Mike Jackson

Excellant prep for Bramham, now its the real thing!

We were thrilled with Billy Be Cool’s (BBC) performance in the Novice Regional Final at Aston-le-Walls, which qualified him for the Novice Championships at Gatcombe.

I also had my first ride on Tickles at Tweseldown - a lovely mare owned by Nickie Mathias. Tickles is already showing great promise jumping double clear at both Tweseldown and Brand Hall CIC* and also going well in the Intermediate at Pontispool.

Sea Summer Bay (Paddy) also jumped double clear in the CIC* at Brand Hall, which made up for a slightly uncharacteristic outing at Tweseldown where he was a bit fresh due to a lack of runs because of the wet weather.

Jagganath (Jack) and Kangasong (Joey) both had super ‘Bramham prep’ runs in the advanced at Little Downham. Geographically speaking it’s not ideal for us but it was worth the journey - the going was perfect and they both enjoyed their trips round. Jagganath (Jack) finished in a respectable 8th position and Kangasong (Joey) came 11th giving him advanced points.

I’ve also been lucky enough to have been given a promising Up With The Lark youngster called Larket Hill (Boris) owned by Liz Wills - who I’m hoping to do some Burghley Young Event Horse classes with this summer.

I’m looking forward to riding Up With The Lark (Max) in the stallion parade at Bramham especially as he’s now based at Stanley Grange Stud full time so we don’t often have the chance to enjoy him.

The ‘A team’ are ready for the main event – Jagganath’s (Jack) in the CCI*** and Kangasong (Joey) is in the star studded CIC*** section, which includes many of the prospective Olympic horses who missed runs at Badminton. Both are on top form, so fingers crossed the weather holds and it all goes to plan.

You can follow our progress on Twitter (mikejeventing) or on the news feed of my website mikejacksoneventing.com.