Q SPORT HORSES - OUR NEWS ...
 

3rd February 2012

The cold weather really set in this week, but we have all been so busy riding it has not really bothered us too much.

All together there is enough of us on the yard to get all the horses worked, so we have not even used the walker, all the horses are very fresh, but also very well and ready for the coming season.

The hard work has been watering the horses, it is hard enough on the yard filling bucket after bucket, but then we also have to go around to our horses in the fields, they all get hay so they are always thirsty, so breaking the ice and taking barrels of water down is quite hard work.

It is great how light it is now, even after 5pm it was still light, Spring must be on the way!

We enjoyed Canter Banter this evening, Guy Williams was being interviewed again, this time on Olympic ion.
These programs are so good, really interesting, even though we know Guy and Rebecca very well, it is still great viewing!

Dave is really excited this week on the completion of the luxury horsebox we have built for Shane Breen.
It went for sign writing today, so hopefully we will have some pictures up tomorrow or Sunday!.

We do not have a show this weekend, as we are preparing for the coming tour, we have farriers, physios and clipping going on the next few days.

And of course all the packing to be done and final paperwork, passports, etc!.

29th January 2012

We have had the usual sort of week that we are used to with so many horses in!.

Flat out all week, deciding what horses to take to the shows at the weekend, schooling horses and preparing for the forthcoming Spanish tour.

Dave is nearing completion of Shane Breen's horsebox, it really looks great and it should be finished by the first week in February.

Ella had one of her biggest shows to date on Saturday, a two round team competition, jumping 70cm in the first round and a raised course in the second against the clock.

She had a lovely double clear, 'King Puck' jumping very well as usual.
I find it hard to watch, but I was thrilled the way she went.

Dom went to Aintree on Saturday, then we all headed to South View today.

Dave had a good win in the Newcomers on a new ride 'Crystal Clear', a six year old by 'Clearway', which is by 'Capitol'.

I was 3rd on 'Onyx De Rouet' in the 1.10m open, Becky Brittons horse, I only ride him when Becky is at University.

I was also 2nd in the Foxhunter on 'Adermie 52', he was enjoying himself today.

Dom was also 2nd in the 1.20m open on 'Tierra', beaten by Geoff Billington who was the only double clear in this class.

We all got back to the yard around 7pm this evening, which was not too late, at least we were all done and dusted and got chance to have a quiet evening in!.

22nd January 2012

 Dave had a great win this afternoon with 'Diblesse' in the Grand Prix at South View, the development show.

Not wanting to over shadow 'Valetto JX' who Dave also rode into 3rd place with a double clear.

It was a very good class, over 30 starters and eleven in the jump off, but amazingly Dave was first to go with 'Diblesse', owned by Harvey Wild, and he lead from the front, no one could better his round.

'Valetto JX' had a lovely round, but just a bit slower to keep him in 3rd place.

It is great for us that the horses have come back after their break in such good form.
I rode 'Adermie 52' this weekend and he too feels very good, just 4 faults in 1.30m plus classes at only his second weekend back.

Dom (our pupil) had a very satisfying result on his new horse 'Cassandro', he was double clear in a very strong 1.30m class on Saturday, the second phase was well up to 1.40m, these classes took a lot of jumping.
Also on Saturday he was double clear on the talented 6 year old gelding 'Bangillo' in the 1.10m open.

Dom was also double clear on 'Tierra' in the 1.25m class today, riding very well and the mare jumped super.

We were over run with children on the yard this morning, as we had a pony club rally here and nearly 30 children rode.

We somehow got everyone parked, the weather was a bit of a pain, very windy and some of the groups had to ride in the outdoor arena.
Two groups went ahead in the indoor and various stable management classes went on in the stables.

All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves, it was done and dusted by 12pm ish, so I was able to get to the show in time to jump.

So we are relaxing this evening happy with such a good finish to the weekend, Dave is watching some kind of Alien film, which he really likes.
We both have early starts in the morning, so it wont be a late night for us!

19th January 2012

It has been a short week as we start jumping at South View tomorrow at their Development classic show.

We have been fairly flat out all week, riding and office work, constantly trying to keep up with the daily rigours!

The weather thankfully got milder, but the frost was just what we wanted and we managed to get all the muck heap moved.

Dave and I will be jumping this weekend, we have horses for the big classes and some for the B&C's and Winter Novice qualifiers.
There are few classes for the really novice horses so they will stay at home.

