Speetley

This weekend the team headed to Speetley Horse Trials in Derbyshire for two days of competition with the young horses. The 3-something-AM alarms both days proved worthwhile, as the horses gained invaluable experience from jumping round the technical courses at this well-organised event.

Amelia had three of the Dassett youngsters on Saturday, and six-year-old Kinetic Dassett (Brownie) and Keynote Dassett (Wilson), who both jumped fantastic double clears in the BE100, finishing just outside the placings with a few time penalties each. These talented horses will hopefully step up a level in the near future, so we were very pleased to see them jumping such confident and established rounds.

Amelia also contested the BE100 with five-year-old Hawthornstud Dassett (Lexi), and after a good dressage test and easy clear showjumping, were on track for their regular double clear performance. Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be; half way round the cross country they encountered a skinny which Lexi didn’t pick up on, and a green mistake meant that they finished the day without a rosette. Given her usual can-do attitude we were surprised, but it’s easy to forget how inexperienced she is having only started her competition career this spring. After some more training at home she’ll undoubtedly be back to her winning ways next time out.

On Sunday ‘Kev’ (our smaller lorry) headed to Speetley again – this time with Craig and DE student Izzy Rees riding, and Hayley in attendance as ground support/trainer for the day.

Craig and Dassett Banker (Robin) had a great run in their BE100 debut, with a dazzling 28 dressage and clear showjumping, before an unfortunate glance-off on the cross country dropped them from second. Robin has taken to eventing so quickly, demonstrating his fantastic attitude again by trying so hard round this tough course. We can’t wait to see them at some more 100s soon!

DE student Izzy was riding Westwood II (Polly) in the BE100 and jumped a 31 double clear, narrowly missing out on a rosette after a couple of time faults. This is only their second run together and Izzy has done an excellent job to jump double clear at both of their events. They are a really exciting combination and are sure to achieve great things this season.

Izzy also had a good run in the 90 with her second horse Newmarket Alloy (Bruce), following a lovely 28 dressage with a perfect clear showjumping. They had an educational round on the cross country, crossing the finish line with a couple of mistakes on their score card, but will undoubtedly have learned lots from jumping round this difficult track. It’ll be great to see them put this into practice at their next event.

Whilst we would have liked to bring home a few more rosettes, we were very pleased with how the horses went. They have all learned lots from jumping round these challenging tracks, and no-one touched a showjump all weekend. We are looking forward to more training at home, and getting them all back out again in a few weeks’ time.