J L D EQUINE

Brennus wins his Novice at Hickstead with over 72%

We had a great lesson yesterday with Sarah, working on making Zaino more supple of the back and encouraging him to seek the bridle down when I massage the rein. This should help us when we go to shows as he puts his head up and becomes strong and spooky.

BB was amazing today, he never looked at anything in the International arena such a good boy. Today I rode the test not so forward as instructed by the judges at Hartpury and guess what ? Yep I got not forward enough ! I am so pleased with him he did absolutely everything I asked of him and produced a foot perfect test I am so excited about our future. It was another big class 24 of the top 5 year olds in the Country.

We heard today that Brennus B has been selected for Verden Germany young horse breeding championship. However we have decided not to attend. Our decision is based on the time out of the yard we cannot get cover at home and we would need to be away for a week. It is disappointing but we think the right decision for BB. We are at Hickstead tomorrow with BB in the 5 year old National in the international arena again so it will be interesting to see how BB copes with it all.

Those who follow the blog will know that Zaino can be very spooky in the arena and difficult to ride. Today he arrived at Hickstead and he behaved the best yet ! He was quite to come off of the lorry and extremely relaxed in the warm up he was so good I thought he might be sickening for something. When we walked down to the International arena to do our Medium 73 final I was taken back with the massive sponsor board the speakers all around the arena and the grandstand let alone poor Zaino ! What makes it even more difficult is Zaino having competed in the international arena 2 weeks ago to qualify for this class knew that the grandstand etc etc was not there last time. He did however hold it together throughout the test I was so pleased with him. Of course I am disappointed he was tense and sat behind my leg but you must take the positives and I could feel he wanted to turn around and run in the opposite direction but he didn’t he trusted me today and kept going and I really feel it was a massive breakthrough with him. Especially as we started the test with no music and half way through the test they decided to turn it on just as we were coming into the pirouettes with the speaker facing him he jumped out of his skin and then on the final approach the music let out an almighty cracking distortion sound and he jumped again but recovered and carried on. So all things being equal I was amazed he didn’t loose all his confidence. We have been working on lots of half halts at home to put Zaino back on his hind leg this helps lighten the front end and enables him to become less dependent on the rein contact I really felt a difference in him today. The score is disappointing and to be placed 24 out of 30 however I take into consideration Zaino is only 7 Years Old and the class was the top 4 horses from each County competing at that level. Equally you must sometimes put the score and placing aside because it really is not everything and view the test and the outing and the behaviour overall and for me Zaino got a gold star today !!!

We did a very nice test in the pouring rain and wind yesterday, Brennus was extremely well behaved. Unfortunately we lost marks for being too forward ! Its very frustrating when judges encourage you to push on then another judge deducts marks for too forward ! We are learning all the time and hope to get it right for our next outing at Hickstead.

We are off to Hartpury tomorrow for the Festival of Dressage. BB has qualified for the 5 year old shearwater class and I have never seen so many entries in this class. We went last year with Zaino in the 6 year old class and it was a complete disaster ! It was very windy and the arena was surrounded by tents and gazebo’s flapping about. We are leaving tomorrow the class is on Saturday we are staying Sat night and coming home Sunday. Unfortunately the weather does not look to good. ‘Here we go again’ !

What a great few weeks we have had, Brennus was invited to do the 5 year old selectors class at Hickstead for Verden, Germany (still waiting to hear) and he qualified 5 year old class National Hickstead, and we are off to Hartpury in a couple weeks for the Shearwater 5 year old final. Zaino M came 4th today 67% in the semi final Medium and qualified for the final at Hickstead.

Darcy looks stunning a year old today she is a beautiful little yearling out of Floriscount/Samarant

William (florestamber foal) Jazz/Florestan is now much stronger and getting more and more confident everyday. Florestamber is an excellent Mum albeit a little over protective.
Harry (Ella foal) Johnson/Samarant (jazz/Sandro Hit) is more confident in the field than William and very inquisitive. Both foal move brilliantly and are absolutely stunning.