Apologies for the lack of updates recently. Unfortunately I managed to get a virus 6 weeks ago and it has made me dizzy and have chronic fatigue…not great and very frustrating when all you want to do is ride and compete!
Having fallen off at Aston between jumps I decided it wasn’t really that sensible to carry on Eventing while I was ill, so the horses have all been having a bit of an easy time since! They are all still in work and I have to say rather bored of not jumping or competing, but they are all well! Hopefully I will be back in action soon!
I have however had a good catch up with Dengie Performance Horse Nutritionist, Claire Akers who came to check in on Candy and ensure she was okay and still her enjoying her food! Claire also had my haylage analysed to check that all the horses were getting the nutrients required from it and to let me know if I needed to add any additional supplements to their diets! The team at Dengie are so helpful and approachable; they can never do enough to make sure my horses are on top form with their diets -I am very lucky!!
It was fab to be able to have the time to watch fellow Dengie ambassador Lucy Jackson win the ERM at Millstreet International Horse Trials – what a great result that was really well deserved! Hopefully I will be able to compete again soon and give you a more interesting update.
Well what a week we had at Bramham Horse Trials. The event boasts a stunning park, immaculate organisation and a very friendly atmosphere. We enjoyed a really super week of remembering exactly why we participate in this sport! All the best ingredients seemed to be there.
Stinky’s dressage was a fraction disappointing. Such is his maturity now in the dressage he didn’t need as much practising as I did before his test! So a touch flat and a couple of little mistakes left us on 33.
Thanks to the heavy rain on Friday and an enormous amount of preparation by the Bramham team, the going for Saturday’s 10m42s cross country was perfect. Ian Stark challenges bravery and accuracy and accuracy and bravery!!! The problems were scattered all around the course with very little let up, coupled with steep undulations making it a very senior test indeed. I set out allowing Stinky to find his feet being his first run at this level. After he hopped and popped his way confidently through the challenging combinations at 6, 8 & 10/11 I thought it was worth upping the pace to try for that elusive double clear in the time. He answered my every call and came home bang on the optimum! What a buzz! I’ve definitely never had a horse as fit or finish as full of running around a track like that. His Dengie fibre diet of Alfa-A Oil and balancer clearly suit him as he looks a picture of health and felt a million dollars from start to finish.
Di Boddy always builds a challenging and technical showjumping track and Bramham was no exception. Thankfully despite clears proving hard to achieve and a tight optimum time, The Greenlees family’s little brown pony skipped around and became one of only 3 horses from the 80 starters to finish on his dressage score!!! I’m still almost expecting to wake up and find that I was dreaming. My clever sister Sophie Lane produced Stinky from an unbroken 4-year-old to the Burghley Young Event Horse finals, and was instrumental in securing me the ride on our little star. I’m so fortunate that The Greenlees have had the patience to allow him to develop at his own pace, which will hopefully now pay dividends as we look forward to Blenheim and then Badminton, Bramham having secured his 2020 Olympic qualifications. So many people and so many factors go into a happy and successful three day event, it’s almost impossible to list them all. Suffice to say THANK YOU one and all, and may this be another step on an exciting journey towards the pinnacle of any equestrian’s dream…The Olympic Games.
Last time I blogged I was preparing for The Pony Club Dengie Winter Championships with Felix going to do the Intermediate Dressage. To be honest we really wanted to get to the Novice Championships as that is the level we are happy and confident at. The Intermediate test was always going to be a challenge for us, but we gave it our best shot!! I was so excited to be going to Addington Equestrian for the Championships and this time we were going to stay there the night before, which made it even more exciting.
