Riders Blog

OLYMPIA 2011

December started with a show at Field House on the Sunday. Unfortunately due to lack of numbers they only ran a Foxhunter in which I just had 4 faults in the first round. From there it was only 10 days until I was jumping at Olympia! So exciting!  I then had a lot of things to organise for my wings grad on the Friday 9th.  But I had everything sorted for Olympia, so after another couple of lessons with Chantelle, the weekend before Olympia, and a nice hack on the Tuesday morning before packing the lorry, washing his mane and tail, and setting off on the 4 hour roadtrip into central London.

Arriving at Olympia on the tuesday evening I put the horse to bed with a little help from my parents, parked the horsebox and found the hotel. It was about midnight by the time I got to bed.  Up early the next morning to fed Bob, and ride him in the arena, then after a little nap pre lunch, things were starting to get exciting. The rest of the military horses were arriving, Chantelle and Nicky (from the yard) were there, ready to plait and basically look after me.  After a quick meeting with the other competitors.  Bob was tacked up and off we went for our main event. we were allowed into the arena before hand and we were allowed to jump 2 fences in the main ring. This was good for the horses to get settled to the atmosphere and bob wasn't  phased by any of it.

1st Round:  The 1st round we had 2 fences down- No. 2 and No. 3.  Nerves, lack of experience, and wrong decision ultimately to go for a (very) short 6 instead of 5 between 1 and 2 was the reason. After 3, we settled down into the round and jumped well clear of the other fences to finish on 8 faults.

2nd Round: In the 2nd round we learned from the 1st, a nice 5 strides was used between 1 and 2, and as such we both jumped beautifully throughout the rest of the round (If I say so myself) to finish it a clear. The best part of the round for me was looking up at the end and seeing ourselves on the big screen cantering round with my name and Bobs name in ***lights*** what a fantastic feeling. the Arena is amazing, the atmosphere is amazing and the show is amazing.

Result: I decided not to go for time in the 2nd round.  I enjoyed spending all the time in the world in the arena, and I wasnt going to rush round and out the gate :P  A clear was more important to me for experience, and hopefully there will be more chances to win in the years to come.  We finished 7th in the end. Although the way I like to look at it is: stick with me on this, out of 16 rounds of jumping, only 4 horses jumped a clear round. and there were 5 clears in total. We finished joint 3rd on faults.

A fantastic experience, a tick in the box, and I've trained a horse for and jumped at Olympia. One of the best shows in the world.

Congratulations to Capt Avison for a grand slam year, and to all the other competitors.  The services showjumping community is brilliant.  Lets get more Navy there next year.   Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all, and I shall see you all in the new year

 November 2011

UPDATE: 20111129 - I was out at the weekend at Fieldhouse and Solihull entering the 1.15 opens and Foxhunters. I won the 1.15 open on the saturday, followed by 3 classes of 'crazy 8s'! so a semi successfuly weekend. It's the Christmas draw up here on Friday but I am still planning on being out either saturday and (or possibly only) Sunday! then its wings grad and Olypmia! I feel soo unorganised right now! Uh Oh!

Well, this whole PR thing is going well. Logged on to the website to put a new entry in and my October blog has completely dissappeared! Ah well.

Where did I leave off? I took the weekend of the training off from jumping - Rider fatigue being the main cause. (I got bored on the sunday in the school though, and just 'popped' him over a 1.40m!) 

I have been continuing having the odd lesson with chantelle siddle, which has been good for me. She's almost been my manager in trying to organise my life in the run up to Olympia! Helping me organise transport, and agreeing to come down to groom and warm up! Winner! As you probably already know-the less I do the more I enjoy :P

I finally fixed the floor and ramp of my horsebox, so now I can have more confidence in travelling the horse. I took him out this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. I was at Rodbaston on Saturday afternoon, and I competed in the 1.15 Open, followed by my very first 'Foxhunter' (still trying to work out what it actually means!) I have come up with a new phrase for showjumping as well. There is something called fourfaultitis, well I have established the crazy8. Its when a sufferer of fourfaultitis switches off towards the end of the round.  A good way round this though would be to 'reset' my concentration at a suitable point(s) around the course and start again. Like our illustrious Team Captain. He jumped well though and I was pleased with his fitness.  I then went to Field House again on the Sunday for the same competitions. Again in the Foxhunter I had a crazy 8. However in the 1.15 Open, I jumped a double clear and was placed 2nd, so that just about covers the entry fees for the sunday then!

Next up is Field House and possibly solihull next weekend. With Rodbaston and field house again, the weekend after. Then its only 10 days til OLYMPIA!!! Might try and sneak a few midweek shows in in the next coming weeks, just need to finish these 2 flights that Ive been waiting 2 weeks for now. Thank you weather!

Hope everyone is enjoying themselves and got their tickets for Olympia. I shall see some of you there hopefully. 

August 2011

Well good news and bad news. Bob is back fit and healthy ( and slightly fat from his time off). Bad news was the vets bill ('nuf said!) I'd just like to take a moment to thank the Chantal and Mark SIddle for looking after him and getting him sound, while I've been busy with work.

In the lead up to August then the RNRMEA team competed at a few events that I had to pull out of because of the delicate Bob, however I still went along to the HCMR invitational at Bodney Camp and the BRC team jumping at Hickstead at the end of July to help out on the ground. The team was quite successful at Bodney after a bit of admin triv with jabs and horses, (I recommend reading the write up) finishing 2nd in the loriners leg and 2nd in the eventer challenge. But congratulations to all involved it turned out to be a good weekend for Vic, Beth, Wayne, and Kelly.  Hickstead again saw a few people pull out with a team of Vic, Beth and a dependant jumping.  Opal was much more on form than at Bodney, and Prim was her usual self, even fitter and they both put in good rounds in the competition. 

BOB

After his 7 weeks off, bob is fat. although at least he is sound again.  I am starting the long process of bringing a horse back into work again after time off and I'm aiming for my first competition at the start of October. With the possibility of a lesson with either Dave Quigley or Peter Murphy towards the end of september. I shall keep you posted on his progress, and hopefully we will be well prepared for Olympia. (as well as juggling the important flying training for my career, with my course due to finish a week before Olympia!) I have a feeling I am going to start to get very busy!

 July 2011

Right, here it goes then for my first blog.  Its been just over a week since I qualified for Olympia and what have I been doing since then?  Mainly telling every possible person I know that is into horses that I'm going to be jumping at the London International Horse Show Olympia!  An absolute dream of mine since, well since I started riding horses.  I got back last friday from the Royal Tournament into my new yard at Siddle Equestrian Services, and I gave Bob the weekend off.  A well deserved break I thought for him, as he was an absolute superstar at Melton.  

As discussed with Vic, I have been looking at show schedules and work commitments and I am putting together a 12 month plan for Bob with competitions and training that I can undertake to make the partnership better.  This has really focused my mind on what I want to achieve with him.

I took him for a hack round the roads of his new home on Monday, and exercised him on Tuesday. He felt a bit stiff on Tuesday, borderline lame.  I mentioned this to Chantal and Mark (Siddle) and luckily for me Mark is a vet. Since then he's been shod, had his teeth done, and Mark had a look at him, with not a lot wrong so far. He is a bit stiff in the back though, so the 'back lady' is coming on Monday to look at him. I shall keep you updated as and when I find out more, but (sometimes unfortunately) he is a hardy horse, and doesn't like showing weakness! I reckon he could jump with 3 legs if you asked him.

So whats next?  Finding out what is wrong with him, and how long of a recovery he will need, and then altering our 12 month plan to accommodate this, with the goal being Olympia at Christmas.