Blair Horse Trials 2008

A three day event brings a three day blog..

Despite the weather, which could have got badly in the way, this was another immensely enjoyable visit to the Blair Three Day Event where Mistral certainly captured the eye.

It was undoubtedly his best combined performance and he was up against a whole raft of far more qualified horses. However that gets us somewhat ahead of events.

Hotel

We stayed at Kinnaird for the first time in twelve years and were glad to see that the service and food quality had not lost any of its very high standard. For my daughter they asked on the first night if there was anything not on the menu that they could get in for the next two nights of our stay, and happily satisfied her request without prompting. Excellent attention to detail. We were actually staying in the Keepers Cottage

Just away from the main house, and outside of the décor, everything was excellent and very relaxing.

The Horses

Nicky had two horses competing in the three day event, with Cherry law competing in the One Star and Mistral in the Two Star

Trig Point also had a cameo role competing in the BHS Working Hunter Final on Thursday, and it was good for him to get a flavour of the big scene as this is likely to be one of his target events next year.

Major brickbats to Perth & Kinross Council for launching roadworks just 1 mile South of Blair on the Friday morning which lasted through the weekend. An extraordinary display of incompetence and poor planning ahead of a major bank holiday weekend and at the start of Blair’s major weekend. The tailbacks were massive, and having been caught once we detoured via the Killiecrankie turn off, which only added 2 miles to the journey and saved a huge amount of time.

The Event

We drove North on Thursday into some particularly foul weather and arrived during a torrential downpour necessitating an early detour to the House of Bruar for wet weather kit.

The lorry park was already churning up nicely and owners at this stage were being directed to the members car park (of which more later)

We had missed Cherry Law’s dressage which had left her 92^nd on a 65.7 in a high scoring class, but were in time to see Trig Point come 5^th in the Working Hunter Final knocking one pole down in dire conditions

Trade Stands

It also gave us the chance to orientate ourselves for the next few days amidst the wide range of stalls, which were roughly the same number as last year. I suspect trade was a bit sluggish and although there were a good number of people attending the weather and the economic conditions seemed to have taken their toll from the feedback garnered from a couple of regulars. Their next stop is Burghley and Blenheim so I await further feedback from their next loop South.

A number of supporters also appeared over the three day for NBR which was very welcome and we also came across a number of other we knew

The Sanderson’s had come up from the Borders and stayed late to watch Mistral, before driving South, along with Sara our vet , and numbers were further boosted by the Douglas’s from Saughtree. Rhona and Peter Elliott were also backed by the Scotts from Dolphinston, so it was just as well Nicky had bought a bigger tent. Alec Lochore was also a welcome brief visitor between his TD responsibilities.

Many thanks also to the commentators for keeping everyone well up to speed as to what was happening in the various phases, and for good comments about Mistral. These certainly helped as I was powering around the cross country course in pursuit doing my own version of the fun run. Despite Macchiatto not being here it was good to see the Kiers who had come all the way from the Isle of Wight to support William Fox-Pitt in the one and two star

Friday Dressage

Mistral did his dressage on Friday morning, and when we turned up for the warm up he looked surprisingly calm, and certainly not the way he had been behaving two days before. Many thanks also to Chris King for taking time out to cast a critical eye over the warm up, as he had seen the more feisty version also. Thankfully the calm nature continued into the dressage arena and Mistral certainly produced his best test for us to date, and scored a 50.4 to put him in 17^th place. I particularly like the picture attached of him in front of Blair Castle, that actually wasn’t planned.

The difficulty up to now has been to try and get him to deliver on the potential that is clearly there, and this certainly goes some way towards that goal, though I suspect he is likely to remain somewhat tricky at times.

We also then walked the Cross Country Course while Mrs Kerr checked out the shopping potential, and nearby gardens. There were considerable similarities to last year’s courses with the exception of an upper loop that had been taken out at the top of the hill. This didn’t mean that the fences were any less challenging as one was to discover as the various classes unfolded and given the very hilly nature of the course and the testing ground one did wonder how some of the horses might cope.

Saturday Cross Country and a major grump on parking

More rain overnight (but not as heavy as Thursday) left the ground heavy on the cross country course but certainly rideable.

That is more than can be said for the Car parks which clearly felt the brunt of the wet weather. The lorry parks remained out of bounds quite sensibly but owners were told as they were directed to gate 2 that due to the muddy conditions they were being directed on a different route to their car park. We than found ourselves directed into the distant General Public car park and were told the members area was closed off because of the mud. Having then checked out what was going on we then found other owners had got into the members area and that the mud was certainly not as bad as portrayed. There didn’t seem to be any discretion used either and Rhona Elliot , who was trying to see Cherry law, but suffers from MS, and has a mobility vehicle was sent of to the same distant area. Simply ludicrous.

Now a 4 day season membership for Blair is £50 per person which includes access to the members enclosure, parking etc, while it costs about £450 once stabling etc is included to enter a horse. If weather conditions are less clement as they have been at other events this year, and the lorry park is unaccessible it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to send owners way off into the distance while members are parked a lot closer. In our case we arranged a compromise for Sunday, but if we have our three horses entered next year I hope a better solution is found, should the ground conditions be as difficult. Belton still gets my award this year for the car parking arrangements for owners.

One Star

They has actually set off the Cross Country late on the Saturday, which meant that were able to see Cherry Law (when we thought we had missed her). She looked as though she was cruising round the course, and she even took the longer option at the second water and still came in 10 seconds inside the time. As an ex racehorse she certainly looked as though she wasn’t really stretched unlike some others who certainly looked as though it was a struggle. There had been 118 starters in the 1*, so a big class and 22 came to grief on the cross country course, with 43 getting round clear inside the time.

