All of the horses have been enjoying their days in the field with the sun on their backs! Being back at home in Marton cum Grafton, the horses are thoroughly enjoying themselves. It always seems to be sunny and have its very own weather forecast, luckily for us it is almost always at the hotter end of the scale!
However, with it becoming increasingly hot our team focus has been on working the horses first thing before it gets too warm and uncomfortable for them, allowing them to enjoy their work and for James to get the best out of them.
Our first weekend in July was Eland Lodge and we thoroughly enjoyed the event and the course. Altaskin Jack was running in the NRF, to get his qualification for Gatcombe, The British Eventing Championships. Jack did just the job, finishing second in his section, posting a 32.3 dressage and he flew around for a double clear. We also had Prince Rockrimmon onboard. Prince was running in a BE100 section, with his showjumping and flatwork always improving he finished in third place with a brilliant 27.8 in the dressage and a double clear.
The next day (Sunday) we loaded back up and it was on to Aske Horse Trials. We took Shadow Inspector who was running in the BE100, along with Hooch. Sandro Time was also there to run in the BE90 HC.
Shadow Inspector finished on his dressage score of 27.3 and a double clear meant he finished in third place. Sandro Time posted another amazing dressage score of 15.8 and completed a good double clear.
Mid-week we had our brilliant physio, Tim Jarman, come to do his routine check up on all of the horses and make sure they are all feeling well. When we are not at events we focus on the general running of the horses. We do plenty of canter work at the gallops close by and James will jump the horses once a week over show jumps if they are running. If we think some need to see a bit more we take them xc schooling or to Port Royal for some showjumping. The rest of their work is split between flatwork and hacking, we thoroughly enjoy and do a lot of hacking with our horses as we believe it is great for their legs and stamina to go a long distance, and around our arena there are a lot of hills to work up.
Our next event was Buckminster with Shadow Inspector and Prince in the BE100 and Captain Levade running in an Open Novice. Shadow Inspector took another win despite the bad conditions and Prince claimed another good run finishing fourth. Captain Levade took seventh running steady in terrible conditions on the Sunday after lot of rainfall. A lot of mud came back with the horses that weekend!
Next it was onto Aston Le Walls, this time we took the ‘Big Boys’. Talent was running in the Advanced over the Friday and Saturday. Jack and Captain were running in the Intermediate and Open Intermediate. As we are pretty far away from Aston, as always we have such a pleasure staying at Team Dassett! Kate Rocher and her team do an amazing job of making us so welcome and letting us use their amazing facilities. We always enjoy our stay and catching up, and feel very lucky.
Talent’s dressage was very good, posting a 31.6 in the Advanced. However, he was feeling a little flat on Saturday and had a rail, so we decided to give him a nice steady cross country round as the ground was quite hard. Captain Levade ran in the Open Intermediate on the Sunday, posting a very good test of 25, a nice showjumping round followed but an unfortunate rail meant we also decided to take him steady too.
However, super Jack was the star of the weekend. Jack had a nice test of 32.5 and posted a very confident double clear inside the time to finish second in the Intermediate. Jack now has gathered a fair few points, he only needs one more BE point to be in the Advanced points.
However, super Jack was the star of the weekend. Jack had a nice test of 32.5 and posted a very confident double clear inside the time to finish second in the Intermediate. Jack now has gathered a fair few points, he only needs one more BE point to be in the Advanced points.
The last event of July was Burgham International. Talent was at Burgham on the Friday and Saturday for the CIC3*. Talent didn’t post his greatest test, being a little tense in the dressage, scoring 55.7 penalties. However, with adjustments to the xc course and a tricky showjumping track it did Talent good. He felt on his game and ready to go on the Saturday. He flew around both phases for a double clear and climbed way up into the top quarter of the leader board finishing 14th out of 73 starters.
On the Sunday we had Master Ramiro back out competing in the BE100. He had a good run to finish second, as well as a very consistent Prince also finishing second! Shadow Inspector was competing in his first Novice, he found the step up very easy and flew around to finish on a 25.5 dressage score and also picked up a second placing!
Next month we are looking forward to the Scottish Championships with Altaskin Jack and we will also be heading to Millstreet in Ireland with Talent to compete in the CCI3*.
