Q SPORT HORSES - OUR NEWS ...
 

31st August 2010

Dave was very busy today, organising the Horse Box work shop and getting things ready for the horses leaving for Canada.

The other team members horses arrived at our yard in the early hours of the morning, they stabled with us during the day and all set off this evening.

The vet came during the day, they had to check the horses were fit to travel and bring the blood test results they have to have before traveling to Canada.

Our owners of 'Ulot', Charles and Linda, came to see him this evening, just before he set off, the horse is very fit and is in good form.
They had a lovely chat with him and he loves the attention.

I was away for most of the day, I was getting all Ella's back to school kit, then I had to get some last minute equipment for Helen to take to Calgary from the local tack shop.

She has everything she needs now, just two horses, but it is crazy to think how much stuff you need, or end up taking.

Dom was here today, but some of the girls were off, he was busy riding away and seeing to his horses, I think he was trying out some Horse Whispering techniques today when he put them in the pen for a stretch, could be interesting!

30th August 2010

We are all really worn out now after two days at Weston Lawns.

We took 14 horses yesterday and 13 today.

Yesterday Dave had a 2nd place on 'Honeylands Douglason' in the Foxhunter.

Dom had a 3rd place on 'Alegant Van De Tombeele' in the 1.20m open.

I had a 6th place on 'Touch Of Blue' in the Newcomers and a 3rd on 'Diblesse' in the A, B&C handicap.

Skye had an unlucky day with a bit of a run of 4 faults, but a good double clear with 'Arriva' in the Discovery.

Today Dave was double clear again with 'Honeylands Douglason' in the B&C this time.

Skye was 2nd in the 1.20m open with 'Camina' and a double clear in the Newcomers with 'Hector', a nice 5 year old horse, then double clear with 'Bonita' a 4 year old in the British Novice.

Dom was double clear with 'Arrola' in the Discovery and 'Joop'in the 1.05m class which was good.

We had no luck in the 1.40m, 'Ulot' and Dave had 4 faults but a very good round.

The horses bound for Calgary have to leave tomorrow night, so it will be a day of organising tomorrow.

29th August 2010

This was a really good day.

We rode very early this morning so that we get Ella to her local show in time.

I was busy the day before clipping and bathing Moggy and with Helen off for the day, I had to plait him myself this morning.

We made it to the show in time, picnic packed, hoping for a good day.

She didn't have the best start to the day in the jumping, after toppling off round a corner, a little winded and an injured leg, luckily she was fine after a rest, a drink and a little bit of cake!

So we headed off to the Handy Pony, she had a good round and finished second in this.

She had a lovely win in the Veteran Horse or Pony, at 34 years old he does look a picture.

The judges just fell in love with him and they won the biggest trophy of the day in the best local horse and pony.

So all was well in the end.

Then of course we enjoyed the X factor, actually not Dave, he was not interested in this.

Later we had the Global Tour final to watch on TV, amazing to see Marcus Enning winning about 400,000 Euros!

27th August 2010

Friday the 27th of August.

We have just jumped two days indoor at South View and the horses went well.

Not all of them jumped the two days, Dave was busy giving his grade A horses a sweetner around some smaller classes.

He was clocking up double clears on the spectacular 'Honeylands Douglason' in the Foxhunter classes, the horse was quite happy jumping indoors.

I had a double clear in the 1.25m on 'Diblesse', she was also quite happy in the arena, she will get to know it well over the seasons, being our local venue.

'Touch Of Blue' also had a double clear in the Foxhunter with Dave.

Charles and Linda were pleased with their entries, they were very busy on Thursday, which is great.

24th August 2010

We have been catching up on many things that needed doing, but being at shows so often we are not able to do things other than day to day essentials.

It is quite nice to be more on top of things, but there is still a little way to go!
Ella is enjoying riding in the mornings, she now has two ponies on the go, a new little one has joined the team, Megan and she is a cracker.

Dave has been working his horses ready for Calgary, they are a little fresh now, they had a few days off after Dublin, but they are back in full work now and will do a show tomorrow, just a small class as a sweetener.

It was sad to hear of Tim Gredleys retirement from Showjumping, Tim is a great character in the sport, he will enjoy being an owner I am sure.
It was exciting to see 'Cleopatra' winning the 7&8 year old qualifier at Bicester last week with new rider Rob Whitaker.

