Aske

Trig Point in the Showjumping arena
(Trig Points photos thanks to Chris Lax Photography)

Eventing Blog from Aske- Trig Point was Asked and Answered in style- Ian Stark returns to the saddle..

The first job is to congratulate the British Young Riders team on another gold medal in Kreuth, with Individual gold for Emily Llewellyn and a bronze for Ben Hobday.
Excellent news.

Aske
The second trip to Aske this year was marked by good weather. It seems such a long time since we enjoyed wall to wall sunshine.
The ground which must have been very doubtful at the beginning of the week had dried significantly and the cross country going was a lot better than I had expected.

In focus this time were the intermediate sections though Nicky did have two running in the Pre Novices later.
Mistral and Cherry Law ran in one of the Intermediates whilst Trig Point ran in the other. For Trig Point and Cherry Law it was their first Intermediate. Fiddlewood was entered in the Pre Novice and was joined by Whistling Willo for a first outing at that level.
The Open Intermediate had an interesting twist as Ian Stark joined the list of entrants to run alongside Caroline Powell, Matthew Wright and Oliver Townend but more of that later.

Last time the intermediates had really been decided in the showjumping arena with an especially vicious course. This time the cross country took the honours with the same time of 5.33 as was the case in June but it definitely seemed harder to get. The organisers had undoubtedly listened after the show-jumping last time, and when asked Iona, my daughter, was able to reassure the course designer that this was a much fairer test. The arena was bigger and the contours had been more effectively used, whilst still proving a pretty stiff challenge for those not quite able to concentrate,

Iona at the Hedgehog

I still have reservations about the dressage location though. This time the five arenas had been slightly shuffled around but didn’t leave a lot of space for those trying to get to the far ones, although they were certainly flatter. They had been recently topped but the cut grass left lying which it made it slightly difficult for both horses and viewers to see exactly what the feet were doing. Also in one of the arenas the sun reflected off the judges car into the eyes of the horses as they came into halt at the finish. Mistral had been first in and I wondered why he edged to the side at the halt. After six of the next eight horses seemed to do the same I managed to work out what was going on, but it was the same for all in the class.

So how did NBR do:
Mistral
We had an early start in the dressage at 08.00, which had meant I had left the house at 05.30, Nicky had probably left the stables a couple of hours earlier.
Mistral’s last outing had been at Blair in a three day, and he was undoubtedly a little bit eager to get underway after a few weeks off. However an early start probably wasn’t ideal, and he came in with a 32.4, which was reasonable, without being outstanding. The leader after dressage was DHI Vitesse who had been very impressive at Gatcombe winning the Novice final. It also must have been a shock to Mistral to discover that instead of a three day event hew was actually competing in a two hour one. He may well be a three day horse rather that the short version, but that is something for us to consider next season. In the showjumping arena he just flicked one off in front, which was a considerable improvement on the four he had down in June. Nicky was trying him in a new bit for the cross country as his mouth was quite sore after Blair. Apart from a section in the middle of the course where he did pull away, the trial seemed to have been successful. He came back with 20.8 time faults, which compared with 30.4 in June, and enabled him to finish in 10th place.
He is lining up for his first Advanced at Witton, and this was undoubtedly a needed outing to dust off some of the cobwebs.

Cherry Law
Cherry Law was doing her first Intermediate and also was coming off a few weeks break including disrupted preparation at the Elliotts through flooding.
She too looked a little bit eager in the dressage getting 41.4, and knocked a couple down in the showjumping, but otherwise not finding the height too much of a problem.
On the cross country some caution was taken as it was her first time at intermediate and she had had a fall at the same event last year. In the end she cruised round with 16.8 time faults in a time of 6.15 showing her racehorse pedigree. This was an encouraging outing and she has another Intermediate lined up next week at Witton.

Trig Point
This was also Trig Point’s first outing at Intermediate and followed his success in the CIC* at Gatcombe. Of the 33 starters he was the only six year old and the youngest in the field. He was in a different Intermediate class to the other two and the dressage scores were undoubtedly a few marks higher. The 35.7 he scored left him well placed, but again the surface with loose grass didn’t really allow anyone to have an outstanding test. However he did extremely well in the other two phases. He didn’t put a foot wrong in the showjumping with a magnificent clear round, one of only seven in the class, and tried hard from start to finish.