The top of the leader board was fairly tight, and Cherry Law had leapt up the rankings to 42^nd

A very stiff Three Star

Before we got to the two star we had the small matter of the three star to contend with, and the field got a lot smaller as the phase progressed.

Looking down the list of the 32 entrants a few names stood out as being obvious contenders, and that was down to 29 by the time the event started. We had seen Chris King on the Secret Weapon do a superb dressage to lead the field, but he was due later. Polly Stockton was an early casualty as the 17^th and 19^th to be followed closely by Ollie Townend at the second water. Lucinda Green came unstuck at the corner after the Highland Coo which also accounted for several others , Imperial Master ran out of gas and was wisely after napping for no reason early on, Chris King had a surprise run out, and there were several other retirements. The most shocking fall was a real heart (and brush fence) in the mouth moment for Laura Shannon at the very imposing Open Ditch where the horse leapt the first element and seemed to ignore the need to jump higher the second part on the other side altogether. It hit the log going across the second part with its chin as Laura hit the brush element face first and then was thrown back sharply as the horse ended up in the ditch. We had seen this from behind, and having seen the photographs of the side on view it looked even more frightening. The horse ambulance was on site within a minute and the shields were up very quickly (again within a minute). After what seemed like an age suddenly Quixotic leapt out from the ditch was trotted up and looked absolutely fine, which was a huge relief for all, with Laura Shannon up even more quickly. At the end of the cross country we had lost 12 of the 29 starters a 41% casualty rate, and there was only one round inside the time clear, and eleven clear jumping. Oliver Townend also has to be commended for trying to stop a rider who so clearly run of gas by the time they reached the last that they could barely trot, and he was genuinely concerned for their survival. The stewards having originally considered taking action quite rightly waved that. Ollie had pulled up Imperial Master three before the finish for similar reasons, and there were a number of horses across the classes who simply found this a very severe test due to the ground. This might have been an event in general for the stewards to have stepped in where horses were struggling, and given how conscious one is of the challenges in the sport I am very much in favour of riders having a role to play where safety in concerned.

Two Star

Anyway over to the 2* which was perceived to be a slightly easier course than that of the previous year.

After Houghton when Mistral was somewhat exuberant on the first part of the course which was flat, I looked at the hilly nature of this course and clearly this was certainly not one to let Mistral go going downhill.

Unlike Gatcombe, the Hill comes earlier. There were one or two fences including the second water, where he had spectacularly taken a stride out last year that were clearly worth considering too, as was the double coming down the hill. It was still possible to see a significant amount of the circuit if one ran up the hill and back down so I was able to see him from 3-5, at 7 than form 12-18 and 20-25. Unlike many of the horse he showed absolutely no sign of fatigue anywhere on the course. Nicky sensibly held him back on the downhill sections,. Despite the distance in the second water being extended he still managed to take out a stride and he had to be pulled back at the last. He did come in with 5.2 time faults, which we anticipated, but as far as the obstacles were concerned this was not a problem and he seemed perfectly happy to do another lap. In this phase at least he clearly is of advanced calibre.

Of the 64 starters 13 came unstuck and were eliminated or retired, on the cross country with 39 clear, and 14 were inside the time, which looks slightly more balanced.

Sunday Showjumping

The showjumping again provided a very stern test in all classes, and it was very very tight at the top.

One Star

Paul Sims just held on from Richard Jones and William Fox-Pitt in an amazingly tense battle in the one star

There were only 17 clear rounds out of 93 finishers and included in that was Cherry Law who came 28^th just finishing in the money but not quite being the highest riser in places from dressage

She gets two more points to boost her total to 36 and to 22 for the season

Two star

There was no less tension in the two star, and certainly for the early riders time was proving as much of a problem as the fences.

The standard undoubtedly improved as we went up the field perhaps not surprisingly as there were a large number of advanced horses

Mistral rapped the third element of the treble down but otherwise jumped extremely well and ended up with four faults to finish 17^th just a place outside the money and higher points.

There were only 8 clear rounds inside the time in total indicating how tough it was, and again William Fox Pitt was knocking at the door. There was simply no scope for Sarah Cohen’s Irish Jester to make any mistakes , and they went round brilliantly clear to win. The top seven were Sarah Cohen, William Fox Pitt, Dan Jocelyn, Matthew Wright (clear in a torrential downpour). Polly Stockton, Piggy French and Polly Stockton indicating the class in the field.

Mistral’s 17^th was enough to earn Nicky the Top Scottish Rider Trophy, the first time she has won this since Glen Corran picked up the one star version in 2001

Also having scoured the programme it was clear Mistral was mixing it was a whole raft of advanced horses with the average points total of the sixteen horses in front being 94 against Mistral’s 23, and none being anything like as low. Not surprisingly he did capture quite a lot of comment and considerable attention from a number of the senior riders, not in the least for his natural scope at the water

Putting all three phases together for the first time was very encouraging and we have to think what to aim at for the rest of the season as to whether we try to put in one advanced for qualification purposes or leave that till early next year. Mistral gets 5 points to move him to 16 for the year and 28 in Total.

