Event Owners Blog from Scone

Arctic Soul finds the Podium, as do Night Porter and My Man Friday. Freddy powers to Fourth .. Podiums, Points and Prizes..

This was a very busy event for NBR, with some excellent performances, and only a couple of fences away from being a spectacular one.
There were no fewer than seven entries, with a pretty intense looking five horse schedule on the Sunday.

The weather forecast had been looking pretty ominous for the Friday and so it proved.
We went up as the advance party and were staying in the Meikleour Hotel not far away.
It was very wet late on Friday, and also Saturday morning, but because it was dry on Friday night, the decision was made to proceed, which proved to be the correct one given the rapidly drying nature of the wind.

The course had seen several changes from the Spring meeting, with a moved Showjumping arena, and the BE90 and BE100 tacking the hill for the first time in a while.

NBR Runners
Saturday: Arctic Soul and Stonedge – BE100
Sunday : Fiddlewood, Night Porter and My Man Friday – Novice, Trig Point – Scottish Novice Championship, Freddy Curtis – Intermediate.

Saturday
Arctic Soul embarked on the next part of his eventing education and stepped up the pace in all disciplines.
Yet again he produced an extremely polished dressage test scoring a 21, again leading the class.
His showjumping was also in a different leaguer from Strathallan, with only one down. There was a slight rider horse miscommunication at the fifth but he showed real composure in completing the rest of the round without further problems. This left him still leading the class, but with only three time faults to play with after another horse completed cross country inside the time, victory wasn’t a realistic aim at this stage of his development. The plan was to take him out slowly and then to gradually increase the pace as the round progressed if he proved he could handle the jumps. He seemed to take everything without becoming flustered, and so the throttle was increased for the final third of the course. What an impressive site and he cruised home with 6.8 time faults to take and excellent second place, and bring home £33 in prize money. At such an early stage in his eventing career this was an excellent result. Perhaps not quite so clever was his decision to kick our lead groom Lisa. Fortunately no broken bones.

Stonedge
Dressage was a good 32.5 and after an impressive clear round, he was very much in the hunt.
However unlike Arctic Soul he seemed slightly less comfortable with the actual jumps, and had a sudden run out at a corner which moved him down to 14th, from a possible second.

Both horses took the challenge of the hill reasonably well, unlike a number of the intro horses (and riders) who came back very tired.

Sunday was an entirely different prospect with no fewer than five horses running and some very tight time scheduling especially in the showjumping and cross country which did require some help from the stewards and judges when we came to Freddy’s dressage.

Fiddlewood, My Man Friday, and Night Porter- Novice
In the Novice classes Fiddlewood, was joined by Night porter and My Man Friday. All were in the mix after the dressage, but Night Porter’s 23.8 was a stand out and set him up well.Fiddlewood produced a clear round which enhanced his chances in a very difficult showjumping test. Both the others knocked one down but with so few clears both remained near the top of the leaderboard. All three produced excellent cross country rounds and tackled the difficult course very well. Night Porter incurred 6 time faults but that was enough to hold onto top spot. My Man Friday moved beautifully and came back with only 2.4 time faults which was enough for second. Fiddlewood had been first out and jumped beautifully as well to come back with 3.2 time faults. However with a number of course changes this year, Nicky managed to miss out fence 15 after brilliantly jumping the 14th and so was eliminated. The time would have been slightly higher as a result, but he had performed extremely well, so this was a clear disappointment as it would have been his best result at Novice. As it turned out several other riders were to incur course errors as the day wore on in all classes.

Freddy Curtis – Intermediate
Freddy didn’t have an ideal warm up as the other three novices had had a very compacted timetable, and was only able to be warmed up just before he was due to start.
With four cross country rounds in forty minutes it was always going to be fairly tight, but as soon as trig Point had finished the cross country I headed over to the dressage area, and we were very grateful to the stewards and judges for allowing Nicky and Freddy a little leeway. Nevertheless he was still a little bit tight at the start, but one he got into the test he showed some good movements and came out with a 34.1 to lie 5th. He produced an excellent showjumping round, and only had one element of the treble down. But that stage he had shed a shoe so we were absolutely delighted. He also incurred six time faults in a class where the time limit seemed excessively tight. There are BE points awarded for double clears including showjumping time so a test this rigorous, incorporating time and jumping did seem somewhat harsh. If this was adopted as standard across a number of events then one could get used to combined discipline. It was obviously the same for all competitors, but I think detracted on this occasion from the competition. After a trip to the farrier’s Freddy set out around the cross country and despite not having completed a round since Burgie One Star he performed excellently. He came home with 12 time faults, without any hint of tiredness, which not only was a good warm up for Blair, but turned out to get him Fourth Place, his best result so far.

