We have had two very busy and very exciting months at GHF Equestrian! I will try to be succinct in writing what we have been up to - there is a lot to cover!

Following our trip to Tattersalls at the end of May, the big boys had a small break to recover - but we continued to be very busy with outings for our young horses including cross country and show jump schooling to prepare them for their eventing debuts!

The first event of June was an outing for Max McInerney (owned by Catherine Witt) to West Wilts to run around the Novice where he posted a great, steady double clear. Next was a trip to Nunney with the two Intermediate boys! Heartbeat was a super star to finish 2nd after producing a stunning 23.4 dressage! Wishing Time (owned by Rachel White) also produced a very good 29.3 dressage, just rolling a couple of poles in the show jumping keeping him out of the placings. He soon put this right at our next event, Farley Hall. Both Wishing Time and Heartbeat were once again just fantastic. Wishing Time finished on his dressage score of 25.5 to take 2nd in a very hot OI section and Heartbeat finished on his dressage score of 26.8 to take the WIN!

The biggest event of June was another trip across the Irish Sea to Kilguilkey House International Horse Trials. Vicky, Andrew and Anna took 7 horses in total to compete in the international classes and the young horse classes! It was a very busy trip with lots of success across the levels. The young horses were up first in the the 4 and 5 YO Masterclass sections which were sponsored by Fernhill Sports Horses. These classes were fantastic for the education of the horses - comprising of a dressage test in the morning followed by a short show jumping & cross country course in the afternoon which included water, ditches and steps… The horses were all absolutely spot on. Kadans lead the 4 YO from start to finish on a 26 dressage, with the highest marks for jumping and cross country too! MBF Bite the Bullet came 4th at his first show, proving what a star he will be in the future. Trend de la Cruise (owned by George and Jane Anderson) was 2nd in the 5 YO class with a 29 dressage and 2 super jumping rounds. The gorgeous Jasper lead the dressage and was amazing in the show jumping - he had one green moment on the cross country which pushed him off the top spot but we were so, so pleased with them all! Once that was all done it was time to move onto the big boys… Max McInerney contested the CCIYH2*-S and put in a great performance jumping a super double clear adding just 0.8 time penalties to his dressage score to secure a top 15 finish. The very lovely Heartbeat produced a lovely test for his first time at the CCI3*-S level and jumped a very classy clear in the SJ. He has a green moment on the cross country and Vicky decided to save him for another day and retired. The Pocket Rocket Wishing Time was really on form, finishing in 10th place with a very cool double clear around the CCI3*-S!! It was a great event to attend and definitely one to pencil in for next year!

Onto July… We haven’t taken our foot off the accelerator! We kicked off July’s events with a fabulous trip to Bicton Arena - one of our favourite events! Jasper truly showed his class taking the WIN in the very hot 5YO section finishing on his 23 dressage!! We were very proud of what a pro he was all day and that he qualified for Osberton at his first attempt. Trend de la Cruise was also a very good girl finishing in 4th place on her dressage of 28.3. Both Heartbeat and Wishing Time then had a quite run around Upton House Intermediate - this was Vicky’s last competition with Reuben (Wishing Time) as his usual rider had made a recovery from her injury. We were very sad to see him go but wish Rachel, Gwen and all of his connections every success in the future.

Moving on into July, the 4 YO horses got their BE debut! Kadans and MBF Bite the Bullet went to Stafford Horse Trials for their first events and both of them tried really hard and learned a lot from the day. Kadans finished in 5th place after a 25.5 dressage, 1 down SJ and a clear XC! MBF Bite the Bullet was also very classy producing a sweet test, jumping clear SJ and having just one green moment on XC but giving Vicky a very good feel around the course in general. 2 future stars in the making. Next up was Dauntsey where the lovely Trend de la Cruise strutted her stuff for a 26.8 dressage and jumped double clear into 3rd place and to secure her qualification for Osberton 5YOs as well! We are very pleased for her and her owners. Max McInerney had a steady run in the Novice, jumping a double clear adding some time faults to his very impressive 26.3 dressage.