Three Star

This was short but anything but sweet. We had missed most of it and I just came back in time to see the last horse go with Paddy Muir aiming for her first three star victory. With the rider in second being eliminated through a fall and the one in third having a fence down she had five fences in hand over Duarte Seabra. Somehow that wasn’t enough and a staggering eight fences fell. Chris king improved to third behind Clark Montgomery. Four of the seventeen managed to go clear.

Points for the Yard

Another seven points for the yard taking the total to 66

Cherry Law edges back above Trig Point and is now on 22 for the year (and 36 overall) as against his 21, with Mistral now up to 16 for the year and 28 overall.

Cherry Law 22, Trig Point 21, Mistral 16, Freddy Curtis 4, Rare Hero 2, Lady B 1.

Next outings

Rare Hero, Freddy Curtis and Trig Point go to Little Gatcombe this weekend with Freddy and Trig Point both going up a grade in the CIC 2* and 1* respectively.

The weekend after it’s the Burghley Young Event Horse where Fiddlewood and Stonedge are taking part, though I wont be there.

Then in the Diary we have Freddy Curtis and Rare Hero entered for Necarne, which might just be an event too far for me.

There is some debate about Aske and Witton at the end of the month with some decisions due this week, but attention as we enter September will be on setting a qualification platform for next year and continuing preparations for a yard move after the season ends.

Thirlestane 2008

Scottish Open Championship and the European Junior Championships were the feature events

There was also the Scottish Novice Championships which Nicky was in with Cherry Law

All three of my horses were running with Trig Point in a Novice and Freddy and Mistral in the Intermediate

Having expected the worst I was pleasantly surprised when we turned up to find the ground was actually in pretty good condition considering the rain that had bombarded the Scottish Borders over the previous week and a half. The decision to move the showjumping arena from its location in front of the Castle onto higher ground was a major success as the ground was much drier, and the two and three star dressage being moved down to the Eagle Haugh to join the others also worked well. The cross country held up well though did get a bit slippy in places, and the Cross Country and Showjumping courses certainly provided a fitting championship challenge. The weather did deteriorate a bit on Sunday with some very heavy after a drying Saturday. Altogether it could have been a lot worse.

There were also as many trade stands this year as last year though the first two days of the four had been exceptionally quiet and overall it seemed a bit of a struggle from some of the regulars I have been seeing over the season. I am due to catch up with a number of them at Blair, so it will be interesting to get the comparison between the two.

The only minor grumps this time round

The timetable was thrown severely out of kilter on Sunday as the Junior Europeans overran, and the Prize Giving took longer than originally anticipated, which provided a bit of a logistical nightmare for the three star and advanced classes. (fortunately we weren’t involved), and the dressage scoring across the two Novice classes was very different (more below).

Both the cross country and the Showjumping provided a fair challenge across all classes, but reflected the championship nature of the event as a whole.

European Junior Championships

The major honours went to the British European Juniors with an impressive Team Gold, and Individual first and Second for Sienna Myson Davies and Libby Soley.

Libby Soley moved up from 10^th with a clear round and Sienna Myson Davies clear show jumping round was a perfect way to capture the Gold.

The Irish moved up to Silver which perhaps was a vindication for the team battle bus which pursued each rider round the cross country with loud cheering.

The other feature was the Scottish Championships where the Cross Country riders faced the worst of the weather conditions and put in some excellent performances.

Oliver Townend won by 10 points on Carousel Quest whose Showjumping display was absolutely tremendous, and followed by a very good cross country round.

He beat himself into second with Flint Curtis knocking down one pole and losing a shoe on the cross country but still putting in an impressive time.

I had left before Oliver had also managed to win the Advanced class (and come Second)

NBR Eventing

It was case of what might have been for the NBR horses on Saturday and Sunday, with some good individual disciplines, without quite putting it all together, for one reason or another to get to the top of the leaderboard. Cherry law came Seventh in the Scottish Novice championship. After a 32.6 dressage, she had 0.4 of a time fault for being under the time cross country and had a pole down showjumping in a challenging course.

Trig Point

Trig Point, in what is his last novice again showed his potential but this wasn’t reflected this time in the final result.

He got a 35.2 in the dressage, which looked ludicrous given the way his test actually went and how it compared with a whole string of tests I have seen this season

This was much more like a 25. It was clear that the judge was marketing high which affected all the competitors but it looks out of line on his record.

First novice class vs Second Novice class

33 dressage competitors vs 29

Range 21.9 to 48.6 with six under 30. Average 34.5 vs Range 29.5 to 42.9 with only one under 30. Average 36.8

Seemed to be two entirely different techniques here.

His showjumping looked very good apart for the one he knocked off behind, which was a slightly green error.

He was looking very impressive on the cross country and in line for a good time, but slipped down the slope on the mud coming into the 15^th which was the coffin. He got very close but did a huge leap angled to the left to escape what could have been quite nasty. That line took him outside the white flag for the middle section which was very close, and there was nothing that really could have retrieved it. He actually had got himself out of quite a difficult situation without damaging either himself or the rider. He then completed the rest of the round without a problem and despite the detour had only incurred 10 time penalties on top of the 20 jumping. He is definitely ready to move up a grade which will come at Gatcombe in two weeks time

Freddy Curtis, Mistral, and Rare Hero

In the Intermediate Rare Hero, Mistral and Freddy Curtis all were in the same class

The dressage scores were mid 30’s or above with none really shining, and were all quite well down.

The showjumping was better with rare Hero only having one down. Freddy also only had one down, but also incurred 4 time faults. This was a much much better display than at Gatcombe tow weeks ago.

