Family Holiday in Spain!

On the plane home writing my blog.

Been on a family holiday for a week with James and Oscar and my in-laws Tina & Patrick. It's been nice to get away and relax and spending quality time with James and Oscar. Tomorrow I will be back to reality, looking forward to riding the Ggs!

Oscar chilling out in the pool!

Our next holiday is Dubai in October just me James and Oscar off to see Auntie Kellie and Uncle Simon they are also going to be Oscar’s God Parents.

Before I go away I have a few shows lined up.

Firle - 31 August 2013

Firle is one of our local events, always a great event in the South East to compete at.

Firle is another event that has had a makeover this year on the XC, changing the start around, and including some new fences.

The three Cullawn horses were entered Holly BE100 Open Corby and Ollie BE100. Holly was 5th, Ollie was 2nd, and just missed coming first by 0.5 penalties, Corby had an average score of 31 and an unlucky three down which is very unlike him so decided to withdraw from XC as there was no point running him on hard ground.

Golden Cross BSJA - 28 August 2013

I took four Cullawn horses only two of them are registered BSJA but there were free day tickets to jump.

So, took our new Cullawn horse JJ (Cullawn Royal) well he isn't that new, been with us for nearly two years. He came over from Ireland as a 6 year old just been broken as a 5 year old with not a lot of miles on the clock. We started work with him but he was so nervous and didn't trust anyone he was a nightmare to shoe, clip and to brush, we thought we would give him time to settle in by putting him out for a few months but a few months ended up being 8 months! I'm glad he had this time to chill out because he is a totally different horse, our farrier has taken his time with him, just trimming his feet and he had his first pair of front shoes on, without being sedated!!

I decided to take him out and do the 90cm class this is his 3rd time out. He is still very green but has so much scope, we had a silly run out at the second part of the double where he jumped in so big. I took him in the 1m class and he jumped a much better round, we had two down but it felt a lot more controlled. Hopefully he will turn out like a true Cullawn horse!!

Corby came for the ride and went into the 1.05 making it look easy with a double clear

Holly went double clear in the 1.05 and came 3rd, I also took her in the 1.10 where we had one down in the jump off.

Golden Cross Affiliated Derby Show!! 27/28 July 2013

Ian Bareham organises a great derby show spread over two days, I took my two BSJA registered horses Holly & Ollie on the first day. Holly was entered into the 1m derby & 1.05cm class, we won the 1m derby and were 5th in the 1.05.

Corby picking up Holly's prize!

Holly in the ribbons!

Ollie was entered for the 1.10 which he won, wasn't sure what to do next 1.20 or 1.25. I was brave and entered him into the 1.25, this would be his first time jumping this height and I haven't jumped a course like this for some time! He proved he could do it by doing a foot perfect round jumping out of his socks!! Jump off was next, it goes up two holes which made it 1.35 and it looked huge! We went clear to come 2nd behind Lisa Long who did a fantastic fast round!

I was back again on the Sunday with the same two horses, and even my fiancée came for the ride and my friend Kerrie who kindly looked after Oscar. Holly was entered for the 1.05 derby where she had a cheeky stop second to last which was a shame as there weren’t many clears. Ollie jumped the 1.15 derby before the Eventers Challenge, a good warm up class for him. We went clear but had a time fault (gutted!).

The Eventers Challenge is a mixture of show jumps and XC fences which include corners, skinnies, banks, water etc, the height is 1.10-1.25cm.

There were a lot of eventers entered Brook Staples, Clare Lewis, Sam Penn, Sasha Hourigan (Pemble), Anna Hilton and many others. First person to go was a showjumper who did a fast clear. I just wanted to get Ollie around, we did a super clear and came 6th, there were only two clears, Ollie and I and the winner.

Ollie - Eventers Challenge 6th

After everyone put the horses away Ian invited us back for food, he put on a lovely spread (yummy fresh strawberries with chocolate profiteroles!).

Overall a good weekend coming back money up!

Smiths Lawn - 5 August 2013

One of my favourite events and it was even better this year - they completely changed the XC around.

It was a very early start leaving at 4am. Before we leave for any event we have to do all our horses at the yard first. I also had to drag Oscar out of bed - well he was still sleeping until we got to Smiths Lawn!

I had to walk the course before I started, I thought it would be good idea to carry Oscar in a baby carrier, so he was strapped to the front of me. Wasn't such a good idea after all, as carrying a 16lb baby around a course is more like doing a cardio work out!

This was Holly's first event back after a year off, she was pretty chilled and scored a 30.5 dressage, clear SJ and had a very cheeky stop XC at number 13! (unlucky for me). Maybe I was a bit relaxed because she was taking me around like a train!

This was Ollie's first event back after his fall, luckily here they didn't have a step down into water, but they did have an up to height trakenher and he is a wimp at ditches. I was wrong to think this, he did an amazing double clear scoring 32 and coming 9th.