Absolutely Flying - Georgie & B tackle Horseheath 3ft Open

Sorry it's been a bit quiet, as some of you will know I went on holiday! Woop, first holiday abroad in 6 years and it was absolutely joyous. I got sun, sea and sand.. oh and a nice tan too! 
The lovely ladies over at Pinks Pet Sitters  looked after Erik brilliantly, highly recommend them for your pet and horse sitting needs..

Any way, I got back at 3am on Saturday morning but with that in mind and not having jumped any cross country fences yet (my jump saddle is being fixed) I thought better of taking Erik to Horseheath unaffiliated hunter trial cross country but with B an old pro now Georgie and I got him ready and loaded up in a flash on Saturday afternoon.

With no official times to go by it's always hard to know when to get to an event so while we brushed and got B ready we had a text to say only 25 people left to go in the class before. I said to G get herself pretty much completely ready while I put boots etc on B and loaded him in the trainer. As fast as safely we could go we travelled to Horseheath in good time so while G went and had her hat and back protector checked I tacked up B. It's safe to say he absolutely knew what he was there to to and was a little tinker being walked around but in no time at all G was back and with a quick girth tighten and a leg up she was on!

G certainly had his game face on in the warm up and looked every bit an eventer, or so I'm told from kind strangers who walked passed and said how awesome he looked! As it was a non BE or pony club event I had got permission for Georgie to wear her hat cam and we certainly got some cool footage.

Read on for how they got on and to view the footage below!

At the start Georgie was in the start box and ready to go so I ran off on to the course with my DSLR to get some photos! I'd got it all charged up, long lens on and ready go so while they made their way round I clicked away excited to see my photos! 
Georgie and B really do have the best partnership and he's so confident with jumping they were absolutely flying round making easy work of the full up 3 foot course of ditches, hedges, combinations and tight turns! G unfortunately caught up to the starter before her some way towards the latter part of the course as they had multiple stops so when it came to the water complex Georgie went as wide as possible hoping the ladies horse would pop straight in. Sadly it refused at the jump in to the water and when Georgie came through to jump it was impeeded by this rider! B jumped in and over the brush fence at the last and whizzed through the finish but we were all a bit disheartened at their round being interrupted with a rider experiencing problems.

Having got back to the trailer we washed off and chatted of how B's round had been so awesome any way and how such a good boy he was, as he hadn't done any cross country over the summer (before he did the eventer trial a couple of weeks ago of course) and he's flown round still! He's a real jumping machine that horse!

Later on that night after doing evening stables and getting home Georgie text me to say that she had in fact come second and that the jump judge hadn't indeed marked Georgie clear and that her being impeded hadn't affected her marks! We we re of course over the moon and B has been on flying form and clearly very happy with himself recently. 

Also, you know I mentioned about my camera and my awesome pictures I got, it turns out my brain was clearly half asleep from my holiday as I forgot to put my memory card back in  my camera, so alas, no pictures! Absolutely gutted and I am a very silly sausage.

However Georgie's GoPro footage came out well (despite being on her hat instead of her normal chest mount) so I edited it; I removed the stop and impediment from the rider in front as I don't want to embarrass anyone) and put it on Youtube - 

Hopefully I'll get my saddle back from being fixed next week and Erik and I can start doing some proper jumping and training over the winter!
Sadly the clocks go back this weekend so it's going to be a lot darker in the evenings which means I will be doing a lot more schooling under flood lights and a lot less hacking. Boo, hiss!

This weekend I am dressage writing at Horseheath British Eventing Horse Trials which I have never done me before so wish me luck and if you see me there, say hi and give me a wave!

Sophie x

GGGear Cross Country Base Layer Set

GGGear Cross Country Base Layer Set

Get ready to stand out from the crowd on the cross country course with GGGear’s base layer cross country colour sets!

I ordered a “children’s design your own base layer, polo and hat silk” set for my soon to be 6 year old daughter Frankie. She is beginning to go out competing more and more so to inspire her further, I thought her very own bespoke cross country set was just the ticket. I did a bit of research as there are a few companies that offer this service but I really like what GGGear had to offer. They are very competitively priced and a family business, which I liked, so I opted to order from them.

They have all sorts of options available with cross country colour; set that are pre-chosen for you, sets that include matching accessories for both rider and horse to co-ordinate and much, much more.