Mistrals display wasn’t as good with two down and one time fault, just flicking one off and then simply not concentrating at the second last. There were only six clear amongst the 31 finishers.

The put Freddy just ahead of Mistral but we decided not to put Mistral over the cross country with Blair’s trot up looming on Wednesday, substituting some flat work, and there may be some focus on his dressage in the next few days.

Freddy and Rare Hero both went round the cross country clear with Rare Hero incurring 10.4 time faults and Freddy 13.6. This left Rare Hero in 9^th and Freddy 11^th out of 45 starters and 31 finishers.

This was a good performance by Freddy and his best placing at Intermediate, bettering that at Belton. He was also eleventh quickest cross country with none inside the time. There are definite signs of progress and more regular activity this season may well help, as long as ballots and weather don’t get in the way/

Points.

Another 4 points for the NBR team

Freddy gets to 17 in total and four for the year, and Rare Hero opens his account for the year with 2 bringing his all time total to 36.

The yard is now at 59 for the year bettering 2004, with the 79 for 2003 hoving into view.

Next stop is Blair for Cherry law and Mistral, followed by Gatcombe for Freddy, Trig Point and Rare Hero

Thirlestane is over for another year and it did feel like a bit of an endurance test as we managed to get through 10.5 hours of competition on Saturday. However this did feel a significant improvement on last year for a number of the reasons mentioned above, and for Lizzie Miller an ex colleague attending her first event it was a huge eye opener on a different sport, with the huge variation in disciplines and the interaction between horse and rider being the key take aways. Some of the cross country fences clearly left their impression, and she was able to see a huge number of top class riders in action.

There was a significant BE presence, with a number having made it back from China in the previous couple of days, and Blair may give a more relaxed opportunity to catch up with everybody rather than the hectic “local” event we had here.

Scone, Central Scotland 2

Sunday 10^th August

We attended the second day of the Scone event with the weather being relatively grim over day one and poor overnight.

Congratulations to the organisers led by james Oakden for putting on the event in the face of fairly adverse conditions, and the weather did its best to brighten things up on Sunday with quite a bit of drying sun with the occasional very very heavy shower. They gave the chance to riders desperate fro qualification scores and the ground actually turned out the be quite reasonable on the cross country course. The

The Pre Novice classes were cancelled, an understandable decision as they were being run over the same courses that had been churned up on Saturday.

We had set out of the road at 05.30 with Nicky half and hour ahead, and had been able to warn at least the Galbraiths not to set off with their pre novice horses.

NBR’s runners for Sunday

Trig Point : Novice and Cherry Law: Intermediate Novice

We also had the opportunity to see two of the Young Rider Short listed at Gatcombe putting their horses through their paces, as well as several others for Charlotte Agnew, and regulars this season such as Nicola Wilson and Craig Anderson. I will be able to see the actual Young Rider final trial as we are down at Gatcombe to see Freddy and Trig Point in action

The tractors were busy but the course held up extremely well considering the conditions. Dressage was a bit squelchy but the sand base helped considerably. However the ground at thirlestane was already causing severe concern in the lorry park as to what might be going to happen and whether various classes should be dropped. The FEI europeans start the event off and the weather forecast is pretty grim for the early part of the week. I can already see a number of classes at risk, and anecdotal comment suggested that if the portable fences hadn't been pinned they would have floated off down the leader last week. Drainage has always been an issue at Thirlestane and the long range weather forecast (poor) will give the organisers a huge amount to think about.

It also didn’t take long for the tragic news from Hartpury to feed through, and clearly gave cause for reflection amongst all present.

The event

After six weeks lay off Trig Point needed the outing and a dressage of 31 showed slight rustiness but was broadly pleasing given the squelchy noises emerging as he went round, to be lying second . The showjumping went very well and he came in with a clear round, which teed him up nicely for the cross country.

Several adjustments had been made to the course after the may event which caused large scale eliminations at both waters. In particular the skinny after the second water was moved back a stride, and after comments the last time an alternative was put in, but it seemed to be rather a long way from the actual fence, and would lead to a fairly high time penalty if used.

Two downhill fences had to be taken out, due to the ground but the rest of the course rode well. The optimum time was extended from 5m 25 to 5m 31 , reflecting the tricky conditions and the slight deviations from the course. In fact, the two fences taken out removed some of the more difficult obstacles.

Trig Point had incurred a technical elimination at the water last time out so we were keen to see that not happen again, and Nicky felt that she might need to keep the momentum going to ensure that he got inside the time. As it turned out he found no problem with the ground at all and actually managed to incur 1.6 reverse time faults which was to cost him victory, the spoils going to James Hamilton. It is only the second time in her career that Nicky has managed to incur speeding faults, but on this occasion there may well be some benefits too. The ground clearly wasn’t an issue for him, but there were only three Novices inside the time, and one other had a speeding ticket. Seven of the intermediate novices and four JRNs also were inside the time out of the 61 that completed. At Aske Trig Point was three seconds quicker over the Novice course than Freddy Curtis and again he proved what a deceptive stride and smooth technique can do.

He gains five points for coming second and so is now upgraded to Intermediate, as he has 21 points.

Certainly his coming of Age at Hexham, Catton, Aske and now at Scone indicate that he is ready to move to the next stage, though we are not quite sure how that will manifest itself. The CIC* at Gatcombe is the first stage in that process. The dressage scoring is consistently better, in three of the last four showjumping rounds he was clear, and he simply made a nonsense of the cross country at Scone without having to be pushed, and following good performances at the other events. It may take time to bed himself in at the higher level, but he certainly has done himself justice in the last four events. It was actually quite instructive to incur those time faults cross country this time as we can actually put his performance into context.