I won the 4 year old final at Scope on 'Cleopatra',we sold her to Tim as a five year old, so we always love to see her going well.

Our house keeper Kim had great news today, her son Kieran had his GCSE results today, he had A+ in three subjects that he took, as he is only 14 years old!

Dave and I will go to the show tomorrow at South View, it is indoors and luckily as the weather is rubbish, so it should be nice!

21st August 2010

We had an afternoon yesterday of washing the stables.

Everyone mucked in, cleaning drains, power washing wash boxes and alleyways, washing stable fronts, stable cupboards, weaving grills and walls.

The rubber matting from the wash boxes were steam cleaned, they were left out to dry overnight and re laid today.

I think the horses enjoyed all the activity, watching us beavering about our work.

We are not doing any shows this weekend, Dave has gone to Addington today for a look, the sale was on tonight, he said that some horses were making good prices.

Geoff Billington and Sarah went to Addington with Dave, they called over this morning in the horse box and very kindly brought a pony of theirs over for Ella, Geoff thought it would be a relief for 'Royal Mahogany' (Ella's current ride, former ride of James Billington), as she has been riding 'Moggy' rather enthusiastically lately and at his age of 34 years, we have been slightly worried.

The sand in the outdoor arena has settled a treat now, so we have very good conditions, we are still using the field for jumping, but with studs in as the ground is slippy now with the rain we have had.

18th August 2010

It has been nice to be home, having been at shows so much recently.

There has been lots of catching up to do in the office and Dave has been busy with the horsebox work shop aswell.

Dom had built a nice course of jumps in the field, the ground out there is very good at the moment, having been too hard for much of the summer.
So many of the young horses have been out for a pop round this course.

It is great to just work the horses in a much larger open space, they naturally go forward more and work better from behind.
Even Ella has been riding away with Moggy out in the field.

We are taking quite a few horses to Weston Lawns tomorrow, Dom will be pleased to take all his horses and get jumping some classes again, he has had a slight break with holidays.

Meanwhile last weekend in Europe Laura kraut won the Global Tour with 'Cedric' and in the UK john Whitaker won the Grand Prix at Shrewsbury with 'Argento' a lovely stallion by 'Arko' owned by Keeley Durham, owner of Welham.

Good luck to the World Championship squad recently announced, Scot Brash, Dave Mcpherson, Michael Whitaker and Tina Fletcher.

16th August 2010

We went to different shows this weekend, Skye and myself went to Scotland and enjoyed sunshine, Dave and Dom went to Shrewsbury and got caught in the rain.

Dave said Shrewsbury was nearly a washout so he decided not to jump 'Ulot' who is bound for Canada in the next three weeks.

They did jump a bit, but there are only four classes at the whole show.

We had a good weekend in Scotland, 'Diblesse' our grey mare who I jump for my Mum and Dad went very well, jumping clear after clear and placed in every class, finally she was 6th in the 1.30m Grand Prix.

Skye was well placed on the 5 year old 'Hector', he jumped a double clear in two newcomers classes at his first show with us.

'Touch Of Blue' with myself was 6th in the Novice horse championship at the end of the show, he really benefited from the experience of going to a different show.

Skye went well on 'Vigo' and 'Cassandra', she was unlucky in some of the jump off's, trying to get a win and just catching the odd fence.

Dave and Dom were at home on Sunday, so Dom was busy setting up a new course of fences in one of our fields, after all the preparation he then had some training with Dave over the course.

Myself, Skye and Stanny did not get home until midnight on Sunday, so today has been hard enough as we were all tired.

It will be a busy week as always, trying to get things done now we are back home for a while.

All credit to Lynne, Skye and Ruth for looking after 'Lugana Beach' the past couple of weeks who has been  suffering from a foot abscess, he is recovering now thank goodness, but it has taken alot of work, 'Duke' (stable name) has also been a brilliant patient, he obviously wanted to get better, which for a while seemed optimistic.
He now seems to be on the road to recovery, which is great news.

11th August 2010

It has been so busy for us at home at the moment, it is non stop from the minute we get out in the morning, until we go to bed!

