June News...

Spring

Besides all this excitement, spring has been growing and has now started long reining. We tried for the first time today and as usual, she took it all in her stride. On our visit to badgers wood, Mo the owner, showed us pictures of Springs mum inside the stud kitchen - so it is clear to see where she gets her amazing alid back attitude from! Pics to follow!

RC AREA SHOW JUMPING DORSET

On saturday, we travelled to West Stour showground in preparation for the RC area qualifier. We had a lovely evening playing football and barbequeing and also took the horses for hack. Sunday dawned rather surprisingly wet! In the equitation Ellie had a disagreement with the judge and a certain bell, but the rest of the team jumped well enough to come fourth, with Harmony and me in individual 5th as well. The intermediate jumping was won by MEON! We all jumped well over a rather hilly and up to height course and managed to qualify for the National Championships in Lincoln this September! The novice teams also did well. Meon ended up jumping two teams off for one place at the final. Tom and Ellie went really well on Frosty and Bugz to end up second!

New Friend!

We are so pleased with Spring and her temperament that Tom decided some future action was needed. Without me knowing, he contacted Badgerswood Stud and found out about their new arrivals. His phonecall coincided with the birth a a brand new foal by Mars, out of a Welton event mare. Last weekend, we went on a mystery trip to see the foal and it was love at first sight! She is called Badgers Wood Rioja Royale or Smarty for short, and is exquisite! Mars himself is very old now and was also very welcoming. He is stabled alongside all the Mares and has manners to burn. This will be one of his last crop of foals and with all of our other horses getting on a bit, we decided to invest in the future!

Please enjoy the pictures of Smarty...

Stratford Hills BE 17th June

This weekend we travlled to Essex and Suffolk for our first BE event, after having the last two cancelled. We left on Friday and had a nightmare journey, with major problems on the M25. After 5 and a half hours we rolled up at the overnight stables, and found we were staying at a super yard with wonderful facilities. Despite it being late, we walked the course and had a late supper. The next day dawned very hot. We arrived early to walk the course again, and Harmony spent the next two hours getting all of her whinnying out of her system! I had a good dressage draw three quarters of the way down the list. We warmed up well and did, what I thought was an OK test, with room for improvement. The Show Jumping course was not amazing - some iffy turns and distances, but Harmony managed to go clear. At this point, we learned that Harmony was in the lead after dressage! So on to the Cross Country. There were quite a few problems here, with time faults and stops happening all over the place. we set off in a determined manner, and Harmony flew round - almost a little too quickly!! We came home well inside the time and couldn't therefore be beaten! We waited for prize giving and were really happy to receive lots of lovely prizes - £25 gift voucher, a puffa jacket, a trophy and a sack of horse feed. Tom also recieved a prize for the winning groom!!! What a lovely end to a week full of trials and tribulations! Photos to follow...