Ascott Under Wychwood

It was a quick turn around after we got home very late from Little Downham – for day 1 I was riding Isobel Crosbie’s 2017 Monart Graduate  ESCAPE ROUTE (Spike) in the BE100.

A lovely smooth test with just a small wobble on the final centre line was rewarded with a great score of 25.3. Spike is very blood indeed and in my experience its the very flashy foreign type horses which are often rewarded at the lower levels rather than his bloodier type, so we were delighted that his correct training and obvious class earned him the mark he deserved.

He then jumped a beautiful double clear finding everything very easy to WIN! He is the most lovely horse to ride in the jumping phases, especially cross-country where he eats up the ground and takes everything in his stride. He feels a very exciting horse for the future and I cant wait to get him stuck into a big track! 

Thank you so much to his loyal owner Isobel Crosbie for allowing me the ride on your precious boy.

Back for day 2 and this time I was riding Ayesha Vardags LG VIVEDI (soon to be renamed VIVA VE VARDAG) in the BE90open for her second ever BE event. Having only had viva a few weeks it has been quite a baptism of fire as she has had to learn a lot quite quickly, but she has the most generous and giving temperament and is an absolute joy to work with.

She kicked things off with a solid score of 32 in the dressage. She is still so green and wobbly having felt just broken when she arrived, but overall I was pleased with her efforts and being the lovely mover that she is I am sure there are some really good marks to come. She then followed this with another confident double clear feeling like she is absolutely loving her job! Her cross-country gave me an absolutely fabulous feel, she really picked up the bridle and drew me to all the fences belying her experience and giving me the feel of a much more experienced horse…another very exciting prospect!

Thank you so much to Ayesha Vardag for entrusting me with her precious horses, they are absolutely wonderful to ride and I certainly feel very lucky indeed.