Charlie Pickman

June 2010

Both the horses are currently having a well deserved break after competing at Houghton Hall 3 day event, and I have taken the opportunity to do dentistry trips to Leicester and Guernsey. I am currently in Guernsey writing this by the sea, so in a lovely setting, but unfortunately it is cloudy! When I come over I usually I return on the Friday night, but this time Claire (my girlfriend) is coming over for the weekend to have a look round and take a trip to the smaller island of Sark. It will be good for us to have a relaxing horse free weekend to chill out and come back refreshed.

Viking had his back checked, which was fine, but he has had a virus which explained his disappointing performance at Weston Park. He’s had a few quiet weeks to recover and then we had to decide whether or not to run him at Houghton Hall in the 2* as originally planned. It was a gamble to take him without another run since Weston, but I took him cross country schooling and he felt back to his normal bouncy self. The gamble paid off as he was foot perfect all week finishing on his dressage score of 55.3 and finished 5th. I was a little disappointed with his dressage mark as I was really pleased with his test, but we’ll keep working to try and give the judges what they want to see. He’s now done two 2* finishing 5th and 8th with double clears - not bad for an 8 year old. To top that off he’s topped the 100 points mark, having gained 109 points to date. Coming up we have planned Barbary CIC**, Aston le Walls Advanced 8/9 year old class, Gatcombe Championships in August, and Blenheim in September.

Billy has been on a big learning curve, having to be so grown up at his first 3 day at Houghton Hall, and getting used to me sitting to the trot. He is a big horse and the trot work is taking a while, which has meant a couple of his dressage tests have been a little tense. His worst mark has been 38 in competitive classes, so far from disastrous. We have, however, had a breakthrough with his jumping, doing a super double clear at Hambledon in the Novice Regional Final. The key has been keeping him steady and slow, and so giving him time to work things out. He went well at Houghton scoring 55.4 in the dressage and just having one show jump down. He was out of the placings, but it was still very pleasing to see how he coped with the big occasion of a 3 day event. However, he did find the trot up particularly exciting! He is now ready to move up to Intermediate which he will do at Glanusk, a new event in Wales, at the beginning of July. He also has a couple more Novice Regional Finals coming up at Milton Keynes and Stockland Lovell to try and qualify him with Viking for the Championships at Gatcombe in August.

Also ‘Buster’ has arrived - Dazzler’s 2nd foal. Dazzler was huge and heavy, and as he was 4 days late she was so glad when he finally came. He is a tall, strong foal with very long legs and a cheeky coltish character. He seems to enjoy life and everything has to be investigated and played with! At 3 weeks he is now standing at 11hh and growing fast. His legs have taken a bit of time to straighten as they were tightly wrapped up inside the mare, but they are looking a lot better now. They certainly haven’t stopped him galloping, bucking and bouncing around the paddock. Hopefully both he and Summer will be successful event horses in years to come. Summer is now 2 years old, stands over 16hh, and is filling out.

With lots of events planned in the next couple of months I will make the most of this little holiday - sun, sea and fabulous seafood in Guernsey - as it will be all go again when I get back on Monday.

Charlie