Chilean Boy has retired from the Higher level Eventing

From Polo Pony to TWO STAR Event horse - What a turn around and who would have thought it possible!!

After lots of fun on the event circuit over the past few years with a win at Stonar last year and many respectable placings. Owner Katha Wood has decided that she will now take up some competing on Chilean Boy aka Kiki, On the dressage scene and maybe even hit the Event circuit her self again.

Obviously i was sad to hear her decision as i know what potential he had and could achieve but now it is Katha's turn to have some more fun with her Polo pony turned Event horse.

23rd May Brigstock International

Back again after an extremely busy and hot Saturday, with teaching and plenty of riding - not to mention the sun burn!

Yet another early start for us with Pembrey Perzaz in the Intermediate with an 8.20 Dressage.. how nice!
In the double bridle again which she has really accepted now doing a lovely test with fewer mistakes to Hambleden, much happier in the contact and the control of her extravagant paces became much easier.

Followed but a fantastic faultless clear in the Show jumping which had been causing its problems she made it feel so easy.

XC like the Friday courses was bold and flowing with some much bigger questions being the Intermediate this time. In particular the " Leap of Faith" a massive palisade brush with a huge ditch with water and Christmas trees in it. You certainly didn't want to get this one on a bad stride! This was then followed by another hedge with yet another big ditch in front, so this gave little time for a horse to get its confidence back if it had of had a bad jump at the L-O-F.
Thankfully Pembrey Perzaz is somewhat a XC machine and loved every minute. The more questions asked of her the more she tries.
We picked up time faults which i was expecting and proved average in the section a despite not pushing her for speed i had plenty in the tank.
She finished 12th in her section and gained another 2 points.

Bonne Amie in the Advanced Intermediate did her best test this season and despite a pilot error of forgetting the 15metre walk circle. We were extremely pleased with how she went, she was calm and not nearly as excitable as she has been this season. Slightly disappointed with the mark but we know how much of an improvement she has made we were happy.

The little rubber ball made ease of the Advanced Show jumping going clear and jumping at her best.
XC was the same as Pembrey Perzaz's course, She bounced down through the water complex and leaped off the step, Flew of the ditches as if they were not even there and before i knew it we were approaching the 2nd from home, a stair case and jump on top, something that needed plenty of respect so late in the course and you wanted to have a good stride to the first step, not being too far away to risk loosing power for the two steps up and jump.
She made this feel so easy and effortless, in fact the whole course came very easy for her, She came home just 2 seconds over the optimum time - Not bad for a warmblood! one of the quicker times of the day, she added just 0.8 to her score to finish 7th in the section and get another two points to make a grand total of 51.... nearly enough to be an Advanced horse!!!

21st May Brigstock International

Day one at Brigstock with the pre-novices and one ..this time 2nd novice horse!!

Creeslough and Argentinus took on the bold BE100 track with plenty to ask and an influential water. Where newly upgraded horse Ballycullane Dundee was taking on the Novice.



Argentinus had a nice early start of an 8.30 dressage which with the predicted hot day ahead we were both quite happy. He did a nice test in the 5yo only class which ran over the BE100 track. His dressage seems to be really coming together now and he is much more confident although we now need to start working on having the movements a little more up hill and forward.



He then had one down in what seemed to be a very small show jumping course especially in comparison to some of the BSJA tracks he has been jumping. Not really having to make much of an effort he took one rail.

He gave me a brilliant ride XC and found it easy and is now showing so much enthusiasm for his work.
He finished just out of the placings due to that rail.



Creeslough did a lovely test much more consistent than Hambleden and didn't get distracted quite so easily today.
He had somewhat of an interesting time in the show jumping, where the judges failed to see a rail that had fallen in the later part of the course once i had already started jumping, so a little un-sure of what i should do, i hesitated on the approach to the fence 3 and 4 related distance line but then continued to jump the fence whilst it was fallen. Later round the course on the approach to fence 6 the fence builder spotted the issue and rushed to put it up and Creeslough being the noisy horse he is got distracted and missed fence 6 altogether, incurring 4 faults.

Sadly he also picked up time for this, a lesson well learnt.. if in doubt just keep going!



Creeslough has certainly taken to his new career proving extremely bold across country, and very little seems to be backing his off, although not strong he thinks he can taken out strides when ever.. not so good in a combination with a skinny!! so annoyingly had a run out at the narrow log early in the course.



Both horses took on the spooky water which had been the bogey fence all morning, neither horse barely even hesitated to go down the step under some trees which meant it was rather dark and spooky.











Novice horse Ballycullane Dundee did a lovely dressage test scoring one of his lowest marks to date, he then had one fence down in the show jumping.

The XC was extremely bold and influential and i think he will have learnt alot from this run, With wide ditches and big hedges, something that he has now learnt cant just be jumped extremly high in Dundee Style but he also needs to stretch out over the wider parts which he has not really needed to do at the lower levels which come so easy to him.

He slightly lost his footing when jumping the HUGE trakener when he gave it so much height and not so much width. Clearing this well but slightly loosing his footing.

The sunken road came of somewhat a shock and he unfortunately picked up a refusal here.

Very pleased with him today and i think he will really progress from this strong testing novice course.

13th May Aston -le-Walls

An exciting day at Aston with the novice track asking enough questions for Ballycullane Dundee and Archetype both first time Novices.

With the dressage test comprising of both rein back and counter canter they both performed the movements well.

Ballycullane Dundee despite having a long day the day before still jumped an immaculate clear in the SJ and Archetype just adding 4 faults to his dressage - Typically the last fence which had been catching many people out during the day.

Archetype was the first to run XC an hardly even noticed the difference in height or technicality. Having never jumped through an owl hole, he thought it was easy. He made nothing of the drop into the second water and was straight to the skinny after.

