Displaying items by tag: Winsome Wendy

Friday, 03 October 2014 00:00

A Whole Lotta Summer

Once again my ambitious statement that ended my last blog was not achieved so sorry folks for the gap in blogging!

As you can imagine a lot has been happening at Team Pickles but the thing that has given me the most satisfaction this summer is that........wait for it folks….. yep we have not had  a member of staff leave for over 3 months now! Whoop whoop, so I am celebrating by giving my super lovely team some extra holiday for working their socks of this summer and for making my life a lot less stressful. Mary Burnfield, Kelly Smith, Hannah Okines, Alex Haynes, Claira Miesegaes and Sara Walker a huge thank you to you all – you are invaluable!

So on to the horses where we have a lot to catch up on. Direct Tullyoran Cruise belonging to Equestrian Direct has amongst other things had a name change - well done to those who spotted it, can tell who the stalkers are! We have had a great few runs finishing 5th at Keysoe over a tough Novice track, 5th at Sapey over another trappy course and then onto Gatcombe where she tried her little heart out in the CIC1* to finish outside the placing’s purely due to losing a shoe and having to take it steady. So holidays for her now before a winter of dressage and Sj training for her! Love this horse.

Mel Pritchard’s beautiful ex racer Winsome Wendy has clocked up three wins so far this season with some stunning dressage scores and is definitely contributing to my current fifth placing in the Foundation Points Table - next year I will be going for the win!

Sue Dawson's super Future Divine Illusion (Dennis) has had a good season and after jumping really beautifully at Solihull to finish 9th and Llanymynech to finish 14th he has gone back to his mummy for some hacking and time out to be a dressage pony before we make plans for next season. Dennis has a great sense of humour so let's hope he is behaving himself for his mummy!

Lucianna Wiser Than Wise (Beau) belonging to Lucy Keeney has also had a superb summer; we decided not to do any eventing as he is a big 4yo but to focus on the BYEH programme. So off to Field House we went and against over 50 four year olds Beau won the class by 10 marks toqualified us for Burghley. I have never been so was hugely excited to be going on such a classy looking horse. However, fate was to play its hand and Beau managed to throw a splint just before the big day meaning holiday time it was for him. Sad times but next year we will be there as a five year old! Thank you to Lucy for allowing me to ride her lovely horse all summer and exciting times ahead.

Fate played its hand again and whilst watching the BYEH FINAL with Kate Willis we saw a horse that we couldn't forget in the top ten line up and I am very excited to say that this horse, Cendora, is now safely part of Team Pickles and is owned by Kate Willis and Mel Pritchard and will be making her debut next season with me as a five year old.

The lovely Coco Chanel belonging to Hannah and Michael Henderson has matured well this summer and is out doing dressage and is turning into a bit of a pro. She has such lovely paces and a fabulous temperament so next season will be a fun one for her. Hannah and Mikey have a lovely horse who hopefully will bring some really good times next year.

Tim and Vanessa Willes beautiful TJ Blousey Brown (Bugsie) has had a flying summer with a win at Sapey, 4th at Shelford and 10th at Goring Heath in the BE100. She is such a classy scopey mare who with time is going to be a star. I am looking forward to a winter of flat work and jump training before going Novice next season.

We have another new addition in the form of Patsy who is out of the same mare as Direct Tullyoran Cruise so you can imagine this is really exciting; she is now broken in with thanks to Mary B and will start jumping in the next few weeks. She stands a little smaller than Tully but knowing all of her ridden history will be such an advantage and I really can't wait to jump her - let's hope she is half as good as her sister has turned out to be!

The Hathaway Horse brigade are also having an excellent summer with the star of the show being Tina Faulkners Whole Lotta Rosie who has now been 2nd four times this summer - are we going to finish with a win? We have two more events to try and make it happen so fingers crossed the upgrade will happen before we finish! All that being said, I don't think anyone could ask for more from this super special little pony.

The Beautiful Hathaway Quality (Roxy) finished her season at Homme House 4yo BE90 with 5th place in a strong class and 5th place but not good enough to qualify at the Carlton BYEH class. Her jumping has come on leaps and bounds as she strengthens up and given how blood she is I have a very good feeling about her future.

Hathaway Strider (Jimmy), the diminutive grey of our crew, has also had some great results this summer, finishing 6th in a BYEH qualifier at Carlton, followed by a 5th in a 5yo BE100 at Solihull and a win at Sapey. He is having his holidays now as we have a busy winter ahead doing some BD and BS in prep for a busy 2015.

Hathaway Wowfactor (Ruby) is on great form competing in her first BE event at BCA this week. A 27.5 dressage was good enough for third after this phase and a costly rail and some time penalties XC put us out the prizes but my goodness this horse has a future and I feel very lucky to ride her.

Hathaway No.1 (Fizz) has shown she has a real flare for dressage so is going to turn her attention to some BD very shortly and hopefully will bring home the ribbons in this sphere. We are all registered and ready to go. The patent bridles have arrived so hopefully we will fit in nicely!

I also have a new ride in the form of PLS Bluejay who is a super cute blue and white pony who is owned by Trisha Thornton. The aim for this man is to make him into Rosie pony mark 2 - I have some work to do then, no pressure!! However, he has started off well with a 5th place in the Unaffiliated at Aston Le Walls followed by 7th today at BCA with a lovely double clear in his first BE event.