The final event of July was a third trip to Ireland! Vicky took Max McInerney and Heartbeat to Camphire to contest the CCIYH2*-S and CCI3*-S respectively. Our lovely working pupil, Gen, also took her horse “An Imp Named Borris” to compete in the CCI2*-S. George and Jane Anderson’s Trend de la Cruise competed in the 5YO showcase and put on a great performance to finish 7th. Heartbeat jumped a fantastic double clear to finish 22nd out of 73 and Max McInerney was super throughout the weekend to finish 11th! Gen did a great job at her first overseas event and stormed around the XC to finish the competition on a high.

That sums up the eventing that has gone on over the last couple of months! There has been a lot of training in amongst all of the competing with fantastic trainers Annabel Scrimgeour, Islay Auty and Caroline Moore! The horses and Vicky are going from strength to strength and this season is shaping up to be one of the most exciting ones for GHF Equestrian yet!

It has also been fantastic to see so many GHF graduates being fantastic for their new owners! A special mention and huge congratulations have to go to Bubby Upton and the very special Cola for winning Team Gold and Individual Silver at the Young Rider Europeans!! He looked just fantastic and we are so proud to see horses we have selected and started going on to be such mega stars in the sport. Rose Nesbitt and EG MichaelAngelo finished 7th in Barbury CCI3*-S and it was great to see that Dargun is back out and won his intermediate section at Aston Le Walls.

We have had a few new additions to the team with horses coming back with us from our Ireland trips! Check out the Our Horses page to see and up to date list of the lovely horses we have in our stables at the moment.

Keep and eye out to see how our August goes as we get closer and closer to Osberton! We are planning another trip to Ireland and our amazing working pupil Anna is off to Gatcombe to compete her 6YO in the Corinthian Cup! Keeping all our fingers crossed for her and for another great month at GHF Equestrian.

Thank you (and well done!) if you read this far!

Chloe

Here at GHF, we like to keep ourselves nice and busy… April has been the busiest month so far in 2019! There is a lot of news to share from a really great month. There has been lots of competing and training for current GHF horses. GHF Graduates have performed amazingly at events across the country all month. Vicky has also been busy coaching both privatley and for the Vale of Usk Riding Club.

Firstly, have a look at this link - https://www.facebook.com/ghf.equestrian.3/posts/2250813821800246 where you can see how some of the amazing GHF Graduates got on at Belton at the end of March. It is quite a list! Dargun and Emily King continued their Belton form, finishing 4th in the CCI4*-S at Burnham Market and Dreamaway and Tom McEwen finished 2nd in the CCI3*-S. There are so many fantastic riders campaigning our lovely horses it is hard to mention them all!

We began April with the big boys, Heartbeat and Max McInerney competing at Weston Park BE. As always, both horses tried their hardest for Vicky! They coped well with the conditions (Weston was definitely before the April heatwave). Harvey produced a super 27.3 test in the intermediate to go into 2nd and was awesome in the jumping phases, just being a little green at the troublesome elephants on the XC (see photo below of him nailing it straight afterwards) after being held on course but otherwise storming the rest at just his second attempt at this level. Max McInerney had a super solid run around the Novice to finish 10th and complete his qualification for Tattersalls!

We were all very excited for it to be the start of the Wales and West Shows at the David Broome Event Centre. We had lots of horses to take and all of them were just fantastic! 4 yr old Kadans jumped double clear at his first ever show in the British Novice, 5 yr olds Jasper, Jarillo and Trend De La Cruise (owned by George Anderson) all jumped double clear in the 5 yr old showcase. Max McInerney and Heartbeat were both spot on to jump fantastic rounds in the Foxhunter. We couldn’t have asked for any more!

Heartbeat and Max McInerney took a mid-week trip to Rosamund Green Farm XC, where Vicky had some great training around the jumps from Robin Dumas. The boys were both fantastic.