It was quite a long journey to Addington, but Felix travelled well, arriving relaxed and happy. Mum took him out for a leg stretch and some grass whilst I got his stable ready. I then took him for a quick ride and to have a look at the arenas before giving him his tea and putting him to bed. I woke up really early the next morning as I was so excited. Fortunately Felix had managed to keep himself pretty clean over night so all he needed was a leg and tail wash and to be plaited up, then he was ready to go. I went to watch a few of the the other competitors in the Intermediate class before it was my turn…they were amazing and suddenly I felt really nervous!! The other competitors all seemed much older and riding big dressage type horses – Felix and I seemed really small and ordinary in comparison, I’d never felt this nervous before!! Felix warmed up really nicely and went in and did an obedient test, but it wasn’t our best and I was a bit disappointed. It was a great experience and now I know what to aim for next year.
With The Pony Club Dengie Winter Championships completed for this year it was time to focus on the eventing season ahead. This was going to be my first season doing some BE events as I am now old enough. My first event was at Port Eliot in Cornwall. We had been warned that the course was very hilly so I had been doing my canter work in a field on a hill. Mum had measured out a distance and I had been practicing going at the right speed as Felix tends to be a bit slow if he can!! The day of the event was really windy and we did wonder if it might be cancelled, but it wasn’t so off we went. Felix did a lovely dressage test for 28.5, a clear SJ and was clear XC with 9 times penalties (Dad thought we would get at least 15 time penalties as the course was so hilly!!) so we finished 8th in our first BE competition!! I was so pleased with Felix!
Our next BE event was Millfield. Felix did another nice dressage test, had one SJ down and did a lovely clear XC and we finished just outside the top 10 in 13th. We then went to Pontispool, it was a bit of a stressful day as we broke down on the way there and I wasn’t sure we were going to make it, but we got there just in time for my dressage test, phew!! Felix was as consistent as ever in his dressage and scored 32 which put us in 4th place. He did a lovely clear SJ round and was clear XC, but the ground was really hard so I didn’t push him and we got 9 time penalties which dropped us down to 11th place, but I was still super pleased with him! Now Felix is concentrating on The Pony Club Area Competitions. I am hoping that we will be picked for the Novice dressage team and the 80cm Eventing team – fingers crossed!!
Chico isn’t quite as reliable as Felix! He is either really good or really bad, but we have been having more good days than bad days! Our first ‘practice’ competition was a combined training where he did a tense but accurate dressage test and a nice clear SJ round, so we felt ready to go out and do a little one day event. We went to a small Pony Club One Day Event (ODE) where Chico did an amazing test and scored 24 with some 9’s and a 10! We had one fence down in the SJ because he was going a bit quick and then had a stop on the XC, but overall he behaved really well and didn’t have any tantrums which was really good. Thinking we were on a roll of good behaviour we went to another one day event, but Chico had other ideas. He did a nice dressage test, but after jumping 3 fences of the SJ course he decided he had had enough and had a tantrum in the corner of the arena so we had to retire. Back to Square One!! Since then we have been working on how to deal with his tantrums and riding him differently between fences. He is very very strong and forward going, but doesn’t like to be told how to get to a fence and if he thinks he isn’t being allowed to do it his way he gets angry!! Anyway, in between the one day events he has been out and done some BD competitions and has managed to qualify for an Area Festival at Prelim level so it’s not all bad!!
Smartie has just been hacking and schooling, he is only just 5-years-old so there is no rush for him to go out competing yet. His canter is still quite unbalanced but it is improving all the time. He is quite an anxious pony so we want to build his confidence and trust by keeping things simple and making sure all his experiences are good and happy ones. I’m hoping that I will get him to a dressage competition in the next few weeks to do a walk and trot test.
So that’s all for now…..hopefully next time I blog Felix will have been to the Pony Club Area competitions, Smartie will have had an outing to a dressage competition and Chico will be back in the good books.
