Alice Oppenheimer

Building up to the climax of the summer season

June has been a bit quieter than the previous months, but we were still fairly busy with all of the horses and starting to prepare for the climax of the summer season.

As Dream (Headmore Dream On) just missed out on completing her elementary qualification at the end of May, we took her to Merrist Wood on Friday 3rd June in the hope that we would get the last two points that she needed to finish it off. We had just got our lorry back from being re-sprayed on the Thursday, but thankfully Mum was driving so it was her fault if anything happened to it!

It was a beautiful day, if anything a little bit too hot, but we weren’t on until late afternoon so it was quite pleasant by the time we got to it. Dream warmed up well and felt amazing by the time we were ready to go in. She then did a lovely test in the elementary, by far the best she had ever done, and we were just hoping that the judge thought the same! Thankfully, the judge did and we scored a massive 75% to win and complete Dream’s elementary qualification so she is now all done and dusted for the summers.

We then had a little break before we did our second test, which was an elementary to music, so we had a chance to cool down! I was hoping for a good score in this test as she had been so fab in the first test, but you never know what is going to happen with horses! It was the first music test we had done together and, once again, I was using my favourite Lion King music which we thought really suited Dream. She was amazing in the test and she really enjoyed going to music, she felt as though she had a smile on her face the whole way round! We scored a massive 84.38%, which is the highest score I have ever had! She has now also qualified for the elementary music regional for the winters as well, talk about getting organised!

The following week was one of those weeks where the phrase ‘it never rains but it pours’ has never been more true... and I’m not talking about the weather (although we did have some much needed rain)! It started on Monday 6th when the vet came out to look at our embryo transfer mare that hadn’t yet foaled. She looked in foal but had gone so overdue that we were worried. The reason she hadn’t foaled was because it turns out she isn’t in foal after all, she has obviously just wintered very well as even the vet was surprised! We are just thankful that we did ask for both embryos to be implanted because at least we still have one foal, Drama, but that can happen with embryo transfer foals.

We then took Del (Headmore Delegate) to Wellington for their premier league show on Tuesday 7th for the PSG. Mum went to fill the lorry up with fuel in the morning and when she got back we noticed a fuel leak. Thankfully, a number of our liveries offered to let us use their lorries, so we still managed to make it there on time. Del warmed up well but was quite spooky in the test. I knew he would be because Wellington is quite spooky and we only wanted to get him in the ring before the Inter I on Thursday. He still finished 4th with 66.67%, so it wasn’t all bad!

Then on Wednesday, to add to our week, a couple of lovely little piggys literally arrived on our doorstep! It turns out that they had escaped from next door and somehow made their way down to us. My sister and I wanted to keep them but Mum said no and it’s probably a good thing because some of the horses really couldn’t cope with them!

We then took Del back to Wellington on Thursday 9th for the Inter I. I asked for a bit more from him in the warm up as I was going for an all or nothing test. He felt amazing as I went into the ring and he wasn’t spooky as he had been in there earlier in the week. The test was going well until the second shoulder in when a load of water fell off the roof of the stands right in front of him, which he understandably spooked at. Unfortunately he then kept spooking in that corner for the rest of the test so once he had gone into the spooky corner nicely I patted him and called it a day, but some of his work had been fantastic! So it was definitely just one of those weeks, but thankfully it did get back to normal (or as normal as we can be)!

On Sunday 19th, we made the most out of having qualified all of the horses that needed to be qualified for the summers by taking Roxy (Headmore Roxanne), a 5 year old mare by Keystone Rhondeo out of the same mare as Del, out to her first ever show. We hadn’t been planning to take her out to a party yet, but she had come on so much in such a short space of time that we thought we might as well! Roxy had only ever been on a lorry once before (when she had to go and have a tooth out) but she loaded like a pro and travelled beautifully! She was impeccably behaved when we were tacking her up and was absolutely perfect in the warm up even though she had never seen anything like that before! It was like she had been doing it her whole life and it was just another outing! The only time she was slightly less than perfect was when we first went into the competition arena because she had never seen white boards or mirrors so the first circuit was not quite on the track! Once she had seen them, however, she was absolutely fine and she did settle, although it was quite green and wobbly, which was understandable I think! Once she had settled into it and relaxed, she went beautifully and I think she will be very rideable in the arena. She finished 4th which we were pleased with as it was her first party and we also had many comments about how smart she was, I think she is only going to get better and as she was that well behaved at her first show I think she will end up being very successful!

Then, with the Internationals at Hartpury and Hickstead looming, we took both boys to Hickstead Premier League for a last run through and hopefully a confidence building outing. We arrived at Hickstead in the middle of an absolute downpour, so we were greeted with lots and lots of mud, but luckily we were parked right out the back of the lorry park where there was no mud! Del was on first in the Inter I on Thursday 23rd and he warmed up well, especially considering we got a little bit damp! I was quite pleased with the test; he was just a bit nervous in the Hickstead International arena which led to a few wobbles here and there. We still scored 69.74% and finished a close 2nd, so it wasn’t bad for his first test at Hickstead. The only test I had on Friday 24th was with Del in the Inter I again, but I wasn’t on until 7.56 in the evening, last in, so we had all day to ourselves. I rode both boys in the morning and then Mum and I walked over to the show jumping part to do a bit of shopping. It was lucky that Del had won some money! We also watched a good friend of ours, Sam Roberts, in the showing for some time as well. When we eventually started to get ready, we did manage to ‘wake up’ and switch on for the test. He felt much more confident than on the previous day, we just had a slight mistake in the 3’s but the overall test felt a different league to the day before. We scored 69.56% and won the class, meaning that Del is now completely qualified for the Nationals, so he won’t have to go to the regionals.

We then had a lovely evening with friends and a rather large amount of wine was consumed (not by me I hasten to add!) before we had more rain on Friday night so everywhere that had dried up got all wet and sticky again. Wellies were definitely the ‘in’ look at Hickstead! Del was on first in the Inter I on Saturday 25th, I had decided to run him in it as it was in a different arena. He warmed up phenomenally, he was really confident having been there for a few days. Unfortunately, as I went into the other arena he backed off me a bit as it was a different arena, which led to quite a few mistakes. We still scored just below 67% to finish 9th, so all in all it was a very good week for Del.

Wiz (Wurlizer) was then on in the Grand Prix and my sole aim was to get him round the test confidently as we had been having a bit of a blip. He was really enjoying himself and was very excited to be out at a party again! I was pleased with the test as he was really taking me and he seemed happy and confident throughout. We had loads of mistakes, which kept the score down, but they were only through him being over enthusiastic and offering too much, so I wasn’t worried about them. A lot of people also said to me that they thought my score was a bit harsh, but I wasn’t bothered as I was pleased with how he had gone and thrilled that he had felt so willing throughout the whole test, job done!

So, all in all, it was a very successful week at Hickstead and we can now look forward to Hartpury and Hickstead Internationals!

Alice