Helen and Annie's eventing adventures

Lots of changes

2008-05-14T19:59:00.000-07:00

Haven't made any posts for a while as my equine life has become somewhat turmoiled. Annie fell in the field in February and she has damaged her fourth lumbar vertibrae. This is where her pelvis sits. Unfortunately, after just over 9 weeks box rest and a cocktail of daily drugs, there is no improvement. We are waiting on decisions from a variety of vets and neurology specialists so that we can make a fair decision about her future health and welfare. Annie has hated being on box rest, and has become grumpy and intolerant. Here she is looking somewhat chirpier, chatting to a friend across the yard:

My search for another horse to continue my rider development has paid off, and I am now the wonderfully proud owner of Sacramenta Z - known at home to us as Grace! I have owned Grace for one month now, and I could not have wished for a more perfect pony! She is 7 years old, by Sandro Z. She has predominantly done showjumping up until now, but we believe she has fantastic potential as an event horse. She loves cross country and has amazing natural paces - I am just trying to master them!

We have had a couple of training sessions with Alison Kenward at home, some stressage with Sabrina Jones in Mursley and we are about to commence our XC training ready for the area horse trials on the 8th June! Also known as judgment day!

Here she is looking all shiny at home:

And a couple from Sabrina's the other day:

Funny picture!

2008-02-26T06:15:00.000-08:00

I was clearly concentrating on my position so much, I forgot what to do with my tongue! Oh dear! (Click on the picture to make it bigger)

Good lower leg position though, I don't think my cross country position has ever looked so balanced. Thanks for all the tips John! I'm getting there!

XC training, and Annie's poorly :(

2008-02-23T18:01:00.000-08:00

Took Annie up to Hanslope with John Mears to pop a few XC fences and get her confidence going again over natural fences. Although she was jumping, we felt that she wasn't quite her normal self and pulled her up to take her home again. Two days later she was diagnosed with a respiratory infection - so we were right!

Here is what Annie thought of the ditch - always good to test the brakes!

She did overcome her fear though, big scaredy cat!

Showjumping lesson with John Mears

2008-02-05T05:42:00.000-08:00

Had a fantastic jumping lesson with John on Sunday afternoon, and for once the rain held off! Annie flew, and when we put a course together it really felt as if we were flying. Everything feels like it is coming together for us now, and I can't wait to test out our new skills on the cross country course! In the meantime though, practise makes perfect so we will keep grafting away for a week or so until our first XC outing of the season to Hanslope - Saturday 16th February.

Dressage clinic with John Mears

2008-01-23T12:48:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I went to a dressage training clinic with John Mears, and we worked on transitions and Annie's acceptance of the contact. By the end of the session I had mastered both downward and upward transitions maintaining Annie's engagement and outline - fantastic result!

Annie is famous!

2008-01-15T04:55:00.000-08:00

Following our appearance in Chiltern and Thames Rider magazine's January issue, and Wednesday 9th's MK News, the announcement of our sponsorship deal has now been run on the Milton Keynes website - brilliant coverage for my sponsors so I am thrilled!

You can read it here - http://www.mk-news.co.uk/mknews-news/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=247259

In other news, I have now received all my registration documents for British Eventing and am now officially an affiliated rider... even though I am yet to compete! Annie is also now officially a British Eventing horse, putting her showjumping days behind her. Roll on April so that we can get to our first event!

Dressage at Addington - 13th January 2008

2008-01-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately no pictures from today, but Annie performed really well despite gale force winds - her pet hate! We only did Prelim 7 due to the weather, and I was thrilled with her performance. Unfortunately, due to judges (grrr) we only finished middle of the field, but I am confident going into next Sunday's competition knowing that she is improving steadily. Hopefully our percentages next weekend will reflect her progress!

Next Saturday we have a training clinic at Bury Farm, followed by two further dressage tests (Prelim 4 & 10) at Addington on Sunday. Fingers crossed for some slightly brighter/dryer/less windy weather...!

Annie has a swollen leg

2007-12-17T02:22:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately we couldn't compete on Sunday, as I discovered that morning that her leg had swollen up over night. She is sound, thankfully, however she is now enjoying (or not!) cold hosing and a few days of rest to help the swelling go down. Hopefully it will clear in a couple of days and she will be back to her usual tricks!

