My horses and recent sucesses!

So, firstly, a bit about me and my horses. My competition horse and closest equestrian partner is Guinness, a 9 year old ex-racehorse I’ve owned since his 4^th birthday. Retraining Guinness has been my greatest achievement so far in my eyes (my previous blog racehorse2eventer details all my struggles with keeping him sane and keeping him sound!). The first part of this year was mostly spent with Guinness recovering from a pulled muscle on the inside of his hock, so this year got off to a slow start. In June, things started to pick up and training with Sue Edwards was progressing extremely well, so I decided to aim for some dressage competitions. Before affiliating to British Dressage I wanted to qualify for the Chiltern and Thames unaffiliated dressage champs. On the 21^st June, I set off for a local competition at Rob Waine Dressage in Beaconsfield. An excellent warm up culminated in two excellent test resulting in Novice and Elementary qualification and two first place rosettes! 76.15% in Novice 24 and 69% in Elementary 49. Not a bad start!!

A week later, Guinness and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll around Milton Keynes eventing centre with my friends from Moorwards Farm, raising money for medical detection dogs with ‘canter for a cure’. Guinness enjoyed himself and we popped over some of the cross country fences at the end and had a splash in the water. I think a varied exercise regime is so important for all horses, not only for their physical development but also to keep things interesting and to challenge them mentally so they get even more enjoyment from their work.

On 13^th July, we embarked on our first affiliated competition in over a year. A hiccup with the trailer and torrential rain didn’t make for a particularly calm warm up but credit to Guinness, he kept his cool and despite sideways rain, pulled out two fantastic performances again. 69.26% in Novice 23 and 68.45% in Novice 39 and two more red rosettes! The thoroughbred had done it again!

6 days later, we headed to Bury Farm in Slapton and tested ourselves in a busier environment. I made a few mistakes in my second test (all my fault) but still achieved 61.38% in Novice 39 but my first test was better in Novice 23 with 67.13% and a 4^th place, giving me my 3 results over 65% to qualify for Area Petplan regionals!

On 26^th July weather was yet again not on our side at Classic Dressage. Although the warm up was indoors the outside arena was practically under water and my mediums suffered as a result. However I was still over the moon to achieve 69.31% in novice 39 and a 5^th place in a very hotly contested class.

The next day I took Guinness with me to Moorwards Farm for the week where I was helping with the pony club camp. It was great to have Guinness with me and during a few quiet moments in the evening we did a bit of jumping, had a canter round the track and played with some ground work ‘at liberty’. It was a really special time together.

Guinness is now enjoying a short and well earned holiday whilst I’m away visiting my family in France, but when I’m back it’s straight back to it with lessons booked in with my trainer Sue Edwards, and a Horse Trials at Aston le walls booked in for the end of August!

 Peroni at 1 day old!

My other horse is my KWPN youngster, Peroni. Bought from my close friend Kevin Malyon who bred him himself from his stallion and one of his mares, I actually agreed to buy him before he was even born! I first saw him at only 5 hours old and I’ve very much enjoyed watching him grow, gaining his trust (which is still an ongoing project!) and even starting some groundwork training. He is so interesting and with his excellent breeding all the effort I put in between now and hopefully when it’s time to back him, we will be a great partnership.

Peroni now at 14 months