Angie Thompson

A Hectic Start to the Season for Angie Thompson

Hi everyone!

It's been an extremely hectic season so far.  The horses are on form and going really well.  We've had the Dengie nutritionists at the yard looking at all the horses' dietary requirements for their level of exercise, competition demands, travelling and temperament.  We now have diet sheets for all the horses and we are trying out the new feeding regime, so it will be interesting to see their performance going forward.

My two grade A horses, Oksana W and Whisper Magic are being fed the Dengie Natural Vitality Peformance Vits & Mins to keep them in tip top condition during this very busy time.  Oksana W has also been on Naked Oats to help keep her fresh and improve stamina.  This is definitely making a difference.  Diet is so important, particularly when we are competing each week.  All the horses on the yard are fed on Dengie Alfa-A Oil in any event - but having done a proper dietary analysis and adding in these extra items should help to improve their performance at this demanding time.

We have also had a new arrival at the yard with the birth of our first foal this year.  He's a real cheeky chappie!  His name is Vijay (meaning victory in Fijian) - we named him after the golfer Vijay Singh, as my fiancee is a keen golfer!  We tend to have lots of mares, so no doubt when he grows up he'll be causing a few fluttering eyelashes on the yard!  His dam is one of our young horses, who has an excellent pedigree and the sire, Marcolas G, belongs to Simon Nicholson - last year's Horse of the Year Foxhunter champion.

We have another foal who will be arriving shortly from another of our mares - so fingers crossed all goes well with that one too!

In between our busy show schedule, I was also invited to the British Horse Society's Instructors Convention on 13th May.  I was one of the "guinea pig riders" and took my 5 year old mare "Dollytraum" who is a very talented jumper.  The trainers were John Ledingham, Irish international showjumper and Naill Quirk, Irish international dressage rider.  We did lots of flat work, which is an essential training ingredient for producing a good showjumper.

Here is a round up of some of the highlights for the team over the past few weeks;

Northampton Area - 13th April

Whisper Magic came 1st in the 1.25m Open with Oksana W 2nd in the 1.35 Open

Teifi Valley 25th and 26th April

Whisper Magic came 2nd in the 1.30 Open, Oksana W came 5th in the 1.50 Area Trial and Dollytraum came first in her 5 year old class.

Leicester County 5th May

Whisper Magic was 2nd in the Accumulator with Oksana W 1st in the 1.40 Open

Devon County 16th and 17th May

Oksana W came 5th in the 1.50 Area Trial and 6th in the Renault Grand Prix

Quainton Stud Young Horse Show 20th May

We took a number of young horses to this show and they all did well.

Bicton 23rd - 25th May

Oksana W was 3rd in the 1.40 and 6th in the Grand Prix.  Whisper Magic was 1st in the 1.35 Open and Dauren van Orshoff was equal 1st in the 5 year old classes.

Bath and West 28th April - 31st May

Oksana W was 6th in the Area Trial and 8th in the Grand Prix.  Whisper Magic was 2nd and 3rd in the two 1.30 classes.

We are now off to the Royal Cornwall this week - so will keep you posted.  Bye for now!

Angie