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June 2008 On the 8th June we took the novices to Gracelands EC for a pop round. Alfie jumped really well and jumped clear in the British Novice. He had a pole in the jumpoff due to rider error (trotted into a double!) but we were really pleased with him as Gracelands is quite a spooky arena and it was well up to height. Whisper jumped double clear in the British Novice, which was good as she hadn't been jumped for nearly a month. She also jumped clear in the Katherine James 1m Scope Qualifier but Charlotte annoyingly missed the last fence out! Otherwise she would have qualified :S Charlotte also took Unimo, as Annabel is still unable to ride, and he just had an unlucky fence in the 1.05m Scope Qualifier. Video of Alfie in British Novice On the 13th we took Hottie to the Three Counties show in Malvern. She jumped clear in the 1.15m Open, and was going really well in the jumpoff up until the second last fence where she tripped on landed in the middle of a double, nearly went down but managed to pick up somehow but obviously had the second part down. Quite annoying but one of those things! We still managed to come 6th with a fast time despite the stumble. In the 1.25m she jumped another super clear, round a course that didn't suit her as the distances were very long, particularly in the last treble combination where the 16.2hh's were struggling! In the jumpoff she decided to stop to go the the toilet on the approach to the first fence which gave us 4 faults, very annoying as she jumped super and clear round the rest of the course! So an unlucky day but she jumped very well. On the 14th Charlotte took the babies up to Allens Hill and they jumped great, not one pole down! Alfie jumped a fab double clear in the British Novice, his first double clear! Whisper jumped two double clears, in the BN and the Discovery, and although we were too slow to be placed in the BN with either of them, Whisper came 3rd in the Discovery, so a very good day all in all! Video of Alfie and Whisper at Allens Hill On the 15th we went back to Three Counties with Hottie, she jumped amazing again and won the 1.10m Open and came 2nd in the 1.15m Open, so won about £100 in the two days, not bad!! On the 21st June we went down to Hand EC, for the HOYS Amateur Qualifier with Hottie. She jumped amazing despite only having 5 mins to warm up, and Charlotte not knowing the course, and jumped clear round a big and very technical course. Unfortunately we had 5 time faults for taking too long to start! Whisper made up for the dissapointment by jumping double clear in the Katherine James 1m Scope Qualifier, coming 5th out of just under 50 others and qualifying for Scope in August.

May 2008 On the 1st May, we went to Weston Lawns in Warwickshire. Charlotte and Hottie jumped a good double clear in the 1.15m Open with a fast jumpoff, and won the class! She also jumped a super clear in the 1.25m Open and came 5th. Charlotte also jumped Unimo in the 1m Amateur Qualifier, the first round she had jumped on him (Annabel usually rides Unimo) and he jumped a nice double clear and came 2nd. Click links below for videos. Hottie in the 1.15m Hottie in the 1.25m On the 5th May we went back to Weston Lawns, and this time Annabel rode Unimo, and they just had 4 faults in the 1.05m Open, Charlotte jumped Hottie just in the 1.05m as we wanted a short day, and Hottie jumped a good fast round and won the class. Charlotte also jumped Whisper and she went double clear in the 90cm Amateur and jumped a nice double clear in the British Novice to finish 7th. Hottie in the 1.05m Unimo in the 1.05m Whisper in the British Novice We went Cross Country schooling in mid May with Unimo and Hottie at Ledbury in Herefordshire. See the XC video here. We didn't go to a show then until Bicton in Devon, from the 23rd to 25th May, and we took Hottie, Unimo and Alfie, and left Whisper at home as we can only take three to shows! On the first day Annabel had an accident and hurt her back, so Charlotte had to jump her horse Unimo for the rest of the weekend. Alfie jumped really well, jumped clear round the unaffiliated classes and just had a pole in the British Novice. He is coming on really well and we're really pleased with him. We only jumped him for the first two days as he has no back shoes on (only being 4 years) and the last day it rained a bit in the morning so was too slippery to risk jumping him. Unimo jumped well, he is quite green for his age as he didn't jump much last year, he was quite unlucky all show and had the odd pole in 1.05m & Newcomers classes. On the last day he came 6th in a 1.05m however and qualified for the championship at Bicton later in the year. Hottie was really good all weekend, apart from the first day where she decided she didn't like derbies and pulled herself up after 5 jumps! She got placed in everything else however, won a 1.10m class, came 2nd and 5th in two 1.15m's and came 3rd in the Mini Major Pairs Relay. In this class we were paired up with a 128cm rider and each had to complete a course of 8 jumps as fast as possible. Click on the links below for the highlights of Bicton and the Mini Major Class. Mini Major Class @ Bicton 24th May Bicton Highlights May 2008