It is very handy that South View is so near to us, so a nice short journey to get home after a long day.
We tend to do a couple of trips to the show, bringing the early morning jumpers home and taking the horses back for the later classes.

We always avoid, whenever possible, standing horses on the lorries for hours on end.

It is a good idea to book a day stable at a show if you know it will be a very long day, the horses relax more, drink better and will have a 'wee' more easily in a well bedded down stable, at least then you know they will hopefully perform better for you.
Even if they are tied up, to prevent them rolling.

Dave will also be training Dominic this weekend at South View, he will be competing four of his horses and hoping for some good results as usual.

We are even staging a Pony Club Rally on Sunday and we are expecting about 30 riders, we will have to park them all up before heading off to our show.

15th January 2012

Dave was back and to twice to South View today, this morning with young horses, then back this evening for the final open class.

His great efforts were rewarded with a good win in the open on 'Camina', otherwise known as Katie.

This mare is by 'Kannan' and she even has a three year old colt on the ground by 'Luidam'.
The colt is so nice we will keep him entire and go for grading next year.

Dom was also clear on 'Cassandro', a new ride for him, so he was happy with his first weekend with him.

So Dave was happy on his return home after his win, he came back to a roaring fire and a Chinese.
Just what you need after a hard days showjumping in freezing conditions!

Ella did not get to a show this weekend sadly, the show had an outdoor collecting ring, I was worried that it would be cancelled due to the freeze, I think it did go ahead in the end.

She has had plenty of jumping practice during the week, so she has not suffered too much.

Ella and I have been watching dancing on Ice this evening, which is quite entertaining, Dave is not struck on watching this!

14th January 2012

The horses went well at South View today, we finally made it out after our Christmas break and all the horses looked very well.

They were all quite amusing at times in the collecting ring, I think they nearly all had a buck and 'Adermie 52' was also even squealing!

Dom had clears with all his rides, 'Bangillo', 'Cassandro' and 'Satori'.

Dave rode some very green youngsters and then 'Dickie Rock' was clear in the open to finish.

I was 3rd on 'Hope Bay' in the Foxhunter and 'Adermie 52' was also clear in the Foxhunter and he felt like he was really enjoying himself.

They will head back there tomorrow with several more horses, I will stay home and look after things here as I have no rides.

It was very busy at the show and we did not get home until after nine o clock tonight, the temperature had also dropped very low.

Luckily the cafe was very warm at the show, so people could keep warm.

Of course when you are riding, this keeps you very warm.


Breaking news from the world of showjumping, Mclain Ward has badly broken his leg in Florida during the Grand prix.

Roger Yves Bost won the Grand Prix in Basil, on a Castle Forbes owned horse, previously ridden by Jessica Kurten.
He was so fast in the jump off the other riders looked like they knew they could not beat him, he killed the class stone dead.

12th January 2012

All our horses seem to have enjoyed their Christmas break from shows, they are now all ready to get going again, clipped, shod, teeth done and raring to go!

We have once again had a very busy week, work in the horsebox workshop is as usual flat out, luckily some super orders to look forward to and the current builds are looking magnificent.

Dave is very hands on in the work shop, usually after riding in the mornings.
we have started work on a local rider's horsebox Chantel Siddle.
Chantel runs a busy yard near by to us, she is an event rider and her husband is a vet.
The vet practice is known as Siddle veterinary services.

We did have a celebration this week, it was our tenth wedding anniversary, so Dave, myself and Ella had a great meal out at the Tapenyake, Japanese restaurant in Chester.

Tysha had a good day yesterday, she took one of our 5 year old horses hunting with the Wynnstay hunt.
Thank you to Claire Rosselie, who took Tysha as her guest, the hunt met at Tim and Claire's home and headed off across towards Bangor racecourse and beyond.

Hunting is a great way to get a young horse educated and give them some experience.

Dave took a large lorry load of horses to Geoff Billington's yard today to school them around his fences in his outdoor school.

We have several new horses that we wanted to get out and also the youngsters.
I stayed back at the yard to ride some of the horses that did not go with Dave.

I did not miss out too much as they videoed all the horses for me to watch when they got back!

The temperature is due to start dropping now, we really need a big freeze, we have a large amount of horse muck that we want to spread on a nearby maize field!

8th January 2012

We did not actually make it to a show this weekend with the horses, we plan to start next week now.

Ella however did make it to a show and after relentless training on her pony on Saturday, she did well at Springbank to come 2nd and 3rd.

