Chilham Castle - From the groom's side!

So this is  blog take over!! We thought it would be great for Sian to guest blog about our day out with four horses at Chilham Castle! Sian had a much deserved day off the next day!

Over to Sian.....

So Chilham Castle this week for the BE100 and Novice with the three girls (Boo, Arabella and Rosie) and Hector (lad of the day) and it was another busy one!

Whenever I have to wake up at 3am I always wonder why on earth I decided that I wanted to be in Eventing because I am very rarely a morning person (in fact I don’t think anyone is a morning person at 3am, it’s just a silly time to be awake!) never the less! With my three alarms I managed to pull myself out of bed and be out the door by 3.30am to be at work for 4am, although with the roads being so quiet (I wonder why) I did get there before 4am and all the ponies were wide awake ready for breakfast (I wonder when they woke up..)?  What was quite exciting was trying to find Rosie in the field, in the dark and in the rain with only my phone torch…so as I trundled round her field in the rain clicking my tongue to try and gage where she was ( I didn’t want to shout….bit rude)! After walking around the whole field, I heard her galloping around the top half of the field trying to find me…cute but I was wet and wanted to get her in. Anyone who has met Rosie will know that she is a very inquisitive horse and my shortness of stature plus her head height when she is being nosy and looking up at something does make for somewhat of a problem when trying to put anything on her head. Finally she was in and eating, I inspected the damage to find she was clean and all plaits were still firmly in place!. Harriet came out just after I bought her in and helped get them all booted and suited and on the lorry and we were off at 5am ( after a brief panic as to where the sat nav handle thing was).

I would like the say that the journey went without a hitch but then that wouldn’t be very exciting! Anyway after a while Harriet and I had both fallen asleep (which I always feel a bit bad about leaving poor Justine awake and driving on her own!) About an hour and a half into the journey I was woken up by Justine saying that we had a problem, so we pulled over (on the motorway, of course) and the haynet cupboard was open and haynets were hanging out! Luckily we caught it in time, the door remained on its hinges and we didn’t lose any haynets or Justine as she struggled to get everything back in on the side of the motorway! We arrived at Chilham (still raining) at about 7.15am and everyone re grouped and woke up a bit before we started.

Harriet then announced that she was going to run around both courses and on went her running gear (yes I know, RUN! And Chilham is a very hilly, undulating course too! I then turned to Justine and said ”Only Harriet could run round two courses, ride four horses and then intend to go out clubbing!” (To be fair Harriet clubbing is a rare event and you can probably see why! So off she went and that left Justine and I trying to stud Rosie. Now people who follow my blog will know that Rosie isn’t the most helpful of horses to stud and can be very trying, so keeping her mind occupied and keeping her quiet and relaxed was our plan of action….it didn’t work…  We were parked next to some loud and stressy horses and two horses next door escaped too, so we decided rather than stressing Rosie and possibly hurting herself (and us) she was to go studless for the dressage and we would try after. When she was all ready to go, I went down to lunge her before Harriet got on. Lydia (Rosie’s owner) and Justine then went with Harriet to the dressage which left me to get Bella ready and studded up (she is a dream to do!)

Fred Ford by chance was parked behind us and came over and said “hi”, he asked me how it was going. I told him the story of Rosie’s studs and he very kindly offered to do then for me! Which was a blessing because he is much stronger than me and she was a dream to do when she realised what she had to do. She is just so inexperienced and doesn’t really fully trust anyone but is learning to slowly.

As Justine and Fred did Rosie’s studs, I lunged Bella (still raining) and Harriet got on did her test. Next was Rosie’s show jumping and bless her cottons she went clear! She pulled a very nice 28.8 dressage and clear cross country as well as Show Jumping! (See she’s a little star really). Arabella also did well only had one pole down and went clear cross country and did a 25.5 dressage! (Back on track Bella).

Then we had a mad dash as (groom error) I thought I had waaaayyy more time between Rosie finishing her cross country and Hector doing his dressage, (I didn’t) with all hands on deck he was still ready and lunged for his test in time whilst Lydia was very kindly walking a very tired Rosie around. When she was done and on the lorry (thanks again to Fred who de studded her and put her up) I made sure that I had Boo ready and looking beautiful. This time I had a chance to sort and clean the lorry, wash the cross country boots ready for the next lot to go (by this time it has stopped raining and was beautiful sunshine).

Boo and Harriet then went to do their test whilst I got Hector ready for show jumping. Thankfully we had a fairly long break as Harriet and Justine came back with a reporter from An Eventful Life magazine who had been filming and taking pictures of her and wanted to do film an interview! So Justine made everyone lunch, drinks and served up cake whilst Debbie the reporter talked to Harriet. I had my lunch on the step staying out the way, so I didn’t say anything embarrassing or fall into the living of the lorry (Definitely something I would do). I think Justine and I may have been caught on camera at the end!

When that finished Hector went jumping and came back with one down show jumping, clear cross country and did a lovely 30.8 dressage. Boo jumped last and after a smashing 27.5 dressage, had a clear show jumping but got tired round the cross country (which is very hilly).

