I guessing that Sammi didn't want anyone to get too jealous of her soaking up the Spanish sun - so here's a photo of the lovely countryside she gets to ride in at her base in UK instead!
Sitting here by the pool in a lovely villa in glorious sunshine in Mallorca it is hard to remember, let alone describe, the dreadful summer we have had in the UK but I will endeavour to remember while I sip my Mojito!
In my last blog (far too long ago I know) I was just about to go to Tatts for the CIC*** with Kintara. I had never been to Tatts before and it is a lovely event and we will definitely go back. We had a great trip over on the ferry with Ed thoroughly enjoying his first road trip in the truck – in fact – I think he thought that was the best bit! ‘Lotty’ was working okay on the flat before and I was hoping for a personal best of sub 55. The day of the dressage she was the most relaxed she has ever been and went as well as she is capable of going at the moment. Her trot work was soft and the canter relaxed and we slammed our personal best with a score of 46!
By all accounts the cross country, designed by Ian Stark, was very large and although I would say it was not that technical it was a little old fashioned with a great old style coffin and an enormous footbridge. Never-the-less I was quietly confident as I thought that style of course would suit her as there were no ugly surprises hiding behind trees! She show-jumped really well on Sunday morning although we did pick up a few time faults because I rode a couple of wide turns.
The cross country started and the frangible pins were causing carnage! They are great for the safety of the sport but when one breaks every five minutes it is very time consuming … plenty of time for me to get even more nervous! Once we got going Lotty was awesome cross country and jumped all the massive fences easily. I did take one incredibly long route because I was purely there to try and get qualified and I was thrilled when we managed to do just that. All in all it was a great week. Ed and I even managed a night out in Dublin – the perks of having a non horsey boyfriend – dinner in a fancy restaurant and some nice wine!
When we got back from Tatts we were inundated with some lovely English summer weather – rain, rain and more rain followed by a whole load of event cancellations. Incredibly frustrating for me but it seems even more frustrating for my owners. I do understand their distress as they are paying good money and the horses are not getting the experience of competition.
We did however manage to get to a few competitions. It is nice to have LG Wellington back in business after his break, Shannondale Santiagio continued his amazing form and preparation for Rio Olympics by finishing 4th at Nunney and lovely homebred Hunter Valley had his first win in England in the BE100 at Nunney on a fabulous score of 20! He would have been the perfect Greenwich horse and I thought the selectors may be interested but it turns out one BE100 win was not good enough – what do they know anyway!
Hunter Valley (Gizmo) - not quite ready to be selected for Greenwich but just wait till Rio
Salperton is my favourite event on the calendar and they were lucky enough to run the first day before having to cancel the next due to the rain. I had four intermediate rides there, which was quite exciting as have not had so many intermediate horses for years. I am especially excited about new ride Winnetou M who did a lovely double clear. It was a bit of a blast from the past seeing Kevin McNab at Salperton … some things never change in the fact that he was wearing a T shirt to go cross country even though it was about 12 degrees and his good old ‘Sue Gunn’ Back protector which looked about 100 years old!
L.G. Wellington at Nunney
Last week we competed six days in a row which was exhausting but also very exciting as all the horses went great. Hunter Valley continued his winning form despite trying to buck me off in the show jumping. Lovely 5yo Tregorn also won with the two French 5yos finishing 2nd and 6th. LG Wellington had his first advanced start and was amazing to finish 7th in a massive class of sixty of the best 8 and 9yo’s in the country. Winnetou M also had his first advanced start and did a lovely double clear and Kintara had an unlucky rail but a great clear cross country and I think I may have found some brakes! Dunbeggin Royal Imp performed well in his first Intermediate and Shannondale Santiago (pictured below) finished sixth in the Intermediate, which means he has not been unplaced yet this year. Rio here we come!
I felt pretty pleased with my week. It has been such a long slow road since I first arrived here in UK but now I have five horses at Intermediate level or higher. I know it is only the beginning but there was a time when I thought it would never happen!
After such a hectic week I decided I deserved a holiday and so Ed and I and a few friends have rented a villa in Mallorca and are having a wonderful time. Plenty of sunbathing by the pool with copious amounts of Rosé! I even managed a manicure and a pedicure beside the pool – one word – decadence.
Till next time,
Sammi
