And then there were Three as Freddy moves on..
Another trip south for the team though NBR had actually stayed south following Blenheim so didn’t have as far to travel.
NBR had one entry in the CIC 1* with Arctic Soul entering his first FEI event.
I had driven south on the Friday and was staying nearby at a charming B&B Fir Tree House in Rodborough Common.
That allowed an early arrival on the Saturday ready for Arctic Soul’s dressage.
The weather was very good on the Saturday, and as a serial visitor to the Gatcombe event have become used to the locations of the various disciplines.
The ground was in pretty good condition too for the cross country, and although there was a Battle of Britain weekend at Kemble it didnt intrude. The cross country course provided the usual series of challenges for a number of horses with several fences on the novice and CIC courses catching riders out, and the time not being easy to achieve.
I was also tasked with gaining a few eventers autographs on a numnah to raise money for my colleagues Harry Philips Mid Surrey Pony Club to buy a field they have had access to for years before it is sold. It joins a list of items including several racing jockeys numnahs. More later on how that went but the nine signatories managed to win Badminton 13 times, Burghley 7 time , Kentucky 3 Times, Aachen once, and Luhmuhlen once (also once as a 3 star). Something to give Tony McCoy, and Richard Hanlon a good run for their money with their racing numnahs and that’s before the Olympic World and European medals tally, more of which below.
Gatcombe the event..
This was the first time for Arctic Soul at a bigger event and it did show in both his dressage and showjumping.
He worked in well early on the Saturday for the dressage, but in a bigger arena for the first time with a few distractions was a little tense.
He didn’t do anything wrong but his mark of 55.8 was a fair one, and a little more mileage will certainly help.
The showjumping on the Sunday morning was a similar case. Having walked the course I felt that he might be a little intimidated by the arena, and so it proved.
His warm up was fine but he was clearly distracted by the surroundings on entering the arena and promptly had the first two down. He then had one more before jumping very well in the latter part of the course. Again more experience of this type of atmosphere with the differeing array of jumps and surroundings will help.
Lying in the middle of the field Nicky just let him run round the cross country and he was excellent in this phase, only coming back with 9.6 time faults and when the accelerator pedal was pressed he responded extremely impressively. He ended up in 64th place with 77.8 faults, but certainly learnt from the experience. It also gives him his CCI qualifying result which sets us up well for next year.
The CIC 1* class was won by Kitty King on Zidante who had been lying near the lead after showjumping, but Pippa Funnell’s 8.8 time faults on Billy Beware had opened the door. The two star also saw a lead swap as Helen Dunning just pipped Lucy Wiegersma to second.
There was also an extremely tight finish to one of the Novice classes, with one second on the cross country course making all the difference.
Clayton Frederick’clear round inside the time on Brookton was just enough to edge out Michael Wynne by 0.3 of a mark on Zenith after he had 2.8 time faults—so close.
Still this was Zeniths best result to date and Rachel Wakefield was seen urging Zenith round the cross country course…not quite urging enough perhaps..
Clayton had more than one round inside the time including Lero Lero pictured below..
Next step for NBR will be a trip to the Rank wedding next week followed by Cherry Law and Inishmor competing at Osberton in the CCI2* and 4year old championships
There was also a slight detour on the way back north as Sarah Cohens lorry had expired and Nicky was able to help taxi back three horses that otherwise would have been stranded.
Back to the numnah
The eventers to have signed the numnah …and remember this is just a selection of those who were at Gatcombe 2 …
Lucinda Green, Mark Todd, Andrew Hoy, Clayton Fredricks, Pippa Funnell, Ruth Edge, Lucy Wiegersma, Sarah Cohen, and Zara Phillips with Nicky to be added.
That group also won a series of medals at top competitions (representing different countries).
Olympics: 2 individual gold, 3 team gold, 1 individual silver, 4 team silver, 2 individual bronze, 1 team bronze.
World Championships: 4 team Golds, 2 individual gold, one team bronze.
European championships: 6 individual gold, 7 team gold, 1 individual silver, 1 team silver, 1 bronze.
Also Young Riders European medals: 1 Team Gold, 1 Individual Silver, One Team Silver and 1 individual bronze..
That is in addition to the top events listed above.
It really emphasizes what a quality group of riders can be seen week in week out at events and how willing they are to help a good cause.
After the MS Fund raise organized by Rhona Elliot with three riders at our yard earlier this year again we are hugely appreciative to all riders who are happy to help.
And then there were three
This weekend also saw Freddy Curtis move on to a new home in the South of England and we will be watching to see his progress on the JRN circuit, something that we think he will be ideally suited to. That leaves Trig Point, Arctic Soul, and possibly Mistral (subject to his continued recovery remaining on track being the horses where I have ownership involvement in 2011)
There will be a season round up after the last event for the yard, and of course we have the BE Elections where I am one of nine candidates standing for three places due to properly get underway later in the autumn..
One also couldn’t leave without a picture of a 25 year old pony who was acting as a travel companion for a couple of eventers …a real character
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