So she was very pleased.

We had a pretty hard week, so this afternoon we managed to have a quiet couple of hours before getting back to it again this evening!.

Marion Hughes had a great result in Dubai, Marion is Dave's second cousin, she was 2nd in the Grand Prix this weekend out there, she was beaten by an Arabian rider on 'Larkhill Cruiser', an Irish horse bought from Cian O Connor.

Cian O Connor was also married on New Years Eve, so many congratulations to him and his new wife.

I had a bit of a mad rush to get all our Christmas decorations down early this week, due to superstition mainly I suppose, but we have noticed the town and many houses have still left lights and decorations up, I am surprised as we all know it is the twelfth night after Christmas day so get them down now folks!

We are also as usual on our New year diet's, so plenty of salads, fish and protein, no sweets or chocolate and lots of exercise. Luckily for us our job involves plenty of riding so tons of exercise there.

But of course we need the will power not to over eat when the fresh air sends your appetite into over drive!

6th January 2012

I was astounded today to see that the British Showjumping Association are now charging £200 for an FEI riders licence, (we need to be registered with the FEI to compete at an international show) and previous years we have only had to pay £15.

The Irish federation charge 185 Euro's, which is a high price, but I really do not know how the BSJA can raise the price so much, I think it is quite unfair.

But whatever the reasons, we have to pay it if we want to compete!

Nice to see the weather change today, no more gales and all the horses seem happier.

We were all working the horses today, Dom was back from his holidays today, he has a good sun tan which I expect he hopes will not fade too quickly!.

The horsebox we are building for Shane Breen is nearing completion, it left the yard today to be sprayed, next week it will be back and the finishing touches will soon be done.

5th January 2012

Everyone just seems to be talking about the weather at the moment and the gale force wind's.

Horses and wind just don't go together as we all know, so since we built our wall in the indoor to block out the noise in the workshop, it is lovely and quiet in there.

We are so lucky to be able to keep the horses going just as we want them and we have already started preparing for our Sunshine Tour coming up in February.

Preparations and plans are in full stream.

Dom is back from holidays and back in tomorrow morning, raring to go as usual, as we all are after out Christmas break.

Ella is now back to school, it seems very quiet at home now! and she was very happy to get there this morning.

It is also very quiet at home without our house keeper Kim, she hope's to not be off too long with her broken wrist, we of course wish her a smooth recovery and not too much discomfort.

I have been trying to get Dave to do some tidying up, I know he can iron as I have seen him in action in the past.
He put the dishwasher on the other day, but failed to put in a tablet, so the result was not good.
We are both struggling to find the time for all these task's, but we will manage!

3rd January 2012

We would like to wish everyone a happy New Year for 2012.

We had a great New Year's Eve at our friends Peter and Eleni Murphy, in Lancashire.

Dave, myself and of course Ella headed up to Lancashire early evening and shortly after we arrived we were in full party mode!

I do not think I have ever seen more enthusiastic hosts as Peter, Eleni and their two sons Robert and Michael.

Eleni had prepared an superb banquet for everyone and peter was in charge of drinks and fireworks!

Thank you Eleni and Pete for such a great night....

So we were fairly tired on New years day, we finally headed home and the yard was in good order with Stanny, Tysha and Emily doing all the horses.

We are now back into the swing of things, Ella will be back to school on Thursday and we are probably going to be at a show by the weekend.

I am slightly held back by a back log in the office, a broken down washing machine and our ever faithful housekeeper Kim has suffered a broken wrist, so I seem to have more than ever to do at the moment!

We have been extremely busy riding today, Dave was busier than anyone, riding eight horses in total, he is consequently now fast asleep in front of the fire and the football, it is 9.15pm!!

He says he likes to watch football but he usually does this asleep.

30th December 2011

The wall is now finished in between the indoor arena and the work shop and it looks really good.

Dave was riding this morning and all the girls were in, so plenty of the horses were worked or hacked out.

All the horses are well thankfully and of course they are all pretty fresh which is normal for the time of year.

The weather was pretty rough today but we really need some frost now, it is quite amazing how mild it is.

On the plus side to having no frost is that the grass is still of good nutritional value, the frost kills the grass and then horses out need to be fed hay or haylage.
We still have a few horses out at grass and they are all doing well.

I think we have only had a few days of frost so far this Winter.

We also have a large amount of muck to spread and move and the ground needs to be frozen to do this ideally.

