The Buckley Challenge

Today's goals!
1. Have a jump lesson (and enjoy it).
2. Hoon around Goddard's field.
3. Clear round SJ.

A fab lesson with Wendy set us up for the rest of the day. We had a couple of sticky moments but Wendy's threat to lock me in the Duke's Hall until we'd completed her mini course helped to focus the mind somewhat.

The hoon in the field was more like a collected canter with me barking away at poor old tired Geoffrey to go faster!

Clear round SJ was great - reassuring words from Jane and we were off! The first one was tricky and our line to the second was questionable, but the rest felt great. We buzzed with adrenalin all the way back up to the yard to show off the new rosette in our collection.

A quiet day at Wellington SJ, but a great opportunity to catch up with friends and soak up the sun. Class 4 was entertaining with a late entry from livery yard manager, Kate and Cinders. Sadly Sammi's horse lost a shoe mid-round and Kate stormed home to win the class.

Out of office reply!

The Dizzy and Nutty apologise for their absence but they can be found loafing on the beach in the Isle of Wight with their favorite stick of the day.
Rusco (and Oscar) will have to take on the role as guardians of the yard!! All other hounds are expected to be on their best behavior or they won't be left on their own again!

Tweseldown

New blogger Pip has arrived. Finally I have access.

My first contribution will be a report on yesterday's events at the unaffiliated ODE at Tweseldown. I will leave other liveries to comment on their own experiences and just relate the mixed fortunes of me and that daughter of mine. Yes, she did it again - she came 2nd. Blaze was quite naughty in dressage - he jogged all the way round the medium walk and got 4 for that movement. A shame as it doubled up. But he got a creditable 35 (that's 65% for you none eventers!) overall. The SJ was the brightest and most full-up course I've seen on my Intro career to date and it took its toll over the day. But Blaze pinged round clear and then proceeded to go clear and inside the time XC. Much happiness! The photo is not actually from yesterday but does show Blazey Boy enjoying an equally happy time at Tweseldown just recently.

As for me, well I did get a good dressage score (68.5%) and I was chuffed to bits with just 4 faults SJ. But the XC undid me again. Fox and I are not really made for that phase! I'm too old and he's not the most forward out there in the wide open spaces. Never mind - we had a good day!

Upcoming Events

By popular demand, you should now all see a list of upcoming events.
If there is anything that needs adding please let me know.

I've not bothered adding the fact that Otto will be badly behaved in the near future or that Geoff will have eaten all the pies!

P.S. Please let me know if there is anyone else that needs to be added to the blog list (gavinb at mac.com) or add a comment

Happy Birthday Otto!

Today Otto has turned 11 years old - he is feeling very pleased that its his birthday and let Gavin know by rodeoing when he was supposed to be doing his dull walking on a long rein!
He will be very pleased to see anyone who wants to pop by and wish him many happy returns...carrots, meadow herb treats or apple crunchies all greatfully received (not over keen on polos though, thanks very much)!

New kid on the block!

Wellie welcomes Claudius and another blogger!

A check under the bonnet and an x-ray later and Claudius was on his way to his new home.

Kate and team had 30 minutes to rehome Wills and prepare Claude's new bed (in between Christopher and Leo if anyone wants a peek).

New Dad, Brian, was to be found either grooming or oggling over the stable door!

Saddle club results for the livery crew

Following last night's Saddle Club AGM congratulations to Pip and Fox who romped away with the Open Dressage league having won every dressage event of the season . They also collected the Ken Duke trophy for the Open three phase event ( the Saddle club equivalent of a one day event ) .

Diane and George ( ably assisted by Hugo and Tommie ) retained the Pairs trophy and hopefully soon to be livery owner Brian received the Most Improved Show Jumper award .

Helen Gibson and Rebel got the most improved dressage award and I hope to be able to actually give her the trophy soon.

Next event is Show Jumping on Friday 20th .

I would like to scotch the rumour that team Hogan's Heros are intend on taking over Saddle Club just because we are respectively Chairman and treasurer.

Geoffrey and Lindo's grand day out!

Well our boys certainly did us proud this evening! Geoffrey and Lindo headed off to Hall Place for their very own special pony party - dressage! Gav and George did a fab job sorting us out and getting us there - it was like we had our own pit crew and team of trainers.

After the warm up Geoffrey was on first with his head held high, quite literally. After a few schoolgirl errors (oops) the cameraman managed to snap us as we were ending the test and just settling into it!

Colleen made a suprise visit and rode a superb test on her friend's horse, Robbie. (Geoffrey was watching from the sidelines making notes.)

And then Lindo and Helen wowed us with a fab test making a great ending to our night out!

Randomness

Level 1 of Wellington's Initial Horse Care course is complete and (drum roll please) I got a distinction! Yay me!

Of course it's all down to the wonderful tuition from Schoie and the trusty demo pony that is Geoff.

Roll on Level 2!

In other news, Larkhill was great fun. Learning from the best pit crew going, seeing George and Hugo in action and having a taster of what's to come was a mindblowing experience!! Geoff's head has finally stopped swivelling and his eyes are no longer out on stalks.

We're frantically trying to get our 20m circles to be well, erm, 20m and circular in preparation for our first show outside Wellingon next Monday. Watch this space...

Larkhill

A lovely day out at Larkhill for Hugo and his trusty companion Geoffrey. Much better times meant a leisurely start for all and fabulous weather gave super grooms Diane and Gavin a chance to top up their T-shirt tans.






Dressage warm-up started well with Diane in full instructor mode drilling Hugo and George, all was looking pretty good until entering the arena Hugo had a small issue with a couple of ornamental trees and all that hard earned concentration was lost.

SJ had a similar problem when entering the arena the commentary box suddenly came alive causing a spectacular leap sideways nearly unseating the rider and sending Hugo into a frenzy which resulted in a very very fast round knocking down two fences.





The XC though was fantastic and as always Hugo came into his own here with an excellent fast clear round.





The question is does all that calmer actually make any difference or would he be more wild without it?








Big thanks go to the fabulous support team - Diane and Gavin who once again turned the Welsh Pit Pony into a Glamourous Eventer - so even if he was a bit wild he certainly looked gorgeous.

For full results visit the BE Website

Preping for Larkhill

As Wendy sucsesfully completed her first Pre-Novice round for a while, the prep was under way for Geoffrey's first visit to a one day event. Geoff is off to Larkhill tomorrow as companion pony to Hugo-the-Wonder-Horse, hence all the prep from his trusty pit crew. Brian has finally found Geoffrey's USB port and Ruth is polishing anything that comes near enough as the sun went down.

Geoffrey goes wild!

Tonight's loose schooling...one of us was having fun!

Jumping again!

Ruth and Geoffrey back in action! We had a great lesson with Wendy last weekend, which pushed us to get back into the swing of things.

Very happy faces!

Geoffrey's plod in the woods

Due to the onset of a cold I thought we'd take it easy tonight and have a plod round the woods with Paddy. Yes, well, what was intended as a plod turned into a one stirruped hurtle round Popes field.

In true Geoffrey stylee we tried to race Paddy, who was slowing down at that point, and had to do a quick handbrake turn to avoid his backside. Hence the lost stirrup, slamming against his side which just made him go faster!

I think I need a day off work tomorrow...junk tv, chocolate and lemsip beckons.

One, two, three...awwww!

Taken late last night. I think he was waiting for me to turn the light out.

Bless.