We then replicated our previous weeks escapades with another super trip to Wales and West at the Welsh Masters. Kadans and Trend de la Cruise went double clear again in the British Novice. Max McInerney and Heartbeat were show stealers, with them finishing 2nd and 4th respectively in the Foxhunter! Heartbeat is now qualified for Foxhunter Second Rounds.

All of the previous outings set up Heartbeat and Max McInerney for a trip to Bicton. Another great run for Max McInerney in the Novice earned him another top 10 placing in the Novice (that’s 3/3 runs in the top 10!). Heartbeat put in another excellent performance in the Intermediate - he learns more and more every time he runs and feels top class around these big tracks. Working Pupil Anna got her long awaited first run of the season completed at Bicton in the 100Plus. She  jumped a great double clear to finish 5th and is looking forward to Howick Novice.

To throw something slightly different into the mix, we collaborated with Equi-Events to put on a Pre-Badminton Eventers Combined Training at Broomes. The show had classes from BE100 (aimed at the Mitsubishi Motors Cup taking place at the beginning of May) through to CCI5* level (for those competing at Badminton Horse Trials)! It was a big task but the day was well worth the work with lots of high profile riders competing. We secured top judges for all of the classes and had a great course builder. We also had fantastic sponsors and volunteers. Our horses did themselves very proud, with 9 of them competing throughout the day! The young horses did really well in the 100 class - all producing very pleasing tests and jumping super rounds. Max McInerney took the win in the CCI2* class. Heartbeat pinged around the challenging CCI5* jumping track at the end of the show. It was a good day all round and there will be another one soon.

Our lovely 5 yr olds all had their first taste of a cross country round with a trip to Mendip Plains Hunter Trial in the last weekend of the month. Vicky was really pleased with all of them and we are now very much looking forward to getting them entered at their first events!

Finally, Islay Auty paid us a visit on Monday to train Vicky on 4 horses - Heartbeat, Max McInerney, Jarillo and Trend de la Cruise all worked really hard and made great improvements. Hard working Anna also had a lesson on her horse, which she thoroughly enjoyed and found very helpful.

Looking to May, we have more exciting events happening! Workaholic Andrew is off on a well earned holiday for a week, the big boys are off to their first international of the year and plenty more! Here are some photos of our month (mainly of Heartbeat because he is just so photogenic!).

Until next time,
​Chloe

We have had an exciting month here at GHF Equestrian! The eventing season is in full swing, the sun has been shining and our horses have been going from strength to strength.

We have said goodbye to two of our lovely young horses this month. Unique has been sold to Luana Edge for Dani Evans to ride and begin her eventing career and Hadaline has been sold to Global Event Horses in Ireland to continue her education. We wish both horses, their new owners and riders the very best of luck with these lovely mares.

Without doubt, the most exciting few days of the month involved a trip all the way to Great Witchingham! Vicky and Andrew took Heartbeat and Max Mcinerney to Vale View for some pre competition training with Caroline Moore and then carried on all the way to Norfolk. The journey was totally worth while. Heartbeat was competing in his first Intermediate (it was also Vicky’s first for 5 years!). He delivered a fantastic double clear to finish 10th. Vicky described him as being “absolutely mega”! Not to be out done by his partner in crime, Max Mcinerney also posted a super double clear around the Novice to finish 5th. Both horses truly excelled themselves, despite their prep run at Pontispool unfortunately being abandoned. They are looking forward to Weston Park in the first weekend of April, which is thankfully a lot closer!

The young horses also had a great outing to Rectory Farm Eventer’s Combined Training. They all strutted their stuff and tried very hard for their first tests on grass and did a great job in the SJ ring. They will shortly be entered for their first events. This competition is a great way to prepare them for what is to come.

Back at the ranch, we have welcomed Natalie Trigg to Team GHF as our Yard Assistant. She has been a great addition to the team as she is hard working and has a high attention to detail! We have held clinics both on the flat and jumping that have been very successful with lots of lovely participants. Vicky and Chloe also attended the BHS National Convention for Coaches which was a fun and interesting day out.