Cherry law came 9^th in her Intermediate Novice with a slightly temperamental dressage in a couple of elements, and a couple of fences down showjumping, but a good cross country round.

Both move on to Thirlestane

Points total for the Yard

Points for the Yard are now up to 55 for the Year which is now one behind the 2004 total of 56.

We also have another change in the points leader for the year as Trig Point has now edged back in front of Cherry Law

Trig Point 21, Cherry law 20, Mistral 11, Freddy 2, Stonehaven Lady B 1

Also Mistral, Cherry Law and now Trig Point have all now been upgraded to Intermediate, just leaving Freddy a bit behind. Watching him a Gatcombe you feel it wont be long before he makes the garde too.

A quick word about the Young Riders.

Both Charlotte and Emilys horses seem to be working well and putting training to good use.

Timing came fourth for Emily in the Advanced-Intermediate (which involved a rather rapid brushing up of the dressage test). They only flicked one off showjumping but looked very impressive otherwise, and had 16 time faults cross country after an absolutely torrential downpour had made the going sodden.

Charlotte’s Out of Africa Two sailed home in the Intermediate class by 9 points with only 4.8 time faults cross country an impressive dressage and clear showjumping.

She also won the advanced intermediate with Little Beau to round off a successful weekend.

Next stop for all is Thirlestane, though with the current forecast virtually everyone I spoke to was fearful of how many, or few classes will actually manage to be run.

The feature clearly is the FEI Europeans and the Scottish Championship and it wouldn’t make a huge amount of sense to destroy the course before the climax of the event on Sunday.

It remains to be seen how dire the conditions are as the week progresses.

Lets hope the blog can make it into action again next weekend.

Gatcombe (July 08)

The Festival of British Eventing..

And what a Festival it was too, despite the weather on Saturday morning bringing back memories of the rain and snowswept Little Gatcombe of late march that had to be abandoned.

The weather improved spectacularly and the competition remained of a high standard throughout though we had to depart before the Cross Country finale to the Open, for the drive back North.

Hotel

After staying at the Salmon’s very pleasant B&B last time, we shifted to the Cotswold 88 Hotel which turned out to be a major success. The reviews had been mixed and focused on the boutique design element, which has its upsides and also downsides, especially if the designer isnt a hotelier. The website perhaps also reflected this. Fortunately a few weeks before our stay the hotel was actually taken over by people who actually can run hotels, and there was very little to fault, (and completely different to the reviews we had read). The website will be updated shortly. It used to be the Painswick Hotel.

The Event

Competitors: Freddy Curtis and Mistral de Blondel in the Novice Final

We actually arrived on Friday afternoon to get our bearing, though we were too late to see the Dressage on both Mistral and Freddy doing their tests, more of which below.

The Roncoroni team had a change to the groom to give an extra driver to the team ready for the return to Hendersyde with the very experienced Cara, who had groomed for Pippa Funnell stepping in for lisa.

Supporters. In addition to my wife and daughter who had come down for the event, Harry Philips, one of Freddy’s other owners was able to attend, as were a number of Kerr cousins with their families who swelled the Showjumping support group to 15.

Location

The location of the Lorry Park and the Dressage area were the same as for Little Gatcombe but the Cross Country, and Showjumping, along with the excellent trade stands were located further away.

The car parking for the owners was also up by the lorry park which necessitated a longer walk or a shuttle service. The distance wasn’t a particular problem, although we did park much closer on Sunday in one of the other car parks, and it did make visiting the stables and the lorry for other younger guests a bit trickier. However I would say that the distance was a problem for those with multiple rides, as the timing between rides was often set fairly tightly, and on a number of occasions it simply wasn’t possible to return to the stabling area. There were several riders swapping horses in the warm up area, and in Freddy’s case it certainly wasn’t perfect preparation, and it took some time to get him settled enough to go into the main arena. With 100 entries in the Novice and big numbers in the other classes surely it is possible to have the rides slightly more spread out than 30 minutes for showjumping and 40 minutes for cross country in a major championship.

Hospitality

The hospitality areas surrounded the showjumping arena, and we certainly enjoyed use of them, though the toilet facilities seemed spartan compared with those provided at other events. The space in front of the hospitality and sponsorship areas seemed extremely cramped and if they had moved a few of the tents from the row behind they could have created more room to move, and a greater area to watch from. During the intermediate showjumping on the Sunday I became slightly concerned that the horses might even be tempted to jump into the EHOA area rather than tackle the first element of the treble which was close enough to touch from where I was sitting.

The Dressage

Same location as for the Little Gatcombe events. Little really to add other than it was a fairly major detour for spectators away from the rest of the event.

The Showjumping

The arena seemed in a fairly compact location, and obviously the undulating terrain severely limits where it can be sited. It certainly wasn’t anything like as uneven as Aske, which if anything proved good preparation for Mistral. The competitions themselves provided compulsive viewing, though not as much for me as the Cross Country was. The courses themselves were fairly stiff, as you would expect for a championship

The Cross Country

Now this was something else, and I suppose the inverse of Blair which goes up a hill to come down, but the trees there don’t permit nearly as much of the course to be seen.

