Charlie Pickman

End of Season Diary

“The summer season has been brilliant! I won the use of a brand new Mitsubishi Shogun Sport for a year and tickets to Cheltenham Festival for next year, by coming 1st and 2nd in the Stately Homes Challenge. The car arrived the other week and it is fantastic! My thanks go to Mrs Benney for organising this prize for me. I am making the most of having a new car, whilst I have it – I don’t think I will be able to afford it after the year is up!

After Nanny won the Intermediate section at Longleat we thought it would be a one off, but she followed this up with another good win at Wilton – beating another of Dengie’s sponsored riders – William Fox-Pitt by just 0.1 penalties. William had a very good dressage score, but Nanny piped him with her speed cross country! We where so pleased with her! These results were a great achievement as she hasn’t been the easiest ride, but she has proven that it was worth persevering with her!

Dazzler, whom I jointly own with my parents, has done 2 more advanced classes, but the extra height, width and technicality have been a big step up for her. Unfortunately at the Gatcome Park Championships she misinterpreted one of the combinations, which ended up with her going down a ditch and through a dry stone wall! The course was stopped for nearly half an hour whilst the course builders worked very fast to rebuild the fence – nothing like this had ever happened at Gatcombe before – so I guess that is something to claim! The good news is that neither of us came out with serious injuries – just some superficial cuts and bruises. Dazzler has made a good recovery and is now on her winter hols. She will be back in work in the spring. I hope you enjoy the pictures captured by a spectator!

Meg has moved up a level as well and is thriving on the challenge of the bigger fences. She also went to the Nationals at Gatcombe where she was doing her first full advanced. Both the show jumping and cross country were big and technical, made even more so by all the spectators – something she had not seen much of before! Unfortunately in the cross country phase she was more interested at looking at the trade stands than the first fence, and I could not get her anywhere near it! Thankfully we got over it on the second attempt, so just gained 20 penalties. She went on to jump the rest of the course with ease. As she had just one down in the show jumping we thought this was a very successful debut! Meg also did the CIC** at Gatcombe in September, where after having a disappointing dressage mark she improved by 60 places with a good double clear to finish 25th and just in the placings. It is nice to know that a good jumping horse can still do well with a mediocre dressage!

A new horse to my “string” this year is Captain. He has done well at Novice level coming in the top 6 in his last five events. He even got a dressage score of 29 at Monmouth which really pleased us. He has improved a lot, particularly in his canter work, which is now a lot stronger. We are planning to do an Intermediate with him, and then a Novice 2 day to finish the season.

Squiggle is still having problems with water – which is such a shame as her dressage and show jumping have been consistently good. We are planning to work with her through the winter and aim to take her “swimming” and possibly hunting to help her get over her fears of this element. She will jump into water when schooling but not at an event – so I am hopeful we can get her through this issue. She could be a top horse in any sphere.

We are now nearing the end of the season with only Tweseldown and Aldon left to go. Hopefully I can finish on a good note like last year! We are already planning next year – I would love to qualify Meg for a 3-star level event and if she is ready then aim her for Blenheim! Watch this space!

Charlie Pickman”.