Week 1
To get more information on horses mentioned go to Our Horses
To get more information on Mark & Tanya go to About Us or anyone else go to The Team
Monday there was very little time to rest and recover from the weekend, it was was work as normal, with a busy week ahead. All the the 'babies' that had an easy week last week needed plenty of work in preparation for Burnham HT where we had 11 horses competing on Thursday, 7 on Friday, and 2 on Saturday. We were tired just thinking about it!
To make the week a little more chaotic we had
a dinner party on Tuesday night for friends in Leicestershire and some Irish
friends in the UK for a few weeks to compete.
A dinner party, not normally a big deal I normally cook casseroles which can be
done in advance and make everything as simple as possible.
The problem was we had 9 to sit down, this meant the kitchen table was too small
and our dining room table needed to come in from the garage where it had been
since we moved last February and the room we had used as an extra bedroom for
the last year needed converting to a dining room. It was like a scene from
changing rooms, except we also had to cope with the horses to ride, and the pony
club in for 3 hours of lessons, we must be mad!
In the end it all went fairly smoothly, and we only had to take one door off to get the table in!
Burnham Market HT is 3 hours from home, set nearly on the east coast it is a beautiful area with pretty villages, although it does not make us want to go and live there - miles from anywhere with tourist traffic!
The weather over the weekend was beautiful,
this meant even more tourists, although it did not effect us much, the roads
were pretty empty at 4.30am which was when we left each day.
Last year we travelled home each day which left us shattered, so this year we
decided to come home on Thursday night to change horses, then stay nearby on
Friday saving 6 hours of driving.
Jane who Lauren is riding for took some of the horses for us hence we were able to have 11 there on Thursday.
Thursday Lauren rode Denzil, Fox & Conker in
the Pre Novice and Hindle in the Novice
Mark rode Daz, Felix, Nordic, Bear & Klein, in the Pre Novice.
Booli had Oscar in the Pre Novice and Chad had Foaly in the Novice.
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Denzil did a good dressage, he
really is a bit of a dressage queen! Show jumping he had a couple down but jumped very well XC he was going super until a difficult roll top before the water stopped him. As he stopped and whipped around Lauren fell off! (start counting, FALL NO. 1) Lauren then showed him the water before jumping the roll top and retiring. |
| Fox was a little tense in his dressage but went on to do a lovely double clear to finish 13th |
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Conker also did a very good double clear to finish in 11th |
| Hindle and Lauren have now clicked doing a very good dr and double clear to finish 3rd |
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Daz did a a reasonable dr. followed by one down SJ and a lovely clear XC to finish just out of the ribbons. |
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Felix did a better dressage test this week, he is becoming more relaxed in the arena, then was silly in the SJ spooking in the middle of the double and running out this spoilt what have been a good clear. XC he had a glance off a Skinny house on a bending line, and Mark circled him a couple of times in front of another combination fence to settle him. |
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Nordic, we have had Nordic since
last summer, he hunted all winter and we have recently sold him to Wendy
Webb in the USA. |
| Klein, this was another new ride for Mark, a 7
year old ex racehorse by Kings Theatre. Klein hunted this winter with his owner, and is now seeing if he is going to make eventing career. First
impressions were certainly positive, a super dressage with to score 29
clear SJ put him in a good pace going XC. After one stop Klein jumped through to finish the course very well. |
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Once again Bear did a good dressage, the judges
really do like him, then he was unfortunate in the dressage having one
down of a related distance he then had the next one too.
XC he cantered round very easily clear. Bear has one more run at PN before moving up to Novice, he is certainly ready for the move up. |
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Booli and Oscar did an OK dressage then a very
good SJ just having the last fence down. XC the bending line to the skinny house caught them out spoiling what was a very good round. |
| Chad and Foaly competing in there
first Novice as a combination did a lovely double clear, The dressage
was better than the last outing, but still room for improvement. It is all just practice, and time so that the work they do at home can be repeated in the arena. |
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Home by 10pm it certainly seemed a very quick turn around as we left Saturday morning at 4.30am with another 7 horses.
This time Mark was competing, Willow, Nitetime, Duke Bunny and Johnny. - exhausting just thinking about it, especially as Mark is still very sore from his fall at Belton. We think he has probably a cracked or broken rib.
Lauren had a very easy day with just 2 dressage tests.
| Willow did a super dressage
followed by an excellent double clear to finish 2nd Willow has one more run at Novice before he moves up to Intermediate a move he is ready for. |
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Nitetime is still not
showing his full potential in the dressage, he should be better when he
gets to go in a big arena. He then went on to jump a very good double clear. Like Willow Nitetime has one more Novice, then moves up to Intermediate. |
| Duke - how frustrating.... after
the last 2 weeks when he has been in the lead after Dr. & SJ. and
stopping XC. - This week he did not do such a good test, then had the
last SJ down, but followed this with a very good clear XC to finish 7th
I guess that's horses!! |
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Competing in her first Novice Bunny did an OK dressage ( Mark does not push the same buttons as Tanya) then went on to do a very good double clear to finish 4th. |
| Johnny was not on top form, Mark was disappointed with his dressage, and Jumping, although he had a good mark Dr. & SJ clear, so withdrew him XC. - He has had 4 good runs already this year so did not need to the run on ground that becoming firm rapidly as the day progressed, despite the efforts of the organisers. |
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 Louie in the dressage |
Lauren had Louie in the
2* CIC and Delphi in the 3*CIC Both horses had their dressage on Friday, followed b XC on Saturday. Louie did a good test, for a mark of 54 despite Lauren going wrong at the start of the test and losing 2 marks. Delphi was a little tense in her test this week, but still went well, scoring 59.7 The good news was she managed to keep her top hat on this week!!
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Friday night we stabled 10 miles away which was perfect, we
had the horses put too 'bed' and were in the pub for a meal by 7pm which was
perfect as we were then in bed by 9pm!
We must be getting old!!!
Saturday morning Louie was first to go with his SJ - always built well up to height the jumping at Burnham always causes plenty of poles to fall. Louie jumped an excellent clear despite Lauren falling off in the collecting ring (FALL NO. 2 off the weekend!)
Next on the timetable for the day was Louie XC despite starting well - well 2 fences....lauren tipped off at fence no 3. None the worse for the fall she remounted jumped the next 2 fences and retired.
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They say things come in three's At
least Lauren managed to get her 3 over in one weekend.
Her fall even managed page 3 of the Horse & Hound. |
| We had a while to wait before Delphi
ran in the CIC *** this allowed us to watch the World Cup class, and
enjoy some of the entertainment laid on over the weekend for spectators,
there was plenty to see with terrier racing, birds of prey display and
an antique fair to name a few.
My favourite had to be the stuffed squirrel in the mechanical car!
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Delphi did an excellent clear Show jumping in a class with very few clears, the stormed around the XC. A lapse in concentration on Laurens part meant they collected 20 penalties at the second corner of a double of corners. This was disappointing, but they still achieved what was needed which was a qualification for Bramham CIC*** in June which is our aim for Delphi. (a clear or 20 penalties was needed)
So no win for Lauren this week, - typically as her mother had flown from the USA to watch!
Lauren stayed in Norfolk with her mother for the weekend whilst we went home via the much needed McDonalds!
