Charlie Pickman

Charlie Counts Down to Blenheim!

Meg has now begun her campaign to get to Blenheim and it is all going well so far.  Her hocks have been improving and strengthening with the work she has been doing and I am confident that she is still capable of competing at three and hopefully four star level.  She has recently been to Stockland Lovell and Wilton, both in the Open Intermediate classes.  At Stockland Lovell, she jumped a double clear and at Wilton uncharacteristically had once fence down show jumping but flew around the cross country.  At both events I didn't go too fast cross country as they were both warm up runs for Hartpury, but she finished 10th at Stockland Lovell and 16th at Wilton.  At both events she found the cross country easy so I'm thoroughly looking forward to Hartpury which is a CIC***.  Then if all goes to plan it will be Blenheim in September.

Viking has had a short holiday for the past couple of weeks as he has had a busy year and he has come back into work better than ever.  Before his holiday he went to Barbary Castle where he again jumped a double clear.  Although he did a reasonable dressage of 34.3 and finished on his dressage score, he just missed being placed - getting 11th.  The scores in his section were very close as the winner was on 29.5.  If only his canter work had been a little more relaxed in the dressage he would have been in contention.  I now feel he is ready to move up to intermediate and will do so in September.

Billy (pictured above) has been the superstar of the month as he won the Burghley Young Event Horse Qualifier at Chard Show.  He was given an exceptional mark of 39 out of 40 for his jumping, and backed up with good dressage and conformation marks he won comfortably.  He is still very green so I don't have any plans for any events with him yet, but am looking forward to taking him to Burghley for the final in September.

Summer the foal has been growing, feeding, playing and growing some more!  She is showing good movement and attitude.  She has her moments when she gets a bit big for her boots, with hooves flying past our ears, but she has been getting the hang of leading and has generally been very good.  She has recently been rearing up and putting her hooves on Dazzler's neck in an attempt to get her to play, but "Mum" just shrugs her off and munches the grass!

All in all, August has been a good month so far.  Fingers crossed for Burghley and hopefully Blenheim!

Charlie

August 08