Shelford Manor (1)

Craig, Hayley, Amelia and I headed to Shelford Manor in Nottinghamshire with the young horses this weekend for what would prove to be a great day of competition. We were also joined by DE student Izzy Rees, who was competing Newmarket Alloy, and making her debut run with Westwood II.

The day proved to be hugely beneficial, with Amelia riding six-year-old superstars Kinetic Dassett (Brownie) and Keystone Dassett (Wilson). They both smashed out a 26.5 dressage and jumped fantastic showjumping rounds, before storming round the cross country to wind up comfortably on the podium. Brownie finished second in his section and Wilson bought home a commendable third in his. Although they only starting affiliated eventing this year, they looked so grown up and professional – we can’t wait to see these two talented horses progress up the grades this season!

Amelia also rode Hawthornstud Dassett (Lexi) in the five-year-olds’ BE100 section; she once again impressed with a 27.5 dressage, before showing her scope in an easy clear showjumping round. She then looked stunning out on the cross country, but we were gutted when she had a green runout at an awkward turn on the way home. Although it was disappointing to have missed out on a qualifying result, we were still incredibly pleased with her attitude throughout the day. She has so much ability and has been foot-perfect at all her competitions so far, so it is easy to forget how little she has seen and done to date. We all think a lot of this exciting mare and are sure she’ll be back to her winning ways next time having learned from this experience.

Dassett Banker (Robin) and Craig contested the BE90 and had another good competition. This horse is improving all the time and we are delighted with his attitude and ability. He did a great dressage for 30 and then jumped a couple of fantastic rounds, looking established and confident with just one green moment at the water fence blotting their card. Robin seems to be really enjoying his new eventing life having taken to it effortlessly, and Craig feels they are building a real rapport. We are very excited for his future!

Izzy contested the BE90 in the morning with Newmarket Alloy (Bruce) and had a fantastic run to finish seventh. A lost shoe in the dressage warmup didn’t stop them from performing a lovely test to score 29.3, and then they jumped a great double clear with just a few time faults from the cross country costing them the win. Bruce is only starting his affiliated eventing career this year and they are already looking a really solid combination.

Izzy also competed her new ride Westwood II (Polly) in the BE100 for their first run together, and she did a brilliant job to jump a double clear. Polly made the influential 100 tracks look incredibly easy and they had two classy rounds together. We are sure Izzy has an exciting season ahead with these two horses!

As if the day wasn’t long enough, our lorry ‘Big Blue’ decided to extend our stay. We’d all like to say a massive thank you to Dave and the guys from the BEDE team – they’d had a long day working in the heat yet were incredibly friendly and helpful, lending us some jump leads so we could get the hydraulic ramp back up again and make our way home!

We all had a great day and are looking forward to getting out again this coming weekend with the older horses at Little Downham.