Aston Le Walls

Knight Escapade - 4th    Silver Lining- 7th 

2 days at Aston Le walls with Echo P and Silver Lining making the next step up. An ideal first Novice run for them both, although the XC had enough questions and things they've not come across before.

Echo P, did his ever reliable dressage even in a harder test, scoring 30. In the show jumping he was not a massive fan of the surface resulting in him loosing his jump a little and tapping 3 poles. He then went on and flew the XC like a pro and made all combinations feel easy, making up for the coloured poles for sure.
Silver Lining had the best fun ever- he was smiling all the way! He did his best test to date, with everything falling into place, but still with plenty to work on. Its exciting for his future and as he developes into a show jumper turned event horse. He jumped a fantastic double clear, again making it feel very easy and hardly having to try. He was bold, straight and accurate. He went on to finish 7th.

Knights Escapade has been just brilliant so far this season and has not finished outside of the top 10. and This run was no different, a much improved test on Hambleden for 31 and a double clear to put him into the placings once again. A great last run before his CIC* debut and there after his CCI* outing. Its great to have this little horse back on such great form after his accident, and equally exciting to have 2 promising novices making the upgrade so easy.

Intermediate day with About time Too and Foxy Lady, with both being their final runs before Houghton CCI**.  About Time Too did a foot perfect test but was clearly lacking something from the judges point of view scoring 35. A great round SJ flying the water tray!! Just an unlucky 4 faults. He then went for a steady fun run XC and full of confidence before his CCI** in a few weeks time.

Foxy Lady did her personal best dressage of 30, but sadly did not feel 100% in the showjumping, after a couple of poles we decided she wasn't her self and it was best not to run XC and save her for another day. Sadly this means she won't be going to Houghton but infact we wait and run her later in the season. A massive disappointment but she is fine and will be back out in a couple of months.

Chatsworth CIC*

Weekend trip to the beautiful Chatsworth, with just one posh pony! Cruise On Inny, made his debut to a top hat and tail coats!
He did a really smart test scoring a 48, lying in 11th overnight. It's very exciting as although there were no massive mistakes there is so much still to work on and hopefully get this mark into the 30's. His first time in a long area and I think he loved it... although the centre line seemed never ending to him I'm sure! He made the whole international occasion seem very relaxed!

On to show jumping day, and although he jumped well, just feeling slightly distracted having never have seen so many crowds of people or been in such an atmospheric arena. His solution was to just jump higher! He jumped his socks off but with the height we were getting meant we struggled with one distance resulting in 4 faults.

XC was fantastic, clear! With very few making the time we too added 6 time faults. The ground walked beautifully but was in fact much more holding than it first appeared and horses were getting tired. 

He finished in 22nd place - very respectable when this time last year he was just getting going with his eventing career. He is still maturing and and has so much more to give. It's extremely exciting!!