The Eventing season is now well and truly underway and we are currently building up to Bramham Horse Trials next week with Candy (OBOS Impressive). Having done a good dressage test bar two silly blips and a fab showjumping round under the conditions I decided to withdrawn from the XC at Chatsworth due to the ground. It’s a hard call when you only have one horse at the level, but my main priority is to make sure I can keep her going for as many years as possible and sometimes you have to make the decision to look after them no matter how much you want to run!! Luckily I had already entered Bishop Burton as a back up in case anything went wrong at Chatsworth….she did a lovely test and jumped well and to say she was keen to go XC was an understatement (having not run for 7 weeks!!). We had to have a few reminders as to who was meant to be in control and therefore added 12 time faults to our dressage to finish 9th in a competitive OI section. She has had a flat session with Chris Bartle this week and we are going for a quick tune up over some jumps next Tuesday and then we are off to Bramham!!!
The young horses have had a few runs…some good…some not so good! My mum always says Eventing is a game of snakes and ladders…one minute your on the ladder up and everything is going well and the next minute it all goes wrong and your back on the bottom trying to work out what happened and if you should give up and get an office job! Luckily those days don’t happen too often, but Warwick Hall was one of those events! Snip had his first run of the year and was foot perfect until the XC where the sand on take off was just all too much and he thought it was sinking sand, we had to check a few times before he got going. However the next weekend at Bishop Burton he was a super star and finished on his dressage score to come 3rd! So my advice to anyone is that if you have a bad day get back on, work hard and next time out it will be better (hopefully!).
I have to say the horses are all look amazing and I can really only put it down to their feed (well maybe a bit of work too, but mainly feed!) and I want to say a huge thank you to Dengie for helping with their diets and for supporting me again…and it was a fab surprise to find myself and Candy on the Dengie stand at Badminton Horse Trials earlier this month!!!
So something of a whirlwind week with a very happy ending! We ran three horses Intermediate at Aston on Wednesday for one ribbon and two others had happy outings. I then whizzed up to Royal Windsor to support Harry in the musical drive that evening and spent a very enjoyable morning on Thursday watching all the action unfold. Friday I ran four novices and Emelia took Willy and we came home with 5 double clears and 4 ribbons. So leaving a happy gang at home Evie, Emelia, Superstition and I set off for Chatsworth on Saturday. My main aim was big arena exposure to see how our Bramham preperation was going. It would seem that “going well” was the answer. Despite taking a minute or two to adapt to the very soggy going in the main arena, Superstition produced some of his best competitive work to date. I was initially disappointed with my score of 31 but watching the replay the jockey rode two poor halts and two poor pirouettes, so they proved expensive!
Show jumping on Sunday was as usual at Chatsworth causing plenty of trouble. I think the close proximity of the fences to the spectators, plus the skinny poles and on this occasion variable going all posed different challenges. Stinky nailed it I have to say and gave me maximum effort for a great clear round. This drew us from 11th after dressage to 4th after SJ. The XC is always decent at Chatsworth and the effect of running reverse order, against the clock where every second counts adds extra pressure. Indeed 5 out of 25 starters took uncharacteristic tumbles. I am not known for my speed, but had a wonderful round on an incredibly talented 10 year-old at just his second 4*. Retrospectively I could have saved a second or two here without him feeling the pressure, but overall I was absolutely delighted with his performance to come 3rd in an incredibly competitive first leg of the Event Rider Masters.
I was so proud to be on a podium and even more deserving was the ever supportive Gillian Greenlees who has been a part of our family for 12 long years owning various 4 legged friends! Thank you so much to the ERM organisation and Chatsworth for such a great show and for making a class like this happen, massively appreciated by us all in particular my darling Dad who wasn’t well enough to be with us in person and loved the coverage! Onwards to Bramham!
Larry won yesterday with over 70% to complete his qualification for the Elementary – so he is off to the British Dressage regionals for the novice and elementary. We had been working on the halts as Larry always left a leg…and he was such a good boy and gave me two great halts!! I now plan on taking Iggy out and seeing if we can get him qualified for the novice before the summer closes, but if not we will concentrate on the winters. Iggy is going really well and I am trying to consolidate his work for the 6-year-old semi finals. Knock Out is just lovely – we are working on the scales of training and he is improving every day, I’m looking forward to the 4-year-old semis with him.
