 10th all finishing on their dressage scores which was a feat i've never achieved before. The following day Chance was 7th in the Intermediate, the next day Corazon was 7th in his first ever novice in such fine style that we're contemplating a trip to Le Lion for him in the 6yr old division. The next and final day Rowan zoomed round to complete on his dressage score for Fran as his final run at this level before upgrading. So an enormous thank you to everyone that made this logistical headache a very real and very successful week! The show goes on with Luke enjoying a well earned holiday before returning to Aston le Walls for Grace to contest junior classes this year, Willy re routing to Germany via Norfolk, Jackpot and Sprout are revving up for the Emerald Isle and we have some gorgeous baby ponies heading out to intro's! Phew!

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!

Tinseltown

Well its hard to believe that 2013 started off as 2012 spent most of its days...enduring a deluge! The poor Tweseldown organisers and team had made an enormous effort with a fantastic new course around the old racecourse and the heavens did their very best to ruin it! I was extremely lucky to run all 7 of the horses I had entered. In general they were incredibly big for their boots between the white boards. Two notable Badminton entrants being the very worst of my gang!! That said 7 lovely XC clears and good efforts from them all in testing show jumping conditions almost made up for their poor performances in the first phase. The three boys who did try hard were rewarded with ribbons..Fran came 7th in the N on Lil, of mine Dippy came 2nd in the ON, Harry 7th in the N and Gangsta 8th in the OI. This lovely picture by Uptown eventing of a smiley jockey after riding the lovely Gangsta for the Scouller family. He has very sadly now been sold and we wish his new owners every success with this one in a trillion pony. After a busy week with Aston Monday with 5, squad training Tuesday with 7 (attached video of Jackpot http://youtu.be/S7sS_RktdTw ..fastest time of the day!), test riding wednesday with 5, Tweseldown Thursday and Friday with 8 between us, we were then lucky enough to enjoy a quiet weekend at home drying out. Rather sadly Swalcliffe was cancelled this weekend but we're very much looking forward to Gatcombe next with 6.

and so it begins....!!

The 2013 season has officially started. Fran and I took 5 to Aston UA yesterday and although we didn't come home laden with ribbons it was a glorious sunny day and jolly nice to be out and about doing an actual event again. The clever organisers Ann & Nigel did an incredible job as always with the ground and got through squillions of entries to give us all that important start to the year. Thank you Taylor family! Fran had her first ride on Master Rowan who did a super test and lovely double clear to finish in 9th. She jumped a beautiful double clear on Lil but she was one of a number to find dressage over the hedge from XC finish too much to bear! I had my first run on Dippyparflam and Whirlwind for the Peace Family. Their dressages were best left undiscussed, but both jumped beautifully. The Rio Syndicate's Rio de Reve had her first ever eventing start for an immaculate test of 28, clear SJ and a rather green XC round with a couple of stops at the water. She is a mega talent who lacks mileage but watch this space for her exciting future. Its been a bonkers busy week with 5 dressage lessons from Andrew Fletcher on Friday, XC schooling 6 at Boomerang on Saturday, see picture of India Wishart's lovely 7yr old The Master's Harry who i'm riding at Tweseldown while India recovers from an injury. We then had 5 at Aston, jumped 7 with Spanish wonder coach Luis Alvarez Cevera today, running through tests with Gill on 7 tomorrow, running 4 at Tweseldown on Thursday and a further 4 on Friday at Tweseldown. This time of year is so exciting with masses to look forward to but with 17 horses to get XC schooled, galloping fit, dressage practised, rounds of show jumps practised etc etc etc in shorter than ideal days its a busy old time! Here goes though, its what we've all been waiting for...2013 LETS GO!

2013 in earnest... So our year on Team NZ began in earnest this week with 2 days training with Luis Alvarez at Bruno and Dominique's incredible facility near Wootton Basset. Firstly it was a great honour to be named on the High Performance Program with some exhaulted super stars of our sport Mark Todd, Caroline Powell, Andrew Nicholson, Jock Paget, Jonelle Richards and Clarke Johnstone. Look out the world, TEAM NZ IS GOING FOR GOLD! http://www.nzequestrian.org.nz/Article.aspx?id=7116&Mode=1 for the full report. I was ridiculously lucky to be able to take no fewer than 10 horses to train with Luis and without exeption they all learned plenty from their session, as did I...x 10!! The first entries are in now, and it is with huge excitement and eager anticipation that I look forward to 2013. I have a great deal of determination to make it a REALLY GOOD YEAR, and hope you'll enjoy the journey with me.