The whole scale of the Park Bowl complex is amazing, which is aided by the excellent viewing. However the TV coverage (which was excellent by the way, and makes it much easier to follow what was going on) doesn’t do justice to the inclines and descents, and once these have been walked it puts a whole different perspective on things. Although we were in the Novice class, Iona and I walked the Intermadiate section of the Park Bowl on Friday evening, and then with Harry we walked the Novice course on Saturday morning. It was very humid and I was actually sweating by the time I reached the end, and that was without running. We had the pleasure of Nina Barbour’s company for the first nine fences to set the scene. For first time viewing the Park Bowl did take pride of place though I worked out for my horses that it was possible to watch the horses from the 5th to the 12th and then move fairly smartly downhill to watch the horses complete from 13 through the water complex to 18. Lucky it didn’t involve going the other way.

One thing that might require further attention is the ground in the water, where certainly both in the Novice and Intermediate classes remedial work was required after deeper holes started to appear and horses began to lose their footing. It contributed to a number of riders coming unstuck.

The Trade Stands

A great range of trade stands and some old favourites beginning to appear consistently, from which I can get a reasonable idea of the mood of the event,

I would say that the takings seemed better here perhaps that at some events I had attended earlier in the season, with belton perhaps being the exception.

Travel luggage and clothing seemed to be going fairly well, and I would say that most trade stands felt they had done reasonably well given the economic climate.

The crowds seemed large too, but the cross country course could certainly absorb them

Entertainment

Lots of entertainment on view as well , from the Shetland Grand Prix, to the Cossack Riders.

The owners reception was also excellent and gave me a chance to catch up with a number of people

Excellent to see Dee Kennedy making such a good recovery, and we even had an opportunity to congratulate the newlywed royals who were acting as the event hosts with Captain Mark Phillips being at the Olympics. Also bumped into a number of others at various stages of the two days, with Les Smith appearing from Hendersyde to be at the Gatcombe while Olivia Haddow and Nicky had gone the other way.

The Novice Championships

Dressage

Both Freddy and Mistral did their dressage on Friday as we struggled south through heavy traffic. We were never likely to get there anyway, but this is probably where the lack of match practice showed up, even with quality training.. Through a combination of balloting and weather we certainly had not had as many runs as we would have liked, and both horses missed out completely in July. The Intermediate at Auchinleck would have given a good warm up. This was only Freddy’s second Intermediate as a result.

Mistral was 69th after dressage with a 36.3 and Freddy was a more distant 78th with 38. Both clearly have done, and will do better, and I will be interested to see the difference through Thirlestane, Blair and Little Gatcombe, weather permitting. There were simply too many good riders and horses on lower scores to really make an impression on the leader board, but to give Mistral his due he certainly gave it a good attempt.

Showjumping.

With lots of family watching (and a classic photo-synergy picture shows us in a row all watching) Mistral did a fantastic clear round, though Nicky had to work very hard at a couple of fences. Freddy was harder work and had the last elements of both trebles down, which were both downhill, and was badly distracted at the second last, and so had three down. Otherwise his technique over single jumps was excellent, and could easily jump higher. Plenty to work with.

Cross Country

Nicky discussed how she would run the cross country given their positions with us before setting off. In particular she wanted to keep the horses under control for the downhill sections, rather than let them pull (see below), and keep them steady. Both horses did extremely well and went clear Mistral with 5.6 time faults, and Freddy with 8.4. Freddy was allowed to bowl along and took the jumps easily, and Nicky would be quite happy to put him over an advanced track on that showing. We just need to get all the other bits going at the same time.
Mistral climbed 44 places to end up 25th ( a rerun of Houghton) and Freddy rose up to 56th.

The winner Brook Staples came out of the same qualifier as Freddy at Aske, and was an excellent ride. Several riders did find the footholes in the water, and there were a number of high profile casualties at various parts of the circuit.

I was also fortunate to be watching some of the Intermediate class tackle the Park Bowl, standing beside several competitors (which was very useful) , and again the water claimed some high profile casualties. I could also see what might happen if a horse was let go down the hill, with no brakes, and it was only by great good fortune that one rider managed to escape what would have been a disastrous fall with an amazing leap. Their luck ran out at the second element of the water where a horse fall put paid to that round.

The standard of horsemanship here was excellent with quality shown through all classes and the leader board in each of the classes is an undoubted reflection of the outstanding strength in the sport.

An excellent event for the first time attendee to go to see the sport, (but the dressage location being so out of the way is the only drawback to being able to get a grasp of all the disciplines within easy viewing)

As an event this clearly ranks highly in terms of places to be, and one would hope that all the horses can include this on their itinerary for next year. This was also a very good overview of what we can aim at, as Nicky continues to bring Trig Point on steadily, in addition to making progress with the other two.

Nicky continues to have a busy August with Scone, Thirlestane, Blair and Gatcombe all on the list, as some of my horses are scheduled to run at all of them there should be a regular blog returning.

Washed out at Auchinleck (July 08)

So much for July, and it is rather topical that the abandonment levy debate is underway at the moment given the July abandonments taking place for the second year in a row. There shouldn’t be a debate after the last two weekends of the value of the new proposals being put forward.

If Nicky had entered at Cumwinton we would have been idle for the second week in a row, and been particularly frustrated. It now looks that some warmer weather is appearing finally.

Meanwhile at the other end of the country Harry Philips, one of Freddy’s owners had to pull out his racehorse Risk from running at Newmarket because the ground was too hard.

As it stands we are now going to complete to July without any runs for my horses at all, though a combination of a ballot decision and the weather, which clearly isn’t ideal, and more of that later.

We had driven over to Auchinleck in the afternoon, with some trepidation, as the weather forecast was bad for the Friday evening.