I let her play in the school for a while on Sunday to stretch her legs, and roll around in the sand!

Prelim 7 at Addington!

2007-12-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the quality of the picture - as you can see it was really dark and the weather was awful! A huge thanks to Dad for sticking with me all morning and still persevering to take pictures despite the elements!

On Saturday I fulfilled my ambition of riding at Addington Manor, but we didn't just compete - we got placed! We finished 8th out of 34 entries on a score of 61% which was a fantastic result, despite the awful weather. Unfortunately Annie found the arena's at Addington rather spooky, and as a result didn't work at her best. Torrential rain, gusty winds blowing through the giant conifers and lorries arriving and leaving directly next to our test arena didn't lend themselves to a very focused Annie! I am pleased to get this Addington debut under my belt, and next time hopefully Annie won't be quite so spooked by the place. Fingers crossed for better weather too!

Next weekend we are competing at Prelim 7 and a Prix Caprilli indoors, thank goodness!

Show jumping training

2007-12-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

Despite our competition today being cancelled due to gale force winds, we still persevered with our training session with John Mears on the 1st December. We focused on some gymnastic jumping, improving Annie's reaction times as she had to be very fast with her feet and also working towards that illusive 'independent seat', which is slowly but surely beginning to make an appearance. The weather was terrible - to give you an idea of how wet I was, those breeches were light grey when I put them on! Needless to say I spent the following few hours tucked up in bed drying up and thawing out!

It is a shame I couldn't get out to compete today and practise the techniques John had taught me, but fingers crossed for next weekend instead!

Dressage win at Bury Farm EC

2007-11-28T13:33:00.000-08:00

Winning our class at Bury Farm

Annie's second ever dressage outing was another great success, completing two tests with glowing judges reports, despite my ear infection successfully making me feel queezy throughout!

Test 1 was PC level D, which we completed with a score of 69% - an improvement on our score of 64% from the 4th November and a huge success considering this was only our second competition at this level.

As a bonus, this good score ended up winning us the class! Hooray! Our first dressage placing, and it was a 1st! This proved a fitting end to that level of dressage, as we now move onwards and upwards to the dizzy heights of Prelim.

The second test was Prelim 7, not the simplest test for a debut at Prelim level but what better way to learn thatn throw yourselves in at the deep end! Annie performed brilliantly, and tried her heart out. We finished on a score of 62% placing us 11th in the class. The judges comments were very supportive and complimentary, and an audience member wanted to adopt me so she could take Annie and I home... which was nice (I think!), if a little creepy!

Craig and I getting Annie ready to head home after our tests - notice our new landy?!

Annie is currently enjoying a couple of well deserved days off to frolic in the field and generally rub herself in the mud, before we go back to the drawing board and analyse our Prelim performance. We will be completing Prelim 7 again on the 8th December at the very grand and slightly daunting Addington Manor EC, and we are hoping to improve on our score by 5%. Depending on whether we are ready by then to attempt some more difficult movements, we might also be competing in a Prelim 12 class. Prior this however we are due to do some showjumping on the 2nd December at MKEC in Hanslope - weather depending.

A little about us

2007-11-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

This is a blog to keep everyone updated on my British Eventing training, competition results and plans for the 2008 season.

I train at our home yard, Tilbrook Farm in Bow Brickhill, Buckinghamshire during the week and compete at the weekends supported by my dedicated team of helpers - my long suffering partner Craig, along with Mum and Dad. My dedicated dressage coach is BHSII SM Alison Kenward (www.freestyledressage.co.uk/about), for showjumping and cross country training I use the talents of both John Mears BHSII and Esther Evans BHSAI (www.evanseventing.com). I have recently signed a 2008 sponsorship deal with public relations agency, Friday's Media Group (www.fridays-group.co.uk), and would like to thank them for their continued support and backing into 2008.

My talented mare Animation (Annie) is currently being prepared for her first BE season, having previously had a highly successful career as a professional showjumper. She is a 17 hand Belgian warmblood mare with bucket loads of attitude and courage. She loves to compete and has a peculiar addiction to pears, and my peanut butter sandwiches! In her spare time she likes to chew through fences, squeal at her friends and play football. If you ever come to visit her, she is always partial to a few extra strong mints.