Dave did have some great news today, he has been selected to jump for Ireland in the Masters at Calgary in Canada this September.

This is great news for us, the yard were so thrilled with the news, 'Ulot' and 'Valetto' will probably make the journey.

The horses fly to Calgary, which is very exciting for them!

Owners Charles Britton and Linda Wright were thrilled at the news and will come with their family to see their horse jump in Canada.

So this weekend it is me who will be travelling away, Dave will be at home competing at Shrewsbury, Skye and I are heading to Scotland.

Dave is very busy in the work shop at home building horseboxes, they are full steam ahead with numerous projects in full swing.

9th August 2010

Yesterday was the final day of the Dublin Horse Show, Dave jumped the Grand Prix with 'Ulot', it was a huge track.

He did not go clear but I am sure he will be better for the experience.
It is not very often we see a track this size.

Maclain Ward from the USA won, Kevin Staut was 2nd and Billy Twomey was 3rd, the jump off was still very fast, even with the vast size of track.

We all set off home after a fun but tiring week, we could not wait to get back home.

We all got home in the early hours of the morning and managed to get a few hours sleep before starting a very busy day.
We were both very tired today, Ella was in good form despite a very late night.

7th August 2010

'Honeylands Douglason' was out jumping early again!

This time the 6 year old final in the main arena.  He had a lovely first round clear, then the jump off did not go quite to plan.

He went very well, but was awkwardly positioned to jump two of the fences due to his 'greenness' in his ride, he still finished a very creditable 6th place.

'Ulot' had a great result today in the Accumulator, he was 6th out of a very strong field, not his usual class to jump, but he seemed to enjoy it.

4th August 2010

The first day at the Dublin Horse Show and Dave won the opening class in the International arena.

It was a great morning, he won the 6 year old class on 'Honeylands Douglason' a relatively new horse to join our team.

We all went to great lengths to be there for the class which started at 8.40am!

The owners of the horse Rupert and Izzy were there in time, I got there with Ella, having been up at 3.20am and Dave's father made it as well.

So all in all a great day.

Dave also had a nice result with 'Ulot', he had a clear and 4 faults but finished well in the points towards qualifying for the Grand Prix.

30th July 2010

We were all on the yard this morning, riding away, the horses were going well and all seem in good shape.

Helen was busy clipping Dave's horses that are going to Dublin next week.

We also have a show tomorrow, we are taking five along to Kingswood, this is a nice show, they have done alot of work on the venue and it is enjoyable to go to.

Our foals Nemo and Prince are one month old now, so they had to be wormed today, Ellie is two months old so she will also be having another mild worming.

All the foals have to be micro chipped as well now, another job.

The British were fantastic today at Hickstead winning the Nations Cup, Peter Charles, Tina Fletcher, William Funnell and Michael Whitaker all went superbly, no fences down atall, just the odd time fault!

The other countries did not do well, in my opinion the course was too tough, the foreigners will be put off coming to Hickstead and it is important that we keep the Nations Cup in England at this venue.
There was a killer of a line, a double down to the water jump, it was horrible and Dermot Lennon suffered a very bad fall.

The British team murdered the opposition but all the horses are used to Hickstead, these continental horses are not used to this ring atall.

Suprisingly the BSJA web site did not even report on this great victory this afternoon, such a shame for people wanting to know how they did, even is there was a link to the Hickstead results page it would be something.

29th July 2010

I was up at the crack of dawn again to ride before I took Ella to the final day at Pony club camp.

Dave was riding early and then he shot down to watch Ella do her first ever dressage test at the camp.

Most of the horses on the yard today went hacking, some young ones were worked by Skye, the newly laid arena was riding a little deep so it will need to settle a bit now.

Ella did really well at the camp, she had a win in the Handy Pony event, 2nd in the dressage competition and she was second in the turnout (thanks to Helen who plaited moggy beautifully for us every morning) as Ella is a little too young to plait herself.

She also won the Gymkana with her team of Heath Rosselie and Fay sutton (who emulates her Uncle Paul Sutton, a top showjumper a few years ago).

We got home early evening, we emptied the horsebox and still had many other jobs to get done before finally settling down for the evening, it should be another early night tonight!

28th July 2010

Our outdoor arena renovations were just about completed by this evening, so we will look forward to riding in that tomorrow to see the improvement.