April 2008 On the 1st April we went to Summerhouse EC with Hottie and Alfie, as he hadn't been anywhere for a while. Hottie came 4th in the 1.15m Open with a nice double clear, we were quite slow though as we nearly crashed into a flower pot during a turn into a fence, which slowed us down a bit when to detour around it! We took Alfie for a school round after, and he went nicely, and jumped the water tray first time! On the 6th, we went to Weston Lawns in Warwickshire, for the Scope 1.15m Qualifier with Hottie. She jumped clear in the first round, and jumped a good jumpoff round to finish third, and qualify for Scope on first attempt, which was good as there are not many qualifiers by us. On the 9th it was the start of the Blue Chip Championships, and Hottie had a good start by jumping a good double clear in the Devoucoux 1.10m Open and came 3rd out of 90. The next day she jumped double clear again in the Blue Chip Star Prelim round in the main arena, unfortunately a lot of others did too and we came 18th out of 100 ish! So annoyingly this didn't qualify us for the final, we were 26th overall with points and they only took the top 20. But the next day Hottie made up for it, and came 15th in the Nedz Bedz 1.15m Classic qualifier, which qualified us for the final. Hottie jumped amazing and came 3rd, with a fast jumpoff round a decent track, and all together won £180, and lots of Blue Chip vouchers, so all in all it was a good show! We took the new horses to Allens Hill on the 19th for their Intro BSJA show. In the 80cm Annabel and Unimo had a few communication problems and just had a fence down, but this was the first time she had ridden him round a course. Alfie jumped at his first proper show, and was rather wobbly round the 80cm so Charlotte had to turn a few circles, but he didn't look at anything which was pleasing. We decided to put him in the British Novice as the course was a nice track for him, and he went round lovely just for a green pole down. Charlotte also jumped her new horse Whisper just in the BN, and she jumped two lovely rounds for a double clear and 4th place. On the 26th April, Annabel just took Unimo to Gracelands EC, and they came 6th in the 1.05m Open with two nice rounds.

March 2008

Alfie had his first outing on the 6th, as we hired out the course after a show at Bromyard, and he went round really nicely. Hottie came 4th in the 1.20m Open, and jumped well.

We also took Alfie out on the 13th to Gracelands, and he popped round all the fillers there too. See the videos on the gallery page. He is going really well at home, his flatwork is improving all the time, and he's also hacking out on his own, which is really good for his age!

We didn't go anywhere else for the rest of March, due to other commitments, though we went horse shopping in Holland, and bought two, which will be arriving in the second week of April. We bought a 16hh 5yro mare that's been broken since September 2007, and a 15.3hh 7yro gelding that is mainly for Bella to ride, for her first horse off ponies.

Musty has been sadly sold, but has only gone half an hour away from us so we'll still see him at shows.

February 2008

Annabel came 2nd in the 1.10m on Charlie at Bromyard on the 3rd. On the 8th we popped up to Bromyard again for the senior show, and just jumped the 1.15m with Hottie as she hadn't jumped for a month, and she jumped a good double clear (and the only double clear!) and won the class. She went quite fast in the jumpoff aswell however it wasn't really needed after no-one went clear again but nevermind, its all good practice! On the 10th we went to Hartpury, though Hottie was only eligable for the Blue Chip Star Qualifier. There were loads in it, but the course was quite technical and only 3 went double clear. Hottie had the first fence down in the jumpoff, it was 2-phase and I had to turn very short into the first jumpoff fence and unfortunately there was no stride there so we got rather underneath it and she couldn't snap her front feet out of the way in time. However we still came 8th, so qualified again. We think we've now sorted out a saddle that fits Musty so hopefully he will be going out more next month. Charlie has now been sold, he went to his new family on the 16th, and will hopefully win his new rider lots of rossettes! On the 20th we went to Solihull EC. We were trying out the new saddle, which Musty jumped really well in, he went clear in the 1.05m and had a pole in the Newcomers as we went a bit fast through the combination. Hottie won the 1.15m, and also won it the following week, the 27th, and jumped really good on both days. She also jumped thE 1.20m on the 27th and had a clear and 4 in the jumpoff- rider error!

January 2008

We've had a very quiet January, which has been nice! On the 2nd January, Charlie and Annabel jumped a good double clear in the Junior 1.20m Open and came 2nd, which was a good start to the new year. On the 5th we popped up to Gracelands to excerise them and also took Alfie to ride round the collecting ring to get him used to going to shows. Hottie just jumped the 1.10m Open, to give her a good exercise (though we originally weren't planning to jump her) and she won it with a nice double clear. The day after we went to Hartpury, Musty jumped the Newcomers and was jumping well up until the last line where the rider made a bit of a balls up and he had it down! oops. Hottie again just jumped the one class and jumped a nice double clear in the 1.20m to finish 4th. Due to the weather (we flood here in Worcestershire!) we haven't been able to ride that much, and Alfie's still yet to go to his first show, but he's hacking out and about really nicely, nothing seems to phase him!