Trig Point –Scottish Novice Championship -- Intermediate Novice
This was a competition that Trig Point could, and should have won, but it was a case of nearly but not quite.
We discovered on Friday the dressage test was to be the same as the one at Gatcombe, and although he worked in reasonably well he didn’t quite seem quite settled. He didn’t repeat the stumbles of gatcombe but his 35.0 put him around 5th but within 4 points of the leader. The cross country came next and he did a very good cross country round to be inside the time.
It all then rested on the showjumping which went in reverse order. Lying fourth he was jumping extremely well except when he came to the first of the treble and in a repeat of gatcombe had that down. The three ahead of him also had one down, which shows what might have been, and Alan Gilbert was able to take victory.

Points
A good haul this time round – 20 points

Night Porter 6, Freddy Curtis 6, My Man Friday 5 and Trig Point 3
Totals for the year in NBR colours—68 Points
Trig Point 20, Freddy Curtis 16, Mistral de Blondel 12, My Man Friday 10, Night Porter 10,

Prize Money less lucrative..

Eventing Blog from Gatcombe

The Festival of British Eventing - Looking to the Future and in the thick of the action..

From the first dressage to the last cross country this was action packed, with so much to see across all disciplines and classes.
After the rain on Thursday the event was blessed by good weather making it even more enjoyable.

One of British Eventing's youngest members, Iona, also attended her first official meeting, an EGM , and as part owner of Arctic Soul was keenly assessing the Novice course (tho he is unlikely to be seen here until 2011). We also had Trig Point's round in mind and we have her pictured in the middle of the water at the second element.

There wasn’t much time for hanging around and after watching the initial burst of dressage led off by Ruth Edge on Applejack we managed to tour the shops. As ever there was an excellent range of products though the number of stalls, and especially the Sponsored tents area showed the effects of the economic slowdown. It also must be tough especially on the Saturday and the Sunday to find time to shop, as there were so many quality riders on display in what seemed like a pretty relentless stream.

Our sole runner in the Novice Class this year was Trig Point. Mistral had qualified for the Intermediate championships but the injury he picked up doing so, ruled him out for the rest of the season. Both Mistral and Freddy had done the Novice the year before, but both were older at the stage they competed.
The Dressage late on Friday was a case of almost but not quite. Having worked in well, when he came to the actual test he seemed slightly tense and looked a little green at times. An unfortunate stumble on the slightly rutted arena at one point meant that he ended up with a score of 33.2, rather than somewhere around 30 which he could easily have produced otherwise. In the showjumping arena where Mistral had produced an excellent clear round last year, again in unfamiliar big competition surroundings, he knocked two fences down including one of the combination fences, whilst otherwise jumping extremely well.


And so to the cross country, and this proved to be a phase where he showed no signs of inexperience, and completed an excellent clear round with 10.4 time faults to end up in 43rd place. The setting combined with lack of an outing at Intermediate level since early June at Hexham, with a resulting lack of match practice probably both were contributing factors, but there was also much to be encouraged by.

Around and about..
Whilst NBR headed North to Scotland we stayed for the full event, and in addition to the enjoyable drinks, were able to see cracking competition across all classes, and we just happened to be in the right place on a number of occasions to see some of the key moments.
The corners in Advanced classes had been an early signal that this was to become a key element of the course, and jusging the line and pace down the hill proved extremely tricky. There were a number of run outs and falls, but the best paced ride through that I saw was Daisy Dick, and Spring Along who judged it beautifully as they headed to victory. We had seem Boondoggle complete an excellent dressage test earlier in the day which set them up for victory.

