May's Diary

Week 1

This week was a fairly quiet, for a change.
After lots of rumours as to weather Badminton would run or not, it got the go ahead on Monday. We decided not to go and watch but to get some chores done at home. (And catch some racing on the telly!)

The horses going to 3 days went to Newmarket cantering, along with our "Trainee Racehorse." He is looking very good, hopefully it will not be long till he will be ready to race.

We have been sent a 16.2hh bay 5 year old from Ireland to sell(see For Sale) he travelled very well. There should be no problem selling him he seems very nice.

Saturday all the novices went to Hambledon Horse Trials. This is the fist time we have been there. It is a lovely event in a super setting (although the directions could have been better)
The X-country was very well built and rode well. Defiantly one to go back to.

For a change the weather was beautiful. Perhaps this is our summer!

Emily and Sarah watching the world go by

We have a television in the lorry, so the day was spent trying to catch any of Badminton that was televised!

The horses all went very well. They are improving every outing.
Ghilllie was a little excited in his test, but then jumped very well with one down and did a lovely clear X-country.

Muffin did a good dressage although he thought he was to jump the arena boards at the start!

Then went on to do a very good clear show jumping round, and a super X-country, although he hesitated at the step into the water and was given 20 penalties.

Chad did a good dressage and foot perfect clear showjumping & X-country.

Marvin did his best dressage yet and we were all expecting a 20 but we think the judge was looking at a different horse when he got 30! (That's dressage.) He went on to jump very well just having the last down, with a very good clear X-Country.

Emily and Tricka did a good dressage then had an unlucky fence down jumping then had a run out 3 from home on the X-country. We think that she was exhausted in the heat and stopped kicking! So Emily needs to some fitness work!!

They are all entered in Moreton Morrell Pre Novice next week, then they should be ready to go Novice.

Sunday we had a dilemma we had to go cantering in the morning.
Then what to do?
Go to Newmarket Races to watch the Guinness?
Go to Badminton for a look round the stalls, and watch the last few, showjump?
Watch The Grand Prix on telly?

I'm afraid the telly won! We stayed in and watched it all.

Week 2

This week promised to quite hectic. And was.

We are quite proud we managed to fit everything in without forgetting anything (we think)

Monday we were at Wittering Grange to do some modelling for Your Horse Magazine
Although this is quite time consuming it is usually fun and we enjoy seeing the pictures of the horses in the mag. Although, we usually cringe at the pictures of ourselves.

We stayed the night at Wittering, Tanya taking care not to relax too much with Robins Hospitality!!

Tuesday along with other invited riders we took part in the first trial of Jump Cross a brand new competition idea.
Run around a 2000-meter X country area (all very easily viewed by spectators). On an all weather track, with knock down fences.
The idea is to run in teams, attracting television coverage and so with that the possibility of large prize money.
The format is very exciting; the horses we took certainly enjoyed the round, along with learning from it. Tanya had the misfortune of not getting the right line in the lake, so ending up swimming! Along with her mobile which didn't benefit from the experience!
Stay tuned for future developments.

Tuesday afternoon was Jemmima Johnson's funeral. Whilst funerals are never pleasant, it was a lovely afternoon, in a beautiful church, with hundreds of people there to celebrate Jemmima's life.

Out again with the novices on Wednesday at Morton Morrell. Our horses all went well. (See results) Emily didn't have quite such a good day having perfected the dressage getting a 24. She went 3/4 quarters of the way round the XC before having problems, so back the drawing board with more schooling.

Muffin did a super XC full of confidance. He has learnt a lot in the time here. Now he is off home for a holiday.

Marvil got the Dressage mark we were looking for this week And went on to win his section.

Thursday more cantering, at Newmarket. It is always a huge relief to finish the last canter before a 3 Day with a sound horse.

Goofy the racehorse came with us for a steady workout! All we saw was his disappearing bottom! And we think we go fast.

The weekend we spent sorting things out for Punchestown. Along with all our normal chores. Mark's mother had ordered him a new green jacket for his birthday. We went Saturday evening for a quick fitting and got home after midnight. So much for getting the packing done! But it was worth it. He now has a lovely jacket, which fits considerably better than the last.

We are off to Punchestown Sunday night. We thought we would give ourselves plenty of time. Last year we left on the Monday, the lorry broke down; we finally arrived just in time for the briefing on Wednesday.

It takes 12 hours to get there, and we have a few jobs to do when we arrive.

We will be home Monday 22nd and will update the diary then.

We remembered something that didn't get done! Unfortunately Phoebe's horse Benji went lame on the Wednesday she was due to compete him on the Thursday at Morton Morrell. She thought we had withdrawn, we thought mum had withdrawn, mum thought dad had withdrawn! A real mix up. So much for being organised.

Week 3

Sunday afternoon Smudge came in from the field with a rather large swelling in his lower jaw. A visit from the vet confirmed it to be an infection from a minor rub so armed with antibiotics we travelled to......

PUNCHESTOWN.