We have also been celebrating Molly’s fantastic news, along with Milton she has been selected to represent the North at the Inter-regional Championships at C Squad. I’m so pleased for her, she has done amazing stepping up from under 12’s, working hard on such a young pony. I would like to thank all our sponsors especially Albion who made Molly the most beautiful Dressage saddle which I can honestly say has helped her riding and position no end. Also congratulations to Ruby Hewitt who got picked for the C plus squad with our pony Harry, she has done amazing to get picked having only been doing dressage for such a short time.
I have had 3 fantastic events here in Ireland with Googie. Our first event was an Intermediate at Tyrella. The night before my mum arrived into Dublin airport where I picked her up from. We then had an leisurely wake up at 5am, followed by a 3 hour journey. We arrived to the most picturesque setting as the event takes place right on the beach. It took us about 10 minutes to drive 200 metres because my mum kept wanting to take pictures!!!
Warming up for dressage (9am ish) Googie was so calm! I’m always slightly worried when she is so relaxed, I always say “she must be ill”. She is really enjoying her work and loves the way that Sam trains so is blossoming into the horse I know she can be. We did a good test, but as ever there are lots of bits to be improved.
‘Eventing Ireland’ only holds the event on one day, so to fit everyone in onto the only day of the event the Intermediate competitors have to run cross country before showjumping. VERY strange!! Also in Ireland for some reason it is so much lighter than the UK so people are still happily jumping at 6/7pm.
Anyway so after my dressage we quickly walked the cross country and then tacked up to go (for 11am). The course seemed pretty straight forward with a few tricky questions and some interspaces towards the sea! But Googie sailed round in the time. We then went paddling into the sea 🙂 What a fantastic way to cool off a horses legs after cross country.
Although it was strange having cross country before show jumping it was rather nice as we did the big wash off and messy bit in the middle of the day and weren’t in a rush to chuck everything in the lorry all dirty. Googie washed off and legs iced she then had a graze before going back onto the lorry for a couple of hours before the showjumping began (1.30pm ish).
Warming up for showjumping Googie felt pretty lazy and I had this awful feeling that she would stop! (my worst nightmare). I only jumped a handful of jumps in the warm up, which were two jumps in the middle of a field and in the corner was the ring which was roped off but it just seemed ‘very irish’ in the way it was done. I tried to razz her up and then I went in. There was no need to do too much razzing! As soon as she saw the showjumps she knew her job. She did the most beautiful clear round and finished 6th.
Two weeks later we went back for Tyrella 2 which was equally successful and Googie pulled off another FOD (Finished On Dressage) for 3rd. These were two fantastic runs in preparation for her first CCI4*S at Ballindenisk.
My next blog will be all about Ballindenisk and how Ziggy did in his first event!!
Do you need help with show riding and in-hand techniques? We spoke to Olympia champion Lizzie Briant to discover her top showing tips that can be applied to anyone looking forward to trying some showing this season, whether it’s ridden or in-hand.
Top Tip 1. Separate your grooming kits
Lizzie has two identical grooming kits – one for grey horses and one for black. “Doesn’t it drive you mad when someone comes along and uses your horse’s brush on another coloured horse?” says Lizzie. “I have a grey grooming kit and a black grooming kit, because I can’t stand one colour of hairs getting in the brushes of the other.”
After grooming with a body brush, Lizzie wipe’s her horses down with a mixture of hot water, a splash of Dettol and a splash of oil, “it’s great for taking dust out!” To finish, Lizzie rubs her ponies over with a velvet cloth. “I always rub them over with velvet because it takes the dust off the coats surface.”
“Another tip is with black coloured ponies I always wash them off after work with a weak Dettol solution, as I find that sweat bleaches the coat” says Lizzie. “I also always cover them with a sheet in the sun, to stop them from getting bleached by the sun.”
