NBR Event Owners Blog From Gatcombe- Allez le Mistral, Trig Point opens his account
There does need to be a little preamble to bring readers up to date before we launch into the Little Gatcombe (1) report as to events in the close season for NBR Eventing, and what we have in the yard for 2009.
Firstly, there is a new yard. Most of you will have caught up with the fact that Nicky was in the throes of moving yard, which happened in mid December, although work has been continuing round the fringes as we moved through Winter. The Through The Keyhole feature in Eventing magazine in march captured the new yard in its glory, with the exception of the outdoor arena, which had remained stubbornly unfinished, thanks to the wet weather. A dry spell brought construction phase to its conclusion and the landscaping too is nearing completion. After so much wet weather had held up its construction, we now found ourseleves seeking wet weather to help with the bedding in process. That however proved elusive till last week. Westerhouses Equestrian is now up and running, and all we needed were the Horses and the Events to complete the picture.
There are currently nine horses in the Yard for 2009.
Although the Blog will tend to feature Mistral De Blondel, Trig Point and Freddy Curtis, which I partly own, the others will inevitably be mentioned if they are at events that I happen to attend.
The horses are:-
Rare Hero, Mistral, Freddy Curtis, Trig Point, Sky Rhode, Stonedge, Indian Mill, and stable named Wattie but as yet no formal name.A recent arrival has been BallyCassidy owned by Sharon Lindop, which brings us to nine.
Cherry Law is no longer in the stable this year, as the owners would like to see her compete at more local events, which was running counter to some of the plans for the other horses which are taking them increasingly further afield. Nevertheless Peter and Rhona Elliot wish to maintain participation in the yard, but which equine form that will take is as yet undecided.
Trig Point, being a member of the Olympic 2012 pathfinder programme, has also been attending some of the training sessions, where he seems to have made a good impression, and perhaps the benefits have been partly reflected in his performance over this weekend.
The Senior Group are Rare Hero, Trig Point, Mistral and Freddy, with Stone Edge, Skye Rhode, and Ballycassidy being the more experienced youngsters.
It is certainly fair to say that the horses perhaps have been lacking their normal preparation, without the school, and so the expectations for the first part of the season were undoubtedly “restrained”. ( A polite term)
Nevertheless the first outing was at Lincoln, which I traditionally stay away from to allow some of the cobwebs to be blown off.
There certainly seemed to be a few with Freddy reportedly relatively excited on his first season outing at Novice , with a 44 dressage, two down showjumping and ten time faults Cross Country coming 13th.
Rare Hero and Mistral both did Intermediates. Rare Hero had a similar mid forties dressage, one down showjumping and had 8.8 time across country finishing eleventh, and Mistral did a 37.3 Dressage, went clear showjumping, and also went clear cross country, but the search for the correct bit wasn’t found on this occasion and he cam back with 42.4 time faults finishing 21st . It seemed to have been pretty depressing start to the season though Mistral has picked up 2 points to open the Yard’s Accounts
Little Gatcombe (1) 28th-29th March- The clock change weekend
Accommodation
I stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast, The Old Parsonage, at Rodmarton, run by Mary and John Fitzgerald. They were excellent hosts and both breakfast and dinner were of a very high standard.
It was also very close to gatcombe, though we didn’t have an early start on Day 1
The weather was also extremely unpleasant on day one with violent showers, some of hail, and a chill wind.
Day two was a lovely Spring Day
Horses competing
Intermediate Novice: Trig Point (first outing of the season) and Freddy Curtis
Intermediate : Mistral and Rare Hero
Mistral 2nd, Trig Point 5th ( his sixth placing in the last seven events), and Rare Hero 10th..-
So how did they get there…
Dressage
All four Horses did the same dressage Intermediate 117, with Trig Point and Mistral coming out with the same score of 35.9, though with different judges. They both looks relatively composed and despite the high wind both performed well, considering the lack of schooling due to the lack of arena. These were very encouraging results and they clearly will improve on these. Freddy and Rare Hero were less composed both getting scores in the mid forties, and Freddy seemed particularly unsettled at the start, and his concentration was wayward.
Showjumping and Cross Country
The Showjumping on Day One brought slightly differing fortunes. Again Freddy seemed slightly tense, and not concentrating, but only managed to have one fence down, but the round seemed rather untidy.
That was only because Trig Point produced an absolutely faultless round over Intermediate fences, that the commentator described as “textbook”. Peter Murphy would have been proud (though not surprised), and he never looked like knocking a pole down.
Freddy and Trig point then completed the Novice Cross Country Course, again with differing fortunes. Considering this was Trig Point’s first outing he produced an excellent performance going round clear, exactly on the optimum time making it look very easy. It is the first time he has gone round without time faults since Lincoln last year (though Scone was for Speeding). He finished a creditable fifth getting two points to open his account. Freddy was less successful. Again he wasn’t concentrating approaching a large set of upright creosoted rails, behind which I was standing, looking elsewhere. However it had become extremely dark and the dark fence was merging into the dark hail clouds, and quite rightly given the fact that by the time he had decided to pay attention he might not have seen the fence, the riders choice was to stop him and to represent, which was absolutely right. He completed the rest of the round reasonably well and looked perfect at the water which caused a number of others huge problems, but a 33rd place clearly isnt a reflection of his ability and he hasn’t kicked off his season yet.
Sunday 29th
A much better day and clearly Mistral liked what he saw
He was perfectly composed heading off to the Showjumping, and produced an excellent clear round where he clearly was really trying. This had put him into second place, but the forty time faults of last week had clearly necessitated a change of bit, and after a lot of debate the Uptown Eventing suggestion was put to the test. What a transformed horse. Having seen him at certain stages last season brakes were always a potential requirement but this time round Nicky was able to kick on between fences and apply the brakes where needed. One example was at the water and he simply bounced through it, making it look easy whilst many other struggled. He came round with one of the faster times in the class getting 10.4 time faults and holding onto second. This was an excellent result. Not only does it give him 10 points, but it is an automatic entry to both The British Eventing Intermediate Championships at Gatcombe and the Scottish Open. The Intermediate Championship qualification had been on the wish list so we are delighted he has achieved it so quickly.
To complete the picture Rare Hero came 10th in the same class. He did a blistering Cross Country round finishing with 8 time faults but had had an uncharteristic three fences down showjumping, including one where a fence shadow made him take off far too early.
The event seemed very well attended with lots of top riders present, and a number of familiar faces. The ground was in very good condition and quite firm. There weren’t a huge number of trade stands, so it wasn’t possible to get a real handle of the effects of the recession. I suspect Burnham Market and Belton will give a much better guide, with many more stalls. The general attendance was good, and there was a more organization around the car parking.
The scores reaching the tent were still woefully slow though, clearly giving scope for improvement. The white board in the showjumping warm up area with all the competitors numbers in order for the whole was a good idea, until it rained and all the numbers were washed off with no back up, when it clearly wasn’t. It took a well known competitors mother to inject some sanity into the situation before things got out of hand.
Points Score for the yard season to date- 14
Mistral 12 , Trig Point 2
Makes Mistral 40 and Trig Point 28..
Next Blog outing
Burnham Market – Easter Weekend. We are down en famille for four days though the horses all are doing Intermediates on Good Friday starting at 08.00- Yippee
Those attending .Mistral, Rare Hero, Freddy Curtis and Trig Point all doing Intermediates
See you there..
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