Merrist Wood JAS and exciting news of a new Sponsor...

New years day 2012 was definately one to remember .. for the wrong reasons. However nothing to do with partying the night before, I was driving!
I decided to take Lily for a blast on the gallops, I had made it about 1 furlong along the gallops in trot before Lily decided it would be hysterically funny to whip round, the result of which was me on the floor - on the positive side I managed to land on my feet and keep hold of her. The negative side being that just ten and a half hours into the new year I had fallen off and am left hoping it's not a sign of what is to come!

    So onto something exciting. I am delighted to announce that I have got a new sponsor. Simple System is a feed company focussing in Simple Equine Nutrition. All my horses have been fed on their feeds for many years now and they all look extremely well. Their products are extremely good quality forage and Lily is working extremely well on 1kg of GreenGold, and 1kg (dry weight) of Lucie Nuts soaked. We add Total Eclipse to ensure she gains the right balance of vitamins and minerals and she looks fantastic. Having had 6 months off before taking 6 months to get back into full work, it has been vital to provide her with the ideal diet allowing her to lose the weight she put on in her time off but at the same time having enough energy from the food to meet the energy requirements her system required to build up muscle again. Simple Systems advice hotline provided great back up for this enabling her to be back to jump her first affiliated show at the beginning of January, just under a year after her operation.

    And now the competition reports..
Merrist Wood BSJA 7/1/12. This was my first competition of the New Year and I was determined not to start the competitions of the new year the way the 1st of January went! We took Punch and Lily to jump the 90cm and the 1.00metre. Punch jumped very well in the 90cm and whizzed round the jump off to finish 3rd in a class of at least 60 horses. Lily has never jumped at Merrist Wood before and was a bit green and got a little flat and long in a related distance to a double, which was quite small so she had the out of the double, however I was really pleased with her attitude. In the 1.00metre, keen to prove she was capable of beating Punch she jumped a lovely double clear and I managed a couple of decent turns to finish a respectable 6th out of about 60 plus horses again. Punch decided that the fact we now were jumping a related distance the other way to the way it was jumped in the 90cm was terrifying, and so spooked at the first part and didn't make the distance to the second part so he had it down, typically being the last fence in the first round but he jumped well so I couldn't really be disappointed!

    We were back at Merrist Wood yesterday (21/1/12 .. << I like that number!) for the Jumping and Style (JAS) run by British Eventing. Ozzie felt very pleased to be coming to the party this time with Lily and Punch. Lily and Punch were both entered in the 90 and the 100, and Ozzie was entered in the Novice. In the 90, Punch jumped a beautiful double clear and inside the time, and at number 45 in the class was the first horse to do so, so big pats for Punchy! He finished on a style mark of 12 but was beaten by someone who had also finished on 12, however they had added 2 time faults to a better style mark so won overall. Lily was an angel, she has never seen anything like the JAS before but was lovely and just knocked the out of the coffin due to overjumping the ditch and making the distance too short. She got a style mark of 16, as she was a little green and I didn't kick on as I wanted to give her a nice experience so she got 10 time faults, but not bad for a first go!
In the BE100, Punch decided to be a little cheeky and had two stops, the first one was because he didnt make the distance in a related distance which was fair enough. He then stopped at the next fence purely because he had stopped at the last fence, so a reminder of what he was there to do, he popped round the rest like nothing had happened, horses for you, but he jumped well! Lily was gorgeous, it was the best round we have jumped together by miles, she got a style mark of 14, and had the back rail of the last as I dont think she really saw it as it wasn't there in the 90. However she was 2nd on 18 so I was extremely pleased as I kicked on in this round and made the time!
Ozzie didn't want to miss out on the fun so the horses decreased in height as the fences increased, definately what seemed to be the wrong way round but Ozzie disagreed. He was on flying form, having not jumped a decent 1 metre course since Weston! He had 2 down, however he had one down as he just dived at the front rail a little and the other fence was tiny and he just took his eye off it. He got a style mark of 20 which wasn't too bad and finished on 30, due to 2 poles and 2 time faults, that left him in 14th out of 31 people, which I am very pleased with. However he feels on great form and it has cemented the fact he needs a lovely new home to take him out eventing this season as he loves it!

Thats all for now!
However we are definately moving full speed ahead to the eventing season so fingers crossed that they stay fit, sound and healthy and the results keep coming

Updates soon

Georgie xx

Video of Lily at the JAS; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI-SGgQjDfg&context=C3a727bbADOEgsToPDskLVaixCRfQAoA_6pihcWqWq