All back safe and sound from Lincoln at the weekend, really pleased with Elton who really put in a polished performance for 3rd place in a very competitive ON with some very flash horses in it.  He did a Dressage of 29 and then jumped a lovely double clear although he thought there were lots of dragons hiding being every tree and straw bale on the cross country, so we did find ourselves scooting from one side of the track to the other luckily he doesn’t find the jumps as spooky!

Duck enjoyed his first proper party to finish 13th in the OI, he was a little fresh in both the Dressage and the Show Jumping but was fab XC, so hopefully having let off steam, he will be a bit more focused at Belton!   There were bits though especially in his Dressage that I was pleased about, as I have been working hard on his straightness over the winter and even with a bit of joie de vivre he really stayed up and straight in the shoulders.  

Spike came down for the ride, as with spaces on the lorry it seemed like a good opportunity for him to get out and about before his first outing at Kirriemuir.  We also took Grace Moran down so that she could watch her horse Porthill Rusty Nail  (4th in the OI) and she was given the job of stand in jockey while I was riding the other two, so her and Spike looked very smart trotting around! 

Next stop is Gleneagles for a the Pre Novice horses and then we head south again with Duck and Elton for Belton

The eventing season is fast approaching so it was time to take a holiday, I mean do some fitness training at altitude!!!!!!  So at the start of Feb, I went for four days Skiing in Verbier with my brother and stayed with my sister, who is based out there.  The weather was fab, the snow was pretty good, so we had a great time and I did manage to come back in one piece as well, pheeewwww!  Although I did have a slightly large prang from top of a couloir which involved slipping, flipping, rolling, flying, bouncing for about 200m which was a bit of an adrenalin rush!  Not sure it is a good idea to try and keep up with a sister who is a pro skier!!!!!  So that was my pre season fitness training done it definitely got the legs screaming!

It was then back home, to getting the horses fitness work ramped up!   They have all started their canter work, with Duck and Elton having been up the hill on 3 occasions now so they are all ready for their first run at Lincoln. 

I took Elton and Duck jumping at Kingsbarns two weekends ago, and they both jumped well, it was good to jump them in slightly bigger classes so any errors were less easily covered up!  Although they were good, I definitely needed the rounds to sharpen me up, every thing seemed to come up very quickly!

Last weekend was then very busy with a full days teaching at Edenside for the first of my cross country clinics, so hopefully that has started to set everyone up for the coming season, there is another one on the 10th of March with limited spaces left, so if anyone is wanting to come along e-mail me asap!

Then on Sunday we took a lorry load to Gleneagles for the arena event and I was really chuffed with all the boys as five rounds jumped and all double clears with Duck winning the Intermediate and Spike finishing 3rd in the PN.  William and Elton were not to be left out of the ribbons, picking up minor places, so all smiles!

I have entered Duck and Elton for Lincoln and Belton so the start of the season is getting closer!  I am also trying to put a Syndicate together for a very nice young horse, that I was keeping an eye on last season, so if anyone is interested in getting involved with that do e-mail me and I will send out some more details.