Mike Jackson

Foal number six for Ladies First

June’s been a fairly relaxed month event-wise which hasn’t been a bad thing with the heat wave and the firm ground.

Minx (Downleadon), Wish Upon A Star (Whiz) and Pepper Mill (Milly) all had an successful outing at Great Tew (one of my favorite events). Minx came fourth in the novice and Whiz finished 10th in the novice regional final, which qualifies him for the Novice Championships at Gatcombe in August.

We had another hot and busy weekend at Longleat: Minx, Jagganath (Jack), and Whiz all went extremely well in the intermediate, which was particularly pleasing as the cross country course caused a number of problems. The course designer had built a sunken crocodile in the second water and for some reason a number of horses seemed to be misjudging it. Thankfully mine all took it on confidently, and zoomed round the rest of the course making it feel easy. Jack and Whiz were rewarded for their efforts with a tenth rosette in their respective sections, and Minx finished 14th. Robbie also did the dressage but I withdrew him before the jumping as he missed some fitness work prior to the event.

The younger crew went to Milton Keynes last weekend to do the Burghley Young Event Horse class. Milly jumped well in the five year old class finishing 3rd - frustratingly just missing out on qualifying for the final. Wonderwall (Wally), Harry The Viking (Harry) and Interlode (Netty) all did the 4 year old class but were a little bit green to finish in the ribbons.

In other news….my advanced mare Ladies First has just had foal number six - a bay colt by Wish Upon A Star! She’s had three fillies on the trot so we were quite pleased to see him!

Mike

7th July 2009