Our long term owners Dave and Fiona Murray brought their 'Luidam/ Kannan' 2 year old colt for us to see today and we gave him a loose school.
He is out of our lovely mare 'Camina' and he really impressed us.

He is nearly 16.3 hands and he moves like a dressage horse!

He jumped like a show jumper which impressed us even more, we loosed schooled him down a jumping lane and he went very well for his first time.
We all made the decision to keep him as a stallion and aim to get him approved, he looks like very good stallion material, so very exciting for Dave and Fiona.

We all have New Year's Eve to look forward to tomorrow night, we hope everyone has a good time!

29th December 2011

We hope everyone has had a great Christmas, it is hard to believe it is now over for yet another year.

We had a nice time and we are really grateful to our staff Stanny and Craig who came in on Christmas Day, so we were able to visit our family for lunch in Prestbury, Cheshire.

We had a lovely lunch prepared by my Sister in law, Sophie and my brother Harvey.
Which means it is our turn next year to cook!

We came home that evening and on Boxing Day we helped Stanny on the yard, even Ella was mucking out and sweeping up.

We have done a fair bit of riding over the Christmas week, riding some of the horses that needed to stay in work.

We also managed to visit the Japanese restaurant in Chester with the Britton family, this was very entertaining and the food was amazing.

We have now just returned from a great wedding, Trevor Breen and Caroline Black are now Mr and Mrs Breen.

We had an amazing time at the wedding, it was in Taplow, Buckinghamshire.
Wonderful food, Champagne and Wine was served! So totally spoilt for the day and plenty of crack.
It seemed like an Irish wedding, with so many Irish coming over to celebrate.

So of course the hangovers have set in now, Dave and I are very much the worse for wear today.
The weather is pretty awful this evening aswel, so we are having a very quiet night in!

Dave, Kamil, Edward and John have very nearly completed the wall in between the work shop and the indoor, they have also put in a much needed door to get from the work shop into the arena.
It looks great and they have done an amazing job.

We are looking forward to appreciating the difference riding in there now, so the men can now make as much noise as they like in the work shop without frightening the horses!

We may miss their singing though.

The World cup from Mechelen is on FEI TV tomorrow at about 3pm, just in case anyone fancies seeing that.
We have quite a busy day tomorrow, but we will try to see it.

25th December 2011

Happy Christmas !!

23rd December 2011

We have been very busy on yet another new project, building a nice wooden, tongue and groove wall to separate the work shop from the indoor arena.

Dave decided to work flat out on this wall with all the men to try to get it finished for the New year.

It is a very quiet time for shows, so the horses are just being exercised, but today it poured with rain all day, so we were trying to ride in the indoor while they built the wall!

Work went on all day doing this and the wall is half built, but now everyone is off for the Christmas break, so progress will not be quite as quick.

We are still having very mild weather, but it is now so damp after all the rain.
We will start to wind down a bit now for the next couple of days, with Christmas day very near now, but then the horses will be back into work early next week.

Luckily having the horse walker, they will be on this to give them a leg stretch and the hard feed will be cut down a little.

Most of the staff are off over Christmas so it is hard work in the stables for those who are not, it is much easier with the horsebox work shop when you just have to lock up until they start back again.

22nd December 2011

We really enjoyed watching Olympia on Monday night on the TV, the Grand Prix was the main event.

It was a very good class, Dermot Lennon was the eventual winner, so I am sure he will now have a great Christmas with his wife Sandra and their two very young children.

Peter Charles was also highly placed after a very good jump off round.

We have been trying to get sorted out for Christmas this week in between riding the horses and of course work is flat out on the horsebox build's we have in the work shop.

Our head man Stanny is back from his holiday back home, so we are fully staffed again, until Tysha will head to Ireland for a Christmas break.

We thought it would be an idea to have a wood burning stove installed in our lounge instead of our 'real flame gas fire'.
So we were lucky to get this new fire in this week, which we are thrilled with.
But the first night we lit it, the weather just got milder and milder and what we thought was a large supply of log's we had been collecting for ages, the fire just seemed to burn them a such a rate, we seem to have very few left!

So we ended up 'cooked' and when the real cold set's in, if ever, Dave could be out chopping logs before his tea as a regular evening chore!

18th December 2011

'Valetto JX' went well at Olympia for Joe Davidson, a horse we part own with Billy Twomey.

Joe rode beautifully around a very demanding track, (1.45m) he had the most unlucky rail down I think I have ever seen! The second to last fence, so we were really starting to think he was going to be clear.