The return from paradise has been made somewhat harder by the deep freeze!! Thank you for really making reality that bit more challenging

. We sadly had very reduced numbers for our owners party kindly hosted for Team Jackson by Gill Watson. None the less a fun time was had by those that were brave enough to come. We are incredibly lucky to have Austin and Katherin O'Connors school in the nearest village so we are bussing our ponies down, only struggling slightly trying to fit the 13 current residents into our 5 horse lorry! Being at least able to keep the team ticking over is helping to prevent cabin fever from setting in. It isn't long now until the big thaw will rescue us and we'll be saying...d'you remember that awful couple of days in January....Here's hoping anyway!

NEW SITE NEW YEAR...HAPPY 2013 I'm lucky enough to be writing this from the Southern Hemisphere! Tomorrow is Tim Price and Jonelle Richards wedding in the Marlborough Sounds NZ. We have enjoyed a perfect trip so far with blazing sunshine, mountain biking, sunbathing, beach sports day, sunbathing, catching up with great freinds, sunbathing and even a spot of running with the season now not that far away!

The winning team on kiwi sports day including Olympian Sam Albert. Here's to another week of fun in the blistering NZ heat. Thank you so much to the awesome team at home for keeping the show on the road especially with two mega exciting new additions Carl & Rio...watch this space for more on the beautiful babies new into Team Jackson! Happy 2013 everyone and all the best of everything to Tim and Jonelle for tomorrow.

New Site, New Year ... HUGE AMBITIONS!

So the polar blasts keep on coming with alarming regularity! The joys of an English winter with livestock! The horses are now all in work, only 2 left to clip. They each enjoyed a month in the field, and then some low key hacking to prevent them getting too unfit whilst allowing their brains full R & R!

Luke was the only one not to thrive on holiday, and was thererfore draughted in as part of Team Townend for Express Eventing at Excel arena in London. What a treat. It was huge fun to ride dressage to music, indoor cross country and a decent round of show jumps against the worlds best riders. Even more of a thrill Luke finished 6th! A real buzz and a series I very much look forward to being part of in the future.

I have been lucky enough to enjoy a week away in Italy, my first non horsey holiday for 4 years. Sheer bliss! I was also then very fortunate indeed to spend my Burghley bursary on a weeks show jump training with Luis Alvarez Cevera in Madrid. It was an incredible opportunity to ride 6 horses a day with nothing to work on but myself, my riding and the way the horses were going as a result. Luis' family were so hospitable and I look forward to many clear rounds to demonstrate the benefits!

The winter months are ticking by with various indoor dressage and jumping shows, before I disappear AGAIN for a fortnight in NZ to celbrate Tim Price and Jonelle Richard's wedding. It will be wonderful to spend some sunny time, with these amazing friends, before returning to 2013 with all guns blazing. I was very excited to be 14th in the BE rankings this year and am aiming for top 8 next season! Happy festivities everyone.

