Sunday 27 May 2007

Unaffiliated Showjumping


So, todays show was slighlty larger than the previous Senior Unaffiliated SJ last month!

With the regular cameraman off sick, I managed to escape the office to see Brian and Claudes round in their first class! They got round with just 4 faults, and won a rosette for equal 3rd place! Well done Brian and Claude!

Saturday 26 May 2007

Congratulations !


Mandy has very quietly passed her exams and is now a fully fledged BSH I.I. - So get your lessons booked or buy her a drink at the earliest opportunity!

See her in action on the Revamped "New and Improved" Wellington Riding Website

We are off!!

As most people are aware Georgina and I are off to Colorado for a while - sorry the dogs are coming as well!
To bid you all farewell we were going to have a big BBQ in the garden on Bank Holiday Monday - oh how silly. Due to the weather forecast we have abandoned the idea and will decamp to the Elm Tree in Beach Hill for a few beers. So if you have nothing better to do on Monday evening please come and help see us off from 7 o'clock onwards.

Thursday 24 May 2007

Hi from Bambers Family

Hi all, we are new to this blogging malarky, but must say we are enjoying reading through the postings to date.
We had a great time at the weekend, with Bamber and Caitlan picking up a Clear Round, 2nd in the 10's and under, 4th in the 2'3'', and a 5th in the 2'6''. That was their first proper competition, and wasn't the weather great! Caitlan did try to get a clear round for Rosco at the end of the day, but the judges over-ruled :-) .
Well I guess we'd better get handy with the camera and video so we can post more escapades in the future.

See you around the yard, cheers BF.

Sunday 20 May 2007

Wow! What a day!

It all kicked off with Mrs Buckley and Hugo wowing us with a fab cross country round (expect full report soon - click here for video)...
...and finished with Wellie SJ and some great results from Bamber, Biscuit, Cosmo and of course Lindo (click for more video)!

Mattingley madness






The long awaited day arrived and what a beautiful one, well weather-wise perhaps! (It wasn't too bad in other ways as well!). Mattingley is Fox's favourite track. He seems to find the jumps quite appealing - maybe it's those exquisite carvings (did you see the one trunk with the spider?) and the ground, which today was just perfect. Springy and very few lumps and bumps. Blaze hadn't been to Mattingley before, but Ruth has seen me ride there a few times and was really keen to give it a go.




Dressage was a strange affair. I watched Ruth's test and, to me, it looked pretty good. The trot work seemed rhythmical and the canter was not too onward bound. She had to haul him to walk at one point and the free walk was not too liberated, but otherwise all looked fine. 37.9 was the score and the comments suggested that the pony needed to go forward more! We've not had too much advice on that front before, but - hey- judging is not a science!!!




Fox was really forward for his test. Before the warm-up, he had managed to upset both Sam (by breaking off the tap in the stud hole when he stamped down out of pure bolshiness), then me and the farrier by not standing still to have the shoe removed and replaced. But bolshiness was quite useful as it made him quite lively all the way to the test, and through it (until the very last piece of canter when he again ran out of steam and broke!) Never mind, we got 32. A good start.




Show jumping was a blast. We both went clear. Fox really tried and only trotted one fence. (The Saddle Club outing on Friday really helped as a warm-up). Blaze just pinged round as only those Welshies can (Hugo agrees, doncha)




Cross country was the weak phase of the three really. For me, that's no surprise. I went clear but god knows how many of the 21 fences we jumped out of trot. He was sweet and honest at every fence and never felt like he was going to stop today, but oh for a bit more oommpphff!




Never mind, the goal was to get a double clear and that we achieved!




Blaze did his usual. Blasted round the first two thirds of the course. A veritable flying machine, as I think these photos depict. He pitched onto his nose in the water (when he hit a hole) and then jumped over the brush on the other side with the rider clinging on for dear life - no reins or stirrups! Bless his cottons!




The problem came after the corner, when Ruth took the wrong track and ended up hauling Blaze towards a chair fence, which - had he jumped it - would have meant a head-on collision with a tree trunk (upright!) so he decided to opt out. And that put paid to her clear round - just 2 time faults for all that!




A super day, though. Our next outing is to the Garth South Pony Club Summer show at Wigmore Farm next Sunday..... report backs to come.

Thursday 17 May 2007

Who is it?


Now that I have my new digital camera, I can do the whole picture thing too....so, who can guess who the pony in the strange blue outfit is?



Hopefully the rest of the herd will not laugh at him! Ahhh!

More pics of 'T'




So, Gavin beat me to it with the update of the new, rather handsome chap currently in isolation left! Here are a couple more pictures of the new boy - snoozing in the sun, and being very soppy with his new 'Dad'!
It is very sad to see Otto go back to Holland after nearly a year in the UK, but it is for the best. He has taught us a great deal (mainly how good he is at being a rodeo horse), but he is no longer able to have a career as a dressage horse. Good luck to him back in Holland, and heres to a exciting new project!

One in - One out

The livery yard has one new arrival and a sad departure. Otto has just started his journey back to Holland for a quiet life. As I think eveyone knew he was diagnosed as having Dorsal Arthropathy between 3 of his vertebrae in his neck. After loads of the bes drugs and two months of walking rest we decided that he would be better suited to a diferent pace of life. As anyone who saw him showing off in his vetting will know, he is still full of life and wants to prove it - yes I did stay on throughout the 3 rodeo sessions
In Otto's place "Try me Once" has arrived, another poncy Dutch horse. In Holland he was known as "The Montecristo horse" as that was his fab father so he needs a down to earth stable name.....
He is currently on isolation, so no touching, but he is so gentle and wants to play with everyone. I'm trying not to be too over exited but I can't wait to sit on him tomorrow.

