We took Whinstone to his 2nd ever show, which he didn’t find as exciting, so no bucking, but it was just as scary, with lots of fillers and banners. I did two classes on him and just had a couple of poles, partly because he wasn’t looking where he was going because of the scary surroundings, but he was well behaved and we were really pleased with him.
Alex rode River, only her  2nd ever show and Alex’s first time at a show on River. Alex decided to do a class instead of a clear round, so this was his first ‘proper’ class. They did a lovely clear in the first round, which meant they got through to the jump off. They did a lovely clear again, but Alex forgot his course and got a bit lost. Such a shame because they were gong so well, I think Alex was just so pleased he’d got clear in the first round!
I rode Lilly in the M&M (Ridden) which we won! We then went on to become Reserve Champions. She also jumped 2 lovely double clears and was placed in the top 3 in the 60cm & 70cm.

Images can be found @ Quantum Photographics:
http://www.quantumphotographic.com/events/

Brook had a weekend off in preparation for Hickstead on Tuesday& Alfy’s still recovering from his fall, so I finally got some time to ride Murphy who I haven’t seen for 3 months since Towerlands in April! I planned on jumping the 1.10 & 1.15m Amateur but it was really busy and we arrived early so rather than waiting I jumped the 1m Amateur. We jumped a lovely smooth double clear to come 3rd. We jumped a lovely first round of the
1.10, so I then decided to go for it in the jump off where we had one down but still came 2nd. Pictures can be found on:

http://www.everybodysmile.biz/philipboothbyphotography/evnts/129694/page_es11.php?Cat=Cobham%20Manor_-_Class%205
 
http://www.everybodysmile.biz/philipboothbyphotography/evnts/129694/page_es13.php?Cat=Cobham%20Manor_-_Class%206

We decided not to take Olly out this weekend after not going well during the week and having a nasty rotational fall at home. Luckily both he and I are OK, just a bit stiff and in need of seeing the physio, then hopefully he will be back on track & winning again.
The annual Area show is a really popular show and is always packed because of all the qualifiers and championships classes that are held. There were over 50 competitors in each class. We just took Brook to do the Katherine James 1m Scope Qualifier and the 1.05m scope qualifier. When we got there a friend of ours had had some trouble with her horse in the previous class where it got eliminated and didn’t even jump one fence in the ring. She asked if I would ride it in the next class, and as always I’m mad and agree to ride anything even though I’d never even seen it before. It was a 17'3 giant chestnut warmblood! I couldn’t even reach its withers with my arm stretched right up. I looked like a pea on a drum and had ever ridden anything that big in my life, let alone something that’s naughty and I don’t even know what it does, to prepare myself for not falling off. He was quite nappy in the warm up putting in a few rears and leaping using his strength to bugger off out the gate towards the other horses. But I kept going and then when it came to jumping he started of really backing off the fence and putting in small close strides, so I kept pushing him forwards into the jumps and making him take strides out and in the end he was taking me to the fence I was able to sit a bit more still and give him a better stride at the fence. Fence number two was a big scary oxer that everybody was stopping at because it was going away from home off a corner and it was bold and spooky. When I went in rode over to the fence where I almost came off before we even started because he dropped his shoulder and reared and leapt and tried to run off. But I stayed on and made him look at it, he jumped the first fence which was good considering previous history, and then continued to jump round everything and just had two poles. So everyone was pleased that 1. I managed to stay on and 2. That he didn’t stop at anything or get eliminated.
Brook jumped a lovely double clear in the KJ and finished 2nd which means she qualified for Scope Festival in August! I then went 4th in the 1.05 Qualifier where again she jumped another double clear and came out well in the lead. I had a long wait for over 50 competitors but I managed to hold it and stayed in the lead throughout- So another win for Brook & another Qualification for Scope Festival.

A really good day out & pictures can be found on http://www.e-pix.co.uk/

After Colette's in the morning we went to Limes Farm BSJA in the afternoon with Olly & Brook. They both did the British Novice where Olly was extremely naughty and got eliminated for playing stupid games and pretending to be scared, even though he jumped the same jumps at the same place a few weeks previous where he won at a bigger height- very strange horse.
Brook was a very good girl and jumped a lovely double clear and took a clear win.

In the Discovery Olly was a bit better behaved and just had one disobedience and a pole. Brook was still in jump off mood so went a bit fast and just had one down. But quite a good day overall.

I rode Lilly in the WHP class and jumped a lovely clear, she went round really nicely with the other horses without rushing which is a big improvement, but unfortunately she struck off on the wrong leg in her show which stopped her from getting the top place. She ended up 3rd which was still good but the judge said she would have placed her at the top if it wasn’t for the leg.
She then did the M&M WHP where she came 2nd- she went much better in this, did another lovely clear and this time struck off on the right leg in her show. The winner of this class wasn’t to be beaten as it was a lovely black stallion, who was impeccable and really striking.
I was also 3rd on Lilly in the 60cm jumping class where she did a lovely double clear.

Pictures on quantum photographic.

