Horseheath Spring Hunter Trail

Now that I’m writing again I wanted to write a bit out this weekends horsey activities. At my new job, after working in a racing office in the morning until mid-afternoon, I get changed and go out into the yard to groom and put the horses to bed for evening stables. I absolutely love it and love my horses and have been so busy looking after 4 to 5 horses has meant I’ve been rather busy. So with that in mind, I decided to have a really lazy day on Saturday!Obviously it was the Grand National day so I took full advantage of watching the Aintree Festival and I did Tweet quite a lot about it, so if you want to see those and follow me then have a look here @sophiexjane

Obviously it was really nice to see an outsider beat all those firm favourites and Rule The World did it in extremely impressive circumstances! Talking of racehorses and jumping, I brushed off my grooming clothes and went with Georgie and Mum to Horseheath for the Newmarket and Thurlow Spring Hunter Trial. It’s always touch and go with the ground and Horseheath as being clay soil it’s either got a nice bit of give in the ground or it’s rock solid! But with the good amount of rain we’ve had this week we couldn’t have asked for nicer ground conditions.

Beanie unloaded from the trailer full of beans (believe me that this is an accidental pun) and looked very well in himself! As with a lot of smaller run competitions there was little indication of when the classes would start and how many competitors would be in them, so we did have a bit of waiting to do as the class before was delayed for a while while a fence was fixed having been previously broken (ouch). But It gave B time to cool his jets and chill out for a while as he really was keen when we first arrived. I was left ‘babysitting’ while Georgie went off and had her hat and back protector checked, as well as a brief look at the course, seeing as she didn’t actually walk it! 

After a small wait we finally decided to tack Beanie up and get ready. It’s been a little while since Georgie has done cross country, but it was lovely to see her in all her equipment. 

Even after chilling out B was well aware of why he was there and what his job is, so while Georgie warmed up and settled B in, Mum and I took off to the collecting ring to watch a few competitors already on the course to see how it was jumping. It seemed from watching that this was to be a strong competitive class with a lot of people in it and the course seemed to be jumping and flowing well.

A few tests, such as the carrot trough (the flower pit) and steps combination and the beer barrels to a drop quickly followed by another large set of beer barrels seemed to be catching a few people out but other than it’s a very well-constructed and flowing course that I’d highly recommend. And saying that it’s now becoming a British Eventing venue and they’re hosting their inaugural event on the 13th and 14th of August. Follow them on twitter @horseheath_ht

It wasn’t long before Georgie’s number was called and Beanie whose previously cooled jets were ignited again and the countdown was called and Georgie and B set off; He didn’t need telling twice and practically sprang out of the starting box. The first fence is only a few strides from starting so they get a question very quickly after starting, but B being absolutely in the zone popped it and zoomed away into the woods to tackle some tires, a conifer brush, a fallen log and spring back out over a set of post and rails. That is then very quickly followed by a very large hedge (which we’ve got Georgie jumping on one of her ponies when she was a teenager, I’ll have to find it) which is the first real question on the course and where the jumps seem to up a gear in terms of difficulty. But from watching and speaking to Georgie afterwards B was absolutely rocketing yesterday and just popped every jump like it were no trouble at all! They made there way over the fields and various questions to the steps and carrot trough, so I watched on anxiously to see how they’d get on. Unsurprisingly Beanie popped over them and had locked onto the second big hedge. We have a photo from last year and this year (below) and evidentially B loved it because boy has he got jets for legs!

 2015

2016

Straight on then to the arrow head on a slightly awkward angle, that often caught people out (but after Tetworth a couple of weeks before, where B absolutely motored over a big arrow head which was the second fence (!) this one didn’t faze him at all either!) The partnership were both nearing the end of the course and approached the second last fence,which is a brush fence, which disguises the water that follows it until the last second (and has caused many to stop in the past) then into the aforementioned water splash and onto another big brush out. Well B being an eager beaver decided that he was going to take a stride out and ‘put in a big one’ as they say. From my photo series you can see he really did! Check out the take off from all the other horses and then were B took off! Impressive I think but then again I am bias!

The final fence being on a 90 degree angle means slowing up and turning quite sharply to get straight then kick on to get some impulsion to fly the last fence which is a tiger trap! As I’m sure you’ll see from the GoPro footage of Georgies round below, it looked like he could do it all over again. All credit to Georgie but he is so fit he stopped puffing and was back to normal again in about 15 minutes which is really quite impressive!

  

Georgie came back all smiles and said what a wonderful time she’d had; it really is so nice to see her so happy! I can’t wait for more events to start now, not just show season! 

Until next weekend, where we're at Ely Eventing Centre in Little Downham for an Eventer Trail, adios!