For the cross country, Nicky simply wanted to see how well he would cope with the fences rather than try to go hell for leather for a time. Again he flowed beautifully over the ground and found little problem with the fences and came back in 6:16 getting 17.2 time faults, and was actually quicker than Mistral. This allowed him to finish in 6th place which is a super result in his first Intermediate outing. He gets another two points to add to his total, (but no prize money). As I have mentioned before, in addition to points being tied in with qualifying scores, points for finishing in the top six should be matched by prize money (rather than the top five)

He has now completed an impressive string of results since June being placed and getting points in six of his last seven outings (and his agile escape from a muddy slip at Thirlestane was also commendable as it avoided something far worse). Whether at Novice, CIC* or Intermediate the class hasn’t seemed to bother him and 26 points set him up nicely for next year. The are historical precedents as Glen Corran also managed six points scoring results in a row whilst transitioning from Novice through Intermediate and 1*, before doing twelve in a row between August 2002 and August 2003.
He is slated for a further Intermediate this weekend at Witton, but having done everything we have asked of him, and looking at the potential weather forecast we may well conclude his season on a successful note.

Pre Novices
I had left by the time the pre Novice sections completed, but there was another good result for Fiddlewood, coming third in his class, with a double clear inside the time.
This is his eighth result in a row in a top six position whether Pre Novice or a five year old qualifier, which is an outstanding series. Whistling Willo had three fences down showjumping but his other phases were pleasing and he finished 22nd.

Overall
The Open Intermediate section was won by Oliver Townend (who also won Intermadiate C) just ahead of Matthew Wright and two of Caroline Powells. Of as much interest might have been the return of Ian Stark to the entry list, replacing his daughter, and he also returned to the points with a double clear on Looks Similar, after a slightly disappointing dressage ( Les Smith was judging the class and I am sure he was slightly surprised to be judging Ian rather than Stephanie). I had seen Ian looking intently at the combination coming out of the wood, as Caroline Powell went through, earlier on without realizing that he was actually competing. His time cross country of 6:13 fitted into the zone ridden by most riders, across the intermediate class. The top five in the open intermediate broke 6 minutes, but in the intermediate classes there were very few who got close to the time without having to push the horses very hard. The only round inside the time across any of the classes came from Camilla Neil Martin with an eye-popping 5:30.
Nicola Wilson also just pipped NBR in both Intermediate classes but with very measure similar times cross country and here pace we considered a fair benchmark.

Points for the yard
The points total has now crept up to 75 for the year with Trig Points total increasing to 26, getting dangerously close to Mistrals overall 28.
The other contribution remain, Cherry Law 22, Mistral 16, Rare Hero 6 , Freddy Curtis 4 and Stonehaven Lady B 1.
Honourable mention in dispatches now goes to Fiddlewood with Eight top six places in a row.


Next Up ..
Weather permitting, Witton next weekend where NBR has seven entered.
The A68 roadworks may also get slightly in the way but the following are due to run
Whistling Willo in a Pre Novice
Fiddlewood in his first Novice (points time?)
Mistral and Rare Hero both do their First Advanced
Trig Point, Freddy Curtis and Cherry law are all entered fro intermediates
Looking at the weather though we shall have to wait and see…

Eventing Blog from Little Gatcombe. Trig Point steps up, Freddy slips up and Emily G gets the Young Rider call up..

This was a terrific event that had everything to keep one entertained.
It was certainly eventful and had wildly contrasting weather conditions over the three days I attended

NBR Eventing
Competing this time round were Rare Hero, looking for a qualifying score in the CIC 2*, Freddy Curtis at CIC 2* for the first time and Trig Point attending his first International Event at CIC*
Also the event was given added spice with the Young Rider Final Trial, with strong local interest as both Emily Galbraith and Charlotte Agnew are Borders based , and Emily is looking after my daughter’s ponies
at the moment. The timetable suited as all of Nicky’s horses did dressage on Friday and I was able to watch the Young Rider trial from start to finish on the Saturday, before returning to the completion of the one and two star on the Sunday.