As we headed through ever increasingly wet weather, with low cloud and virtually zero visibility through the Coal mining villages of Ayr, there seemed a degree of inevitability about what was going to happen.

The Enterkine hotel was written up in various guide books though I would query that.

The food was good, with some imaginative menu selections, some of which didn’t quite work, in contrast to the Burlington at the Devenshire Arms which was faultless.

We were supplied with the wrong room key, the main light in one of the rooms didn’t work and for some reason the pillowcases were omitted in our room. This was in an annexe rather than the main building.

At breakfast the waitress had to be called back five times for things that had been forgotten, but they did allow us to check out a day early when it became obvious that both days were cancelled.

We are not sure about this choice for next year should Auchinleck proceed.

Back from dinner we got the news that we had thought obviously was coming that day one was off, and a decision was set to be made on day 2 by 11.

Nicky had made it all the way to Rowallen with a full load, and turned round and went home for a six hour round trip.

The Galbraith bandwagon had made it as far as the Edinburgh bypass before having to turn around.

The rain was pretty relentless until the middle of the night, and I have to commend BE on getting the decision out a couple of hours before the previous deadline about the cancellation of the second day.

This allowed Nicky to divert to the St Boswells Show and the working hunter classes.

We took the opportunity to visit Culzean castle on the Ayr coast which was spectacular before heading home via Auchinleck Estate.

After Scone 2, Thirlestane, Tweseldown, Gatcombe (1) and Burnham which all experienced vile conditions, I wanted to see the state of the ground as I hadn’t been to this location before.

We got there about 3pm and it was readily apparent why the cancellation had happened as both cars and lorries would have been completely stuck, and tractors would have had a hard time pulling anything out, which is before any discussion of the safety situation. Pictures attached of the vehicle entry area which is pretty conclusive and representative of the deluge from the day before.

So the upshot is that both Freddy and Mistral head off to the British Novice Championships not having competed for a month, which is hardly ideal preparation, and it just depends what genie pops out of the box on the day, as regards their temperament. Meanwhile Trig Point also will end up not competing for five weeks as he has been balloted out at Strathallan, again not ideal for a quality horse , and one hopes he doesn’t lose momentum after the excellent string of results he has put together.

The early warning of the cancellation did allow Nicky a detour and again Trig Point came up trumps.
The Newtown St Boswells & District Farmers Show was being held on the Saturday and Nicky was able to enter a few horses for the Hunter Classes

Trig Point Jumped Clear and then by winning the Final overall has now qualifies for the Scottish Working Hunter Championship Final at Blair (so he does get there but not to event this year).

So his excellent run of form does continue,

Roll on August..Next report from Gatcombe…

Aske (June 08)

After a few weekends on the sidelines, the Blog reappears with a report from the first day of two at Aske in North Yorkshire.

I was only there for 10 hours but there seems a large amount of ground to cover.

The only run that my horses have had since the last report at Hexham, was Trig Point’s third place in the six year old qualifier at Catton which is enough to get him to the final. His dressage of 28.6 had been followed by a clear round showjumping and 1.6 time faults Cross Country, which earned him 4 points.

All three were running, with Freddy Curtis and Mistral having their first outing since Houghton. Freddy was competing in the Novice Regional Final, Mistral in an intermediate, and Trig Point in a Novice. Rare Hero made up the fourth for the day with another four to follow on the Sunday.

It was an early start for everyone as we had about two hours driving to cope with, and wanted to be there before Freddy started with Dressage at 08.30. It was also due to be a late finish with Trig Point not completing Cross Country till after 5pm. Weather, predominantly cloudy, with the odd shower and sunny intervals.

The classes ranged from Open Intermediates, down to Pre Novices on Day One, with Novices and Pre- Novices on Day 2

I will tackle the Intermediates first, followed by the Novice regional Final and then the Novice, but first will give the initial impressions of the venue. Curates egg springs to mind but that isn’t necessarily perhaps the right wording.

The Location

This was the first time that I had been to Aske, and geographically is probably isnt the easiest location to work with, given the undulating terrain.

The cross country was spread over terrain that made viewing very reasonable, and one didn’t have to run around alike a total lunatic to see more than 50% of the fences.

The show jumping was set on probably one of the most undulating courses I have seen so far, and combined with the technical nature of the course building, was to stretch the intermediate field. The first five horses I saw came back with 12 faults, 20 , 24, Technical elimination, and 20. That gave me a clue that the showjumping was to have a critical role to play in the outcome, and if a horse wasn’t balanced or concentrating it would pay the price. Whether the challenge was too intense was being debated for some time amongst the various members of NBR Eventing. Adjustments were made for the Novice and Pre- Novice showjumping and with the BE Regional representative on hand certainly there were more expert people than me around to suggest changes if they were required

The dressage was also on what I might term sloping terrain. Perhaps one shouldn’t be too critical of that, but the grass had only literally just been cut (or topped) and was still too long, with the cuttings still lying. Combined with the sloping terrain it certainly could do with improvement for next year. The scores for all three horses in dressage belied the conditions though.

The programme had very little in it, and the map of the cross country course was supplied separately. I still think Hutton comes up with plaudits for its innovative programme for last year. The commentators as ever were excellent and with long gaps early in the day in the cross country schedule were challenged to keep the crowd entertained (and I was mentioned several times…). Trade stands were pretty limited.

