Riding 'Ronnie' at Osberton - my last event in England for a while
It sure is nice to be back in New Zealand and I even had my first win of the whole year last weekend in the training class at Arran Station with Janene Maxwell’s and my own Tom (yet to be given a fancy name!)
It has been quite a lifestyle change to go from having a groom (or two) and only three horses in work – admittedly due to injury not by choice – to having six or seven in work by myself at the moment. But I am really enjoying riding my lovely young horses and a couple of others, especially when the sun is shining like it has been recently.
It has been quite surprising to see how much some of the horses have changed in the nine months I have been away. Tom has really grown into himself and gone from being a gangly, clumsy baby to a less gangly, less clumsy and very promising baby! He will have another Training start with him shortly and then he will be ready to go Pre Novice.
It has also been fun working with the mares that I bred. They are really neat horses. I especially love my five year old by Littorio – Legs – who I think might be a bit heavy to be a top eventer but is such a super jumper that I think she should go to a jumping home. But I am having fun jumping her in the mean time.
I was pleased with the test 'Call me Al' gave me at Osberton but not all the judges felt the same
It was a hectic ten days in England before I came back to New Zealand at the end of September. I took Call Me Al and Regal Romar to Osberton International Three Day Event, which was fantastic. The down side was the weather was not nearly as good as it was last year so it didn’t lend itself so easily to Gin and Tonics and partying. But this is probably a good thing … I haven’t seen the latest Eventing magazine yet but I am not expecting to be named and shamed this year!
I ended up with seventh and eleventh placings on Al and Ronnie. I was really pleased with how they both went as it was their first CCI** and it was a big and competitive class won by Piggy French on her stunning new Advanced ride. I was not too happy with the dressage judging mind you. Al did a really nice test, very flowing with no mistakes and he is a very nice moving horse. The judge at C rewarded this with 75% and had me in the lead. Unfortunately the judge at B gave me 63%, which had me in about 60th place … I was not impressed. However I ended up 9th overall after they were averaged out of a class of over 100 so that still OK.
The cross country was quite long, nearly 10 minutes, and it had some reasonable hills and quite a lot of mud. I thought they measured the course way too easily as everyone was measuring it 150ish metres shorter than the official distance but with the wet conditions not many people made the time. My two NZ Thoroughbreds scorched round 15 seconds inside the time and then both had one rail down on Sunday, which was a bit of a shame but they both tried hard.
A good round with 'Al' saw us finish in seventh place
We got back to the yard late Sunday night then on Monday we had to completely pack up the yard where we were based and move the horses to Mark’s. What an enormous mission that was! But we managed to do it all in one day which was good because Tuesday’s job was to move out of my house and into my new house at Mark’s. Unfortunately this wasn’t quite ready yet so my horse truck is now full of all my English possessions for the winter and will have to wait until I get back over there and move into the new cottage.
Getting myself and the gear organised at 'my' new yard where I will be based with Mark Todd
On Wednesday Lydia (who had been working with me) flew back to New Zealand and on Thursday Emily Dunn started work. I am very lucky to have Emily looking after the horses for the winter for me. She is very experienced and professional and sorted out the shambles we had at Mark’s (as we had to move in in such a hurry) whipped into shape in a matter of hours! By Friday I was on the plane heading back to New Zealand. Phew.
Till next time - Clarke
Photos: Libby Law Photography
