After a delayed flight due to the snow in Prague, and horrendous traffic on the roads around Oxford I was running very late for an important event… One which would have a massive impact on my year ahead!!
After months of begging my friends, family and colleagues to support me in my quest to become one of the Petplan Brand Ambassadors for 2017; I could finally announce that I had been succesful.
I spent the next two days at the Unicorn Equestrian Centre near Cheltenham meeting my fellow ambassadors and the lovely team at Petplan Equine as well as their PR company JB Promotions. This also involved a video press release, being interviewed by local and regional magazines; and a fun photoshoot by the very talented Stephen Bartholomew.
I learnt so much from this experience and now here I am writing my own blog, on my website!
And so February was off to a flying start.Typically on my busiest weekend of the month I had come down with tonsillitis and flu… but this was not going to stop me from competing all three of my boys.
Nelson was first to fly the flag as a Petplan Equine ‘Equine’ by competing at Coombelands Equestrian Centre in their Arena Eventing. He hadn’t been to a party since November, and was keen to be out again. Luckily he behaved himself and after a speedy round we bagged ourselves a second place. So pleased with the old chap!!
Finley was next up on the Sunday for yet another cross country schooling session. This time at Tweseldown Racecourse. We had such an amazing time jumping some of our trickiest combinations to date. He just proved how awesome he truly is.
Last but no means least was Ransom’s turn. We were competing in the British Dressage Regionals at Merrist Wood College. I was so pleased with his performance as he really tried his hardest; and this did reflect in his score. Sadly it seems he is no match for the younger, more extravagent horses; but saying this I feel I was marked fairly, and he certainly gets a 10/10 for commitment and obedience.
After this performance we headed back to Belmoredean for another crack at our PSG qualification. This time we ventured out in the later part of storm Doris. My previously supple and obedient dressage horse had decided to go rogue! His warm up was awful for both his Advanced Medium and Advanced tests; and his
flying changes became non existent! He also forgot how to perform his 3 and 4 time changes so I feared the worst.
Thank goodness for the amazing trot work and lateral canter work which gave me many 7,7.5, and 8’s and an rather astonishing score of 65.15% in the Advanced with a first place! We were also lucky enough to come 2nd in the Advanced Medium with a score just shy of 66%.
So although he smashed his PSG qualification and we are rearing to go I have decided we may need to re-educate ourselves at this level again before we attempt it in order to perfect our changes.
Between competing and training I found some time to support one of my pupils Georgina; at her third British Dressage competition. It was a freezing cold, windy morning at Pachesham Equestrian Centre, but luckily a succesful one with a double win! Georgina and Apple have now won six out of six of their Novice dressage competitions and we are now working towards Elementary.
That very same afternoon Finley and I competed in what would be our last competition before the eventing season begins. The Novice combined training at Coombelands. This turned out to be a very popular event, and he produced a lovely obedient dressage test producing a personal best at this level. The showjumping was a little ‘wild’ as he was having far too much of a good time which led to two poles down. This left us just outside the placings but overall I was thrilled with his performance.
The leaves us all set and as prepared as we possibly can be for the start of the eventing season…WATCH THIS SPACE!
LG Eventing and Dressage 