On the Sunday Morning there was an absolutely fantastic draw in the dressage which put a whole string of top horses in the first session.
We were able to watch Opposition Buzz (Nicola Wilson), Two Thyme (Ruth Edge), Flint Curtis (Ollie Townend), Apache Sauce (Mary King), Miners Frolic (Tina Cooke), and Westwood Poser (Polly Stockton), all before the first break. As it turned out there were four of the top six within that group.
The showjumping again gave us the opportunity to witness some great clear rounds including Headley Brittania, before she was withdrawn.

The Intermediate cross country provided a dramatic finish as Piggy French’s storming round, was just pipped by 0.1 by Polly Stockton with Andrew Nicolson just creeping into third by 0.1 with the very final ride of the day. By that stage I had invested in a riders cross country watch, and a part from the distracting beeping for others, it did give an indication of how close the competition was going to be.

The Open Championship was every bit as dramatic and there were two key areas where problems appeared. As ever the corners provided a challenge, as did some of the other fences on that loop, and the land Rover fence at the start of the Bowl. It of course went down to the wire though there were some key withdrawls. We were at the Land Rover combination when both William Fox-Pitt and Mary King had their refusals. We were also close to the start and the Bowl to see the key elements of Ruth Edge’s victorious round, in considerable pain, and she so nearly came unstuck at the water. Flint looked magnificent too in the later sections to come second, and there were so many others who could be mentioned. We had also spent a considerable time in athe area of the corners where the Open riders has a slightly different challenge to that of the advanced. Tragically we were on hand to see Cavort (Ginny Howe) break a shoulder as he fell at the second element. The close bond that the rider had with the horse was clearly evident, and was reflected in the touching eulogy on her website.

So Gatcombe provided lots of action and we hope that our horses can revisit next year.

Meanwhile virtually the full yard is due to make its way to Scone at the weekend and there are seven running (though the weather forecast doesn’t look especially favourable.

Event Owners Blog from Strathallan

Stonedge leads the charge to four Podiums, Prizes and Points, My Man Friday features, and Arctic Soul chills out..

A hectic couple of days competition at Strathallan which survived a heavy deluge on friday evening. I was fearing a rerun of the Auchinleck scenario as we headed north on Saturday morning admittedly three hours behind NBR. All proved to be well though, though the ground was soft in places, and competition was well underway by the time we rolled in.
The entries were weighted towards the Saturday and of the six competing, five were entered on the Saturday.
These included Stonedge in the Lycetts 5 year Old, Fiddlewood and Night Porter in The 6 year Old class, My Man Friday in a Novice, and Arctic Soul in a BE100 (after much debate)
Sunday’s Runner was Watts Burn in the Lycetts Four year Old.

Seasoned readers will note a couple of new names to the yard in time for this competition, in My Man Friday and Night Porter.
After Craig Anderson’s leg break at Eglington, NBR was approached by Marshall and Gail Milne to see whether Nicky could take the ride whilst Craig is out of action.
The horses appeared on Monday, and were competing on Saturday after some getting to know you sessions. Night Porter was previously in the yard as a youngster (when he seemed to be smaller). Craig is hobbling around on crutches although repairing well, looks likely to be out for the rest of the season.
The weather was kind, which helped, and there were only a couple of organizational moans.

The cross country map in the programme quite didn’t reflect the actual event especially in the BE100 course as one of the lower water crossings had been taken out, but that was understandable given the weather. The water crossing itself had become a run though, but I assume the sluice couldn’t be opened as it would have made the crossing too deep further down the course.
Viewing the cross country course isnt particularly easy but being strategically placed and with a bit of (rapid) movement one could see about eight to nine of the fences.
The dressage area had considerably more space to warm up in than Cumwhinton, which made preparation of Arctic Soul that much easier.

Showjumping logistics
There were some mutterings about the state of the loos on site even early in the day but the biggest issue appeared in the showjumping warm up area. The white board had again made its appearance but the organisers hadn’t set up a system to cope with multiple riders. The times for NBR had were already tight in the afternoon session with 8 minutes between two horses, but there were severe delays as riders were taken in appearance order not according to times. This became especially tricky when having to cope with dressage being last in the class, and the judge waiting , whilst still in the showjumping arena. A visit to the judge, who was most understanding, helped mollify the situation . Things got no better over in the showjumping for the remainder of Satuday, though I think Sunday proved easier (though we were not there).

