Mike Jackson

Go, go, go!!

It’s been go go go over the last few weeks – training, eventing (at last) and getting my new website up and running. You can check it out at mikejacksoneventing.com: I’m really pleased with it and I’d like to thank Lucy Graham and Charlie Jewitt for all their help.

I’m hoping to be able to put lots of photos and videos up so that my owners can keep track of what their horses are doing. It also allows me to showcase Up With The Lark, who’s had a lot of interest since we took him to the Expo stallion event in February.

Following some good runs at Tweseldown with Burlington Boy (Bertie), The Masters Apprentice (Archie), Yorkie’s Delight (Yorkie) and Moon Walk II (Ace), Aldon was less inspiring… and I have to say that last weekend, I nearly changed my mind about being an event rider. I spent the night before in the bathroom with food poisoning, and then it rained all day making it very wet and muddy! Despite the miserable conditions Archie and Downleadon (Minx) coped well, but frustratingly I managed to get myself eliminated on the cross country with Archie jumping the alternative the wrong way round.

However, things really picked up at Gatcombe. Yorkie went double clear in the Open Novice and Minx came third in the Intermediate. Her show jumping has really improved this year and she was her normal speedy self cross country. I was also really pleased with Yorkie, who is new to me this year, and despite only having had him a few weeks I feel like we’re striking up a real partnership.

Prior to my first two events I took Minx to an Equine Pathway session at the Unicorn Centre, which was a great motivator at the beginning of the season. I’ve also been out with some of the young horses cross country schooling and jumping, and I’m looking forward to bringing them out later in the season.

Sadly we lost a dear friend this week, Bertie - Ellie’s legendary Jack Russell - had to be put down at the grand old age of seventeen. It certainly won’t be the same without him.