Amazing news today I had a call from my long suffering and fabulous vet Joe Ivey to say he had scanned Sarnie today and it looks like we will be expecting the patter of tiny feet! On what was our final attempt she has finally given in and in just over 10 months will be due to foal. Huge thanks also to Mel Hennah who has been so helpful while Sarnie has been at stud with her and taken the time to AI her 3 times during her last cycle and create an environment where she finally relaxed and learnt her broodmare role.

Very excited to see what is produced, My Eclipse is a TB stallion by Shaab with the most fantastic temperament and a good competition record himself. The TB should hopefully add some gallop to any Sarnie offspring which she always was a little short on.

My Eclipse Stud card - here So now the nerves start. I am sure after all the problems we have had getting this far then the chances of her absorbing or growing a foal with two heads is higher than average. The next step is a heartbeat scan in 2 weeks so hopefully at that point we will see things are progressing normally.

Please if everyone can keep fingers crossed for the next 10 and a half months it would be appreciated would love to see my superstar with a healthy mini version (whatever it looks like I can assure you she will think it is the best baby out there!)

Seem to have been at a bit of a loose end this week. Bobby can’t do too much at home and Posy is having a very deserved weeks break. Although only a short break I believe it does them the world of good just to have time to chill and hopefully consume all the good they have learnt and not plan the bad!!

I have a bit of a dilemma moving forward as to plans for the rest of the season. I would like to do a few events with Posy but she needs a fair bit of XC schooling and at the moment the ground is very solid. More immediately the good news is we have qualified for the bronze league semi final. This is a British Show Jumping league for horses jumping 90-110 and we are currently top in the South West region with a week of June results left to add. The top 15 qualify for the semi final which has 7 tickets to HOYS up for grabs. The qualifier will be red hot and full of horses that have won a lot of classes and probably have a lot more experience than Posy. I would love to have a go as the experience itself would do neither of us any harm.

I have just found out it is at Keysoe on the 8th August Keysoe is a lovely venue by all accounts but a horrid drive from Cornwall which I estimate will take about 8 hours if we don’t get problems in August weekend traffic. Even if we had a good journey up and broke it down with a overnight stop is a 5 year old going to be able to compete at her best in a strong class? It is an awful long way for a pole in the first round that is without considering the fuel and stabling costs to get there. On the other hand I probably won’t have a chance (however slim) of having a crack at a HOYS qualifier again certainly not with Posy who will change focus to eventing. I have a few weeks to think about it but really not sure what to do. Probably erring on the side of it asking too much of her.

We do have some other local finals to look forward to with the young horse final at Bicton in September and a local qualifier at Tall Trees with some good prizes.

Hoping to get a few more training sessions in once Posy is back in work. Not so sure that we will be doing any more BYEH, would certainly consider it if it was more local but maybe not with the distance we need to travel.

Yesterday we did both Posy and my first Burghley Young Event Horse class at Chepstow Horse Trials. It was the day before the horse trials so quite a relaxed setting. We had to do a a shortened dressage test which was marked on impression out of 30, a 1.05 show jumping round marked out of 40, confirmation out of 12 and type out of 8 were assessed. So we were seen by 3 different judges. For anyone interested the ‘Judging Guidelines’ are here.

As it was a 4 hour journey we set off the day before stopping for a lesson with Andrew Lovell on the way. Having packed for extreme heat I was a bit nonplussed to have the lesson in the pouring rain and having a limited amount of change of clothes decided to dry out as I drove which didn’t work out that well as I was cold and damp for a good few hours!! I am very lucky to be able to stay in some beautiful stabling at a friends place overlooking Chepstow racecourse and the event itself. Posy certainly had a good night and was covered in shaving the next morning.

It was a long morning as we were not on until 15:35 and there is only so much time that plaiting, studs and tack cleaning can take yet it was too hot to head down too early. We arrived at 2pm and found a really relaxed competition with a well organised and friendly team running the day. The dressage and particularly the show jumping were on quite a slope adding a different dimension to the event as horses needed balance to cope with the slopes. The ground had been spiked but was still firm enough but the best it could be considering the weather, the day before's rain must of helped a bit.