He ended up 9th and there was in fact only two first round clears, Joe missed out from making the second round by one horse.

We had a really nice couple of days down at Olympia, we watched all of the jumping and the standard was so high, as usual.

The British riders are really thrilling the crowds winning class after class, Guy williams and Ben Mayer, they are now assured of a happy Christmas.

I had a great time in the mornings with Ella doing some Christmas shopping in London and then meeting lots of our friends at the show we could really unwind a bit.

We are so busy on the yard at home and now the icy conditions are here, it makes it that much harder.
Our head girl Tysha has looked after the yard so well for us this week, even getting up in the early hours of the morning when a horse arrived from Ireland.

We were quite proud of the news that Eric Lamaze has purchased two new horses, one of which 'Luikka', by 'Luidam', who was produced by us untill we sold her to Norway a couple of years ago, she is a very special mare and it will be a first for us that the World number one will compete one of our 'sold horses'.

Dave spotted her as a 4 year old and declared at the time that she had to be bought as she was such a superb prospect.

Dave then brought her right up to Grand prix level, even winning the Area 17 Grand prix as a 6 year old!

He was highly placed on Saint Lo with her in the Small Grand Prix, shortly after she was finally sold on after huge interest in her.

The World number one lady rider Beezie Madden competes 'Danny Boy', a horse we sold as a five year old, so we feel we have a real chance of seeing some of our 'Horses sold' at the 2012 Olympics in London.

We were really thrilled to see tonight that Robert Murphy won the 12.2h jumping final at the Olympia horse show tonight.

Roberts parents Peter and Eleni have been good friends of ours for years and we even had a meal out with them last night, it must have been the Italian food that Robert ate, as he beat the inform Harry Charles by a good margin, this is his first big win... congratulations to the Murphy family and see you on New Years eve for an even bigger party now that Rob has won!!!

Second placed in the 12.2 class was Jodie Hall Mcateer, 'King Puck's' former jockey (our pony), daughter of Mandy Hall and Paul, a great result for this young lady.

Also a winner at Olympia was Frank Gunnil, our stipendiary steward at the shows who is sadly retiring this year, he was awarded the 'Ryans Son' trophy for all his efforts for British Showjumping, I do not think there has ever been a more deserved winner.

11th December 2011

The weather is definitely closing in on us as we approach Christmas, but still not like last year.

We did find some sunshine. Dave and I shot off to Spain for a night and a day to check out the new show that is about to be run next Spring in Valencia.

It was amazing to suddenly be in a warm climate and the organisers took us all round the show and also showed us some super restaurants, so we had a cracking time.

We were soon back to the grindstone on our return ans we spent all day Friday at home working hard.

Dave has made a great new door for our stable barn, it is nearly finished, it just took a while to dry after the varnish was applied.

Shane Breen has been to see the progress on his new horsebox build, he said he was delighted with it and it will soon be finished.

We will look forward to seeing Shane competing at Olympia next week.

We have had some more new horses and ponies arrive at our yard which are now for sale of course, a lovely young Working Hunter 15 hander, a nice small jumping horse and a competitive 148cm schoolmaster, good enough to go and win at unaffiliated 1m and more if you want.

Call us for more details of course.

We have had some Wolf teeth removed from a 4 year old and a five year old.
These teeth can be a real pest, the horses get real pain from them and can make the horse reluctant to turn.

Dom had a show today at Field House, he had a win on 'Alegant' in the Open, so a good end to his day.

Ella went to Reasheath with 'King Puck' and jumped two super double clears in the 60cm and the 70cm classes.
No places for Ella today but some very good rounds.

4th December 2011

We were all heading in different directions this morning, Dom went to Field House and I took Ella and 'King Puck' to Springbank.

Dave was on his way back from his stag weekend fun, he took the train all the way home from Edinburgh, so he did not get back until the evening.

Ella had a good morning at her show, she was competing in slightly bigger classes than last time and she had a good 3rd place in one class and 4 faults in in the second one.
Izzy, Dom's Mum came to support Ella, which was lovely and she even had to do a spot of helping at one point, she had to hold the pony while we walked the course, thank you Izzy.

Dom had a double clear with 'Tierra' in the 1.20m class at Field House, but they had a real lack of entries there today, so not many prizes were even on offer.

Dave returned home in one piece, he was trying to seem normal and not hungover, but after 10 minutes of being in the house he was on the sofa and fast asleep.