Top Tip 2. Keep your pony’s mane ‘Au Natural’
“Between shows I don’t brush my ponies’ mane’s; I just tease it through with my fingers with a little bit of baby oil every two or three days to keep it untangled” says Lizzie. “I try not to wash my ponies’ manes too often because I don’t want to strip out the natural oils. When I do wash it before a show, I put a lot of human conditioner through it.” With natives having so much hair, there is the potential that it won’t all stay in place in the ring. “I have a small tub of hair gel in my show ring grooming kit,” says Lizzie. “Then if there is a bit of hair that has decided to stick up, I can easily deal with it.”
Top Tip 3. Vary your pony’s schooling sessions
Although obedience rates high on the necessary skills list for showing classes, Lizzie doesn’t drill her horses too much in the ménage. “During the show season, I school only once or twice a week, then hack out three times a week. I also have regular lessons with Matthew Lawrence.”
“I like to try to include variety in my ponies’ routines to keep them interested. I don’t take them in the school a lot because it can make them stale. I keep schooling sessions short – only about 20 minutes of walk, trot and canter on both reins. I think you can tell which ponies are over-schooled in the show ring.”
Top Tip 4. Don’t try and teach your own child!
“Freddie goes to Team Holder for all his lessons. Find a suitable, safe pony and keep it fun with lots of small jumps and obstacles” says Lizzie. “This will help small children gain a natural seat. Don’t make them have endless hours in the school, keep them riding with friends so they enjoy it. To keep their ponies calm and looking great feed a high-fibre feed, such as Dengie Healthy Hooves.”
Top Tip 5. Schedule some R&R for your pony
To be successful at showing, you don’t have to be in every class at every qualifier. In fact, Lizzie likes to keep the number of shows attended low. She says: “In an ideal world, I would do about eight sessions a season with each pony. I think the more you do, the more likely they are to get bored. However, if you are chasing the qualifiers you have to do more.”
And sometimes the time off is as important as the training itself. “After a show, my ponies have at least a day off. Or if the show was miles and miles away they have at least two days off, because I think travelling is quite tiring for them.”
“I also think that ponies should be turned out every day, even when they are in work, when I‘m not competing them, I like them to have a holiday of a couple of months.”
Top Tip 6. Fit not fat
As a rider, producer and judge, Lizzie likes natives to look ‘fit not fat’ in the show ring. Just as with people, a key part of equine fitness is a well-balanced diet. “I feed my ponies all year round mainly because of the level of work they are in,” says Lizzie, “I feed them Dengie Alfa-A Oil to ensure they have enough energy and stamina for their workload. The rapeseed oil coating also gives them a fabulous ‘showring’ shine to their coats”.
“For my ponies who are not in work, they will still get fed a ration of Hi-Fi Molasses Free.
A great way to assess whether your pony is at the correct bodyweight is by condition scoring. To learn how to condition score your horse, the Dengie nutrition team have produced the video below to explain the steps.
Top Showing Tips
- In the summer have a water spray bottle and a sponge to sponge off the saddle patch
- Wear gloves and a hat. Lizzie says: “You should always wear a hat because even the safest horse can trip over. One of my friends had a bad accident on a schoolmaster.”
- Choose an appropriate diet for your pony to make sure he has enough energy for the show ring without carrying excess weight.
- I have loud music playing daily on the yard – for example, the jubilee pageant music – so they get used to it before the show.
