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Tor Heard Eventing


Norton DisneyPhotos by MDR Photo www.mdr-photo.co.uk


Hello fellow EL readers – and a Happy New Year!


I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas, and saw in the New Year on a high note. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride for us here during the latter part of 2011, but onwards and upwards now for 2012!


My first news is that I have been one of the lucky winners of the EHOA (Event Horse Owners As- sociation) training bursary awards for the 2011-2012 season, so now armed with a generous £200 of vouchers I have put the training head on and with a vengeance! Caroline Moore, FBHS and BE accredited trainer who is mostly based at Vale View has been absolutely fantastic. From our first flatwork lesson which showed just how much of a baby Tommy can be (there was some serious toy-throwing-from-the- pram when Caroline got on board!), to our latest jumping lesson of schooling over 1m25 fences and


80 www.equestrianlifemagazine.co.uk


XC skinnies, she’s been the big- gest help.


A huntin’ we will go Although our ‘novice début’ didn’t exactly go according to plan this last year due to a number of reasons, I decided to tackle our cross-country confidence problem head on by taking him


to a bloodhound exercise with the Readyfield. My theory was that the herd instinct would kick in, and he would enjoy galloping over meaty fences. The reality was something very different. At the meet he was as quiet as a lamb, until we started to move, when suddenly he found the reverse button and shot backwards about 30 feet – thankfully the majority of riders were still widely dispersed, but people knew straight away not to get too close to me! Whilst we were galloping and jumping he was fantastic, but anything in between meant planting his feet or reversing at 50mph, and a lot of bucking. Throughout the course of the day I was complimented on my riding rather a lot, and had comments like “Your horse is an absolute idiot/nut job, but by Goodness he can jump!” (or words to that effect – Editor) After 3 hours of battling with him and very nearly disappearing down a cattle grid whilst in speed-reverse mode, I held up my hands in surrender, dismounted and decided to walk the 2 miles back to the field. After having my arms pulled out of their sockets, Tommy reversing into a hedge and parking for 20 minutes before kicking me on the elbow, we finally got him back, onto the trailer and home. I can safely say that hunting is not for Tommy, I think we’ll stick to our winter show jumping – sincere apologies to anyone out that day who encountered my horse hav- ing a serious brain malfunction, and thank you to everyone who offered to help, especially the lady who dragged us away from the cattle grid!


Norton Disney characters Merely a week later was the final event of the season, our final BE100 at Norton Disney. I was a bit worried about how the hunting experience might have affected his brain (and mine!), but he seemed okay on the day. I felt our dressage had much improved since our lessons with Caroline, however the score did not reflect this in the slightest and we only managed a 41.5. The show jumping course was physically identical to last year’s, so I knew where the poles would be falling. We were very lucky at the last upright, which we rattled, but we managed a clear round. I was feeling relatively confident for the cross country, and I think our score showed that – we were clear WELL inside the time. In fact, so far inside the time that we clocked up 24 too fast penal- ties, as the optimum time was 5 minutes exactly, and we whizzed round in 4.10. Whoops! So our chances of being placed were well and truly out of the window, but I was pleased we had finished the season on a good note – and that we shouldn’t have too many speed problems for our second novice attempt next season!


Newcomers Next Since then Tommy had a slight break, as he had dropped a bit of weight. After a few weeks I decided to go and have some fun on the BSJA circuit. Our first Newcomers class proved to be a learning curve, with one fence down due to rider error, yet Tommy proved again to be worth his weight in gold around a course of coloured fences. I’d also entered for the 115cm Open class, which turned out to be


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