So a good day at the office with Arabella placed 3^rd ( I got a bit over excited about her winning a bucket), Rosie coming in 9^th and Hector in 14^th, YES we are back on form!

I managed to get all the tack cleaned before we left (this is a big plus), we were finally on our way around 6.15/6.30 and got home around 8.45/9 (Still cannot believe Harriet went out) and I got home at about 9.30/9.45 so it was a looooonnnnggg day.

Next week is Harriet 19^th birthday, she is taking a couple of days break away, so we’re not eventing but after that we’re heading back up to Aston Le Walls with Boo, Arabella and Hector (He loves going out with his girls) so until then….

Peace!

My first International CIC 2* at Belton!!!!

There was great excitement in the lead up to Belton International not about the fact it was to be my first CIC 2* but the fact we were going to be staying overnight in our new lorry for the first time! Much fuss was made of the lorry, Mum and Dad spent days making sure everything had its place. There are plenty of hooks I know that much and it did in fact make my life a lot easier having everything really organised! It was also sparkling. Mum even got the window cleaners to clean the windows!!

We set off with a sparkling white horse and sparkling blue lorry, all went well till we missed the BIG yellow sign saying horseboxes (for the second year running). So after negotiating our way round Grantham town centre in rush hour, in a 36 foot long lorry we arrived! We kept under the radar that first day just doing the dressage, not walking any courses, we just checked the score board and then went to our overnight accommodation.

Danny performed a nice test, it was our first ever dressage together at that level. I think we could really improve on the medium trot work and the pirouettes to get a better test and dressage judges said he needed more lateral suppleness, so we will work on that for Houghton. But it was a big atmosphere and he was so soft and willing. I was really pleased and then found out we were lying in 12^th  place after the first day of dressage and out of 60 competitors.

We had previously arranged to go with some friends back to Hannah Westropp's farm to stable overnight, thankfully Bella and her Mum Madeleine were not ready to go at the same time as us. Inputter error into the satnav the small 15 minute journey turned into 40 minutes. We ended up in the middle of a housing estate with a very unhappy bus driver trying to negotiate round us, he had to go up on to the pavement and very nearly took out a lamppost!  When we did eventually arrive at Hannah’s and found Danny's stable, it was a lovely big stables with his own pen. We were all invited in for supper, I say all… there were 35 of us! When we first went in we were introducing ourselves when someone said “Harriet Upton? As in one of the ones to watch in the programme?” Well Mum and I had not looked through the programme so I said “No, I think you much be thinking of someone else!” “No definitely it says Harriet Upton, you are trained by Tina Cook aren’t you?” We had no idea what they were talking about and then it was all forgotten as we got into the swing of the evening.

It was a fun night, some of us (Bella and I) didn’t partake in alcohol and some of us (Mum) did!! Actually I think we have Tristan Owers to thank for that, he kept topping up Mum’s glass, poor Tom McEwan that is all I can say, the conversation started about fitness and core strength but egged on by Matt and Kate Tarrant and with some not so little help from Emily Llewellyn he soon learnt that he had a pelvic floor and where exactly it was! Great dinner table conversation and I wasn’t embarrassed at all! In true eventers style as nearly everyone else had early starts our evening ended at 10 and everyone had lights out by 11! Then we suddenly remembered to look at the programme, oh my god, I could not believe I was in there as one of the five riders to watch. Right under Izzy Taylor and Sir Mark Todd!!

So after we had stopped giggling over the programme, we had a great night’s sleep in our lovely lorry and we went back to Belton Park, it only took us 15 mins going the right way! We had plenty of time as I was not on till 1.10pm. We walked the course bumping into all the junior selectors on our way and having a massive hug with the legend that is Ginnie Keen. Ground was super and the course big, bold lots of galloping and lots of combinations. It was a great course for Danny, I walked round it feeling quite confident that he would take this all in his stride. I walked the show jumping a little while after and to my dismay spotted the dreaded water tray. Danny hates water trays and it was under an upright. (I needed a plan and quickly)!

We checked the results at the end of the dressage put us in 22^nd place out of 85 starters, not bad and achievable to finish in the top 20 which was my aim for my first competition at this level.

So I went back to the lorry contemplating my plan for the show jumping, I wasn’t too worried and Lisa Ford had said she would help me warm up so I had someone else to talk it over with. Not sure we ever get through an event without incident but Mum managed to bang her forehead on one of the locker doors, a little dazed she came back into to the lorry to tell me but  in order to hear her I opened the door and managed to give her another knock on the head in exactly the same place. So there is a nice bruise forming. 

So when we put the entry in for this event Mum asked what I wanted in the commentators notes, we decided nothing as I wanted to do this quietly and no fuss being my first one. We just added in my sponsors as we always do and left it at that. In the meantime the intermediates had finished and commentary turned to talking about the event and who was at the event. You can imagine our surprise when the commentator started to tell the story of how Danny and I came to be a partnership. It is a lovely story but as we stood in the lorry listening I felt a little under pressure when he told everyone to look out for me!  We don’t know how they got all the information but it was so lovely of them to highlight us and our story and I think having that pressure on as one to watch made me raise my game even more!