Frustrating Times I feel that my season has been one of 'nearly good' results not 'really good' ones. Blenheim was one of those weeks. Sprouty put in a much improved dressage performance for a respectable 54. He was a total machine XC and was absolutely flying around, well up on his minute markers only to have a pesky run out at the second of a very influential double of corners coming out of the water jump. So close was he to jumping it that I really thought we'd gone the correct side of the flag and off we wizzed up the hill to continue, before being flagged down by the judge and sent back for that very expensive second attempt. He cruised home for just 6 time faults despite this time consuming blip. Frustratingly he'd landed on a nasty exposed stoney patch two from home and a bruised foot meant we decided not to show jump him on the last day. I'm sure he'd have been fine, but best not to risk him particularly lying so far down the leader board. He has now joined Luke and Willy on a very well deserved autumn rest in the field and will be back in late november to begin some serious dressage as a winter project. Sprout has had a sort of teenage phase of late with the odd blip both XC and dressage. I will be using 2013 to really consolidate him in all three phases at 3* level before beginning our 2014 world games campagin in earnest. He is an incredibly talented horse and I will take my time to iron out this seasons frustrations, which are realistically the result of my ambition to get to the Games meaning Sprouty's career was a little bit fast tracked, so I will make sure I dot the i's and cross the t's in order to lay all the foundations for a medal in two years time. Gatcombe the following weekend was another case of NEARLY. Gill Watson's lovely Wellshead Munnings did the best test of his career to score 36.9 and hold the lead from his early draw on Friday morning. He then went on to jump an immaculate double clear just one second over the optimum time leaving him on a final score of 37.3 Would you believe that one second left me 0.1 penalties adrift of the mega competitive Kitty King on Persimon and I had missed out on a Spa break for two days at the unbelievably indulgent Whatley Manor!!! How FRUSTRATING! I have since had a trip to Ireland horse shopping and found a really nice one who will hopefully join the team subject to the vetting this week. The girls and I have been out XC and SJ on a few of our resident younger or more wayward ponies. Tomorrow I'm off to Little Downham with Gail Lothian's Latest Chance and then Tuesday before dawn we'll set sail for the last event of 2012 with Wellshead Munnings, Fernhill Rockstar and GT Cruise for Ligniere. No rest for the wicked but it'll be strange with no events to report on for a month or two. I'm aiming to round off the season with a win...fingers crossed.

Beyond Belief...

Wow I have just returned from my first British 4* and am proud to say both my beautiful boys completed.

Willy Do did an excellent test with a few little green mistakes, jumped the round of his life XC for clear with 20 time faults and even more impressively just one down in the show jumping. He has surpassed our wildest dreams finishing in 19th place and a bursary for best first timer. I could not be more thrilled for the Greenlees family his wonderful owners and for our future....eek look out World Games!!

My darling Luke did his best test ever for 41.7 into 7th, he then lived up to his Animo genes by putting in a bit of a naughty stop at the ditch at fence 7 after which he ate up the massive track, and jumped a super round on the last day with an expensive loss of concentration at the second last. I am learning such a huge amount from him, and sentimentally feel he really put me back in the game when i first returned from NZ. I'm sure he has a big win in him when he decides to join in the party on all three days!!!

I can't thank my amazing gang enough, I am lucky enough to be surrounded by the most supportive gang of friends and family and I am convinced I couldn't do it without them. My fabulous owners The Greenlees, The Taylors and Kathy B...THANK YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY, to Gill, Andrew Fletcher and Luis your guidance is exemplary, to Mo and D your unwavering support is beyond brilliant. I have the best team of girls backing me up Captain Frantastic, Bec/ Bev, and Bec/ Len...you are all totally ace, and my wee sister and bro are mega stars.

THANK YOU...can't wait for Blenheim now which alarmingly is already 'this week'!!

Photo's to follow!