Until April!
​Chloe

If you blinked you’d have missed February! As always at GHF Equestrian, we have kept ourselves busy with some very exciting horses and some beautiful weather for us to enjoy them in!

This month we said farewell to Jenny, who has gone to America to begin her eventing career! We wish her new owners lots of luck with this lovely mare.

This month, Vicky has invested in training both on the flat and jumping. We have been to have lessons with Annabel Scrimegeour and Islay Auty has been to our yard. The horses are going very well on the flat and this is showing with super consistent scores with lots of wins at local dressage shows at Mount Ballan this month. We have also been back to Vale View for 2 days with Heartbeat and Max McInerney for lessons with Caroline Moore. Both horses were fantastic, and we learnt a lot with lots of homework to carry on with until next time! It was great to get out on the surface to do some XC training!

We also managed to get in the first XC school of the year at Oxstalls! We took 10 horses in total and arrived in convoy with 3 vehicles! Vicky rode 5 horses… 4 of which were first timers! They all took to the XC very well and we are looking forward to getting their first events entered. Photos we have of horses going XC can be found on their profiles on the “Our Horses” tab of our website.

Heartbeat and Max McInerney are entered for their first events of the season… Pontispool and Great Witchingham! These two horses are going really well and are a reflection of the winter training that has gone on behind the scenes. Now to go and show the world and enjoy getting out eventing in March not May like last year!!


Until next month,
​Chloe

Start as you mean to go on! January has been a super busy month for us here at GHF Equestrian, with lots of new horses, training and competing!

This month saw the addition of 3 lovely young horses we found late in 2018 during a trip to Holland. We were waiting and waiting for their arrival, as Christmas and New Year delayed their travel. All good things are worth waiting for and they most certainly did not disappoint! Kadans (Leo) is a stunning rising 4 yr old gelding by Emir R ex Hilton. We also have two 5 yr olds - Jarillo (Milo) by Dantos ex Alicante and Jasper by El Clarimo ex Indoctro. They have been very impressive since their arrival and we are very excited about the year ahead with these horses to add to our lovely string. They will be aimed at their respective BE Young Horse Classes with the Championships in mind for the end of the season. We said hello and goodbye to a lovely sales livery horse - Venezuela. She arrived at GHF and was sold very quickly to the first people that saw her! We wish her new owners lots of luck in the future. 

We have already been out to a couple of training shows this month! We took 4 horses to Mount Ballan Manor British Dressage where Vicky took home 1st and 2nd place in all of the tests she had with super stars Heartbeat, Max McInerney and Tara Anderson’s Mister Bond. Anna also took her horse Rhode Island 19 and she did a lovely Novice test to come 2nd. Chloe took her horse Dissington Miss Grainger for their first show and won both of her Prelim sections. The horses have also been to Summerhouse for some BSJA. Heartbeat and MaxMcinerney both jumped super double clears in their classes and Anna won the 1.05m class on Rhode Island 19 and jumped double clear in their first Newcomers! A great way to kick off the year for all!

We have had a busy month training both on the flat and jumping! We have had flatwork lessons from Annabel Scrimgeour, Islay Auty and Rachel Struel - the horses are ever improving and training is so valuable for us. Vicky has also hosted jumping clinics here at GHF. We had a very successful arena XC clinic that we will soon host another of! We had been looking forward to some jump training we had booked in for Heartbeat and Max McInerney at the end of January… Vicky and Chloe took the special boys up to Leicestershire to have lessons with Caroline Moore! Vale View Equestrian is a fantastic training venue and the lessons were just amazing. Vicky shared 2 of her lessons with reigning World Champion, Ros Canter! Both Harvey and Big Tom were fantastic over the couple of days we were there and really showed off how super our young horses are. To be told that both horses could be medal winners was a serious compliment. We are really looking forward to putting what we learnt into practise and then going back for training at the end of Feb!

February is set to be another very busy month!