Photo credit to "The Bit". Many thanks

I met Lisa over at the warm up of the show jumping, she was just so great at helping me structure my warm up, we talked through the plan for the water tray and before I knew it, I was in. Danny just felt like he was on springs and did a beautiful clear. Only about 30% of the section went clear, I was so proud of him. Shaun and Janie Lawson were there too, who I co own Danny with and they were over the moon. I knew this would have moved me up the leader board and I think we worked out I had moved up to 18^th place.

Quick change and on to the cross country. I was determined not to be a Granny around the cross country as going slow could seriously affect my top 20 placing I wanted so badly. We ended up with only 0.8 time penalties. Going back to the lorry to get Danny washed off we then had to wait as the results trickled through. Dad, Ross (Bro) and Michael Rogers (MDR Photo) were all tracking the live results at their respective houses. It was so exciting sitting in the lorry getting the texts each time I went up the leader board. Eventually it was confirmed we came 7^th, I was so shocked and unbelievable happy. Huge shout came out of our lorry when we heard! Apologies to the lady and her dog going past at the time!

I love Belton as an event, it has a really special feel to it. I had a good ride there last season in the Junior Trial too and next year I want to bring more horses, even better we now have a great place to stay too!

It's back to training for me, I may have some last minute entries at Hambledon this week and I have four horses at Chilham next week and lots of training to do before Houghton U21 championships.

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To Tina Cook and Shaun Lawson there are not enough thank yous for giving me Danny!

Big thank you to Lisa Ford who helped me prepare for my dressage before and helped me with my showjumping at the event and for taking all the videos!

Sponsored by: MDR photo, Timothy Foxx Clothing, LMEQ, EQU Streamz, The Pure Feed Company, Lisa Sparrowhawk and Sue Chinn.

Somerley BE Vlog

A day out eventing - Isleham 2015

Meeting the GB Divers

I had such an inspiring day yesterday. I went over to the Olympic pool to watch Tom Daley, Georgia Ward and Emily Boyd doing their training sessions.

It was so interesting chatting to them about how they train and how different the training and structure is to equestrian sport. This day was set up between their trainer Jane Figueiredo and my fitness trainer Sam Marshall.

We turned up at the London Aquatics Centre up and met with Jane in the first instance. She had the most amazing enthusiastic, positive and fun personality. She showed us around and the facilities were just incredible. After our tour we met Georgia, Tom and Emily they were so much fun! We all went for lunch together and got chatting about their discipline, their diet and what their training is like from a day to day and in turn I talked to them about the world of eventing and the kind of training we do.

We went back to the Olympic Pool and it was time for their training, it was land training to start with where they do gymnastic exercises, followed by some training in the pool diving off the diving boards.

This was absolutely incredible to watch, the power that is executed into each dive was just unbelievable, until you see it up close I don’t think you appreciate what goes into it, but then I suppose the same goes of all sports.

After watching them we all went back to the gym and talked about the kind of gym exercises that would help me with my riding.

As Equestrian Athletes we have to take this seriously if we want to have the edge.

It really made me realise how little strength and conditioning we do as equestrian athletes.  Because I have worked previously with Jon Pitts and more latterly with Lisa Sparrowhawk I have been very lucky in having this side instilled into me. But we do not do enough of it and it is not something that Amateur riders going up the ranks have any support in.

At Lisa’s suggestion I started with a personal trainer before Christmas, previously I had done gym work, running and pilates but in a very unstructured way. I am already noticing how much stronger I am when I’m training in the gym and also when I’m riding I am able to maintain my position in all three phases.

Interestingly and a bit different was the suggestion of ballet, we were talking about dressage and how you have to be strong though your core, absorb movement and be graceful and elegant. Tom mentioned that as divers they did this because it teaches you to really extend through the legs to the end of the toes and maintain posture. I thought how good this would be for someone that isn’t so graceful (me) to learn to be elegant, to extend through the upper body to make myself taller and hold my posture.

I left the GB dive team yesterday inspired, I learned so much about how to keep myself stronger by the right exercise and the right nutrition. It was great to meet like-minded people. It made me realise how self motivated and self disciplined you have to be to get to the top but it also made me realise how much we as equestrian athletes have to do on our own and how much is up to us to structure not only ourselves but our horses day to day. When I talked about how much we do on our own, I think that took the Dive team by surprise a little. Their set up and support is incredible.

Thank you Jane, Tom, Emily, Georgia and Sam for making this day happen, we all got on so well have all vowed to keep in touch and they want to come to an event so watch this space!

My first Vlog (video blog) at LMEQ doing some XC training on Hector and Rosie.

Dramatic Effect (Boo) and Harriet Upton Eventing - @HarrietUpton