Max hits the Podium, Trig Point gets a Ribbon and more points for Freddy, More horses arrive..

Before getting to our local event at Floors, a bit of tidying up from Aston-Le Walls..
Three horses went down to compete, with Freddy in the Intermediate, and Bally Cassidy and Sky Rhode in the Novice.
Sky Rhode came 16th, and Bally 28th, but Freddy produced an impressive Double Clear to come 5th and take home 4 points. Made the yard points total 20, with Mistral 12, Freddy 6 and Trig Point 2..
Freddy Curtis was also upgraded to a Grade 2, the first upgrade of the season.

Floors Castle
Its all about Caroline’s Butt
The local event for us with roughly a 30 minute drive to cope with
NBR had agreed to sponsor fences in all classes (the NBR Eventing Seat in the Novice) which allowed the commentators Tim Finch, Andrew Spalding and James Oakden some latitude, though the “jumping Caroline Powell’s Butt” seemed to give the greatest opportunity.

The Programme
Minor glitch within the programme as the advert for NBR Eventing was excluded, which did cause a bit of a stir.
The organizer too was rather perturbed when he discovered, and was able to extract the final proof of the programme where our advert was on page six.
Somehow this had managed to be replaced by an advert for rooster potatoes. My focus has now shifted to the printers Meigle, and this isn’t the first time they can be criticised.
To his credit Jamie was suitably apologetic and we did find ourselves with extra lunch tickets, and the advert on the Notice Board. The final proof sheet certainly helped to apportion blame.
Otherwise the setting remains excellent with a normal number of trade stands and the view from the bank allows excellent viewing of both dressage and more importantly cross country where a large percentage of the course can be seen. Still sense a lot more could and should be done with this event though the point about the ground being too hard in August because of its gravel base seems a valid one.

We attended on both days
Weather lovely on Sunday, but a couple of hours of driving rain on Saturday afternoon certainly made the going a little slippy.

Runners
Saturday - Stonedge – BE100, Bally Cassidy – Novice
Sunday – Sky Rhode – Novice, Trig Point- Novice Regional Final, Freddy Curtis- Intermediate
Sharon Lindop also came down to see Bally compete, and there were a steady stream of local visitors to the lorry.
Stonedge takes pride of place, with a better show-jumping round to match a good dressage, and a very impressive clear round inside the time.
As a result he achieved his best BE 100 result with a second place, just behind Emily Galbraith. The Parkyn’s came to see him at Scone, and this show jumping display was the bit that was missing there. A good result.

Bally was less cooperative though I had been expecting a lot worse in the dressage, and thought his 41 was a little harsh.
He had two fences down showjumping, both uprights (similar to Stonedge at Scone..lack of concentration), but clearly showed his scope doing the cross country, where although he incurred 15.2 time faults he had plenty more in the tank and never looked in any difficulty. There were only 15 clear out of 36 runners in his particular Novice class on the Saturday evening. Bally is pictured at the Trakener which caused a number of problems.

Sunday
The Novices on the Sunday clearly paid some attention as the attrition rate was less, but it was also drier.
Sky Rhode was first up, and again I thought the marking was a trifle harsh as he came in with 40.5 in the dressage, without looking as though he had done anything much wrong.
He was unlucky to roll one pole in the showjumping and came home with 7.6 time faults to finish 18th in a tight field.

Trig Point having had four weeks off, with a lack of an ideal warm up, was entered in the Novice Regional Final, the first of two bites at it, with the second option being Aske.
There were only sixteen starters, but some serious competition for the four places. Trig Point’s dressage was much better than his previous attempts and he didn’t put in the flying changes.
Unfortunately he spooked in his final approach to halt, which marred what otherwise was a much better test though may not have felt so at the time. His 30.9 even after a 4 for the last part, showed a welcome return towards the right form. There were five score under 30 (two very good ones from Ruth Edge), and a clear was probably going to be needed in the showjumping. He jumped very well but clipped the first element of the treble which ended up making the difference between fourth and eighth. The cross country round , as one would have expected form this calibre of field, had many inside the time, and there wasn’t the scope to catch up. As one can see below he wasn’t hanging around as he neared the finish. Nevertheless this is beginning to look a repeat of last season where he took four events to settle after the winter, and then really clicked into action in June. We also haven’t had an arena till mid march and I think that still has a some bearing, though is working its way out of the system. Definitely signs of life from the big man.
Next stop Hexham, then his first one star at Burgie, with the NRF at Aske to follow (when I will be on holiday).

Freddy Curtis was the last up in the Intermediate, and this wasn’t one of his best dressage tests. The wind and the flowers had unsettled him, and despite best efforts it was difficult to get him back. His 38.6 seemed slightly generous and there were no polos for him on his return to the lorry. But Freddy is a trier (maybe that was the case for dressage) and he produced an unbelievable show jumping round to go clear without ever looking like he would hit anything at all. He was one of 10 clears in a field of 32 and his third clear out of the last four outings.
In the cross country he also jumped well to come home with 5.6 time faults, similar to that at Aston and a level that Nicky is working to. Again he is pictured nearing the finish.


He ended in 14th, and still claims a couple of points to boost his total to 25. He is up for sale as this seems the right level for him, from the experience we have had so far.. It just remains to see whether we can translate his excellent flatwork at home into the dressage arena in competition day.

Points
So the yard total reaches 22 with Freddy now up to 8 for the year, Mistral remaining on 12 and Trig Point 2.
Next events will be Hexham, followed by Burgie, and the Young Event Horse starts to loom.

New Arrivals
The yard has seen a new arrival sourced via the Parkyn’s again.
An interesting six year old out of Luso, Artic Soul promises a fascinating 18 months of education as he is an ex racehorse.
After three days traveling he didn’t look his best on arrival, but work is already underway. First outing might well be an intro at Strathallen
As Iona will be part owner she has now joined the ranks of BE Members and may prove to be Nicky’s most demanding owner yet.
Fiddlewood, owned by Mary Grant, has come back to the yard too for some more work, and it boosts the total in the yard technically to 12, with 10/11 stables
There has been a bit of jiggling and one or two of the horses are on the for sale list so the numbers look set to reduce again quite quickly. Nevertheless its great to see the yard in full use.