Meanwhile Ella and I are going to see the X Factor results to see who is in the final.

I have to mention it again as we and many others are still intrigued to know who our avid Q Sport Horses news followers are in Tuvalu, Australia.
We nearly have as many hits from there as we do from Ireland, which is quite a few!

So whoever you are, we would love to know, you can just send us an enquiry through the Q Sport horses web site....please!.

The winner of the Grand prix in Paris today was the stylish Penelope Leprevost, a popular win of course as she is French, so a dream of a win for her.

3rd December 2011

Dom and Lynne were off to the show at South View very early this morning in time for the first class, which was all worth it when he won with 'Mr Harry'.

He did a good jump off round, plenty of turns round a well designed course.

'Bangillo' also jumped a lovely double clear, this horse is only a five year old.

He then had a good result on 'Koral', 4th place in the Newcomers and finally a good 2nd on 'Alegant' in the 1.25m open.

They were back in the yard for 5.30pm, so not too long a day.

My Mum came over to see the latest addition to our yard, 'TJ Lush Lashes'.
This is a 3 year old mare by 'Balou De Rouet' and she is out of a top class jumping pony 'Belfly'.

'Belfly' is by 'Double Espoire' the sire of 'Flipper D'Elle'.

'Lush Lashes' is a pony and will make 148cm, so we are really looking forward to this new project.

We were delighted for Billy Twomey on his great win last night in Paris.
He won the Rolex top 10 final on 'Tinkas Serenade', what a night it must have been for them, I hope they celebrated in style.

2nd December 2011

I actually feel the pain already for Dave, he is currently stag partying with Trevor Breen and friends and I think the hangovers are going to be off the scale.

Trevor and Caroline are getting married on the 28th of December which we are really looking forward to.
It is such an amazing time to get married, everyone will be in total party mood.

Dom is the only one of us jumping tomorrow at South View, he is taking a full lorry load and he has an early start.
I will be on hand to train him so we are hoping for some good rounds.

Sunday is Ella's turn to compete, we are not taking the 4 year old's out this weekend as we have detected wolf teeth which will be removed on Monday.

Sadly Willie Carson was voted out of the 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here' last night, I really liked the hot tub bombs!

Edwina Alexandra was the overall winner of the Global Tour, netting 300,000 Euros.
She does of course have quite an advantage as her husband Jan Tops runs the shows, so she will compete at every one.
The Global tour has brought Showjumping to a new level with regards prize money and it is always great viewing, long may it continue.

It was great to see Tim Stockdale on his feet and out of hospital. He has made an amazing recovery and astounded the doctors by all accounts when he was finally allowed to get out of bed and stand up.
He said the best thing was being able to breathe in the fresh air again when he got outside.

It really was cold today, but only our second frost of the year.
It will nearly be time to make sure your horsebox has a heater in the living area in it at night to protect your water pumps freezing and cracking.
A new water pump can add up to a few hundred pounds, so great care is needed, also drain off any pipes and empty water tanks.

30th November 2011

Our poor colts were castrated yesterday and they are coping quite well considering.

Stanny, our head groom has gone home to Czech to see his family before Christmas. So we are very busy on the yard.

We are still busy with the four year old horses and I was happy today after riding our home bred mare 'Candle Line' out of 'Candle Queen' and by 'On Line'.
It is the first ride I have had on her since Tysha has broken her in, after having so much success with her mother it is hard not to get a little bit excited about how good she could be, watch this space!

Dave has been very busy in the horsebox work shop, so many builds on at the moment, which is great news of course and they will take us well into the New year.

We are of course looking forward to Christmas and our calender is still filling up with dates of appointments and shows, its almost a wonder how we have time for Christmas, or even Christmas shopping at this rate.

Things will of course have to slow down with all the bank holidays there are, but last year it was the freezing weather that brought us all to a stand still, so far this year it has been fine.

Dave is not interested, but I am really enjoying 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here!', my favourites are Willie Carson of course and I think Fatima Whitbread is quite a star!.
I also love the cockroaches, meal worms and rats.

Ella had her 8th birthday party yesterday, Ella and seven friends came back to our's for a Karaoke party, I have never seen a wilder party, it was quite an education.
It is true, you can have fun without alcohol! They were like a bunch of wild animals.
Afterwards I was totally shattered and my ears were ringing, Dave put one foot in the door and declared he was nipping to the pub to meet his friends!

The house was like a tribe of Wilder beast had run through it after they left.