So congratulations to the logistics manager....we survived, and in fact succeeded!! On the Wednesday Animator was his usual fabulous self to come 4th in the Advanced at Aston as his final run before Burghley, and Rowan made a very competent job of his second Intermediate for a pleasing clear XC. We returned from Aston at 5pm, were unpacked and repacked and back on the road for Hartpury by 6.15pm! By 11pm we had worked the horses at Hartpury unpacked and settled the ponies into bed, ready for a 5am alarm and arena familiarization at 6am!! Sprout Thursday morning test was a great improvement and I look forward to him continuing in this vein for the next few weeks before another winter of dressage training to cement his strength in this phase. On Friday I 'nipped' back to Aston to ride Latest Chance in the novice where he finished on his dressage score for 3rd place and he is now qualified to run at Intermediate. Returning to Hartpury to work Willy once before putting him away and working in for his test was an exercise worth doing when he scored a fabulous 40.6 to lie equal third!! My best score ever! We even made a couple of little errors so hopefully I can pin those down to crack into the 30's at Burghley!! Sprout and Willy's show jumping rounds were a huge high for me. They both did super clear rounds and I couldn't have been more proud of their efforts. Pictures to follow! Sprout was first to run cross country and he really gave me a fantastic spin, all bar pilot error at the second water leaving us with a very frustrating 20 penalties. That experience i put to good use on Willy Do who stormed around with just 3.6 time faults to finish 4th in a very hot section indeed. Willy seems to be going from strength to strength at the moment which is hugely exciting for his future, I was so proud of his efforts at Hartpury and hope we can repeat the process next week! So wagons roll, home we headed followed by a rare few days off the yard with one night in Scotland and two in Ireland, on a horse shopping trip. Sadly I didn't find the horse of my dreams but it was an excellent trip and I cant wait to find a world beating 5yr old in the next few months. So from Ireland I came home to head to Tweseldown for Charlotte to do an immaculate job on Jimmy, his first event for 4 years, which they took by storm with a 31 double clear. We then galloped on Friday, went to dressage training in Nottingham on Saturday, jumping in Wootton Bassett on Sunday and took 4 to Wellington to compete on Monday! The Wellington boys had an unremarkable day as far as rosettes went but all did reasonable test, I had a case of 4 fault-itis each having just one rail, and then 3 happy clears XC for Rowan, Jack and Chance who was a debutante at this Intermediate level. I didn't jump Sprout in the Advanced despite a much better test he is being saved for Blenheim. Another hectic week but all made the more exciting by the arrival of a great, great kiwi mate Nick Brooks. Welcome home Nick! So Tuesday has dawned...and all being well we should be loaded and off to Burghley sometime this morning. Watch this space for the biggest event of the year for Team Jacko. Good Luck Willy, Good Luck Luke

Aston Ribbons

Well, Team Jackson are currently on a mission! The call up for the Olympics didn't happen so we're working doubly hard at home to produce some dazzling results at Hartpury, Burghley and Blenheim!! The final team training in Surrey was a fabulous opportunity to train alongside the best riders in the world, at the top of their game with 2 international mega star trainers. Luis Alvarez for jumping and Stephen Clarke for dressage. The four days 'camp' flew past and I must admit I'd have happily stayed for four weeks!

Bryony Holloway and Paul Wedge's amazing home was all to easy to become accustomed to. We worked the horses in the outstanding facilities, watched our team mates training, analysed video's and we were then fortunate enough to enjoy the tennis courts, the swimming pool, and the gym. I'm convinced I was born to be a squillionaire, this lifestyle suited me well!!

From dream world to reality, we took 5 horses to Aston where the brave Taylor family put on a super event despite the many months of rain. Our gang really put their hands up this weekend and had some great results with Luke and Willy 4th and 5th in the Advanced, Jack 2nd in the OI and Chance 2nd in the Novice. I was delighted too with Master Rowan despite a pesky 20 penalties XC he coped well with his debut at Intermediate level. So I am willing all the kiwi's to their very very best performances at Greenwich, in particular so we can enjoy a huge celebratory party! From there Team Jackson has a slightly bonkers week with Aston on Wednesday Hartpury Thursday, Aston Friday morning and Hartpury Friday pm and Saturday. Phew. Look out logistics manager the wheels will be in over drive! In the mean time we're willing Captain Frantastic a speedy recovery from her fractured hand and longing for her return, and a huge well done to Bec and Becky for coping so admirably in her absence.

AMAZING AACHEN...

Woweeee, the life of the jet set crew. I could quite get carried away with the ritz, glitz and glamour of the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen. To have dressage, show jumping and eventing on such a grand scale, all at one show was mind boggling. For a start Joe Giannamore who owns Jock Paget's stunning horse Bullet Proof was incredibly generous in transporting the team of riders to Germany in his private jet...UNREAL. Obviously we spent the entire trip discussing tactics and work only!