There is just no end to the up keep in such a busy yard as ours, there are always new fences to build, new showjumps needed to replace old, repairs and replacement of all equipment and materials you could possibly think of, grass to mow, fencing to be treated, fields to top or fertilise, the list goes on and on.

Stanny has been busy taking the mare's back and forth to the stud at Twemlows today, we want to put three of the mare's back in foal this year.

Dave was busy working the horses this morning, Dublin show is as soon as next week, so a very important one, Dave's first 5 star event of the year.
So many preparations being made for that, Dave's horses will travel over with Nick Skelton's horses, they will have to set off next Tuesday.

The horsebox work shop is also very busy, one box nearing full completion and two new one's in for build.

Ella had her second day at Pony Club camp today, it is great to see her improvement over the two days, she has had an amazing time, one more day to go.

27th July 2010

It was an eventful day right from the start today.

I was up very early, conscious that the cob was ready to foal, or drop , as we liked to refer to it as!

Sure enough at 6.30am the foal was already born and doing well!
not coloured would you believe.
Dave is not a fan of cobs so he was not up to see her with me!

I managed to get my horse ridden before taking Ella to day 1 of pony club camp at Chorlton, Malpas.
We had a great day, it is Ella's first camp and I was very impressed.
It was great to see her grow in confidence throughout the day.

Meanwhile Dave was busy working the showjmpers back at the yard, the renovations on the outdoor school are still going on, the girls were also flat out, lots to do, the new foal to tend to and poor 'Lugana Beach' has a nasty foot abscess.

Then this evening Ella had a dressage test to learn, I had to prepare for the morning, day 2 at camp.

Holly and John mansfield paid a visit this evening, it was great to catch up with them, they bred our horse 'touch Of Blue' and Dermot Lenons horse 'Hallmark Elite'.

Finally I hope to get an early night if possible, it will be an early start again tomorrow.

26th July 2010

Last week we took the chance to go away for a few days on a much needed Holiday after a very busy spell of shows.

Most of the horses were on hacking out time, which they love, then some of the horses that we have in to work, for sale, or improvement, had intensive flat work with Skye!

These horses were enjoyable to watch when we came home as the improvement was dramatic.

The other horses were very good and happy after their hacking break.

Our staff were flat out whilst we were away and the yard was spotless on our return, which is always nice to come back to.

We are doing renovations to our outdoor arena this week, our Charles Britton arena has lasted ten years, so we are adding more sand this week, it has to be carefully done, so Charles has one of his men carefully pulling back the top of the surface down to the base, then we have to add the new sand and put the rubber back on top.

Kaitlin who joined the yard for the past few weeks has now returned to America, back to Kentucky, she will see the World Games, as where she is based is in the grounds where the games take place, lucky her.

It was reported that the ticket sales are very low at the WEG and they have dramatically ped the price, I think it will be the air fair and distance of travelling involved that will stop the European travellers in my view.

Congratulations are in order for Billy and Joanne Twomey on their lovely baby boy born last week, Billy was therefore unable to go the to Chantilly Global Tour at the weekend.
The baby has been a little poorly since the birth, but the latest report is that he is doing better, thankfully.

We are still waiting for our cob to foal, our other mare's and foals are doing really well, they are ready to cover again, we are just juggling seamen and stallions now! trying to choose.

18th July 2010

The final day at Bolesworth was a very good one for us.

Dave and 'Valetto' jumped the first double clear of the Grand Prix, which we were thrilled about, at 8 years old he was one of the youngest horses in the class.

We finished 5th finally, the jump off took ages as two riders had two rides in it and the show waited patiently for them to swap and warm up.
Nick Skelton was the winner on 'Unique', which did not look like making an error.

Dom had an amazing time on 'Futuro' this weekend, he was close to winning the first day, a slight miss hap at the 2nd last fence kept him off the podium.

Then today he had 4 faults in the small Grand Prix, then had a brilliant performance in the Six Bar.

He was clear every round until the last round, he was then against some of the top riders in the country and he had such an unfortunate refusal at the first jump, then turned round and jumped a clear over 1.85m high fences!

We were all shattered at the end of a spell of relentless shows, Dave was especially pleased with 'Honey lands Douglason' who was clear in the Foxhunters and then 6th in his final.