Accomodation
I stayed this time at Edward & Kate Gordon Lennox’s excellent B&B Well Farm in Frampton Mansell, within easy striking distance, and they were charming hosts.
I ate at the Crown in Frampton Mansell on the Friday evening, and the highly recommended Bell at Sapperton on Saturday with the NBR Eventing and Team Nicola Wilson.
Well worth booking for those who haven’t been, and the chef hadn’t changed as had been reported earlier. NBR eventing was based for this event at the Rank’s yard in Kemble, her old base.

The Event
The most dramatic action was on the Sunday though the medal for bravery may go to Antoinette McKeowen who broke her leg in the showjumping arena at the last element of the treble, and before the ambulance crew had a chance to get to her, had straightened her leg, because it was pointing at an odd angle. Ouch. Sunday’s cross country proved very testing with wildly differing weather conditions but that takes us away from the chronology

Friday Dressage
After a five and a half hour drive south, I was in time to see all three horses perform.
Rare Hero has his moments in the Dressage arena, and after a disappointing 76.5 at Ballygraffan we were looking for a qualifying score. After the first minute it was clear that this was going to be very tight. All the movements were there but he was very tense. It was equally tense waiting for his dressage score, but a 74.1 was actually greeted with a sigh of relief, as he has tremendous form in the other disciplines
Freddy had been working extremely well all week, but he seemed very tense even a couple of hours before the test and he certainly seemed spooked by something approaching the arena. His first four phases were extremely jumpy, but then he calmed down and seemed much looser and more relaxed than I have seen him in previous tests. However the preceeding horses had done excellent tests and therefore his 64.5 looked reasonably fair though disappointing. The potential is undoubtedly there and he is improving.
Trig Point was a different story. Though Nicky had to work him very hard, this was a much better test, and a 53.2 was certainly a good score in excellent company, and put him around 20th place in a field of around 115. We had to wait through Saturday for the field to complete its dressage but we could see he was certainly within the upper half of the field.

Saturday Young Rider Trial
This was a highly competitive class given the stakes involved, though they obviously had been based together for some time and there had been various other legs to the selection process.
I also discovered at this stage that Fernhill Sox ridden by Laura Collett was discovered to be missing a FEI 2* star qualification and was therefore ineligible. Having seen the final trial I could see how that would be a big miss. If one adds that to the confusion over the exclusion of horses which have done four star events such as Little Beau from earlier in the year, then we are putting ourselves at an unnecessary disadvantage. As someone new to the sport I find some the general qualification standards very confusing at times to decide what one needs to go up levels, and perhaps it could be made slightly easier to understand. It certainly might make the rule book shorter.
Anyway Emily Llewellyn led after the Dressage, hotly pursued by Dani Cuomo and Laura Collett, with the next group not far behind. Emily Galbraith with a 36 was only 6 off the lead.
In the show jumping 8 of the twelve went clear ensuring it would all go down to the cross country time, though Charlotte Agnew’s Out of Africa had an uncharacteristic 3 fences down.
It was the two Scots who led the way home in the Cross Country with Emily only having 1.6 time faults to snare third behind Emily Llewellyn and Laura Collett. Timing has come on in leaps and bounds this season I I was delighted to hear that Emily had made it back into the team and goes to Kreuth, and she will be joined by Emily Llewellyn, Georgie Spence, Dani Cuomo, Ben Hobday, and Sarah Stretton with a high standard set by all in the trial..

Sunday Showjumping and Cross Country
Back to the main agenda and if the weather on Saturday had been good and sunny Sunday certainly wasn’t. It was very wet in the morning and pretty dark all day which made jumping into the woods more than challenging on the cross country. Before we got there we had the small matter of the showjumping to attend to, and much to our delight it was a clean sheet for all three horses, with Rare Hero, Freddy and then Trig Point all jumping very well in pretty foul conditions, and trying extremely hard.