The horses went in two lorries..Jock took his own, Sprout for me and Knockmore Lad for Brazilian rider Renan Guerrio. Mark took his own Grass Valley, Flinstar for him to ride deputizing for injured Jonelle Richards and Nereo for Andrew. Exercising the horses on the Thursday I was blown away to be schooling alongside Ludger Beerbaum, Michael Whittaker and other members of the great and good of international showjumping. Important to concentrate on the job in hand, but a shame to miss the enormity of the occasion. Sprout felt quite at home, and sure enough all the kiwi team flew through the trot up that afternoon. Friday morning dressage for all 40 competitors in the dressage grandstand arena. Sprout was a little on edge but for his stage he performed some good work to score a respectable enough 57. I look forward to him having the strength to contain his loose athletic paces and power, at the moment he very often over revs resulting in tension spoiling the movements and lowering the marks. Make no mistake though in time he'll be very competitive on the flat. We spent Friday afternoon watching the most enormous Grand Prix in the show jumping ring. Mind blowingly ENORMOUS! Then reality check, it was our turn in the main stadium next! The vast arena was deceptive, the distances between fences very long so a normal show jumping speed for us wasn't quite enough to make the time. Sprout jumped his socks off and made us all incredibly proud with a clear round. 4 time faults spoiled the score card but something that is very easy to fix. The main thing was his impeccable behaviour under mega pressure in front of a big crowd...SO PROUD! How to make a good week great...another clear round. On Saturday morning, my darling scrawny little 10year old Irish pony stormed around the most technical of tracks to post another clear round. Again, a few time faults will be easy to erradicate with the benefit of hind sight, but overall i was blown away by his maturity. With Andrew placing 5th and Jock completing in style on Bullet Proof we ended as 4th placed team which was a nice end to an incredible week. The next stop is final team training in Surrey next week. Gutted though I am to be first reserve I am more determined than ever to work my socks off and prove that this seasons good results are no fluke, and get so good at the sport that I can never be left off a team again. In the mean time I'm here ready, willing and able to step in if needed.

Busy Babury

Well a good enough weekend at Nunney followed with 7th in the BE100 for Sammy, 7th in the novice for Rowan, 14th 2* Jack, 7th in the intermediate with Alf, and 15th in the novice for Chance. I had a slight case of damn 4 fault-itis but was very happy with the ponies, and can thoroughly recommend the long drive to this lovely new event. Having thought Bramham was busy with three, we decided to double it and take 6 to Barbury. I couldn't possibly have dreamed that we'd complete the logistical challenge of exercising 6 horses a minimum of twice a day each, and competing them all without so much as a moments hesitation. WELL DONE FRAN and her gang! So grateful to Bec, Becky, Aisling and all the owners for their support.

Firstly Master Rowan completed his last novice competition in style with a decent test, one down show jumping and a super clear XC. He has taken a long time to recover from a nasty trip in the water last year and finally feels to have put that firmly behind him. Next we had Willy Do in the 4* combined training. Unfortunately for him the wind was gale force and he took a strong dislike to the thunderous flapping of flags and didn't do his best test for 56. He is now aiming for Burghley and will compete at Aston le Walls and Hartpury in preparation. I ran Whats it all About (Alf) for Adrian and Maggie Smith and Wellshead Munnings (Jack) for Gill Watson in the 2*. Unfortunately Alf wasn't feeling in great shape and decided that after an amazing test of 46 that showjumping wasn't for him today. Jack did a fabulous test, had a frustrating 4 faults and jumped a superb clear XC to place 8th out of 102! Really, really thrilling result for Gill and some reward for all the incredible hard work she puts in to the whole team.

The final selection trial for the Kiwi's, the Irish and the American's was held in the 3* at Barbury this weekend. Luke lived up to my most ambitious of expectations by coming 9th out of 110! He is getting very consistently good scores on the flat and this was no exception on 46. We then went on to jump a great round in the show jumping, another frustrating 4 faults and a storming xc run for just 5 time to finish in 9th. I feel he has done all in his power to impress the selectors and I'm trying hard to remain philosophical now and think what will be will be! He has had 4 top 10 placings for 5 runs this year, all bar one at 3* level. Who knows?!!? With the incredible honour of being asked to compete in the Nation's Cup at Aachen, I did dressage (a little wild), show jumping (immaculate) and just 10 fences of the XC on Sprout at Barbury, in preparation for his departure to Germany on Wednesday. Never have I found it harder to pull the reins and ask a horse to stop, he felt pretty special indeed around those fences! So Aachen next and we'll have to wait and see what happens after that.....