I appreciate that many of these events are only held once a year, whilst the riders have considerably more experience, and often have found events where the system works well.
The Aston – Le- Walls system with an open slot for a multiple rider, after every four rounds again was suggested, and I hope to see the system adopted by more events as we go forward.
Of course it can only be a suggestion.
There was also a considerable delay at one stage on the cross country course as we were walking the course. It turned out that one of the jump judges when trying to ascend the step had slipped and managed to dislocate their knee.. ouch .. and we certainly hope for a rapid recovery .

To the event itself.
Dressage
We arrived just in time to see Stonedge do his dressage in a rather sticky arena in the Five year old class. His score of 37 was slightly disappointing though the class itself was actually scored quite highly. That placed him reasonably well in a class that was only going to have two qualifiers. Next up was Arctic Soul, and after the explosive display at Cumwhinton there was considerable doubt as to what genie might appear out of the bottle this time. This was a slightly more complicated test, being his first BE100, but he settled well beforehand, and produced a fabulous test of 28.5 to put him in the lead of the class of 32. That discipline at least seems to be something he is well suited to, if he can be settled.
Next up was My Man Friday and he produced an excellent Novice test of 28.6, his best of the season by some way, which set him up well for later. Fiddlewood had a 34.8 in the 6 uyear old class, just pipped by Night Porter, who came in with a 32.4. All of the tests look well balanced though a couple of scores were affected by rider slip ups. Even so all were well placed after this discipline..

Showjumping
This was undoubtedly a tough discipline in all classes looking at the scores. The slight undulations along with some clever fence positioning led to some fairly high scoring especially in the BE100 classes. Stonedge produced a very good clear round (the only one) in the 5 year old class, which was enough to put him into the lead.

Arctic Soul in his first BE100 had three down, but all were uprights and he flicked all off behind. Perhaps no surprise as an ex racer and certainly something that can be worked on. We were all pleased with his round and that he kept his cool beforehand.


All the others picked up four faults while jumping well. Fiddlewood actually jumped all the fences clear but managed to throw in a nap between the thrird and the fourth. That was enough to earn him four faults, though he didn’t incur any time faults despite his display.

The Cross Country
The Cross Country proved equally testing and the heavier going certainly didn’t permit a huge number horses to get inside the time, although one entrant did manage to get 10 reverse time penalties. Stonedge needed to go clear inside the time, and managed to do so to win the class while looking to have something in hand. Arctic Soul was never going for time as it was his first BE100 competition. He went comfortably clear and looking at the picture below obviously recognized the steeplechase fence. He incurred 16 time penalties, but hadn’t even raised a sweat ant the end. Again a huge amount had been learnt from this competition

My Man Friday and Night Porter, the new rides, went round clear as did Fiddlewood. Friday’s 4 time faults were enough to put him in Second, whilst Night Porters 7.6 put him in third.
Fiddlewood had 17.6 time faults to put him in 6th. The first two were clearly new rides and both performances were very encouraging
Watts Burn competed on the Sunday. Dressage of 38 was enough to make him the joint leader, and he slipped to second after one down in the showjumping, a position he held after the cross country.

Not a bad weekends work.
Four podium finishes out of six entries, with a First, two Seconds and a Third, and Fiddlewood also picked up a rosette.
Arctic Soul showed a much better temperament and his dressage is extremely encouraging. The other phases are also coming on well and Scone is next up for his learning phase.

Points
My Man Friday gets five points to double his score for the season (but only five in the yard) and Night Porter gets four (to take his to 12)
This increases the yards score to 48 for the season
Trig Point 17, Mistral 12, Freddy 10, My Man Friday 5, and Night Porter 4

Qualifications
Stonedge qualifies for the Five year old Finals, and we are still waiting to hear whether Night Porter makes the Six year Old class given the number of entries (which was quite low)

Next outing
Gatcombe – Brtitish Novice championships for Trig Point.
Hendersyde—My Man Friday and Night Porter in the Open novice

Following weekend
Scone – Seven look likely to run
Arctic Soul, Fiddlewood, Freddy Curtis, My Man Friday, Night Porter, Stonedge and Trig Point.