Alice Oppenheimer

Qualifiers, Diamond Jubilee, Boris and Polo make a very busy month!

A lot has gone on over the past month despite having not done many competitions! We took a collection of young horses to Crofton Manor for the Shearwater young dressage horse qualifiers in the hope that we would get a few more qualified for Hartpury.

Mischief (Tantoni White Mischief) owned by Georgina Pole-Carew, did her first show and was impeccably behaved in the four year olds to just miss out on qualifying. Tank (Headmore Wimoweh) owned by Joanne Graham-Whelan, was far more confident at Crofton as it was his second outing and he finished a confident 2nd to get his ticket to Hartpury. We also took Doris (Headmore Daydreamer) for the 6 year olds. It was quite an ask for her as she has only been doing a few prelims up till then, but she coped very well to finish 3rd and also qualify for Hartpury, so not a bad days work!

Also, as the summer qualifying season is drawing to a close slightly quicker than normal (due to the Olympics it is finishing two weeks early) we took a couple of novice horses to Crofton to try and get some more points for their regional qualification. Future (Future’s Agessi) with Malene managed to get plenty more points towards their qualification with two good scores including a win and Doris (Headmore Daydreamer) with Gayle were only on their first novice outing but still managed a first and a second place with two good scores getting them well on their way to gaining their qualification.

After Crofton we had a couple more trips out trying to get the Novice qualifications. The first was a trip to Fair Oak Grange. It proved to be a rather frustrating day as the judges were very low scoring but Doris still managed another win and a few more points towards her qualification. The other was at Quob in the glorious sunshine while we were all enjoying the hot weather. This was also a first outing for one of our liveries who hadn’t competed for 15 years! She and her horse Cyril (Ulsterman) did a fantastic job on their first outing and should be well away now they have got their first show out of the way. Malene and Future also had a good show, winning the first class and finishing third in the second class with two good scores, thus completing her first ever qualification for the regionals. Gayle and Doris also had a fantastic show with a wonderful Novice test to win with nearly 72%, meaning that she now only needs one more point to complete their qualification for the regionals, meaning that we are very nearly there with the young horses!

Unfortunately, I am not that organised getting my advanced horses qualified as I had to miss Somerford Park premier league having already missed the other premier leagues of the season. I don’t seem to be having much luck with the premier leagues so there will be quite a lot of pressure on in June, but fingers crossed it all goes well.

Various other exciting things have occurred. I had my cast taken off my hand, not a moment too soon as far as I was concerned, although the doctor advised to stay away from the horses for another three weeks, not likely as I had been riding for four of the five weeks it had been broken!

I had a lovely evening out with my sister and one of our liveries at Windsor for the Diamond Jubilee pageant of the horse. It was a fantastic evening celebrating a tremendous milestone for the Queen, and it was very exciting. We were lucky enough to see the Queen arrive at Windsor before we had a delicious meal in one of the pavilions. The performance itself was entitled 60 years in 90 minutes and included numerous equine displays from various countries that the Queen has visited during her reign. It was interesting to see how other cultures train their horses and it was immensely enjoyable to watch. There were many famous faces there and it seemed a perfect way to commemorate her Majesty’s incredible achievement.

We have also had our first foal. Jaffa (Windermere), who is Wizard’s full sister, had an absolutely stunning chestnut colt by Belissimo M. He is absolutely gorgeous with a white face and four white legs, markings that I have always wanted, and being related to both Bracks and Wizard means that he is ultra, mega cuddly! We have named him Braithwaite, or Boris for short.

It has also been quite full on at the yard as we have been trying to get organised with the four mares that are being used for embryo transfer this year. We were hoping to try and synchronise all of the mares and bring them all into season at the same time, but unfortunately they didn’t quite play ball and the only horse who was spot on with the timing was Bracks (Headmore Boadicia) who has been put to Florencio so fingers crossed there is an embryo when she is flushed out later this week. Doris was also inseminated this week by De Niro and let’s hope that she also has an embryo when she is flushed next week. That just leaves two mares left to cover, Donna (Headmore Donato) who is owned by Nicky Twiddy and Gayle’s show jumper Dolly, fingers crossed that we manage to catch them next time.

I had a day away from dressage as well... at the polo! I went with a friend of mine, Kerri, who is a polo groom to watch a charity match with the best of British under 25 in which Nick, who Kerri works for, was playing. The weather was gorgeous and Kerri and I spent the morning bathing the ponies for the match. It was a very exciting game watching some of the best young British players and I really enjoyed a day off the yard doing something a bit different!

Alice