Enjoying the Summer

Coco at Little Downham Advanced (C) Lorraine Porter

Ok, so I said I would update after Royal Windsor and it is now a month later, but better late than never as they say. 
We have been out show jumping a lot the last couple of months, Coco has jumped another 1.30m double clear as well as jumping several double clears at 1.20m and is qualified for Foxhunter 2nd rounds which I am going to have a go at. Lily is flying round the smaller classes just rebuilding confidence and she has picked up several more placings. Am looking to step her back up to the 1.10s again soon so that she actually has to try!! 
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The baby bay boys (aka Hudson and Joey) have been putting their best foot forwards and both successfully completed their first event at Ascott Under Wychwood at the beginning of June. Joey did a sweet test for 33 and then jumped a double clear to finish on it for 4th place and won a lovely boquet of flowers for his efforts. Hudson got a bit tense in the dressage due to managing to slip over behind before I got on him. Luckily we have a travelling chiropractor and Mum was able to work her magic before the jumping phases. He jumped a sweet SJ round for 4 faults and then cruised round the XC picking up more and more confidence with every fence to finish with just 0.8 time faults. A great start. They have also been out show jumping with Joey picking up a couple of British Novice double clears towards next years second rounds. Hudson has jumped more Discoverys and a 1.05 with ease, you just feel you could put the fences up and up and he would jump round just the same. 
Hudson also made his Badminton debut in the 5yo BYEH class, ready for his 4* appearance in a few years time(!!). I honestly couldn't fault him all day. He did a sweet test for a respectable mark, right up there with some very smart and much more experienced 5yos. He then went on to jump a fantastic round and was unlucky to role one pole but was still one of the top jump marks. He finished in the middle of the field but considering how little he had done, especially in comparison to the others, he really held his own. 
Joey and Hudson are entered at Offchurch Bury BE90 before hopefully making their BE100 debut at Upton House in the middle of July. 

Coco has been on fantastic form. We enjoyed a lovely two days at Royal Windsor, where he jumped the Foxhunter in the main arena which was pretty cool, unfortunately when I went to turn him a bit tighter in the jump off it made him a little tense and so he had two rails, still very respectable! Then the following day we jumped the B&C Handicap which was a speed class. There was a huge buzz round the arena and I was delighted that he stayed relaxed and although picked up an unlucky 8 faults I was delighted with how he jumped. He also ran at Tweseldown OI after we withdrew from Rockingham as it was so wet and we didn't dare risk him. He did a lovely test for a disappointing 35, then a super showjumping round for 4 faults. We then went out for a nice run round the XC but no aim of going too quick, however he just ate up the course despite me never asking him to gallop and was 12th fastest of over 70 intermediate combinations. 
This set us up nicely for Little Downham Advanced the following weekend. He was a star all day at Little Downham, a really super dressage, the best I felt he had ever gone and the best I had ridden and the judges agreed scoring us 27.4 (12th/47). He then jumped a lovely round SJ and was so unlucky to roll the back rail of the in of the combination. It started to pour with rain as we left the start box and it was by no means our most fluent round, but that horse just keeps trying, if we made a mistake he would prick his ears and go again. A horse that does that just fills you with confidence and he finished full of running and full of confidence which was great. We picked up 24.4 time faults which was not the slowest at all and was good enough to leave us 16th. 

This week we are off to Hickstead and hopefully avoiding the heatwave (as much as we can). With the weather like this, I am making sure the horses are all getting their Simple System Summer Salt to replace any salts they are losing through sweat. They don't tend to want to eat so much whilst it's so hot but I still make sure they all get their balancer. Joey and Hudson get Total Eclipse whilst Coco has Lunar Eclipse and Linseed to keep them looking and feeling great. 

Hopefully lots of exciting updates in my next blog.

​Georgie

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