26th November 2011

We all set off early this morning, I went to Alsager with Tysha and Ella.

 Dave went to South View, he took five horses but jumped four. He said that there were so many there, it was just getting too late to stay for the last class.

The five year old horses went well, four faults each. He then jumped two older horses who also had four faults!
So just one of those days.

I was quite angry when we arrived at Alsager, they told us on our arrival that there were no ponies allowed at the show.

Ella was ready and on, just heading off to the collecting ring when they stopped us.
The lady insisted that it was quite clear on the web site, horses only.

It was the South Cheshire Riding Club and there was nothing on the web site to say 'No Ponies', or 'Horses only'.!!

If that wasn't bad enough, the cafe was closed so we had nothing to drink or eat all morning either.

But the day did get better, the three 4 year old horses we took all got round the courses with Tysha and it was their first ever show.

The courses were very good, a lovely big arena, very similar to the old Goostrey arena in Goostrey, Cheshire. Where I first started competing.
There is also an indoor collecting ring which I think is a new addition.

We were up the road by 1pm and called into the first garage for coffee and sandwiches.

Dave got home after 6pm and is determined to get back to South View for 9am tomorrow morning to jump the two five year old horses again.
He really wants to get them out as much as possible at the moment to get some mileage on their clocks.

So Ella will have to wait until next weekend now for a show, so a lesson learned today, don't look at web site's for schedules, I am going to use the phone from now on and make sure ponies are allowed!.

25th November 2011

This past week has been 'operation 4 year old's'.

We took all our 4 year old's to Geoff Billington's yard at the start of the week to jump around his set of fences.

Then after a day off, we took them to South View to jump around there, Tysha, who has broken them in herself is also still riding them for us and they are now all ready for a show!

We have three in total and the show tomorrow is Alsager, where Ella will also jump 'King Puck', as it it mixed horses and ponies.

Dave is taking out the 5 year old's and older horses to South View tomorrow.

We may also be in danger of having a Sunday without any shows, but we do have to bring in all our young colts from the fields, ready for the vet coming on Monday for a castration session.

It is still unbelievably dry in the fields for this time of year, very different to this time last year, we still have horses out and very little mud about. They must be having a great time out hunting this season and they deserve it after all the called off days last year.

There are still a few big shows to come this year, on the build up to Olyimpia. We may still do one more big show before Christmas, possibly at Hartpury.

The clipping situation is a bit of a nightmare at the moment, if you want to look really smart, the horses nearly need to be clipped every two to three weeks and if you need to stop the horses getting to sweaty after work they need to be clipped every three to four weeks and rug them up really well.

Stanny has been busy at this all week, but he is heading home for a holiday starting next week.
He will go back to Czech next week for a while before coming back to us just before Christmas.

We will miss him of course, but thankfully we have a new recruit, locally based Emily, who has been a great help especially with Skye leaving for Florida.
So we should just about manage.

20th November 2011

Dave and Dom returned home from Addington last night, but in the early hours of the morning.

Dave was back long after we had gone to bed at around 1am and Stanny, Lynne and Dom got back an hour or two after that.

They had a good few days, all the horses jumping well.

'Honeylands Douglason' had a 4th in a strong 1.30m class yesterday with Dave, I did get to see a really well taken video of every round and this horse jumped superbly.

Dom had a good 2nd on 'Alegant' in a good money class
 on the second day of the show, he went on to jumping well in a 1.30m class also with this horse.

'Camina' with Dave was placed in a Blue Chip B&C class, 'Hope Bay' also had an unlucky 4 faults in this class.

Dave did not jump Friday, in order to not jump four days in a row.

'Valetto JX' did jump however, ridden for us by Joe Davidson in the Under 23 class, he was 5th which was great .
This horse just proves himself time and time again, he is on the market of course so any enquiries please call Dave or his other owner Billy Twomey.


'Diblesse' was then Dave's only ride in a very big Grand Prix to complete the show, he was so unlucky when he just chipped the back rail of the penultimate fence, an otherwise lovely round of jumping.

I did feel a little guilty that I was not at the show to compete and support the team, they all worked so hard at what was such a long show, from last Wednesday until Saturday night.
But I was of course full of support in Spirit and holding the fort back at home with plenty to do.
Ella also has exams at the moment at school.

Some evenings they jumped until 10pm at night and then to get home so late last night, everyone does tend to get pretty tired by the end of a show like this.

Dom was like the walking dead today, Dave was also very tired.