'Cassandra' was 3rd in the knockout competition on Friday night with Dave, which was also good.

Skye had a double clear and placed on 'Camina' in the 1.20m, this mare went really well and will soon be into bigger classes.

It was a super show at Bolesworth, it gets better every year, our horsebox looked really well on the stand, the ground rode really well and the hospitality was second to none.

Long may it continue.

15th July 2010

Dave had another great result today, he was third in the Cock Of The North Championship with 'Ulot' at the Great Yorkshire show.

Charles and Linda batted up the motorway to see their horse jump clear in the first two rounds to join just two others in the final round.

He gave it a go in the jump off, but faulted and left it possible for Geoff Lucket and Tim Davis to go clear and finish ahead of him, Geoff was the winner in the end on 'Monline'.

So Dave is heading home now after three grueling days of competition at Yorkshire, ready for another three days at Bolesworth.

I was busy riding and teaching the rest of us at home! Dom and Skye had horses to jump and practice with for tomorrow, as did Kaitlin, so I was on hand to help them with any problems.

We also had our horsebox on display at Bolesworth, Edward did a good job of manning the stand today, I got down there later to see if he was okay and just check our entries for the morning.

I got there in time to see Antony Condon win the eventers challenge on a horse he had only just sat on, lent to him by his friend Laura Johnson, what a star.

Billy Twomey, Antony's boss had an amazing day in the Nations Cup in Aachen, he had 4 faults and clear in the second, I am watching it now on FEI tv as I post the news!.
 
We were supposed to be going to a cocktail party tonight at Bolesworth, we were very kindly invited by Mrs Barbour, but Dave is still on the way home from the show and I am barely finished everything so sadly we missed out, not like us to miss a get together.

I will continue to watch the Nations Cup on FEI TV, Steve Hadley commentating which we really like. 

14th July 2010

Dave had more success at the Great Yorkshire show today, he was 3rd in the International Stairway class with 'Ulot'.

He jumped one of only two first round clears, but because of the ruling they take the top 5 back after the first round.

Everyone carries their faults through, if any, but it does mean you can down the line even if you have jumped the only clear in the first round!

He said the horse jumped an amazing first round over a very big track.

Robert Bevis won the class on 'Courtney', he is having a very good season with this horse.

Meanwhile we are still understaffed, one of our girls is still off poorly, but the others coped very well today, they even managed a relatively early finish.

I however did not, I took Nina Barbour's new horse box to Bolesworth for the show display with Edward our horse box builder, this evening, it was after 8pm when we got back.

It looks great on display, I had a stressful time driving it there, trying not to hit any tree's!

The ring's at Bolesworth look amazing and it all starts in the morning.
We start jumping on Friday, Dave will be jumping at Great Yorkshire again tomorrow in the Cock Of The North championship.

13th July 2010

On Monday at South View Dave finally broke the unlucky duck and had a great result in the PCA Grand Prix.

He was 2nd on 'Ulot' and 3rd on 'Valetto', so all together he took home more than the first prize which went to James Billington.

Owners of 'Ulot' and South View, Charles and Linda were there to see of course so a nice finish to the show for them.
The sponsors tent was full of the happy sponsors treated to a lovely lunch and Charles's very nice wine's!

Unfortunatly I did not get to see any of the Grand Prix as I was watching Ella being awarded a prize at prize giving at her school.
She was awarded the reading prize, then we dashed back to South View but not even in time for the line up!
 

So a very good finish to the weekend for us and we nipped to the pub for a bite to eat and relax after a busy weekend.

Dave was off again this morning to The Great Yorkshire Show where he jumped in the rain this evening and had a very good 5th place on 'Valetto' in the Accumulator.

I took Sadie, our dog, to the skin specialist this morning to have her problematic eye looked at again.

Stanny has started taking the mare's to the stud, foals at feet and one without, but it is time consuming for Stanny even though Twemlows stud is not far from us.
They get scanned and covered by AI when they are ready, then back for scans regularly.

This year we plan to use 'Cevin Z', sire of 'Valetto' and 'Baloon' a 7 year old jumped by Shane Breen.