Intermediate report

Having been uncooperative at Houghton, Mistral showed some better form to score a 34.3. There were elements that looked slightly unbalanced but he looked much less tense, and we were reasonably happy. Rare Hero (not mine) managed to stay in the arena (just ) and the 49.1 was a reflection of the high scores when he was performing and the couple of two’s when he was anything but….

Mistrals class was being led by Nicola Wilson after dressage on 30 points and there was certainly all to play for entering showjumping. However Mistral’s composure and concentration weren’t there, and after a fabulous display at Houghton, he came down to earth as many others did. The balance and concentration were at a premium, and in the two Intermediate sections of 66 horses there were 4 clear rounds, and 8 were eliminated entirely . The winner of the intermediate C actually won with four fences down in the Show Jumping which must be close to a first. Mistral had a disappointing four down, after Rare Hero had knocked down two.

For the cross country Nicky took it steadily on both horses. Despite his high dressage Rare hero came 11^th in his class and Mistral had 30.4 time faults to come in 20^th. A number of the fences were challenging and after Mistral’s rather hot headed performance at Houghton Nicky wanted to do more controlled round focusing on precision and it looks as though this was achieved. His next outing is at Auchinleck, in an Intermadiate but the real focus is on Gatcombe in the Novice Championships which is what we are working towards.

The Open Intermediate dressage arena was beside ours and it was interesting to see a number of Badminton Horses being put through their paces. Lenamore’s 23.8 was polished and his next move is probably the Olympics. What a contrast in surfaces. Charlotte Agnew’s Little Beau, and Rocket also put scores under 30, as did Caroline Powell, and Nicola Wilson. There were only three riders with clears in the Open Intermediate showjumping too, which indicated how tough the course was. The borders riders had three in the top six overall, with two for Caroline Powell and Charlotte Agnews Rocket coming sixth.

Novice Regional Final- run over Intermediate dressage and Showjumping and Novice Cross Country

The main aim for the trip down had been to see whether Freddy Curtis could join Mistral and Cherry Law, and qualify for the Novice Championships at Gatcombe at the beginning of August. From the initial list of entrants I thought there would be nine qualifiers, but after a couple of withdrawls this looked to have slipped to seven or eight. Freddy was first up in both in the dressage and showjumping as well which meant that he had to set a reasonable pace.

I was very pleased with the dressage. His 32.9 was a clear reflection of a good test and certainly the best he has done under our ownership. It is good to see the hard work paying off.

He was lying sixth after dressage, but the showjumping challenge was to come. A couple of changes were made to the course, removing one of the bogey fences but still leaving plenty to do. Freddy jumped much better than at Houghton and only had one pole down. The next dilemma was whether to go and watch Trig Point, or stay to watch the rest of the class, letting Nicky know what she needed to do for Cross country to qualify. We chose the latter.

The changes in course might have been made, but it was still proving tricky, and we hoped that Freddy would hold onto his position. As horses had one, two or more poles down we became more optimistic, and out of the 30 runners there were only three clear. Freddy had moved up to fifth, so was still well placed but there wasn’t a huge amount of room for manoevre. A clear inside the time would do the trick, I informed Nicky. He wasn’t first up but again it became clear that rounds inside the time were not at a premium. In fact there were only three. However although it looked as though he was going fairly fast he needed to be pulled back at various stages on the course and racked up 3.6 time faults. The scoring was ponderously slow, but eventually we worked out that Freddy was in seventh or eighth. He actually came in seventh and with eight qualifiers had done the job we asked. He also gets another point.

Novice

Trig Point is on a roll, and although I didn’t see it the dressage news had already filtered back that his test was as good as at Hexham, and sure enough a score of 23.2 put him comfortably at the head of section E. More changes to the Novice show Jumping with fences being lowered and more being taken out. Because of the undulations some of these were still pretty challenging, and I was very pleased when he only knocked one pole behind to have four faults. There were eight clears, but two of his closest in score had had a 23 and a 61, so he had 2.8 points leeway over those behind. We knew it was closer than at Hexham, but both agreed that we would allow him to go at the pace that suited him rather than chase for the win, with his development and confidence being more important. Looking at his round, he seemed to be traveling very smoothly, and he finished strongly, but I was surprised to discover he was three seconds faster than Freddy over the same course, his flowing style paid dividends as he romped home to win. Prize money £69.. Entry fee 57.. hmm

June has been a fantastic month for Trig Point and Nicky, and he has come away with two wins and a third. He now has 16 points, and has qualified for the six year old championships at Tweseldown in October. All testament to the hard work put in over a couple of years which is beginning to pay off. There is still very much a feet on the ground approach as one can see by the debate on the cross country time, as we have long term aims in mind.

Interesting to see how the BE Points are evolving for Nickys yard as the season progresses

Totals

Mistral 21

Cherry Law 19

Trig Point 16

Freddy Curtis 15

Season to date

Trig Point 16

Mistral 9

Cherry Law 5

Freddy Curtis 2

The thirty two points so far are the highest since 2004 for a season and we only are at the end of June. Good progress…

We had had a discussion about points at the end of April, but that is only one aspect of the horses recognition ad is sometimes not totally reflective of the developments plans of the yard. Missing runs because of being balloted out might also have had a role to play. Nevertheless very pleasing to see.

The Blogs return

Another couple of weeks on the sidelines followed by an edition from Auchinleck, with a potential two days, Gatcombe Festival of Eventing (certainly the Saturday), Thirlestane (though not sure about how many horse), Blair (Friday through Sunday) and Gatcombe again.

The arena and Stable work should have moved to the next phase by then, so we may welcome a quieter time in September.