I think we all knew it may happen sometime but with reservations I have put Ellie on the market. Find her advert here

A project pony that stayed 3 years and has been one of the biggest pleasures to own you could imagine. Easy and straightforward yet has a huge amount of character. Ultimately though I am very lucky that Fliss is also showing a lot of talent and can I afford long term to run both at a good level? Fliss has a huge amount more progression to make whereas considering Ellie's size I think a lighter weight jockey would help her next progression, equally she can help a inexperienced or nervous jockey reach their potential.

Clearly she is not a cheap pony and if ultimately no one thinks she is worth the money then I will be delighted to keep her a bit longer. I can assure those Ellie fans out there that she will be only going to the best of homes where she will be someones special girl.

It has been nice to jump more locally in the last few weeks. Pendarves is my favourite local venue with a good surface and a nice size arena. Fliss was jumping the Newcomers and there weren't huge entries as many of the multiple horse riders were at Bicton's 3 day show. The Newcomers course caused lots of problems with some quite tight dog legs to decent size uprights. We were near the end of the class and there had been no clear rounds.

Fliss made it feel easy despite me adding a number of strides to the last making it more difficult not easier for the clear round. We were the only double clear so fabulous to win the class and come home in profit.

Much as it is a nice round I still need her to sit up more on the turns where she can fall on her shoulder and she also needs to learn to go with her head out more and less tight so plenty to work on. The Foxhunter looked jumpable but this week decided one class, one win it was definitely time to rest on the laurels!

Had a super lesson with Ellie this week organised by Threewaters Riding Club. She really has stepped up again, I have borrowed a different bit from Morwenna Foster, a bomber bit which gives room for the tongue and Ellie seems to love it. We spent time working on a bigger trot, some walk pirouettes and some changes. She really is starting to sit behind and use herself so much better.

A few clips from the lesson

Sadly I have come to the decision to advertise her and a Horsequest advert will go on next week. Much as I love her to bits it is time for her to teach a kid the ropes or fly with an experienced pony rider and do FEI. She will not be a cheap pony and should no one want to buy her then I will continue to enjoy having her. I am sure I can offer a hefty discount if anyone wants to buy her for me to ride.

Apologies for the slower less frequent updates it is one of those times that everything is happening at once, work is incredibly busy and there seems very little spare time!

Anyway last weekend both girls had a jump locally at Colraine. Ellie jumped the 1.05 and was really pinging but I knew we had missed out on our homework as after an event it is good to give her some athletic exercises at home to get her sitting and listening after the fun of cross country. With the ground so hard and dry at the time I couldn't jump in the field and never had the chance to box up elsewhere. So we got a bit quick in the second half of the course and rolled a pole.

Fliss meanwhile jumped a super round in the Newcomers and was quite quick finishing 4th, typically money prizes and rosettes only to 3rd. We then braved our second Foxhunter. She jumped a super round in the first round for a good clear.

Unfortunately the jump off we rather lost the power and had a major miss at the double, she managed to jump in ok but then couldn't jump out and we rather crashed on the back bar. Hate anything like this happening but she jumped the rest of the round well and good learning for another day.

Had a really good lesson with sponsor Stef Eardley this week. Fliss was the lucky recipient and we certainly worked on the full range of movements! Starting with some simple walk halt transitions and then some trot walk trot transitions.

Fliss has been slightly hollowing in the right canter so we worked on this. It came back to the quality of the trot and softening her through the neck and body. We worked on this using 10 meter circles and moving her in and out off the leg. As the trot softness improved so did the transitions. We then had a little play with some higher level movements getting the feeling of pirouette in the canter which really got the hind leg working. We then had a quick play with some changes

Would highly recommend a lesson with Stef if you get a chance. She has a great eye but combined with a good sense of humour and a really positive teaching style I find her a huge help.

After Ellie missed her Bicton run with a snotty nose it was great to have her back in action at Launceston. Launceston is my most local event just an hour from home. The entry was rather last minute as much as I know they would have tried hard with the ground it wasn't until we had significant rain on Friday that I asked if a late entry was available. I was accepted on Saturday morning, huge thanks to Miranda Collett for being so accommodating and helpful.

Ellie was delighted to be out again and coped well with the heat. Dressage is on the Launceston RFC pitches and a lovely surface to ride on. Our warm up was shorter due to the heat but we also lost time as they didn't have my number down, nevertheless I thought Ellie did an excellent test one of her better ones at this level. I was actually very disappointed to be in the bottom 1/3 with a score of 33.5. If you look at her test critically she can be quite tight in her frame and certainly the judge on the day wasn't keen on this.

Show jumping was probably the most influential phase in our section with only 33% clear. The ring is relatively small, slightly undulating and time was also a factor. Ellie jumped a super clear despite her rider trying to sabotage her! Fence 3 to 4 was a 4 stride related up the hill to some planks and I decided to add a stride to get her sitting on her hocks for the planks, only I managed to put 6 strides in what should have been a 4 stride distance! Luckily we know each other well now and can help each other out. Chuffed with a nice clear round and no time faults.

Cross country was quite a nice straightforward course although it did occur to me that Ellie has not popped a XC fence this year. We had a bit of a weird round and certainly you could say rhythm could have been improved. We set out over the early part of the course in a nice positive forward pace with Ellie eating up the fences and enjoying herself. She was easy through the first water and early combinations. At halfway I realised I was about 25 seconds up on the clock and I didn't want a hatful of two fast penalties so the next part of the course was jumped from a show jumping canter which rather upset the rhythm. Approaching the final few fences I realised I had slightly overdone it and picked up pace again but still slightly misjudged it to be 1 second over the time which wasn't influential in the scheme of things. She gave me a great feel all the way round and pulled up hardly blowing. A few of the early and late fences

Well chuffed to finish 5th virtually on our dressage score. Huge thanks to the team at Launceston for organising such a great event. The prizes were some of the best I have had certainly for a 5th place. This goodie bag came from the local Lifton Farm shop.