Mike Jackson

Team Jackson’s purple patch continues

Team Jackson’s purple patch continued at Osberton – Equestrian Direct’s Direct Mission (Arden) won the tightly contested one star and the Toogood’s The Master’s Apprentice (Archie) came third in the two star.

We were blessed with lovely weather, super going and both horses felt on top form. Arden lay equal first after the dressage but was closer to the optimum time cross-country, so nudged just ahead on the leader-board going into what was a very tense show jumping arena. It didn’t faze him though and thankfully all the jumps stayed up giving Team Jackson our second three-day win.

Archie felt classy in the two star - his dressage test had star quality as did his cross country with just an unlucky pole in the show jumping. Wallaby (Wally) also went well in the CIC* 6 year-old section at Osberton although his lack of mileage was clear in the dressage as he was tense in the main arena atmosphere. However he jumped well and certainly learnt from the experience.

Sadly our winning streak didn’t last at Weston Park despite Billy Be Cool (BBC) leading the dressage. Unfortunately he had a couple of green moments on the cross-country so I decided to save him for another day.

Results-wise Broadway was a bit average but I was pleased with Chantelle Souness’ young horse Athene (Dutch). Although relatively inexperienced he did an encouraging test and jumped well - showing all the signs of being a star of the future.

Billy Be Cool (Billy) had another educational outing in the intermediate at Aldon and I was really pleased to have Daisy Duke (Daisy) back for a one-off run. She’s a horse I produced and sold to young rider Adam Harvey a couple of years ago. Her double clear and fourth rosette in the intermediate was a nice way to finish off the season.

Mike