We decided to run a mini show at home for all my pupils, instead of going to a local show on Sunday so that it was more affordable for everybody and less stress and worry for the competitors. It was jumping show and we had a number of classes from lead rein to individuals, poles on ground, bottom hole up to 3ft. There were over 10 competitors and everybody got a rosette and the winners got trophies. It was a very fun day and everybody was pleased.

Results and pictures below.

Class 1
Place     Rider         Horse     Faults- 1st round     Faults jump off     Time
1st         leah             Cody            0                                4                 51.19
2nd     Jacqueline     Woody         4                                 0                 23.01
3rd        Molly             Tom            4                                 0                 23.97 
4th        Macy            Woody         4                                 0                32.72
 
Class 2
Place         Rider         Horse        Faults- 1st round    Faults jump off    Time
1st         Gemma         Woody                 0                             0                25.88
2nd        Shannon         Cody                  0                             0                27.06
3rd         Gemma          Cody                  0                             0                 27.19
4th         Leah            Woody                  0                             0                 27.81
5th         Sofia             Tom                     4                             4                 1.02
6th         Sofia             Chessy                4                             -                    -
 
Class 3
Place     Rider     Horse     Faults- 1st round     Faults jump off     Time
1st     Sofia         Woody         0                                 0                         21.53
2nd    Shannon     Cody         0                                  0                         22.23
3rd     Zuzka       Woody         0                                  0                         22.31
4th     Alex         Cody             4                                  0                         24.63
5th     Alex         Tom              4                                   -     -

Class 4
Kaylee- Chessy =1st
Zuzka- Woody = 1st

Class 5
Daisy- Chessy 1st
Sharon- Ziggy =
Zuzka- Cody =
Kaylee- Woody =

Over half term I was invited to teach at the West Street Pony Club 3 Day Rally which was a very fun week and I met some really nice people.
Day 1
I taught XC- AM along side Sarah Charles, Stable management before lunch & XC again PM.

Day 2
I taught Mounted Games- AM

Day 3
I taught SJ- AM & XC- just before lunch.

I think out of the whole rally the lesson I enjoyed most was SJ on the last day with one of the middle rides. The lesson entailed jumping in pairs side by side- they had to communicate & use co-ordination to judge timing and adjust speed so they were next to each other the whole time. They then had a test of their balance when they were jumping without stirrups and putting one hand on their head in mid air over the jump.
All the kids really enjoyed the lesson and were very enthusiastic. One of the children even said “I think that was the best lesson I’ve ever had” they didn’t want to finish and kept asking “can we do it again.” but after an hour of cheering on and running round putting jumps up I was knackered, so unfortunately it had to end.

After the RORC show on 22/5/11 Roxy came home with us where she had a weeks schooling. during the week she progressed so much, hacking without napping to other horses and without spooking. Her stable manners improved and she will now stand tied up alone and still and respect people on the ground without running/barging through them. She jumped a course of fences at 1.10m over very scary fillers etc., including an open water first time. She gained more confidence and trust in me and learnt flying changes, rein back, straightness and gained more balance, bend and suppleness through corners as well as on the straight. Her halt is now also square and still for more than 5 seconds and she is generally a more relaxed horse. Roxy also had a transformation and went from looking like a wild horse with a long mane, feather and bog brush tail, to a nicely pulled mane which can now be plaited, no feathers which were taken off with clippers, which she had never seen before and was petrified of, but after 30 minutes of gaining trust, she even let me do her whiskers and trim her beard and tail. The improvement in her was shown at the show she went to on Monday 30th at Denne Hill- write up shown below.

Pictures to follow.

We were back at Denne Hill again 2 days running this time with Roxy & Tom for the RDA show. Roxy did the eventers challenge which consisted of dressage, SJ & XC. She had never been cross country before or done a dressage test or even seen the white boards, so we weren’t too sure what she was going to make of it all. She did a fairly good dressage test with no spooking at the boards at all, just not a lot of concentration on what I was asking her to do, but for a 5 year old that’s only ever been to 2 shows, you cant ask for too much. She then did a lovely round SJ the best she’s done so far, just an unfortunate pole due to trying to have a poo & concentrating on stopping/trotting to have it whilst going into a fence, so she didn’t even think about taking off. But the rest of the round was very rhythmical & controlled and much improved.
She was brilliant XC and jumped round clear, even with a ditch as 2nd fence, we were really pleased as she’s never seen fences like that before.

Alex did clear round on tom which was really good. But again he decided to do another one, where the same happened as the previous show and he fell off. But he was OK and got back on, he jumped another jump and fell off again. Exactly the same as the last show he did. Luckily he was OK and it has now been decided that he should leave it at doing just the one class which he always does well. But he never gives up and continues to be determined.

Sofia did class 1- bottom hole and did a lovely clear in the first round. She went into the jump off where she did another beautiful clear, but unfortunately got 4 faults for going the wrong way and crossing her tracks.

Photos can be found on quantum photographic.

We took Olly & Brook to the open day at Denne Hill just for a change and something different for them to see rather than show jumps which they have seen for the past few months. Olly wasn’t as keen as he sometimes can be and any excuse to stop dead and attempt to put me on the floor or not go near a jump because of something in the distance, but he was fairly good and they both thoroughly enjoyed a good gallop.