Well we really didn't think we make it to Epworth Equestrian after the snow! I managed to convince mum there was no snow once you got out of Sheffield! The ground was fantastic, we got there a bit late so I only had 10 minutes to warm up. I was really pleased with his test, he loves dressage it is definitely his strong point! He managed to get a 36 with 7's for all his trot and walk work. The canter was a bit fresh and not as relaxed as I would of liked but he still got 6's! He was 3rd after dressage and had lovely comments on his test sheet, which I was really chuffed with. 

We rushed onto the SJ, quickly warming up and learning the 10 fences! He knocked a few which was a bit disappointing, but as this is the phase he needs work on I wasn't too mad! Think I will experiment with a change of bit.. maybe a Nuschule to encourage him to lower his head coming into the fences. 

Onwards to the cross country! After popping the warm up fence a few times we set off on our round not really knowing what to expect. After the first 3 fences I thought to myself wow this feels nice! He flew round  the rest of the course, just having a noisy at the water for a few moments until he decided to get his feet wet! I walked him round in it a few times just for more training and to get him used to it. He really suprised me round the XC keeping a fantastic rhythm and meeting all the fences perfectly, a great event for him to practice for hopefully the run up to Stafford BE. 

I took pictures of the XC courses for you to look at. You might fancy competing their in the future and gives you an idea of what to expect. (see below)

Well the weather was fab... although when the sun went in it was freezing!! We arrived at Somerford at 12 for the BE100 round, but didn't actually jump till 2! There were so many entries at least 40/50 competitors per class. They were running the competition as a two-phase so you went straight onto the jump off if you cleared the first 9. Puzzle jumped amazing clearing all 14 fences (mum forgot the camera so no pictures unfortunately :(! ) We decided to wait even longer for the Novice BE Round which looked very built up!! Puzzle knocked fence 8 the last one, but flew round she was well up for it!  It was a great training session and gave puzzle and I lots of confidence for future runs!

I have just entered Puzzle into the BE100 Open at Draycott for our first run to get her back into the swing of things! Hopefully I will be fit enough after my operation which has messed up the beginning of my season having to cancel Brockelsby PC ODE and PC Dengie Dressage. Candy is booked in for more area eventing training at Fenella Walkers this Saturday and Boy is entered into Epworth Eventers Practice this Sunday, his first ODE! Fingers Crossed! 

Today I took Boy to my local trainer Sarah Healy who is a professional 3* event rider. We concentrated on getting him moving forward off the leg as sometimes he can be lazy! He worked fantastically (see pics), so we decided to move onto showjump training. First we practiced getting a forward energetic canter over cavaletti's which really helped to keep a consistent rhythm. Then moved onto a small course incorporating the cavaletti's in between the fences to re-balance the canter. Boy jumped so much better and cleared the fences by using this exercise. 

Off to Somerford tomorrow with Puzzle to do the Pre-Season SJ which will be built to height and under BE rules. Classses start from BE80 and go upto Intermediate height. 

We took Puzzle & Candy to Beaver Hall Equestrian on Sunday for the Arena Eventing. I decided to enter them into a class lower than usual to just get their confidence up! Candy did the 2'9ft, there were 18 fences some showjumps, some portable cross country, a timed section between fences 5 and 10, as well as a gate that you had to open and close in a certain amount of time. By the time candy reached the gate at fence 16 she was ready to walk so did it very quickly. After all stopping in the middle of a round is very unusual for them both! She finished clear with a time of 30.2 seconds, and came 8th! Puzzle was entered for the 3'ft, she was so excited to be out and flew round I just managed to stop here to open and close the gate! She finished clear with a time of 28 seconds and came 3rd. 

It was a great event that ran smoothly even though it was extremely cold! I think I will take Boy to the next one in February. The only thing I didn't like about the event was the timed section... Being an eventer I haven't really trained my horses to be quick round the SJ. I just go for the all important clear round!