I decided to enter Candy in her first BE100 because if I want to enter a 5yo class she needs to be competitive at this height. I thought Shelford Manor would be a great starting point and I was really glad the weather was dry and sunny for her. I warmed her up for dressage about 30mins before our time, soon as I got on she felt amazing lots of energy and taking me forward, but I must say I think that was slightly too much for Candy as by the time we were going in she was a bit behind the leg and dropping below the vertical. It wasn't one of our best tests but as soon as I had done it I knew where we could improve. She got a 35 which was definitely fair getting all 6's and 7's and that put us just above half way after dressage. We moved onto SJ, it was up to height and had some really testing lines which on a young horse would be difficult as she isn't the most balanced! I was so pleased when she jumped a cracking clear round and really tried so hard giving the fences some real height. 

I got her ready for XC and after a short warm up off we went out the start box. I could feel a difference in her already setting off quicker out the start box and jumping the first few fences on a longer stride. We only got close to a couple but she tends to still want to jump them on a shorter stride to make sure she doesn't touch the fence. Candy really flew round picking up no time faults with the optimum being 4m04secs I thought she might pick up a couple as it was a fast time. In fact we did it in 3m55sec which is good to know she can make the time even with the step up to BE100. 

When I looked at the results we had finished on our dressage score and was 4th!!!!!!!!! I was soooooooooo happy!! We were only 1 penalty behind 3rd place, My mum managed to get some great video footage (see below) and pictures of the course. 

Well what a horrible day... it never stopped raining! I took Puzzle to Catton Park ODE to do the level 5 which was a Musto qualifier. For those of you who arn't aware of the Musto League it is only for those who compete at Open level 5 and if you are placed 1st-6th in any of the Musto Qualifiers around the country you pick up points which then goes onto a leader board for your chance to win great prizes. If you are lucky enough to be in the top 10 you win: 
1st place:   One day's training with a Musto Ambassador / 4* Event Rider and a full equestrian outfit from Musto.
2nd place:  Training bursary to the value of £200.
3rd place:  Training bursary to the value of £150.
4th place:  Training bursary to the value of £100.
5th place:  Training bursary to the value of £50.
6th place:  Training bursary to the value of £50.
7th place:  Training bursary to the value of £50.
8th place:  Training bursary to the value of £50.
9th place:  Training bursary to the value of £50.
10th place:  Training bursary to the value of £50.

So glad I packed a long water proof coat as I definitely needed it! Puzzle warmed up really well for dressage and even with a few silly little mistakes in the test she still managed to score 31.2 which I was over the moon with and was around 6th after dressage. I had a quite a fair bit of time in between Dr & SJ so off I went to walk the XC course. It was a lovely course up to height and I could tell it would be testing especially with the ground being so wet and the terrain was extremely up and down!! Their were lots of combinations and a difficult A,B,C in the water. A hanging log jump into water then a sharp right hand turn in the water to a decent skinny arrowhead brush fence. I watched a few have problems with the 3rd element but was hoping if I gave Puzzle the best line at the fence she would be honest enough to jump it.

I tacked up for SJ and headed over. The course was again up to height even with the slippery ground, Puzzle was being very cheeky in the warm up and I new she was on form. She jumped an amazing round clearing the fences much better than usual, however as I turned to the 2nd to last fence she decided to do a dance on the spot and put in a little rear! I sat calm and then kicked her on one stride out of the fence which she just popped. I was so pleased she jumped clear but was guttered to here they had given me 4 penalties for a disobedience! Now for XC! She flew out of the start box and jumped the first half of the course brilliantly, as I was now heading back down the hill I decided to take my time as I would of hated to have slipped she jumped the water complex perfect and finished clear. I knew we would have picked up some time faults but how many was the question! As I looked at the results we had still managed to pick up 6th place even with 5.6 time pen! I didn't manage to get any video footage with the weather being so bad but I bought a lovely picture which when I get through the post I will upload!