Ballycullane Dundee was quicker around the course not backing off of anything although gave me a bit of a shock at the second water when seeing the water at the last minute he jumped in, in slow motion!

With their dressage not quite as good as normal they both finished just out of the top 10. Be a big achievement today and plenty more to come.

11th May - Golden pony helps bring Heythrop to victory at Royal Winsor!

An exciting last minute outing to Royal Windsor for the Inter-hunt relay. I joined into the Heythrop team along with Nickie White, Tom Gittins and James Loffet.

Taelor Daniells very kindly said i could take her horse Ballycullane Dundee and didn't he just love it!

A Course of just six fences set with various sharp turns with two particular corners that were there to be cut to shave off every second possible.

In the first round we were drawn to relay against the Surrey Union hunt. This team were on good form and beat us after our team tactics failed. Each rider was planning to ride a steady but clear round but when riding a very green 5yo at his first show Tom Gittins had his work cut out.

Thankfully we scraped through by just 0.5 sec. The top 8 teams went through for another round.

We were riding on the Royal Box side once again and had rapidly changed team tactics this time....We were leaving nothing to chance and were going to go as fast a we possible could!

It was very exciting i started, and Dundee flew round the jumps on flying form giving them all plenty of height - as i jumped the 6th fences a set of Planks! i then handed the hunting crop/baton to team mate Nickie White who then followed up with a clear to then make a good change over to Tom Gittins who's horse improved on every round - gaining so much confidence he then jumped the last to hand over to James who whipped round to help us on our way to a win!

This then put us comfortably into the semi final which we went on to win. Dundee put yet another great round going clear once again.

It was the final and everyone was very excited to be there so we were just all going to "Go for It". It was fast and exciting and each horse came into their own jumping fantastic, the other team on the other hand had rather too many rails down picking up 5 time penalties for each rail which proved expensive.

We managed to complete our round in just 1.21 sec's for all four team members to complete. Our original time was 1.38 sec. So we had really up'ed our game.

It was a great experience and when we won the final it was fantastic! Taking home £1000 prize money which went to the Heythrop Hunt.

9th May - Hambleden

Back at Hambleden for the two Intermediate runs, Thankfully not such an early start this morning.
Divilabit did a nice test, nothing too flashy but consistent with only one mistake on his second shoulder in, He scored 37.

Pembrey Perzaz did a rather inconsistent test although i put this mostly down to bit change, I have decided to try her in a double bridle, after schooling her at home with it i decided it may help at competitions.
She finds it extremely hard to keep in the arena, there is so much power coming from behind and she doesn't always know where to put all the energy, resulting in the corners coming up rather quickly and the arena seems awfully small! There were a few distractions during her test, and being rather nosey she always wants to know whats going on.
She scored a 42.

Pembrey Perzaz jumped brilliant just have 2 parts of the triple down, she was drifting slightly and i tried to correct her and sadly just touched the two poles.

Divilabit wasn't on top form in the show jumping today, being rather spooky and a little green today, he had a stop in the triple after spooking and not making the distance in between. this then bothered him a little and he had a couple of rails.

XC they were both fantastic both going clear with a average amount of time faults for the day. The course was tough enough and had plenty f questions, The first water had been causing problems all morning, being right in front of the sponsors tent there was plenty to look at, which put many horses off.
The second water also caused many problems and resulted in a number of falls. It had a MASSIVE drop in the a step out to a corner. Some horses tripped up the step after miss judging it.
Pembrey Perzaz was rather green going in and launched over the logs not quite realising how big the drop was, which meant the photos were rather entertaining. Never the less she made the distance well and bounced up the step and over the corner.

Divilabit went round like a pro, I thought he would be rather spooky as it seemed he was in one of those moods. He bounded up the bank complex and made nothing of it. He was brave and bold down all the drops and accurate at the skinnys.

A very good weekend over all.
Next stop.... Aston Le walls but just before that is Royal Windsor inter- hunt challenge with Ballycullane Dundee on Thursday.

8th May - Hambleden - BE 100

Off to Hambleden amongst all the blue bells and trees we took three horses.

Archetype, Creesough and Argentinus.

Creeslough did a rather unsettled test which was unlike him but a rather loud chain saw and digger the other side of the hedge really didn't help the matter. I was not the only one with a problem there.

Archetype did a lovely test, foot perfect, very relaxed and supple so we couldn't have been happier and even more so to find he had a 28 dressage!

Argentinus also did a nice test, it was very accurate and felt nice, with only one mistake at the final halt, he decided it would be fun to wave to the judge - I thought it was me that was meant to do the saluting!

The Show jumping was brightly coloured and rather spooky so caused its problems.

Argentius had just one down at the triple bar as he slightly miss judged it.

Archetype jumped well, and went clear.

Creeslough also jumped well, i thought he may have been a bit spooky but was far too grown up to do anything!

The cross country was shorter than most courses and seemed to go very quickly.

It had its testing parts particularly in the woods down into the quarry with two steps down then two steps up. The first ones came up very quickly which caused a few problems as it took the less experienced horses by surprise.

Archetype went brilliantly XC, and we have defiantly sorted the brakes! He went round like a pro and stayed in a good rhythm to finish inside the time with very little effort.

Argentinus flew around the course also to finish inside the time despite trotting through the water! (enjoying the scenery)

Creesough, in his usual style talked most of the way round like a real baby but i am very pleased with his quick progress and he gives anything a go, and is showing great scope!

Jordann Daniells horse Archetype finished on his impressive dressage of 28 to be placed 2nd.

Argentinus jointly owned by myself and Lottie Wemyss finished 11th just out of the placings with having that one pole.

Creeslough was rather Lower in the placings after his excitable dressage but gained his first 2 foundation points!!