So you can probably see why blog writing has taken a back seat? I can't complain though, I have to say I have some fantastic horses to ride, super owners to ride for and a great team to support me - what more could a girl want and to top it all off my students seem to be doing really rather well!

Mary B and Ballinfull Boy have bagged some top 10 placings and are looking really established at BE90 so will upgrade next season. Airtime seems to be hard to beat at BE100 with Aimelia Herbert and is loving his new life. I do miss him but seeing him so happy at this level is such a pleasure to be part of. Bruce and Claira Miesegaes are also flying with some serious placings at BE100 before Claira jets off to the Southern Hemisphere for the winter (lucky lady).

Hannah Okines and her lovely little horse we found in Ireland last year are getting Very established and had a 5th placing at Moreton Morrell unaffiliated last weekend. BE next year Hanny O is calling.....

Chloe Herbert and Arkwright NJ are back on the scene and again are dominating the BE100, my go tomorrow with the lovely Alfie at BCA, I did warn her that she might not get him back!!

Sister Suzie & Sarah Mann have been sharing Kate Low’s lovely Hazy Daiz this Summer and both have done really well with some top ten results.

Amy Newcombe and her talented little horse Condor Goariva have enjoyed their first season of BE posting some lovely jumping rounds. Amy won’t argue when I say her horse is not particularly keen on dressage but with patient and persistence on Amy’s part the marks are improving at each event.  


Have I covered them all? Ah no! I am also having so much fun riding Kate Matterson's lovely young horses and am looking forwards to competing next year with her. All in all fun times are ahead but I really couldn't do it without my super team and sponsors and of course my super husband Mr P who as always puts up with me!

Until next time - god knows when!

Colina x

Published in Blog
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


Published in Blog
Monday, 10 March 2014 00:00

A long time coming

Hi folks,

I know it's been a while since my last blog but it's been a busy winter and the days have been long and very very wet.

Winter is a good time for sorting out the wheat from the chaff it takes it's toll on staff and riders as the wet conditions make it so difficult to work in and the eventing season can seem so far away. Not anymore fortunately, my team have been amazing this winter and come out the other side so we are all raring to go.  We delayed competing for the first events in March and not competing the younger horses until April. They aren't in need of a long season so we've had a few weekends at Weston Lawns which have done them well and are now looking forward Aston Le walls unaffiliated next month.
Ernie (Olympic tracer) is the my first ride of the season at Aston this weekend. He has been going well over the winter so I'm hoping it will continue.

I am looking forward to seeing the new all weather XC course there I have heard so much about it but not been over to ride on it yet.
The following weekend were off to Swalcliffe so some nice local events to ease us in with Olympic Tracer, Rosie pony and Winsome Wendy - Just hope we don't get really early times!!

Mr P has reluctantly been taking one for the team by mucking out every morning to take the pressure off the yard staff. We really appreciate their hard work and welcome two new members of staff Emily and Liz who we hope will enjoy working here and benefit from there experience.

A job I hate at the end of the month is invoicing all my owners and clients. It seems to take forever but is obviously very important.  I set aside my time in the evenings for this but the only thing I really want to do is go to bed. I need to get Mr P trained to do it so I can fob this job off on to him although he seems a little reluctant preferring a glass of red wine in front of the tv!!

I have possibly got the strongest team of horses I have ever had this season with some lovely young ones who will be aiming for BYEH. I have a new ride in the form of Beau who is a lovely type by Jaguar Mail who I can't wait to get going on. He is 4 this time and will aim at the Lycetts classes aswell as the BYEH his owner Lucy - who bred him is about excited as I am to get stated.

Myself and a colleague have set up a enterprise named Hathaway Horses with the aim of producing and selling some nice event horses. We have three lovely youngsters who are up and running who again I can't wait to get stated with.

Miss Coco Chanel belonging to Hannah and Michael Henderson is on great form and is looking forwards to her debut next month. She has taken time to mature but has a fabulous nature and will be a fun horse for the season.

We have a new member to the team of horses named She's All Class who I am looking forwards to campaigning this year. Lady Butler and Tina Faulkner have both got shares in her and are both chomping at the bit for her season to get going. Watch this space.....

TJ Blousey Brown has wintered really well and is jumping out of her skin at the moment. So far she has won twice at pre season competitions and I think could be my secret weapon for the season, let's hope so!

Airtime and Ciderpress are getting underway at Gatombe so let's hope for some good weather to get them going. I love Gatcombe as an early event as it always seems to get them into the swing.

Tullyoran Field of Dreams will now be known as Direct Miss Cruise and again has wintered really well. I can't wait to get going with her as she showed such amazing promise last year and is one I am particularly fond of.

The mighty Dennis belonging to Sue Dawson is back from his winter holidays and again will hopefully be aiming at BYEH young horse classes this year. So you can see I have a lot to be getting on with as well as doing my invoicing.........

Mary has a lovely new horse called Tintin who I keep threatening to steal but seriously I am really thrilled for her and can't wait to see her getting started with him.

So as usual, mega busy, all a bit manic, but pretty exciting times ahead and a team who can hopefully help me achieve my goals, one day I will make it to advanced, one day.............

Until next time

Colina

Published in Blog