Brill Bramham

Wow, what a week. Three horses at a three star event posed quite a challenge. Thanks to my amazing team we made it...and in style. Fran and Bec deserve a special mention for the immaculate turn out of the beautiful boys, and Mum and Dad for helping me massively with logistics both human and equine! So we arrived on Tuesday in time to lead them around, graze and put them to bed. We hacked all three every morning at about 6am to give them a leg stretch and chill a little. Willy Do passed his wednesday jog with flying colours, followed by dressage lessons for all three with the wonderful Andrew Fletcher. As 14th to go on Thursday Willy shot into the lead on a fab score of 45. Such a thrill and he was only overtaken by William Fox Pitt on both horses to complete the dressage phase in 3rd YAHOO! Not to be out done, Luke's test later Thursday afternoon put him into the lead in the CIC on 41. I was over the moon to score personal bests when it counts! Gill Watson was on hand to help me warm up and I certainly have her and Andrew to thank for these scores! Sprouty had the worst of the going late on Friday afternoon, but he tried hard, and but for a couple of errors is close to cracking into the 40's. Saturday morning was a great thrill, Willy bounded around the most testing 3* track with relative ease, he took on all the direct routes and bar one slight blip exiting the water he didn't miss a beat. 9 time felt like a decent speed for him, and as he gets stronger he'll certainly get faster. What a buzz. The trouble with having 3 horses is that you don't have long to enjoy 'the moment'. No sooner had we finished Willy's XC then it was time for Luke and Sprout to show jump. This was the only time the ground really held me up. I was really gutted to finish Saturday well down the order with 4 down for Luke and 2 down for Sprout. I was in exalted company mind you, many of the big names on their top horses were having rails. I decided to attempt maturity and put it down in the great book of life under the chapter of experience, i didn't ride awful rounds and whilst there are a couple of things i'll do differently next time, I am trying not to lose too much sleep over it! Sunday was a different story...HOOOOOOORAY. I had two magic rides XC on Luke and Sprout for 6 and 3 time respectively. Whilst i set out to give them a good spin against the clock, i was also aware that we were down the order somewhat and to belt round might be counter productive in the long run. They felt the consummate professionals and that this 3* level was very much within their everyday job. For the CCI show jumping, the ground was much improved thankfully and Willy jumped the round of his life. Apart from going slightly cross eyed into the treble where he caught 2 elements, he flew round and finished proceedings in 8th place. Way beyond our wildest dreams. To cap off a happy week all three traveled home well and pulled up sound on Monday morning...so a litte pause before we have 6 at Nunney, 1 at Salperton and then its Barbury and hopefully Aachen...time to get excited!

Ribbons at last ....

Hooray, I'm delighted to report that we've had a very successful last three events. Little Downham was a very early start with 1.30am alarm clock but it was well worth it with Jack coming 4th in the OI on a 28 double clear with a few time, Cher placing 9th in her first ever Intermediate against hot competition in an OI section on a 32 double clear with a few time. Our other resident Kiwi Kate Wood came 7th in the same section but disappointment for Amy who found Fernhill Rockstar a little fresh after 2 months with no parties, and disappointment for one of my lovely ponies What's it all About when he slipped and had a run out at a skinny. No sooner had we returned from Little Downham then I set off for Tweseldown where Rowan scored a well deserved result coming 2nd in a hugely competitive ON section despite him only having 5 points to his name! He did a lovely test and jumped a super double clear to score this personal best result before he has a well earned break to round off his spring season.

A first time visit to Pontispool was a very successful one for me, much needed after a pesky week. My week of frustrations included poor Alf stepping on his shoe and missing too much work to come to compete, and Cher sustaining a nasty little cut that again meant she was sound but needed to miss a couple of vital bits of work to compete on Friday. However my remaining 3 didn't let me down...Jack won the Intermediate and Ardent Sammy won his first ever BE event on an amazing 19.5 double clear. Sprouty did a magic test to lie 3rd in the OI and I didn't intend to jump him but he is ready for the big week at Bramham now. So we are missing Tattersalls but heading off all guns blazing to Bramham with Willy Do in the CCI and Animator and Ambassador in the CIC...here's hoping we can keep up our tally of ribbons....