Event Report: Oasby (1)
I'm writing this post as we travel home on a very soggy Saturday morning from what has been good but shortened start to a very long and busy 2018 season.
This weekend we head North, to Oasby in Nottinghamshire with five on board, the journey took a little longer than planned but after 5 long hours we arrived at our base for the weekend with blue skies and sunshine.
Friday we arrived at the venue. BEDE Events had done amazing job after last weekends heavy snow getting the ground in to the best possible condition they could, and although there were a couple of very soft areas the going was actually pretty good.
First up was GAPOLIO (Leo) owned by Jennifer and Josh Stratton who was doing his first Intermediate, he was on top form in the dressage to score 28, jumped a nice round with one down in the show jumping and went mega cross country. Leo finished 8th, I'm very pleased with his first run at Intermediate and look forward to seeing how he develops over the next couple of events at this level.
In the afternoon it was the turn of Parkfield Breeding's FINDUSS PFB (Louis) running HC in the Novice and REHY MELODY PFD (Melody) making her step up to Novice.
It was a last minute decision to take the ever so enthusiastic Louis but it was worth it, he produced a lovely test to score 28 and jump a solid double clear. Louis was running HC so sadly no ribbon this time but a great first run of the season and he will run Intermediate next week at Lincoln.
Last to go was Melody who was loving being back out competing even though that meant getting her toes dirty. A much improved dressage to score 32 (we haven't quite got the hang of rein back yet). she jumped well in the show jumping having a very unlucky pole in what was rapidly becoming tacky ground but she flew round the cross country in her first Novice and I'm very happy with how she has performed and she even managed to finish top 20 in 18th place, I'm excited to see how she progresses as we aim her for 1* later in the year.
Saturday should have been the turn of E WARRANTSON, GLOBAL H and HAKUNA MATATA to show us what they could do in the Novice, however, torrential rain throughout the night has meant the weekends competition has been cancelled, so Eric, Harry and Pumba will have to wait a little bit longer before they can start their 2018 campaigns.
A massive thank you to my team at home for keeping the show going in my absence, and the horses are all feeling great after having had my Mum came down earlier this week for a couple days helping me school the horses. THANK YOU Mum, and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!
We are now looking forward to next weekend. It's going to be a busy one with four entered at Aldon (1) on Friday before heading North again on Sunday with two entered at Lincoln, fingers crossed the weather starts to shape up as we don't want to see any more events abandoned.
A huge THANK YOU as always to my owners, supporters and sponsors (Horseware, NAF UK, PM Equestrian, Evening Images, Mojo Europe and Eurostar Equestrian) without who none of this would be possible.
Holly xx
