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.
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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.

June has drawn to a close and we are already at the half way mark through our 2018 season!

We have had a busy month with our own competitions, horses being sold and GHF graduates doing exceptionally well with their new owners. 

We have had some fabulous results with our horses so far this season including 3 wins & a 3rd for 5 year old Max McInerney, a win & a 2nd for 5 yr old Quarrycrest Illusion, and 6 yr old Heartbeat has been amazing going out at Novice level and jumping double clear everytime, securing 2 2nd placings! Heartbeat also did a great job around his first CIC*. Our 4 year olds have been out to their first shows including the BYEH class at Chepstow where they were absolutely super. We can't wait for them to go eventing with the big boys now, too! 

This month we have said goodbye to two fantastic 5 yr olds - MHS Seventeen and Quarrycrest Illusion. We are looking forward to seeing their successes with their new owners. 

In the GHF Hall of Fame we have seen Dargun (produced by GHF to CCI* level) go on with Emily King to become U25 CCI*** Champions at Bramham. Cola III came 2nd at Houghton in the YR CCI** with his rider Bubby Upton and has been selected at just 8 yrs old to represent GB at the Young Rider Europeans! Congratulations to Emily & Bubby who are doing an amazing job with these exceptional horses. Dynasty who is ridden by Hector Payne also finished 8th at Tattersalls CCI***, another fantastic result for a past GHF horse. 

July will be a busy month as we get into the lead up for the Young Horse Championships with our 4 yr olds getting out eventing and 5 yr old class qualifiers. Keep your eyes out for horses for sale from our yard. 

GHF