After last years' disastrous journey this time was hazard free and quite relaxing. Tanya's Dad did all the driving whilst we slept
The horses all travelled very well and came off the lorry very fresh and Smudge's jaw was much improved.
We left the UK with beautiful weather and arrived in Ireland to wind and rain, which stayed for the week.

We were lucky to be stabled in the main permanent yard, which has super boxes. Some competitors were less lucky as they had temporary boxes, which soon flooded and threatened to blow away.

Punchestown is a great 3 day with excellent facilities in the racecourse area. And of course renowned for its typical Irish hospitality!

Monday and Tuesday were days to settle in and also get some chores done in Dublin. Monday night we stayed at Mark's parents and had a lovely dinner, good shower and proper bed which set us up for the week.

Carl has improved and matured enormously since he was at Punchestown in 1998 when he bucked throughout his dressage finishing nearly last. This year he finished 12th after the first day and 26th at the end of the dressage.

Smudge's test was super. We were a little disappointed with his score of 50.2 which left him 9th after the first day and 18th at the finish of the dressage.

Murphy's dressage was Friday morning. His trot work was a little disappointing. He was a little tense as the flags around the arena proved to be far too exciting. His canter work however was very good, getting a 65.2

Time to discuss the dressage on our alternative mode of transport

On Friday afternoon we always give the horses a jump to warm up for Saturday. Carl and Murphy jumped very well and were keen which is what you want.

Smudge, however was a little too keen, managing to misjudge a x-country parallel and fall pulling both a shoe and Tanya off!! Not what you want the day before x- country. So we had a few anxious hours while we waited to see if he was okay to run as he was a bit sore.

Saturday came with more rain nevertheless the going on the x- country course was super.
Carl was early to go.


Last minute adjustments.

Carl was brilliant x - country. He flowed easily around the course until the second from home, The Quarry. He jumped in well and the tripped in the bottom and slid all the way to the exit fence, head-butting it.
Tanya went for a quick slide but quickly remounted and finished the course collecting very unfortunate 60 penalties.

Smudge did a very good steady clear.Collecting 18 time penalties

Barry Murphy's owner walking him in the 10 minute box

Murphy steamed round, making it look easy, to finish 15 seconds under the time!

Sunday our horses all trotted up well. All three escaped without even an over reach although Carl did have a swollen nose where he hit the fence.

Carl jumped in the afternoon doing a very good clear to finish 53rd. although very happy he finished so well, we were disappointed. Without the fall he would have been well inside the top ten.

On the other hand Tanya was lucky to finish the week in one piece, after having such an accident prone week.
She fell of the both her horses, the bike, and a bar stool (before a drink!)

Once we packed the lorry up we set off home doing a record time of 10 hours door to door.

Week 4

We arrived home from Punchestown quite tired. But as ever, no rest for the wicked. But lots of chores to do. As we had a full week ahead.

Whille we were away Toni and Rob had invested in a pool for the yard. as they had had such beautifull weather in our absence! since then we've only had rain.

Tanya's niece, Alex enjoying the pool. In the rain.

Tuesday we went Newmarket cantering, Mark rode Star, Tanya rode Goofy (the racehorse) she hadn't ridden him since he started proper training to race.
He certainly seemed very fast, (compared to the speed we go with the eventers.) He left Star standing!
He will hopefully be racing next week.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent at Doncaster Sales. We have bought horses there previously.
It is a great way to see lots of horses in one place.
It is always a risk buying from sales; we have become progressively choosier about what we look at, and never spend lots of money.
This time we came home with a New Zealand TB who was bought to the sales from Ireland! So he is well travelled.



So far he seems to have a super temperament, and quite a pop. Fingers crossed all goes well.

The other good find was the American diner on the A1 that does a superb breakfast!

Friday, Tanya and Emily went XC schooling to Ely Event Centre. Emily was keen to go after her last Horse Trial, were the XC hadn't gone to well. It didn't take long to correct a few little glitches so she was looking forward to Northampton HT at the weekend.

Saturday, of to Northampton HT to do Dressage and Showjumping. We all had to go, then to return on Sunday for the XC.

Marvil doing his Dressage in the sunshine at Northampton HT.
Unfortunatly the sun only came out for 5 minutes between very heavy showers






Zoe one of our grooms with her young horse Ria finishing her Dr. at Northampton
We only caught the end of her test as she was called in early by the stewards.
Only go early if you are ready. You are well within your rights to stick to your allocated time.

It is always a pain to have to go the day previous to start. Although one understands when organizers have huge entries to get through.
On this occasion it was even more of a nuisance, due to the fact that Sunday the event was cancelled. (Luckily we found out before we left.)
Seeing how wet it was on Saturday when we were there it was difficult to believe that they ever thought they would be able to run.

The only good thing about an event being cancelled is that we get a spare day, which wasn't expected. To get jobs done
Although this day there was very little we could do outside, as the weather was really terrible.
So because Mark likes Cleaning so much the house got a tidy!