Happy New Year to all of our lovely clients, friends and followers! What a year 2018 has been! We have experienced some fantastic results with our amazing horses this year and have seen many promising young horses off to their new homes to pursue careers in eventing and other disciplines all over the world.

November and December have been quieter months competition wise, but that doesn’t mean that the hard work stops! Vicky and Andrew have been to Young Horse Sales in the UK, Ireland and Holland - bringing home some seriously gorgeous babies for 2019! Amongst the finds are MBF Bite the Bullet, Ava (owned by George and Jane Anderson) and Hadoline with more to come from Holland in the next week… Watch this space for their profiles on the “Our Horses” page.

Vicky has been busy winter training with dressage lessons and jumping days away from home. Practice pays off as Heartbeat and Mister Bond II stormed the BD at Mount Ballan to win their classes and Heartbeat won both the Newcomers and the Fox at Pencoed College at the start of December. Andrew and Anna have been busy breaking in the gorgeous youngsters with all of them making exceptional progress due to Andrew’s tried and testing technique to starting them off.

We said a said goodbye to the gorgeous Ivian, who has gone to a lovely owner based with Kevin and Emma McNab. She is an absolutely gorgeous mare that we are looking forward to following in 2019.

January is all planned out with lots more training and some competitions as well. It will be March before we know it and we will be planning our season! There is training available with Vicky at GHF throughout January including clinics, so please contact us if you would like to arrange to come to get ahead for the 2019 season.

We have had another great month here at GHF Equestrian. On the competition front, we have been slightly quieter with super-star Max Mcinerney out on a field holiday and Heartbeat also finishing his season at Osberton. Vicky enjoyed riding Ivian II at Calmsden (her first BE100) and Bicton where she jumped super double clears on both occasions to finish 10th and then 2nd! She is a very special mare with so much potential and an incredible attitude.

The whole team have been very busy with lots of clients wanting to try and buy horses. We said farewell to “Another Fable” who has gone to contest Junior Trials with a competitive rider. “Armani Code” has flown the nest to America to begin his eventing career. “Armadas Good Lux” has been sold to a local rider to transition from his successful show jumping career to begin eventing. Lastly, “Bloomfield Tobesure” has been sold after Andrew found him in Ireland at the beginning of the month. His new owners are keeping him here with us for breaking before he will go to them to continue his education and event!

We have a small selection of horses still available for sale and some new faces that have joined the team which is very exciting! Get in touch with us via Facebook, e-Mail or call for more information!

Team GHF

September! Our busiest month and what we had all been waiting for… The Osberton International Horse Trials Young Horse Championships! The beginning of the month was spent getting as much preparation as possible in before the big week.

We kicked off September with a trip to Gatcombe for Max McInerney in the Novice (5yo) and Heartbeat in the CIC* (6yo). Neither horses disappointed, with Max McInerney finishing 3rd with a 23 dressage and a classy double clear! Heartbeat posted a great dressage of 29.1 and followed this up with a double clear. Vicky ran him slightly slower here bearing Osberton in mind, and just missed out on a top placing due to time penalties.

Monmouth Horse Trials was the next date in the diary - our local event! We had 4 horses going over the 2 days. We also chose to support the team at MHT by sponsoring a fence! We will most definitely look to do this again as it was lovely to hear commentary about our business over the tannoy! Super stars Max McInerney and Heartbeat contested the Novice - both flying round with super double clears and impressive dressage tests to finish 8th and 2nd respectively. Anna took her horse Rhode Island 19 (5yo) to do his 2nd 100 where he did a lovely dressage, had just one pole SJ and finished the day with a confident clear XC. Day Two of the horse trials saw Ivian II (5yo) complete her very first event in absolute fine style to finish 2nd in the 90 on a 25 double clear! A serious mare for the future with so much talent and such trainability.

All that was left for the GHF clan before Osberton was a quick trip to Wales and West Showjumping for both Max McInerney and Heartbeat to compete in the Newcomers and Foxhunter where they gave us all such confidence they were ready to go and jump round the big and spooky showjumping at Osberton.

