Firstly apologies to those regular followers for the lapse in updates recently. we have been full steam ahead and non stop for the last month.. I cant quite believe that we are almost in August.
We finally managed to fit in another trip down to Christopher Bartle at YRC the first few days of July, coinciding nicely with taking Jerry and Blossom to Aske and then myself driving south to a great friend’s hen party in Gloucestershire. The following weekend we travelled across to Eglinton a day early for some jumping with Mark Smith, who also kindly provided stabling for the 5 horses we had there. After a good weekend, we shot home to welcome 2 students, one Russian~ Alisa Myachina who was with us for the 3rd time and a Scot, Heidi Kandyba-Callis who competes at BE 100, and brought her horse for a weeks intensive training. It was a little hectic at times but thankfully the weather gods were kind to us for the most part and we enjoyed some really fun sessions. 
To finish the week we headed down to Cumwhinton to watch my owner Mary Grant riding at her first affiliated event. She went brilliantly in the dressage and showjumping, and just had a small blip on the xc when her horse took surprise at the model sheep either side of a fence! It was a great achievement for her and she now looks forward to Strathallan and Scone. I was due to be competing our horse Indian Mill on the Saturday but had ended up selling him.. to non other than Badminton winner Paul Tapner… This little horse also had his first front cover this month for the BHS magazine.. leave us hope it is not his last!
To summarize briefly, the horses have been going really well. Stonedge continues to be a star and has now upgraded to Intermediate with a 2nd place at Eglinton,annoyingly I had the 1st fence down in the sj, otherwise it would have been win no 2..! As his last novice run, he finished a good 3rd at Aston Le Walls after completing one of only 3 double clears in his section.
Arctic Soul now is a grade 3 horse having won his first point at Aston. After his debut in novice classes at Burgie it was another educational round at Eglinton. He jumped much better in the showjumping for one down into the final treble, this was a huge improvement on Burgie and help from Mark Smith in this phase is paying off. His run across country was superb and he felt extremely classy, but I took him fairly slowly in quite slippery conditions. He was in good form at Aston although didn’t really enjoy the crowded and rock hard warm up conditions for the dressage, despite not feeling great in the ring he was only 2 marks off the leader. 2 showjumps down over a big and technical track was disappointing, but not out of the ordinary and he was again superb on the xc coming home one of only 3 inside the time in his section which moved him into 8th place.
Watts Burn also ran at Eglinton, leading the dressage and jumping clear in the showjumping in his BE100 class but a blip on the xc moved him out of the placings. He had felt a bit out of sorts from the start box, so when we got home we had a good investigation to see if there were any physical issues. With nothing to find we gave him a few days off, went back to basics and have been xc schooling to get the confidence levels back up again. All seems in order now and he heads to Strathallan at the weekend for the British Eventing young horse championship 5yo qualifier.
Trig point has been taking the first steps on the advanced ladder after another good confidence giving run in the OI at Aske at the beginning of July. He was entered in the Advanced at Eglinton for a combined training exercise which went really well. After a good test he lay 4th and then had one down over a up to height track, but we withdrew after this phase as was always the plan. His next trip was to Aston for his first proper Advanced run in Dasset Eventing 8 and 9 yo class. On route we stopped off for Pathway training at Vale View Equestrian Center, having stabled with good friend Sarah Cohen who rides for the Preci Spark Event team. She has a superb young horse “Treason” who won the Burghley Young Event horse finals when Jerry was 5th, he was also in the same class as Jerry at Aston and eventually finished in 6th, this is one to really look out for in the future. We had some really good lessons at training with Lizzie Murrey and Kenneth Clawson and made use of the great all weather xc schooling facilities they have there.
Jerry did a great test to be in 14th out of the 80 starters but then was a bit shaky in the showjumping to have 3 down. They had built it well up to height, used skinny poles and technical lines which caused problems for the majority of the class. The xc was beautifully presented, Nigel Taylor andhis team had done the most amazing job on the ground conditions, and the course hit just the right balance to suit first timers and the professionals giving WEG horses a gentle run round alike. Jerry really took the track on and finished well within himself jumping through all the more difficult combinations with ease. After trotting up well on Sunday morning, he now heads to Gatcombe for the Intermediate Championships.
Cherry Law now has the 2* at Blair firmly in her sights after a 10th place at Aske and a 3rd at Eglinton, winning an amazing trophy there for being the closest to the optimum time, both at Intermediate level. She has been a star all season and after a short holiday at home with her owners Peter and Rhona Elliot, she comes back for the final month before Blair.
Inishmore, having been working quietly at home now heads to the BE 4yo qualifier at Strathallan, Freddy Curtis has also rejoined the team after a brief spell with Emily Galbraith and Rare Hero has his first run since Burgie in the IN at Strathallan too.
August also looks set to go by in a flash with at trip to Gatcombe, Scone with 6 horses entered and then on to Blair, with 2 in the 2* and Stonedge being put to the test in the 1*.