Tuesday, 20 May 2014 00:00

Whole New Look

I hope you have been keeping up to date with all the goings on at Team Pickles with facebook and twitter over the last few months whilst the blog has been sadly lacking.

Well we are back with a fantastic new look to the website thanks to Max Ross and Suzie Allen my super technical support crew, I would be lost without them.

We have been exceptionally busy the last few months with lots of new horses on the scene. Our lovely young horses are now all up and running with Hathaway Strider, Hathaway Quality and Future Divine Illusion all doing their first event last weekend and although we weren’t winners they all behaved impeccably and bar a few green moments I was extremely pleased with them- they are beautiful.

Hathaway No.1 and Lucianna Wiser than Wise will also be making their debut at Aston next month for the unaffiliated 80cm to get them going before their first BYEH classes of the year.

We also have just broken a beautiful mare Surprise Proposal by Primitive Proposal and she is looking like she is going to be a super horse for her owners Sarah and Diane Foster – so hopefully some exciting times ahead with her.

My older horses are going extremely well with Aston fever last week highlighting who is doing what. Airtime was super cool finishing 6th in the OI and I am hopeful that this year will be a little more lucky for him as last year seemed to cause set back after setback for him. Ciderpress has had some good results with a 5th at Weston Novice and a win at Keysoe a few weeks back. She was also en route to have a good result at Aston Intermediate but a run out – her first ever with me sadly put us out of contention- time for some homework!

Direct Mission a new ride for me has pulled out some great results including 4th place in a very hot OI section last week and is also for sale. He will be a super horse for someone to gain mileage on as he is a machine XC and for a big horse never gets strong – quite a relief for me!

Tullyoran Field of Dreams has also made the jump up to Novice being slightly green but she will soon get into the swing of things as she has so much talent for the future.

Reed Hill Rose who is also for sale has been doing really well, she is going to make a fantastic 1* horse for someone as she has a great attitude to work and a super jump! She is stepping up to Novice at BCA in a few weeks.

Mr Pickles has also been helping the team a huge amount doing all my fencing and driving the wife to a few competitions, he is now at home as he has recently started his own business fencing, hedge laying and doing all things rural (website coming soon). It is really nice to have him on hand a little more to fix all the things around the yard that are continually causing me grief!

Olympic Tracer owned by Kate Willis and Mel Pritchard is also for sale, he is sadly not going to carry on to a higher level and he is such a fun horse we think he would be a super all rounder at the lower levels, with bags of experience and a great attitude to work, his advert is on the website and goes on Horsequest today. I will be very sad to see him go but I am hugely aware with my horses that they have to compete at a level that suits them.

We had a fantastic few days at Badminton and boy what a competition – I don’t think anyone was expecting that outcome at the beginning of the week. Watching some of the XC it seemed to be very physically demanding on the horses with many twist and turns and take offs and landings that were not even which I think is difficult to predict before a competition how this is going to affect the horses.

We were lucky enough to have tickets for the SJ on the last day and after a teaching some lessons in the morning we flew down to watch and it really was nail biting to the end. I am not sure I can remember a badminton or championship where no one jumped a clear round.

I will be interested to see what alterations if any they make to it next year – exciting stuff.

We are taking on a new competition this weekend with Berriewood and I am looking forward to seeing what it like and if it is one to come back to in the future. Keysoe earlier this month had made some great changes to their XC course and had worked hard on their ground so I would go back their.

Rosie pony and Winsome Wendy are looking forwards to an outing as it has been a while since they have been out as Solihull was sadly cancelled on the Saturday. Airtime is down to Pontispool on Monday for another OI run before he heads to Salperton in June.

The team here have been working exceptionally hard and we are having a lot of fun this season. I am not going to lie, getting a team has been a tough ride over the last year but I am very hopeful we are entering new waters with an enthusiastic crew who are wanting to help me achieve my goals.
Thanks to all my support crew as well for keeping the horses on the road. The vet, physio, farrier all doing such a great job which is fundamental to achieving consistent results with these super horses.


So until next time which will now be a regular occurrence (I promise), have fun!

Colina X