I decided to enter for the amazing competition Horse Hero have on offer which is to win the ulimate 1* experience at Blair Castle. The prize includes entry and stabling, rider and groom tickets to all event parties, a hamper of goodies from event sponsors, an official event polo shirt, a horse hero T-shirt and a set of Laura Bechtolsheimer training DVDs worth over £700. The winner will also receive pre-event training with a horse hero celebrity event rider and mentoring from an experienced competitor throughout the competition, including course-walking and warming up for each phase. 

I feel that this opportunity couldn't of come at a better time for Puzzle & I and would love to win this bursary. Once judging is complete there will be a public vote for the winner so if I get through please vote for me! 

My video entry is below hope you like it. 

Please note some of the fences are not complete with all the trimmings!! 

Well Puzzle's 2nd year around the amazing Chatsworth Estate, can't believe it has been and gone so fast already!! We were in the novice section D and got to do our dressage on the Friday evening. I had plenty of time so hopped onto her earlier to get all the tension out and hopefully get a better test in the long run. So after 20 mins of a relaxing warm up we took her back to the box to chill for a bit while I was getting ready. I got back on her with 20mins to warm back up again and she felt lovely. She was much more relaxed and into the bridle. My instructor Sarah Healy came just in time  10 minutes before our test, to just tweak a few things which really helped and I can't thank her enough. I felt relaxed, Puzzle felt relaxed as we trotted down the centre line. She did really nice trot work which is the bit she is normally tense and was spot on with the movements scoring mainly 7's. As we went onto the canter work I felt her come up a little and wasn't as forward into the bridle as normal. So my test was reversed I did better in the trot and slightly worse in the canter but still managing to pick up 6/7's finishing on a 35.5 which put us around 12th after the dressage phase which was an amazing achievement for Puzzle & I as we rarely seem to be in the top quarter after this phase. After dressage I walked the course with Sarah, it had changed slightly from last year missing out some fences which had moved over into the new 1*. I have taken pictures of the course which will be below. 

Saturday came around even quicker and I was walking around the SJ course thinking this can't be the course it was all on the right rein and didn't flow what so ever! Somebody decided to check to see if it was the right course which she was told yes it was. As I got into the warm up my friend told me that it was the wrong course and somebody had highjacked it the previous evening changing a few of the numbers round!! Glad I new this before I went in! So the SJ course was actually really nice! As we were warming up there were so many horses in the collecting ring and it felt manic. Puzzle hates horses cantering past her really close so I felt her become really tense and she wasn't going forward. I tried to jump the practice fence so many times however it was so busy, people putting the fence up, people putting the fence down before I could even get a look in! I cantered on such a small circle which felt like 50 times trying to get near to the fence. I felt really sorry for Puzzle who at this point wouldn't even go near the SJ fence. Then I heard my name called and it was our time to jump. I tried to calm Puzzle down but it didn't work she was really uptight. Our SJ round I felt was really hit and miss none of the fences came to us well we were either too close or too far, she wasn't strong at all but was so coiled up I had nothing to push forward. Puzzle knocked 2 fences which considering the horrendous warm up and the amount of poles that were flying in other people's rounds I wasn't mad at all she had really tried for me and I was pleased. 

We had such a long wait till the cross country nearly 5 hours!! Due to the 1* having to do their cross country round first. I had time to look around the shops and have a look at how the score board was shaping up! We was in around 20th at this point with all to play for in the cross country and this phase in our favour. I got Puzzle off the trailer before my time to stretch her as waiting that long anybody would be stiff! She did a nice warm up and was jumping well (due to there be not many horses in the collecting ring!!) They shouted us across and then Puzzle decided to do a little dance before getting in the start box (pure excitement!) 3..2..1 and we were off she flew out of the start box and ate the first few fences up. The ground was starting to get cut up and I had to slow for the corners, trying to make up time in between. We had such a great round nothing seemed to cause a problem or slow her up she was on top form flying round, we pushed on for the finish hoping to be inside the time. When we checked the results she had done it in 5.16 so 7 seconds to spare! More and more results were coming in and people had picked up a fair few time faults moving us higher and higher up the board. We were placed 12th overall which I was chuffed with shame we couldn't beat our 9th place last year but we were extremely glad of the improved dressage. Hopefully next year Puzzle & I will brave the 1* and Candy may be ready to move into the novice. 