Website

I found the website very easy to use when ordering the bespoke option, with drop down boxes for each item, size, colour options, pompom options and patterns to go on the base layer, polo shirt and hat silk. There is a box where you tell GGGear what to print and where and what colour you want it too making sure you can relay exactly what you want and where the prints are to go. This is a real selling point for us, so you can customise your silks exactly to how you imagined them in your head. The print options they have for patterns is endless: stars, spots, paint splats, apples, you name it. If you have an idea they can probably print it for you!

Because Francesca is going to be 6 (and a tall one at that!) I ordered her the Small/Medium youth. I chose royal blue base layer and hat silk with bright pink stars and then a contrasting bright pink polo shirt printed with royal blue stars. I had picked this option because from the very beginning Frankie has worn her trusty royal blue with pink spots hat silk and loves it, so I wanted something along those colour schemes but not totally the same.

With the order placed and paid for it wasn’t long until it arrived just a few days later by Royal Mail Tracked service. I was delighted when opening the package to see what I had ordered was absolutely spot on and looked even better than what I expected!
I don’t know about you, but children can be hard to please sometimes; even when you think they are
going to like something they surprise you and don’t. However, when I presented Francesca with her
birthday present (albeit a bit early as she was going to a Hunter Trail) the response from her was
sheer delight at her new base layer, polo shirt and hat silk set and it had to be tried on immediately!

It fitted her great, with a bit of growing room so it can be enjoyed and worn plenty of times without
her growing out of it too quickly……hopefully. All she seems to be doing at the moment is growing
out of her clothes!

Look and Quality

As you can see from the pictures she looked so smart in her co-ordinating base layer set and she felt very special in it too as it was made especially for her. She opted on the competition day to wear the base layer on its own as it was a hot 24 degrees.  It was great to have the option of the polo shirt to layer over the top or to change into the polo shirt afterwards.

The quality of all the items is very good and the printed stars are sharp and stand out on the clothing. I was pleasantly surprised when I got asked a few times by various competitors and mothers where the cross country colours were from as they looked brilliant on. With mummy points earned for getting such an amazing birthday present in the eyes of a pony mad child’s as well as running round 24 jumps over a distance of nearly a mile at the hunter trial, this mummy hopes she will be lucky enough for someone to get her her very own bespoke base layer cross country set.

Link for design your own childs set here for £55!

​

Horseheath Cross Country - Lovely day in the sun!

Well Georgie and I have had a lovely weekend in the sun. First thing Saturday we came over to our Parents house to lunge and exercise B. He was a very good boy schooling and listening to Georgies vocal aids while is a real positive, seeing as he used to play silly buggers bucking and squeeling.

The passoa really helps him to engage his behind and use his back and neck. 

Then off we went to go and walk the 3 ft+ cross country course at Horseheath. The course was lovely and well put together. Nice gallops with combinations, hedges and skinnies. 

1- Nice palisade for the first.

2 - Barrels leading into number 3, an open gate in the woods 

4 - Rails packed with foliage

5- Skinny log in the woods

6- Hedge out back into the open field 

7 - Onto a larger hedge

8 - Barrels downhill into a drop at A and B

8 C - a big 3'3" skinny barrels out 

9 A, B and C big tiger trap, to ditch, onto another tiger trap

B - Ditch leading into another tiger trap at  C

10 - A big table top

11 - An open gate

12 - A big zig zag palisade. (Sorry my phone ran out of battery) 

13 A and B - Upright with a brush top onto a Skinny roll top 

14 A,B and C. Two big step ups then onto a skinny flower bed fence 

C - Arrowhead skinny flower bed

15 - 3'6" hedge with a rail and ditch in front 

16 - Corner 

17 A, B and C. 3 chairs. A and B had 1 stride between and between B and C had 2 strides.

18 - Big roll top skinny

19 - Hay trough (Dogs are convenient size comparison)

20 - Brush into the water, splash through and another brush out 

21 - Tiger trap to finish 

The dogs liked walking the course too https://instagram.com/p/1aSLwYQJLn/

Well now you've seen the course. I think it flows well, some big questions and complex triples but B loved it.

We arrived with quite a lot of time to spare, so B and I just chilled while he grazed and Georgie went off to get her number and hat check.
After a quick studding up, Georgie got ready and we tacked Beanie up. 
Safe to say he was very chilled... Ahem, fast asleep. 

But he soon knew his job once Georgie was on. 

It was a busy class with the packed warm up arena. Unfortunately there was an accident on course which did delay the course for quite some time. Georgie jumped off B to take the weight off him and keep him walking to keep his muscles warm.