Ella had another show today, one of the bonuses of Addington finishing on Saturday was Dave being able to come and see her jump and of course offer some advice.
She did really well with 'King Puck', a good 3rd and then a 2nd place in the two classes she went in.

We were then able to have a quiet afternoon and we watched the FEI World Cup from Stuttgart.
Ludger Beerbaum won this on the chestnut mare 'Gotha'.

16th November 2011

Dave and Dom have been very busy competing at Addington Equestrian today.

The horses have all gone well, especially 'Hope Bay' with Dave, they were 6th in the 6&7 year old class, the horse is 6 years old and he jumped two very good rounds.

'Diblesse' delivered well again, she was clear in the big class of the day and just one down in the jump off, but Dave was very pleased with her.

'Honeylands Douglason' also jumping good rounds today.

There have been warnings in the news today about a Winter drought, apparently we have had the least rain this year for years and years! Very weird.

As Ella has been progressing at her jumping, I have started looking to see what sort of classes she may be able to jump at Affiliated shows.
The BSJA do have Intro classes at junior and senior shows. Juniors start at 70cm and the senior intro classes start at 80cm.

I could find very few junior shows holding 70cm intro classes, or even 80cm classes for that matter.
In fact, we would nearly have more luck at senior shows finding small classes for her!

so we will certainly stick to the unaffiliated shows for the time being anyway, she only gets the odd show that is restricted just to Ponies and riders her age, many are mixed, so the collecting ring can be a bit scary with 17hand horses warming up with 12.2 ponies.

The 12,2 hand ponies at top level are now expected to jump bigger than ever, with the children under 12 years of age, usually much younger than this are jumping up to 1.25m tracks in their Grand Prix jump off's.
I am not sure if I could ever cope with watching Ella do this! 

15th November 2011

Breaking news from Europe:

France / Ireland: Jessica Kuerten Will Cooperate with Edouard de Rothschild in the Future

Nov 15th, 2011 | By bk | Category: INTERNATIONAL NEWS

13th November 2011

Dave and I did not compete anywhere this weekend, but Dom and Ella certainly did.

Dom went to South View on Saturday and went very well.

He had a win on 'Tierra' in the 1.20m open and he was also 3rd on 'Alegant' in the same class, both horses jumping double clears of course.

Dom will be jumping both these horses at the Premier show at Addington this coming week.

Ella went to a new show at Reaseheath college with her pony 'King Puck'.
She had two double clears and came home with a 3rd and 4th places.
She was very pleased with her day!

Dave was busy with customers all day today, always a nice way to be busy and he was pleased as the horses went well.

We had an evening in last night so I cooked us all our first roast in the Aga, I opted for roast chicken but I am now under pressure from Dave and Ella to do a roast beef, so that may happen next week.

We watched the X factor, which we all enjoy and tonight we also have 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here'. It does not start until late, 10.30pm in fact, so we may or may not be awake for that.

10th November 2011

The Royal Horse show is taking place in Toronto (Canada) this week and Eric Lamaze somehow found the strength to compete there in honour of 'Hickstead'.

Our own Scot Brash won the World Cup qualifier there, perhaps Scots biggest win to date and Connor Swail for Ireland was second.

Eric Lamaze spoke out at the horse show about the death of Hickstead and his feelings, detailed below:

9th November 2011

We have had a busy time since the weekend, Dave has been spending time in the horsebox build work shop and I have been flat out in the office.

With going to Aintree for four days running, it meant I had not caught up on any office work even from getting back from our holiday, so there was a fair bit to do.

The horses can have a quiet time after a show, they go in the field or go hacking for a few days, then they have to get back to more serious work in preparation for the next show.

Dave is really pleased the way the horsebox builds are going, we are currently very busy with a horsebox for Shane and Chloe Breen.

We also went to visit Tim Stockdale in hospital, he was very cheerful to see us, we also saw Laura his wife, so that was great. Tim is currently on week three of six weeks bed rest, lying flat with a neck brace on and he is not supposed to move. After six weeks he will be able to get up and continue to recover.
We were so pleased to see him and keep him company for a while.

We have also been out last night to Skye's parents home for a lovely home cooked meal, it was a get together to give Skye a good send off as she leaves for Florida on Monday. It was a great night and left us a little hung over today!

We will all miss Skye as she has worked for us now for four years.

Stanny, our head man, has been yet again to the dentist today, hopefully his problems will come to an end soon, I do think toothache is a complete nightmare.