We were short staffed today, one girl off sick and a day off for Lynne, Helen at Yorkshire show and Stanny back and to to the stud.
Skye and kaitlin did well to get all the horses exercised.

Dave is slightly worried about the state of the ground at Yorkshire Show now it is raining, the ground is already soft from watering and he does not want to jump the horses if it gets much softer.

Bolesworth show starts on Thursday, this means we will have to take our display horsebox down there on Wednesday night, it is of course Nina Barbours horsebox, it will be polished tomorrow ready for display.
It looks amazing and the work shop men have been working flat out to get it ready in time.

11th July 2010

It seems we have all had nearly a record breaking clear's and 4 faults or just 4 faults over the past two days.

We have had some results though despite the no luck syndrome.

Dave had a good 5th place in the Foxhunter at South View on the lovely mare 'Cassandra' out of 60 plus competitors.
He was also placed on the impressive 'Honeylands Douglason' in the Foxhunter aswel.

Skye nearly had a win in the Newcomers, the fastest time but 4 faults.
Dominic had a nice result in the 1.30m with 'Ashdale Futuro' a double clear and placed.

I was shocked to hear from Joe Shore himself today that he had a stroke a few weeks ago, so it was great to see that he has made such a good recovery, up and about at the show still enjoying the jumping as ever.
He was in hospital with Robert Walker, we hope Rob is recovering well too from his stroke.

Geoff Billingtons parents were at the show today, watching Geoff's son James jump as well as Geoff.
They used to go to as many shows as they could, but only getting older has restricted their travelling.

James has a great job riding for Tim Gredley and he is doing really well.


We have been keeping a close eye on our family cob of late, the cob joined our yard in the Winter and she has grown and grown in width, she turned out to be in foal.
She is now nearly ready to drop , one cob on the yard was a shock, but two cobs are alarming!

So each day we ask the question, is there one cob or two?

Pictures of the cob tomorrow.!

9th July 2010

I have just settled down to do the daily news whilst watching the BBC news.

The gunman in Rothbury has been surrounded and somehow there are reporters actually filming the scenes.
The film crewe have now been asked to move!

Unbelievable, lets just hope they catch him without anyone getting hurt.

Meanwhile back in Whitchurch, Dave has had a slight ankle injury after leaping out of the horsebox and landing awkwardly, there is swelling and it is sore but he should be fine to ride tomorrow at the Royal showground.

We all worked the horses and some of them were jumped, we will take 5 horses to South View and Dave will take 2 to Stoneleigh.
Charles Britton will try to get there to watch 'Ulot' despite running his own show at South View.

Dave was also doing some teaching this morning so we had to give Dave some space in the arena.
Then after this it was all go again.

All the horses are all bathed and ready for the show, Dave has quite an early start.
He has been watching Ella in her school play tonight, I have been the previous two night's so it was Dave's turn tonight!
We like to give plenty of support, so we took it in turns.
 
It will be quite a relief when she breaks up next week, as she can come with us to all the shows then, as long as they have ice cream at the shows she is happy.

Ray the vet had a final check on our mare 'Corral', she had retained some afterbirth, so she had to have regular flushing out and antibiotics.
He says all is now well, thank goodness.

8th July 2010

The mare's and new foal's are still doing well.

We are still going to cover them this year, but it will mean the foals will be a little late next year.

The preparations and plans for this coming weekend were starting to be made today, we start jumping on Saturday and then we have a show every day until the following Sunday!

All with different horses of course, we would never jump a horse every day of the same week, but it does happen!

South View have a great show at the weekend, a Newcomers 2nd round on Saturday, these classes can get well over 100 entries.
Then they have a 6 year old qualifier on Monday along with a Grand Prix.

We were all riding today, most of them had flat work today, just a couple had some jumping work.

Dave had some meetings with customers today with the horsebox business, so both sides of our work is very busy at the moment.

Edward from our work shop is going to get his suit on at Bolesworth Castle show, he will be on our horsebox stand in Nina Barbour's new horsebox.

Our sympathies this week are with our loyal house keeper Kim.
Her father passed away last weekend, which we were very sorry to hear.

7th July 2010

All our mares and foals are doing really well, they are all getting time out in the field now and getting stronger each day. have

We have also been breaking some 4 year old's, they still have a while to go before they are riding and jumping.