Once the poor girl has been looked after my paramedics the class commenced again and with just 4 people in front of her Georgie and B got their game faces on!
It's been super windy today so G didn't hear the starter, thinking she had 2 minutes left, but was in fact ready to go! They set off and B was very frisky, annoyingly going a bit side ways but G soon straightened him off and he popped over fence 1 no problem! Off to a good rhythm they popped every single fence, even scary ditches! 
Completing the course in about 4 minutes 15 seconds or so which is a good time, seeing as the ground wasn't as forgiving in places as it should have been.

Sadly we had to leave so still no word on how they did, but fingers crossed as it was a strong clear.

I've had an absolutely lovely weekend outside in the sun doing various horsey activities. More weekends like this please!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Sophie x

Easter Weekend Fun - Ely Eventing Centre First Cross Country of 2015

Back to work after a long weekend off, but least it was a good one filled with lot's of Horsey filled activities.
I got to ride Beanie for a bit on Friday which was awesome, it's feels so funny getting on a big 16.2 thoroughbred after riding 14.2/3 ponies on weekday mornings.. I felt so high up!

I got a day off Saturday, what a rare surprise! So I spent it easter egg hunting with Frankie baking and watching the racing!

Sunday we took a trip up to Hare Park, the home off Suffolk Polo Club, and took Frankie and Beanie for a ride with a friend of Francesca's. Well all did not go to plan during the handy pony course. Note to self, little Shetlands either step over things, or full on launch themselves into the air. Sadly for Frankie and I,  Millie decided that a tractor tyre height was just a bit too big, jumped over it unexpectedly and Frankie bumped her face. Tears ensued. Bar a little bloody lip and some tears she was ok. So after a very lovely Easter Egg hunt, Nina and Frankie went off to play and Georgie and I went for a leisurely stroll. My usual trusty steed Blackbird had already been ridden, but with Jerry's go ahead I jumped on for a walk to show Georgie around.

What a lovely morning we had, but alas we had to be off to walk the cross country course for the following day, so whizzed the horses home put all of our equipment away and off we went to Ely Eventing Centre to walk the 95cm Open course.

                         

There were lot's of challenging fences and questions early on in the course, which was actually pretty twisty turny, without many gallops in. We said it would separate the men from the boys. We had hopes as Beanie had won this class last year, so fingers were crossed.

             Nice skinny to pop over 

             Canter up the hill to this log!

             Tiger trap to drop

                                     Water jump at 8, plus a paddling Frankie

            Lovely roll top a few strides out of the water and onto a skinny log 

   Ride frightening ditch upright palisade 

                 Nice big roll top! 

                     Big step up 

Lovely big expanded water with nice big blue  roll top out

Beer barrels to finish - "Come on darling, there's booze at the finish line - Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous"

We arrived with plenty of time to spare and B was a pleasure to groom and get ready. He was really chilled and seemed to be in a really good place in his head. He grazed and watched the horses warming up across the field 

G got ready and I tacked up B. Don't they both look smart?

                        Trying out Cal Rei's numnah jumping for the first time

Rocking our vintage Joules rugby shirt we bought at Olympia ages about 13/14!

Well, it was not to be G's day. Beanie had a bad experience with a ditch early last year while training and sadly hasn't managed to shake it. Note to self, if a trainer says to take a ditch/rail combination from a stand still after your horse has refused, ignore them! B got stuck half way over and it freaked the poor lad out. It's weird though cause he skips over some ditches no problem, but seems to think there's a horse eating monster in others.

                                            Caution, may contain monsters 

The ditch at fence 3 he jumped over easy peasy, then a slanted palisade then onto another ditch at fence 4 just ten feet or so away. But no - B was having none of it. So we're going to have to readdress this fear and overcome it.

The ground is also really good at Ely due to the peety soil so absolutely no complaints there. It's always really well organised, setting the horses off at a nice even pace, big collecting ring and nice relaxed atmosphere. If you haven't competed there before, i'd really recommend you do. Tina does a great job organising it.

Look up @twittaeventing or #twittereventing on Twitter and Facebook, they always have all the lowdown on up and coming events or @Lt_Downham_Int on twitter. 

Despite that B flew round the rest of the course, including a rider frightener big ditch palisade and another ditch with no problems. Here is a video of my footage

Overall we had a lovely day, but at least it gives us something to work on and keep trying at. Hopefully this coming weekend at Horseheath will prove a more successful endeavour 

Hopefully see some of you there! 

ROR - Historical Giant at Burghley for CUDH meet

All these amazing photos are taken by Sam Pawley Photography