Tuesday 15 May 2007

Tommies back on track!


Well, after a tough week of no bend to the right and no energy or desire to go forward, the day of 'Grown up' dressage finally arrived!
Tommie looking all clean and shiny with his new numnah (bought especially for the occasion), with his solitary plait headed off to the slightly dried out IA for a bit of warm up. This prooved to be a bit of a non-starter due to the rather deep going, and the feeling of being somewhat intimidated by the large flash dressage ponies, so we just did lots of bending and stretches in walk, with a few transitions thrown in!
Then was time to go for our first test - he did a good job but just wasn't quite connected enough, so we went back to the drawing board for more stretching and lots of practise at the half ten metre circles and leg yield ready for the next test - which was only about 10 minutes later! Off to the DH, gave my number to the judge, asked for trot and from somewhere this huge forward going trot suddenly appeared...wheres the bell when you need it to ring?! Bless little Tommie, I couldn't have asked more from him. He put all his effort in, and did everything I asked - so proud!
The results...62% in the first test (Elementary 44), and 64.83% in the second (Elementary 43), which put us 4th in the resticted section and 8th overall! So we got the 60% we aimed for (and some!), and also ribbons as well...ahhh.
Many thanks for all the support - the Buckley training team for early morning lessons and video training, and help from going through the test at the last saddle club dressage - with extra helpful handy hints from Pat!
Well done Tommie Tom - who would have thought he would come back to manage such fantastic scores after the traumatic time he has been through?

(Slightly old picture, but such a handsome boy!)

Monday 14 May 2007

Wet 'n wild cross country

Having pulled out of the hunter trials as the ground was too hard it was somewhat ironic that less than a week later we couldn't jump the coffin as it was water logged ....
David assured me that Hogan and I would be okay doing his XC clinic so I signed up . We started indoors ( due to thunder and lightning not rain ) and for the first time in 6 plus years my riding was described as 'shocking' - well deserved too .
Once the Duke's Hall was needed for lessons we headed outside and off to bottom woods and the arrow head or log as a warm up. We then had a little discussion over going into the water and Hogan was eventually was persuaded it wasn't that scary when a pretty mare acted as our lead .
We found the right XC canter when we sent off on our own and then headed back to the others and this time took the water in our stride ( well trot at least ) .
All in all it was worth getting soaked before we even started due to Hogan living out now and thus needing to be caught . I discovered ny joddy boots leak resulting in the need to purchase new socks for comfort and then Caroline tried to add 10 % rather than deduct it from the bill .

Sunday 13 May 2007

What are you doing down there Mum?

This is turning into a blog all about Geoffrey...

Having mastered the art of hurtling over jumps I thought we'd try our hand at the more technical aspects. Today we were trying to change canter lead over a jump.

All that remains to say is...we had to fill out an accident form...

More video of us.

In other news, I hear Lindo and Helen are doing great things, and brought home rossettes from this weekend's show jumping. Team Hogan braved the bad weather to take part in a cross country clinic and there were smiles all round. Brian and Claude had a great lesson yesterday, prefering walk to canter than trot to canter (something about the wrong underwear I think).

This week starts with affiliated dressage. Good luck Diane and Tommie Tom! And we're going to show the WSC crowd just what we can do as the week closes with WSC show jumping.

Friday 11 May 2007

Due to popular demand...


This is just for you Pip...

Click here! (Needs sound)

Thursday 10 May 2007

Wednesday 9 May 2007

Geoffrey caught on film!


We had a go at cross country ahead of the Wellie Hunter Trials!

Check out the video!

Monday 7 May 2007

Pony under control for once!

Ruth and Blazey Boy had another fine time today, going round the Junior Open. Unfortunately, the fun fences (in top woods) were ruled out of bounds as the rain had made the going too sticky, but this didn't stop them having a ball. Unfortunately (and a little unusually!), Ruth had so much control through the timed section that she was able to collect his canter and in so doing managed to go much too slowly! Surprised? Yes, we were...but still placed. 5th we think. Good pony. Next outing for the twosome is Mattingley on the 20th. We will report back in due course.

Welly Hunter Trial


I chickened out completely today, and sent Ruth out on trusty steed, Fox, to play with Kozmo (and Alex) in the pairs. A great time was had by both. They turned circles at the start, with Mandy not knowing which way to run to avoid being trampled and they shot round the course! Way too fast in the timed section, but finished clear and eventually 6th. Mission - which was to make Fox take a hold and want to gallop - was well and truly accomplished! Not bad looking is he, even though I say so myself!

Saturday 5 May 2007

Geoff Billington's clinic 3rd May.




Well we do have some famous readers! Geoff Billington seems to be amongst them as he too can recognise the big bum in my last entry.....ha ha ha. No, it wasn't Mum's, it's mine....he said it was very memorable.







It was nice to meet Geoff again, he made us work really hard but Mum is definitely in danger trying to stop me riding over cliffs - you'll know what I mean if you've seen his techniques....I dropped off of 2 at this session!




Geoff was nice to me as I only had to jump each course once as I was getting hot and sweaty. We were told it was a good day and we'd improved 200% over our last lesson.


It looks like Ruth and Blaze had a rather better session than us though. Just look at that smile - it says it all.


One question, will she become as bad as the rest of us (with a few exceptions of course) when she is an adult rider too?


We were looking forward to the Hunter Trials on Monday, but we've had a few trusted people warn us that the ground is too hard and well, my feet and legs would suffer badly from my weight pounding around the course. The rest of my team hope to see you there on the day - Mum is the assistant secretary in charge of the jump judges. Best of luck to you all.