Two Star
The wetter conditions undoubtedly played a bigger role in the Cross Country and was at its worst in the two star.
Freddy was the first to go and had been making pretty good progress through some the more challenging fences that other had had problems with.
However seeing a slightly different stride to the one Nicky saw, he went and clipped the second last, the Discovery X question behind. At that stage I was still at the third last but could see him trying to recapture his footing, with nicky trying to rebalance him. However he then slipped again and she slipped off to the left, frustratingly close to the end. On further examination of the ground after the fence there were two absolutely massive skid marks where he had obviously tried to plant his feet with no traction. Both horse and Rider were ok, and having been cleared by the Doctor Nicky was off and round the circuit with Rare Hero, before I had had the chance to get in position. He came back with 16.4 time penalties to end up in 38th place. There were only two clear rounds inside the time, and 25 failed to complete, with another 22 having jumping penalties. This was clearly a reflection of the conditions. I have attached Freddy’s skid below as a slightly different take on the event.



One Star
At least the rain was less evident though the light would become an issue later.
The course was still causing some difficulty so I was seriously impressed with Trig Point’s round. He was taken steadily through the first six fences and then started to flow, and looked absolutely serene. The water complex at fifteen, with an irregular log was catching out a number of inexperienced riders, some of whom accelerated on their approach. In many cases this caused their demise. Trig Point took it without hesitation and cruised to the finish to have only two time faults, and he wasn’t being pushed. His time was one of the top ten though certainly these were not conditions to be trying, and there was one rider who went later on whose speed around the course was nothing short of breakneck, and a number of bystanders were fearful of the end result. The horse had gone round just before Bumble Thomas on Pebbly Victoria and Hannah bate on Vigo, and was one that should have been pulled up on safety grounds. 91 completed the course though 25 had jumping penalties, and 15 didn’t finish, with the wood claiming a number of casualties. As the round continued Trig Point continued to climb up the rankings and he finished an extremely creditable sixth, an excellent result on his first outing at a higher level.

Prizes and Points.
A sign of the time. The rosettes were given down to 28th, and with royalty present I found it most interesting to see how the prizes were received. They were actually given out by the head of the network group with her royal highness standing beside. There was only one of the 18 who actually curtsied to the princess royal (and several almost ignored her altogether) and perhaps there shouldn’t be any surprise who that was. (picture at beginning of blog).
On the other hand, I was slightly surprised to see that the cash payment to the winner of the class of which there were 116 entries, didn’t cover the entry fee and start fee. Now there were a few other goodys thrown in, but I would have thought that for all International events, or perhaps all events altogether, that if you get placing points, then you should at least get your entry fee returned. Perhaps that could be limited to the top six, but I did find it astonishing (as did the winner) that the actual prize money didn’t even reach the entry and start fee.
That also brings me onto the points system for three day and one day events. I gather there may be some changes in the wings but I do feel that International events such as the CIC* at gatcombe one should get higher points than at a simple one day event. I am not sure of the tariff but looking at the entry list at gatcombe relative to Trig’s win at Hexham and Aske where he gets 6 point I ma not sure that three seems the right result.


Points for the yard
The yards points total for the year is now up to 73 with another 7 collected at the weekend. Rare Hero now moves above Freddy Curtis, whilst Trig Point returns to the top of the leaderboard overtaking Cherry law.
Trig Point 24, Cherry Law 22, Mistral 16, Rare Hero 6, Freddy Curtis 4, Lady B 1


Next Stops
Burghley Young Event Horse. Fiddlewood and Stonedge
Necarne – Freddy Curtis and Rare hero
Aske – Cherry law, Fiddlewood, Mistral (Intermediate) , Sky Rhode, Trig Point (intermediate) , Whistling Willow
Witton – Freddy Curtis, Mistral (Advanced), Trig Point with others TBC


The Blog looks set to miss Necarne and the looks set to come back for its last outings this season at Aske and Witton.
After five weeks in a row it probably needs a couple of weekends to draw breath