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
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