With a trailer full of immaculately clean horse, tack, crew kit and necessary human and horse accessories, we headed off to Royal Windsor arriving late morning after a swift and uneventful journey. Wonder crew Kiwi arrived from Holland and we were all set with a good friend, Spencer, doing the pre-ride vet trot up for us.
With Chiara being such a go go horse, I decided to start at the back letting the leaders canter off into the park before I trotted through the starting flags. This worked like a dream and, although we managed to catch a few up quite quickly, we notched up a steady first loop which included an exhilarating circuit around Ascot racecourse. The vet gate though was a nightmare with Chiara all over the place and never still. It was soooooo hard for the crew to take a pulse and, indeed, undress her but eventually this was managed and she passed the first vet check so on to the next loop. We were in a groove and this loop passed effortlessly but again culminated in a rather fraught vet gate with a still over-excited Chiara.
The third loop passed uneventfully except for the obligatory Canadian goose attacking at speed as we passed. Luckily he didn’t manage to get airborne before we passed him! Vetting was a bit easier and quicker this time although it was evident that Chiara had a few rubs from her numnah and girth which were swiftly changed and extra protection added.
Chiara was still going easily and happily on the last loop so we maintained our speed overtaking a few stragglers and managed to finish in 10th place best of the British; what a horse she has turned out to be!
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The following weekend we were off to the Golden Horseshoe ride on Exmoor this time without a horse but with the accompaniment of the crew dog, Kira. Unusually for the iconic Horseshoe ride, this was a weekend of sunshine, good going and a lot of good completions with a smattering of gold awards. Even with good weather this is a tough ride with the main Golden Horseshoe Class doing 160 km over two days over some of the most demanding terrain in the country. I must confess I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend watching my fellow competitors and helping out with the parking, the large pleasure ride class and the EGB Facebook feed.
Following Fantom’s good performance in Dorset, he had a week off and then training has built up in preparation for the 1* in Norfolk later this month. This training has been mixed with good steady sessions on the sand track around the very large daffodil field where he has been rather switched off, interspersed with a couple of interval training sessions coming up through the dunes from the beach where he was rather more interested and attempts at steady canter work around the cross country fields which resulted in ridiculous behaviour and even a cutting short of the session when it was clear I would not be able to achieve my goal for that session.
A few days ago we went to Dartmoor to do some training with a friend. With the largely dry warm weather we have been experiencing, Dartmoor’s going was near perfect and we managed to do some really excellent work using the very, very long pulls up to the top of the tors and walking down as extended interval training. Fantom enjoyed this and coped very well; it certainly raised his heart rate. With just over two weeks before his 1* Fantom’s training is almost complete with another interval session next week and some schooling and lunging over poles, he will have completed his preparation.
Chiara has had three weeks rest after Windsor and has now come back into some gentle work and schooling as the start of the build up to her first 3* attempt at the King’s Forest in July.
Dilmun continues in light work waiting for a window of opportunity to up his fitness so that he can do one or two competitions towards the end of the season and Wizard, of course, is continuing to enjoy his outings with his new jockey Emily and her children with their ponies.