For more information about managing your horse’s weight
Our team of highly experienced nutritionists are on hand to advise and put together a personalised feeding plan for your horse or pony to help you help them manage their weight. To contact the Dengie nutrition team call the Feedline on 01621 841188 or submit a feed advice form. Alternatively, take a look at our Condition for Showing case study
Heading into the new year the ponies and I have been busy. At the start of January we travelled down to Cornwall to try out a 14.2hh pony. We weren’t really looking to get another one just yet but Mummy really liked the look of him. We all loved him straight away and although he is quite green he has the nicest temperament and personality. So Smartie is now my new project pony to produce and hopefully event next year. He was a bit unsettled for the first few days when we got him home and the change in environment and feed etc made his droppings very runny so we put him on Dengie Healthy Tummy, Alfa-Beet and balancer. After a few days his droppings returned to normal and now he is on the same diet as the other ponies (Alfa-A Molasses Free, Alfa-Beet, & balancer) and looking and feeling very good. For now I am just hacking and schooling Smartie, he has been to one PC rally and behaved really well, and later in the year we will do some dressage and show jumping competitions and some XC schooling.
Felix and Chico have been busy getting ready for the eventing season and The Pony Club Dengie Winter League second rounds. After a winter of training with Chico I am starting to feel like we have turned a corner with him (he has been going through a very difficult and argumentative ‘teenage’ stage says Mummy!). We have gone out to some British Dressage competitions and he has been placed in the top 3 every time with good scores so we are now qualified for a Pet Plan Area Festival. We have also been doing a lot of show jumping and XC schooling and he has finally over come his fear of steps. Now I am looking forward to our first event of the season and doing some British Eventing competitions with him all being well.
Felix has been his usual amazing self! He had 2 busy days at The Pony Club Dengie Winter League Area Finals competing in both the novice and intermediate dressage and the Dengie Debut 80 and 90 winter league show jumping. It was really really windy on the day of the dressage competition and Felix did not enjoy it! He didn’t do a very good Novice test and sadly didn’t qualify for the finals. We decided to put his ear bonnet on for the Intermediate test and it seemed to help him settle as he did a lovely test to come 4th and qualify with a score of 68%. So me and Fe are off to Addington for the Champs once again and I’m so excited!! Chico also did both the novice and intermediate tests and he behaved really well doing 2 lovely tests and only just missing out on qualifying in the novice, I was super happy with him!
The next day we went back with Felix to do the show jumping. He did a 2 lovely clear round in the 80 but was not quite fast enough so missed out on qualifying, but he still came 7th out of a lot of speedy ponies!! In the 90 he did another nice round but just had one pole down so no qualification but I was so happy with how he jumped.
So now me and Fe are training hard for the Champs at Addington. The intermediate test will be in a 20m x 60m arena and as I haven’t actually ever done a test in a long arena before we took Felix and Chico to a BD competition so I could get used to riding in a long arena. The 60m centre line is a very long way on a 13.2 pony, but both boys did really well and Felix even won his class, his first BD competition, and Chico came a close 3rd! So now it’s practise, practise practise for Felix (although not too much as he gets bored easily!) and then off to the Champs in April, I can’t wait!!
Well, we’ve all known horses long enough to know that it doesn’t always go according to plan. So when it does, ENJOY IT!!
We’ve had something of a fantastic week with our varied team. We enjoyed two super BE100 runs at Swalcliffe on Saturday with the evergreen Willy Do loving his work as much as ever, and young Vision D’Auteuil cooing admirably with the high winds to place 7th.
On Sunday Harry and I drove all the way to Carlisle and were over the moon to come 3rd in a testing hunter chase over 3miles with stiff fences and heavy ground. Dave (Financial Climate) tried his socks off and I could have burst with pride.
Meanwhile we sent 4 horses to the Beaufort Team Chase (three RORs!) who performed really well and steamed round the inter speed with style.
We then ran Mart (Didntitellya) in the 6.5mile XC race to win the beautiful Courtfield Cup on Saturday. Another fabulous effort from a special horse.
We finished our weekend with a sneaky win in the “big class” (Advanced Intermediate) at Gatcombe yesterday. Superstition, is a home grown champ backed and started by my sister, who is hopefully Bramham bound this spring.
I’m not sure there is a more diverse yard!