December 2007

Annabel and Charlie won the 1.10m Junior Open on the 1st December at Bromyard EC after jumping a nice double clear. Musty came back into work at the start of December, and had an intensive first week back to get him ready for the RIHS qualifer at Hartpury, and had a jumping lesson on the wednesday (pics on the right) On the 6th we went to Bromyard again this time with the horses, and Charlotte came 6th in the Newcomers on Musty and Hottie jumped a good double clear in the 1.15m Open and won it, good as the organisers had bets on the class and Hottie was favourite to win! lol :S On the 8th we took Hottie and Musty down to Hartpury College in Gloucestershire. Musty jumped the Derby House Winter Novice qualifier, which qualifies for the RIHS at Hickstead. He jumped a lovely treble clear to finish 14th, the last jumpoff was really fast so we went steady and had the slowest time, he's never turned up into a fence before so it wasn't the best idea to start in this class! Hottie then just jumped the following 1.20m class as Charlotte had an injured arm from falling off another horse earlier in the week, and she jumped a really good double clear to finish 2nd, so a very good day overall :-) We went to Solihull RC on the 19th December as a practice for the Blue Chip qualifier the horses have on Sunday, and they both jumped really well, Musty had a unlucky pole down at the last but one fence in the Newcomers, but there were hardly any clears, and Hottie came 3rd in the 1.20m after jumping a good double clear, against some good grade A's in the class. On the 23rd we went to our last show of 2007, for the Blue Chip Star Qualifier at Markfield EC in Leicestershire. Both of the horses jumped the 1.05m warm up class and they both went clear and had a pole down in the jumpoff, but jumped really well. Hottie was placed 7th as she had a fast time and there were hardly any double clears. In the Star qualifier, Musty jumped really good but just had a pole down going into a double by the collecting ring, he lost concentration looking at the other horses as he went past. Hottie jumped clear however, and was drawn 3rd in the jumpoff. We jumped a fast round but didn't go too mad as we were early to go, but it was good enough for 4th place, so Hottie has qualified Blue Chip :)

November 2007

Hottie and Charlotte had an excellent start to November, winning the 1.05m and 1.15m Opens at Summerhouse on the 5th, then she just jumped the 1.05m at Solihull on the 7th and won that! On the 10th, at Hartpury College, she came 6th in the 1.20m Open with a clear and a pole in the jumpoff and then won the following 1.25m Open with a very good (and quite fast!) double clear! So she won £185 in 6 days :) Just Musty went to Summerhouse on the 15th, and had a clear and 4 in the 1.05m and a green pole down in the Newcomers, where there was only 2 clears around a technical course. He's having the rest of November off however as we found he had a mild viral infection after he started to cough.

Annabel took Hottie and Charlie to Gracelands on the 17th, getting two 2nd's with Hottie in the 1.05m and 1.10m Opens in the senior classes. Charlie got into both of his jumpoff's in his classes but had a silly mistake in both, but he was a little too fresh and had a lack of schooling in the week before. On the 21st Hottie continued her winning streak for this month and won both the 1.15m & 1.20m Opens at Solihull RC with Charlotte. The 1.15m was one round straight against the clock, and we didn't try that hard to be fair but she was quite fast as she was very fresh and onward bound! In the 1.20m she jumped a really nice double clear, and we did a few good turns in the jumpoff. Hottie has won about £325 this month which is a little crazy! It's a shame we've not gone to any Blue Chip qualifiers while she's on a roll! We also picked up a new horse on the way to Solihull, a 3 year old gelding who we've named Alfie! He's very cute and has settled in really well considering he's only a baby.

Annabel and Charlie finished off November on a good note, qualifying for the Blue Chip Sparkle JC/JA final at Solihull RC on the 24th November. Charlie is now for sale as Annabel is moving onto horses.

October 2007

Charlie has a a quiet October, resting after the summer, and just went out once, getting places a few small classes at Bromyard EC. Hottie also had a good few weeks off but came back to come 2nd in a 1.20m Open at Summerhouse in mid October. Musty came 5th in a Newcomers at Hartpury College, and also got into the jumpoff of the Blue Chip Star qualifier at Solihull EC, along with Hottie, but both had a silly pole down in the jumpoff, but jumped well.

September 2007

We had a fairly good week at the Scope Festival, Charlie qualified for both his main arena finals in the Junior 1.15m and the Dunglenn, and Hottie just missed out on the 1.15m but was placed in the consolation, and she came 11th out of 90 in the Mandy Hall B&C Championship qualifier, which qualified her for the Grade C final in the main arena. She jumped very good just to have 2 poles down round the 1.30m track, which was her first time she had seen a proper championship arena. We took Musty to his first few shows with us, after just working him mostly at home due to lack of a saddle, and he was placed in a couple of classes at Summerhouse, coming 5th in the 1.05m and 3rd in the Newcomers.