Thank you to all my supporters family & friends who came to cheer us on and the amazing good luck messages, the fantastic sponsors for this event Super X Country & William Eyre & Sons, Rich Neale for our super pictures for each phase and especially my mum Marie who was there for me every step of the way. 

I decided to enter Candy into the 5yo BYEH class. I thought it would be a great event for her to go to with all the busy atmosphere and would be fantastic practice to go round such a full up and jazzy course of show jumps. She was amazing, did a lovely test very still and concentrated well. Unfortunately the marks didn't quite show that and she only picked up 19 marks. I went straight onto the showjumping and she took everything in her stride popping all the fences beautifully clear, thankfully they must of saw potential in her SJ round and awarded her with 32 which was up there with the best. Annoyingly I hadn't planned for the trot up which let her down big time as I was basically dragging her behind me trying to get her trot. If you watch the video she looks so grown up and I was very proud of her. Hopefully she will be there competing properly next year so was great practice for the real thing!! 

I took Puzzle to Bradwall Novice on Sunday for a pre run before Chatsworth. I had heard it was quite a decent full up to height Novice track so was really looking forward to it.

Again we were up at 5 washing off Puzzle's lovely poo stains! When we got their I walked the Showjumping course which to be honest I was thinking OH NO! It had all my worst nightmares as well as being up to height! There was a triple, double and dog legs! It was time to warm up for the dressage. Puzzle warmed up really nice and was listening to me well for all the moves we had to perform. I came out of my test quite pleased as it was really accurate. When I found out my score of 37.5 I was a bit disappointed so I showed my instructor Sarah Healy and she said although it looked pretty and was very accurate it wasn't quite through enough.. so on my next lesson I will try and get her more deep and round. Sarah said "you find you perfect your paces, then perfect your moves, then the paces go downhill!" It seems to be a constant battle and you just hope it all comes together on the day. I no she can do it all I suppose its just up to me to push her that little bit more.. 

In between the dressage and SJ I headed over to walk the XC course. I had no idea that it would take 30+ mins to walk and had to run the last half! It was a long course (optimum time of 5.22) and had every rider scarer fence possible! (have a look at the course pictures, although they don't look half as bad as being stood next to them!!) There were huge drops, hedges, skinnies, angles, ski slopes, broken bridges, trekaners etc etc!! When I got back to the trailer I was like.... oh gosh I think I need to go and walk that again! It was very technical and lots of different lines to think about. I didn't have much time and was running slightly late for SJ so I quickly hopped on and trotted over to the SJ warm up. She warmed up really nice and then just as I was going in she knocked the practise fence! I gave her a quick tap on the bum and then before I new it I was over number one! She jumped AMAZING.. hit everything perfect and was very careful. I had such a big grin to come out with a clear. 

I had just enough time to go through some of the lines and fences with Sarah who made me feel much better and I couldn't wait to get going. As we set off out of the start box she flew the first fences. I new it was going to be a quick pace but just let her choose the speed as the ground was very hard. Puzzle jumped every fence PERFECT as if she was telling me its time to move up. It all just came really smoothly and she popped everything without a second thought. I picked up a few times faults which I wasn't too bothered about as I no she normally makes the time when the ground is good. We came away with a mint double clear and another point for her record, setting us both up well for Chatsworth. If any pro's out there reading this can watch my video below and give me your thoughts and advice to her dressage test and how we can improve in your opinion. Thanks