Then… Osberton! We set off to Osberton on Wednesday 26th in preparation for early dressage times on Thursday. This gave Kilcoltrim Gastown (4yo), Max McInerney and Heartbeat chance to settle in before competition got underway.

On Thursday, Kilcoltrim Gastown showed himself off well in his test to produce a pleasing test for 29.5 - putting him 3rd after this phase. Max McInerney excelled himself in atmospheric conditions (lots of flapping flags!) to post a 28.9 score putting him 2nd after dressage. Both horses came out on Friday morning and jumped their hearts out for Vicky, leaving all of the fences up! This maintained Kilcoltrim Gastown’s 3rd place and moved Max McInerney into 1st! The pressure really mounts up when XC is in reverse order and Kilcoltrim Gastown jumped around the difficult parts of the 4YO Championship course with class and ease but just was a little green at a simpler fence to pick up 20 pens. His new owners were delighted with him and we wish them luck with “Jack” in his new home. Max McInerney was last to go, being in the lead, around the 5YO Championship course. He did not disappoint, cruising around clear inside the time to become the 2018 5YO Champion! The entire team were so thrilled for his and Vicky’s success after so much hard work has gone into achieving this goal. Max McInerney is now on a well deserved field holiday for 6 weeks while we finish the eventing season.

Saturday and Sunday were the CICYH* in which Heartbeat was competing. Mr Consistent did a fabulous test to score 27.2, putting him in 5th place overnight with all of the scores at the top being very close. The super Heartbeat then show jumped clear around a big and testing track showing all of the hard work and training that has gone into this phase. Vicky was just 0.2 penalties behind Oliver Townend going into the cross country, which was again run in reverse order. He stormed around the XC just 2 seconds over the time and would’ve finished 2nd but Vicky said didn’t ride the line she wanted to the corner out of the water and his left knee was the wrong side of the side of the flag so an expensive 50 penalties were awarded! You win some and you lose some so onto the next with this amazing horse that has been exceptional all year.

Now that is over, we have a quieter month eventing wise through October and soon winter training will be upon us. Until next month!

GHF Equestrian

Time flies when you’re having fun! August has been and gone already and, as usual, we haven’t had a moment to spare!

At the beginning of the month, our very promising 6 yr old Heartbeat went to contest the CCI* at Hartpury International Horse Trials. Harvey tried his heart out and produced such beautiful work to lead the dressage after day 1, and was only 0.7 marks behind Dani Evans in the lead going into XC. The cross country was a full up test for a young horse but Harvey flew around, giving Vicky an amazing ride and showing his absolute class to go clear inside the time. On the final day, Harvey once again kept his cool and showed he is a future TOP horse by coming out and jumping a super clear round around a big showjumping course in an arena with lots of atmosphere to secure 3rd place! He is a credit to #GHFEquestrian and shows how hard #TeamGHF work to make results like this happen.

Quickly after Vicky’s fantastic result at Hartpury it was back to the office to qualify our young horses for the KBIS British Young Horse Championships at Osberton. Max McInerney (5YO) won his qualifying event at West Wilts on his dressage score of 25 and Kilcoltrim Gastown (4YO) won his qualifier on his dressage score of 26.3. We were very excited to have them qualified and now preparations are in place for Osberton!

Luckily, with us being so busy, we had a new recruit to be a part of Team GHF! Anna Stillwell and her 5 yr old Rhode Island 19 began their journey with us in August and have settled in really well to the GHF lifestyle. We are looking forward to working with the combination and having Anna onboard as our newest Working Pupil.

August also was another good month for GHF graduates… Cola III and Bubby Upton did an amazing job at Millstreet International Horse Trials to WIN the CIC**! At just 8 years old, this horse is incredible and Bubby does an amazing job with him. We also saw Dargun and Emily King finish 4th in the Gatcombe Park Magic Millions Festival of Eventing British Open CIC***, another very exciting result for this combination.
​
September is a big month for us with the KBIS British Young Horse Championships taking place and all of the preparations in the lead up to Osberton.