We have had a busy couple of weeks at the yard with 5 competitions. Starting off with Royal Windsor where we took Times Square II (Alfie) on the Friday for the Novice Hack Class. This was his first show so a very big ask for a four year old but on saying that he bahaved beautifully for myself and then gave the judge Martin Hucker a lovely ride (it was nice to see him coming back to line with a big smile on his face and commenting on how lovely his ride was and how mannerly he was. He finished fourth in a good class and I was delighted. We all did decide that now he has put on so much more weight and "chunked" out that he would be better campaigning now as a large riding horse. It is often difficult when these babies suddenly start to mature and grow and put on weight and seem to change before your very eyes. Anyway the long and the short of this is that we have changed his category with the British Show Horse Association to a riding horse. It was nice to have proud owners Steph and Mo Haslam there to watch and support from the ringside.
The next day at Windsor we took Toby Ginny Duncans highland in the Olympia qualifier where he went beautifully going round and then unfortunately just fluffed his show slightly - he was a bit keen to get on with the job so was not stripped. Watching from the ringside I was delighted with Ginnys new found confidence in her ability - I was a very proud trainer!
On the Sunday we took the four year old dressage horse Socialiser for Denise Hall to Addington for the 4 year old Potential International Dressage Horse where he behaved beautifully and finished with 71.9.
This weekend Toby went to the David Broome Centre for another Olympia qualifier where he finished 5th. He was foot perfect and this time his show was faultless so I was delighted with him - he now has a well deserved day off and then he is practising his jumping to make his debut as an M&M novice worker.
I took Times Square II and Daldorn Racing Bow to Stevenage Showing show on Bank Holiday monday. Times Square won the Novice Riding Horse (in his new category) and then we were absolutely thrilled when he went on to be reserve Champion - what a star!! "Bow" made his debut at his first show here and he was pulled in top in the Royal International qualifier in the large hacks and unfortunately went on the wrong leg with the judge briefly and was dropped to second. He is only four so I can forgive him for getting his legs in a knot. He also went in the Novice Hack class where he managed to get everything right this time and won his class so I was a very proud mummy with my two four year olds. They both behaved beautifully in the ring and were very mannerly.
During these two weeks I also went to the College Equestrian Centre and was one of three trainers to give a showing clinic which I really enjoyed. I had some lovely combinations to help - its so nice to be able to pass on the knowledge we have all spent years learning - teaching is one of my passions!
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