Mike Jackson

Starting the month off on a good note

May started off on a good note with a win for Superius (Dennis) and Wish Upon A Star (Whiz) in their novice sections at Moreton Morrell.

Both the stallions took part in the stallion parade at Badminton the following day, which was an excellent opportunity to show off their talents, and ultimately of course, to market them. Whiz is attracting a lot of interest this year, and his current form is certainly helping. Ellie rode Up With the Lark (Max) who also behaved impeccably and was surrounded by his usual fan club.

Jagganath (Jack), Silver Dancer (Thunder) and Daisy Duke went well at Aston-Le-Walls. Jack and Daisy came 8th and 9th respectively in their intermediate sections, and Thunder showed his consistency with a respectable 3rd in the novice.

Christopher and Julia Jenkin’s mare Downleadon (Minx) had her first outing with me at Mattingley finishing 2nd on a dressage score of 28.6 in the open novice. I actually finished on the same score as the leader, and even had the same collective marks in the dressage, but I was one second further away from the optimum time so lost by a whisker!

Sadly my purple patch came to an abrupt end at Brigstock. Robbie Be Good and Jack both did lovely tests in the intermediate, and show jumped well, but frustratingly I managed to have silly falls off both of them in the cross country! My new air jacket went off twice, and it started to get a bit expensive as you have to get a new canister each time! Daisy Duke also did the intermediate, and went well in the first two phases but I decided to withdraw her before the cross country because the course wasn’t riding well. Despite the rotten start to the day things did improve, Minx finished 8th in the novice with another speedy cross country round.

Back home in Cold Aston I’ve been busy doing lots of flat work with Trudi Robinson, and taking the young horses out and about. Wonder Wall (Wally) takes a trip up to Bramham next month to do the Burghley Young Event Horse class and Max joins him for the ride to take part in the stallion parade.

And finally we’ve got a new addition to the family: Ellie’s mare Lady of Aragon (Katie) has had a lovely filly by Wish Upon a Star – both mother and daughter are doing well.

Mike

May 2009