I only gave her 15 minutes warming up as I had worked her that morning before it got hot. I jumped just two practice fences and went in. You have to use the same tack for both sections with no adjustments, so whilst you can wear front boots and a martingale for dressage you also have to use a snaffle for jumping which was fine as I currently do anyway. We were marked as follows

Dressage 21/30 Show Jumping 33/40 Confirmation 9/12 Type 5/8

Total 68

I was delighted with the way she went, her behaviour and her performance. The dressage has plenty of improvement still but I think in both phases she showed potential. I have to admit to being a little disappointed with the scores having watched a few others I felt we deserved to be a little bit more competitive. 74 was the lowest score that made the top 10 and we ended just in the top half of those competing. One of the horses that had a better jumping mark than us and was indeed highly placed had 2 fences down. I guess at the end of the day it is my own rose tinted spectacles that made me a little disappointed with the result, we always feel our own are better than maybe they are!! It did leave me questioning the viability for me of BYEH having spent approximately 6 minutes being judged (I knew that before I entered not a complaint just a fact) but travelled 4 hours each way (well should have been), had an overnight stay, fuel costs and a £30 entry - did we get enough out of it probably not. It would have been different if as we originally planned Bobby had come too to compete at the horse trials. Will have some serious consideration of whether we stick to the original plan and compete the BYEH classes at Gatcombe and Hartpury.

Sadly the journey home was not straightforward with queues in Bristol and then to cap it all the main trunk road into Cornwall the A30 was closed and the diversion route stationary, at over 5 hours into our journey we stopped at friend and trainer Zoe’s home for the night and had to complete the journey this morning.

This was our dressage test from Cornwall Trec scoring 71.5% for 3rd, feel we are really making progress in this phase now.

Looking forward now to our first go at a Burghley Young Event Horse class at Chepstow on Friday. Hoping it is not too hot for travel and competition. Have already bought ice that can be shared in humans cold drinks, dog water and Posy for drinking, cooling and ice boots (need a bigger freezer compartment!).

We are preparing by doing a dressage test tonight at a local venue where Cornwall Trec are running a competition then I have a lesson with Andrew Lovell booked tomorrow on the way to Chepstow. Sounds like Friday will be a leisurely day with our time at 15.35. Think we are as prepared as we can be but looks like some good riders and very well bred horses entered (class of 45), hoping we don’t look out of place and can at least finish middling.

Bobby meanwhile is not improving on the nose rubbing front although I have far from given up yet. I have a number of things still to try including using a Micklem bridle in the hope it sits in a different place on his head and doesn’t irritate the trigeminal nerve.

I have also been given a supplement to try called ‘itch mix’ made by The Herbal Horse who manufacture quality natural supplements. I am a bit sceptical that supplements can help him but when 3 different people have contacted me and said this has helped their horse with similar issues then it has to be worth a try.

I will let you know how we get on with both of the above soon.

Hope everyone is not getting bored but it is another show jumping report. Can’t give you the drama of “a good day on paper” or “if only we could get all 3 phases right on the same day”! We also maintained our consistent form (Long may it continue but it does lack in the entertainment factor).

We headed to Scorrier and Chacewater a very local show which jumps on good old turf grass fields, with the rain the night before the ground was pretty good. I may have said before but analysing our results we are twice as successful on a surface as we are on grass. I think this shows up her lack of balance when the ground undulates and as such we need more practice on the grass. As she can be a bit jolly I cheated and did a quick warm up at home to get her really listening before we made the 10 minute journey to the show.

We entered the Discovery (1m) and Newcomers (1.10m). The discovery she jumped her customary clear round as did most of the class. I think there were 9 in the jump off and we were drawn 1st to go. I angled some fences and kept my turns tight but didn’t do anything too dramatic. It was good enough for 3rd the two ahead of us were only a second quicker. The Newcomers was quite a twisty track and on the turn to 3 I just lost the shoulder and we jumped the fence a little crooked and then struggled to make the distance in the related causing us to have a pole. At 6 there was a big water tray which caused a major jinx and eyes out on stalks until she hopped over suspiciously having added an extra 2 strides in the process. So a good educational day whilst still keeping up our record of good results. All systems go now for the BYEH at Chepstow on Friday.