For the first time the horses travelled down to Spain with another rider and I flew. My lorry is getting quite old for such a long journey, and having had a blow-out on my last Spanish Trip, I didn’t feel confident about making such a long journey in my lorry by myself. Unfortunately they didn’t have the best of journeys, with various delays giving them very long days on the lorry and Breakdance arrived in Spain very dehydrated and with mild shipping fever. Post-Brexit it is very difficult to do the journey in only three days. It’s slow getting on a ferry in Dover, there are customs checks bo ..read more

At the beginning of November Holly asked me if I was going to the Sunshine Tour. I had had this at the back of my mind and this, and the fact that SST ask for a deposit in late November, focussed my thinking and I decided that to go for the month of February would be a good idea. It is expensive, but I felt it would give me a great goal, would really help Breakdance, probably help me work on my confidence, and hopefully allow us to make a great start to the year. Towards the end of November I finally managed a visit to the Dynamic Performance Hub in Gloucestershire. The Hub is the brainchild ..read more

Having been for physio at Oaksey House at the beginning of week two I had some exercises to get going with and this gave me a bit of direction. In week four I had a strength assessment at Oaksey House which was really interesting and identified my left ankle, which I broke 10 years ago as a real and surprising area of weakness, together with a bit of weakness in my right knee which was only injured two years ago ..read more

Ellie and I set off to Keysoe on Monday afternoon. We had an easy journey and the excellent organisation at Keysoe made setting up and settling the horses into their stables quick and easy. Tuesday was a rather long day with Khalissy jumping the Foxhunter late in the afternoon. She jumped well for a couple of poles, but I was pleased with the way she went. Arietta jumped even later in a very technical and up to height 1.30. She jumped really well, just having two verticals down. She has learnt so much in the last 9 months and she just has a few more things to learn. But l feel we’re definit ..read more

The third show in quick succession was the Newcomers 2nd Round show at Felbridge. I love Felbridge, and this show was no exception. We had a very good first day, Askeaton jumped beautifully round the 1.10 for 6th place, BE Khalissy had a minor placing in the Foxhunter and Billy Arietta jumped a lovely, slow round in the Foxhunter, as a warm-up for the 1.30 on Saturday. Saturday started with Askeaton in the Foxhunter. She warmed up well, but was very strong, she jumped the first few fences well, but ran me to the combination and then stopped! However, we mustered our bravery and she jumped th ..read more

We had two days at Wales & West Showground last week, intending to do the Newcomers 2nd Round there with all three horses. I had a great journey to Wales, arrived in good time and installed the horses in their stables. The temporary stables at Wales & West are about the same age as me, so a little bit of maintenance (a new bolt on the door) was required to keep Arietta in, but this was soon accomplished, and I set off to my lovely B&B, the Lych Gate in Caldicote. We had an early start on Thursday morning with three in the Foxhunter in the main ring. Arietta was first up, and she ..read more

It seems as though we are constantly at a show at the moment, but whilst you can train and train, the best way to get truly competent in the ring is to get in the ring! All three horses are now qualified for the Newcomers Second Rounds, so I am going to have a proper crack at these for the first time for 11 years, starting at Wales & West on 20th May. To this end we need to up our game and all four of us need to get sharper in the ring! Felbridge manages to up its game every time we visit. The new arena has lovely modern fences and we had two days of courses built by Ben Townley, who is ..read more

In the blink of an eye, or so it seemed, we were ready to go to a show again. The horses all had a few days in the field and 10 days of hacking before starting work in earnest again. It's nice to let them relax and get their heads down after a long journey, but I feel that if you let them have too long off you lose some of the benefit of the work put in on the Tour and also the increased fitness they get from the Tour. I have also taken Zarnita back to Breen Equestrian and Doonaveeragh Emma has gone to Bea Fuller at Owlsbury Stud, both are nearly ready to have their foals - Emma's is due any ..read more

Back in February 2021 I wrote the blog below, trying to work out what the extra costs in money and time Brexit would add to competing in Europe. Having recently returned from Lier in Belgium, it seems that I actually underestimated the costs, but perhaps over estimated the time! I didn’t underestimate how much I would miss the access to these shows and the huge value of them. Brexit - Calculating the costs to competitors and horse welfare I thought the extra cost would be approximately £500 per horse, but in fact it’s nearer to £900 per horse, which makes it very expensive. Prior to Brexit th ..read more

The preparations for going to Lier have been quite long and detailed, but not really significantly worse than they used to be. I use Shelley Ashman as a shipper and this makes life incredibly straightforward. They sent me a form and I filled in the details of the horses, the lorry, sent them all the EU and UK documentation and they generated the paperwork. The horses needed Coggins tests within 90 days of departure, and health papers, which they’ve always needed for Belgium, albeit they are more expensive now. It’s been a while since I last packed up the lorry for a two week show, but Mark an ..read more