The rest of the horses on the yard have all been hacked or schooled, we really are hoping for more rain now though, the arena is very dry.

There may be a hosepipe ban by next week as there has been so little rain, having water drinkers in each stable is alot more economical with water than having buckets.

Dave is keenly watching the football this evening, it was my night to watch Ella in the school play, Dave is going tomorrow! She did very well but she declared that she much preferred jumping at Hickstead.

6th July 2010

We are very much looking forward to the coming shows in the next two weeks, we just hope the horses have the energy to deal with it all!

We have The Festival Of The Horse at Stoneleigh on Saturday, just 30 riders invited to jump for big prize money, Dave will jump 'Ulot' and 'Valetto'.

Then we have South View's big summer show over this coming weekend, which runs on untill Monday.

Then we have The Great Yorkshire Show next week, finishing next Thursday, then Bolesworth next weekend.

We are also going to display our latest horsebox build on a stand at Bolesworth and fittingly the show director Nina Barbour is the owner of the horsebox!
We are just in the final stages of building it and it will be completed next week.

Entries are due in for South View and Bolesworth now, it is nice not to have to enter too early for these shows, as it mounts up and up the lay out of all this entry fee money!

We are also very lucky that the last few shows are all so local to us, Bolesworth will be the nearest, just 10 miles or so from our yard.

5th July 2010

Today has been flat out, tending to the new foals, doing wages, accounts and people madly booking the two horse box which we hire out.

People calling round, looking at their horses and Dave has been very busy with the horse box business.

We have also had the farrier here, we have been trying to get all the washing done from the weekend, horses and us!

We had a new girl arrive for work experience and we have been busy putting up new fencing in the fields.

Candle Queen and her foal 'Prince' went out in the field today for some exercise, they had a good time.

The vets are still tending to Corral, hopefully she will be okay.
Her foal is doing very well.

4th July 2010

It was Grand Prix day today at Chester Show, after a late night at the party, Skye and Dom did so well to get to the show on time and in good form.

We had a suprise this morning to hear from Stanny once again that our mare 'Corral' had foaled.

This one is by 'Luidam', a lovely foal, but we have a bit of aftercare to tend to with the mare.
She has retained some of the birth sack, this can cause laminitis and even death to the mare.

Our very good vets from Malpas have been tending to her carefully to help with this rare problem.

Kaitlin jumped early with 'Coqueluche', she was 7th in her final of the 1.30m in the main ring, she jumped great.

Dave had a super round in the Grand Prix with 'Ulot', 4 faults near the end of the course, it was so unlucky.
The horse jumped very well.
Charles and Linda (his owners) were there to watch and support, which was great.

4th July 2010

The weather stayed great on Saturday, we jumped quite a few horses today and they all jumped well.

'Honeylands Douglason' was clear in the 1.15m, 'Jazzo' with Kaitlin had a very good round in the Accumulator, she had an unlucky fence down, she would have been in the top five and the first prize was £4000.00

'Diblesse' was clear with me in my class, the wind was picking up and a fence blew down when I was only a few strides away from it, we had to pull up and come again, never an ideal thing to happen.

'Touch Of Blue' was clear again with Dave.

Dave had a lovely clear with 'Valetto' in the Accumulator, but picked up 1 time fault, always a bit frustrating, but he is a young horse and getting better all the time.

We had an important party to get to on Saturday night, Rupert Webb's 21st, we felt like spring chickens being invited to a 21st again and what a party it was!

2nd July 2010

The show at Chester started today.

Kaitlin from the USA, riding for us for a few weeks, had a great first day.

She was placed with 'Coqueluche' in the 1.30m Diva qualifier and qualified for the final, only 20 horses going through from 80 starters.

She was also placed with 'Jazzo' in one of the big classes, very well done as the tracks were strong and took alot of jumping.

Dave had 4 faults with 'Ulot' in the big class, this qualified him for the Grand Prix on Sunday, the horse was jumping well.

The show was lovely, the ground was watered and the VIP tent was great, the competitions were harder than normal as riders were allowed to jump in both international classes each day with the same horse, jumping a horse twice a day in big classes is not something we would do.
It is also unusual that an international show would allow this, but they did and it just made it more difficult.