August 2008

• Carl Hester Yard Visit
• Fun Ride Report
• July 2008 Area Dressage
• News from the ODE Team

Carl Hester Yard Visit

Nichole Baker

Well it’s 1.30pm on Friday afternoon and I’ve just been to The ‘Carl Hester’ Visit. Right now I’m not sure if I’m feeling inspired or just plain depressed.

There were 29 of us went to Carl’s new place at Highleadon – well there were actually 28 booked in so if the extra person would like to cough up their £25 that would be great! – and what a place it is! He has stabling for 20 horses, a horse walker, the most enormous outdoor school and an indoor school that must have cost more than my house complete with washing bays for the horses and a solarium. I am seriously considering selling said house and moving in there.

The morning flew by beginning with ‘the youngsters’ – Lucy on her own 5 yo, an extremely attractive black horse of Ferro blood lines and Winston Bond, a huge moving 5 yo bay gelding from the 007 lineage ridden by Charlotte du Jardin. Emphasis here (and in fact throughout the whole morning) was placed on having the horse in front of the leg, if the horse did not respond to a gentle aid he got a pretty sharp kick in the arse and sent forward at 90mph to remind him that THERE WOULD BE NO SLACKING IN THIS YARD!

Movistar and Being Bling – 2 stunning stallions followed (although Bling was looking rather thin “shagged out after all his marital duties” quote CH!). They were beginning to show the incredible suppleness and elasticity that they will need to develop to become Grand Prix horses. Carl seemed particularly keen on Movistar, a rather self-opinionated 7 yo horse that he is going to lend to Lucy to take to the U21s small tour this summer (lucky c**!). Movistar was one of the horses presented at the visit I made to his yard in January when Carl showed us how the horse tended not to have a 4-beat rhythm in the collected walk and how he would go about correcting it – by making the horse walk very, very slowly to encourage him to step through one foot at a time. I was interested but not surprised to see the huge improvement that the horse had made in this gait – I guess Carl must know what he’s talking about!

Speaking of changing a horse’s movement Carl advocates getting a horse that has a good walk and canter as it is the trot pace that can be manipulated the most (by going slow, slow, slow then forward, keeping the rhythm so that the horse has to take bigger steps – so easy when you see it being done) and that having a big moving horse is not necessarily a good thing as it is the more ‘ordinary’ (actually I think he used the word ‘normal’ this time) movers that can collect and perform the more difficult movements better and quicker.

We were also treated to lesson?/display? by Valegro – an old head on young shoulders who has THE most stunning canter you’ve ever seen. Then there was the chestnut mare (Carl went to buy a bay gelding after the sale of Escapado and came back with her – sounds like me in a supermarket – go in for a loaf of bread and come out with a bar of chocolate!) that he took to Spain this summer and won everything. Charlotte was riding her as Carl said that the mare can only stand him for so long then starts to get all stroppy (sound familiar chaps?) so he has to pass her back to the girls to ride.

Then finally there was his new chestnut horse (a client had bought it as a quiet schoolmaster after having a child and Carl decided she should let him ride it!!) which I have to say was as ‘normal’ as you could possibly get – an ordinary mover built slightly downhill (I was particularly glad to hear that as it is a fault my instructor says my horse has and that although ‘he’s quite nice he’ll never make the Olympics’! – perhaps I should give him to Carl!). Needless to say the poor creature had quite a bit of welly to keep his mind and body motivated cos he kept slipping into middle-aged lady mode. It will be fascinating to see how the horse progresses as to my untrained eye I couldn’t see for the life of me why Carl had picked it – probably to stop having to make all those teaching trips to Jersey!

There were many tips to take home – when asking a horse to bend its neck: bend, wait til the horse gives before straightening; when collecting the gait: wait for the horse to relax in the ‘slower’ pace before moving forward; don’t always go out and school, sometimes just go into the school and do stretching exercises; always be black and white in your requests & responses; and when schooling follow a pattern but don’t be rigid, allow for the personality and needs of your horse.

It was a fascinating morning – informative, funny, rather pointed at times (“There is nothing worse than seeing somebody sat there having to kick for all they’re worth to keep the horse going forward” – there were definitely a few red faces at this comment which I think we all took to heart so hopefully they’ll be a few less in the future!) but on reflection definitely, definitely inspiring.

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Fun Ride Report

Noel Ennett

On the 1st June a number of riders turned up at the stunning Charlton Abbots Estate (By kind permission of Edwin and Tristan Bailey) for the RC Fun Ride organised by club members Jan and Richard Jones
The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot.

The course was over about 6 miles of tracks around the estate and the entire track had been mown by Richard producing some fantastic going. There were long stretches where a good canter could be enjoyed, over open grass land or through the woods, and other areas where sedate walking, to take in the breath taking views, was the order of the day.

At the end of the ride, horses washed off, we all sat down in the sun to enjoy fantastic food prepared by Sue (I nominate Sue as official club cook! ) I am sure I speak for all those who attended in saying what a fantastic relaxing enjoyable time was had to and pass on sincere thanks to Jan and Richard for the planning and organisation, and to Sue for the lovely food. To all those who didn’t join us, well you missed out on a superb ride.

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July 2008 Area Dressage

July seemed to be “the month” to hold an area qualifier, we have been bombarded with the Dressage to Music 5th July, Novice Dressage 13th July and Open Dressage 20th July, followed up with the area show jumping 27th July , so a big thank you to those who have managed to fit in one or more qualifiers and the training that goes with it, to say nothing of the expense of entries and diesel to get to events.

The D2M was great fun and a first for many of us. Sue Owen stepped up to the mark as usual and helped with the prelim entries and team training and filled in with Kevin as a last minute replacement when someone dropped out. My thanks go to her, without Sue’s help we wouldn’t have managed to compete at all. (Long story, involving slow builder, no fixed abode, a holiday and work - all very tedious!)
Full report from Becky Northover in next month’s newsletter.

Open Dressage – We sent two teams to the Open Qualifier at West Littleton, nr Bath:

Berkeley & DRC hosted the day, and as usual a great venue, if a little windy, but the weather was dry, the hay had been cut and we weren’t worried about team members having to get through the floods to get there this year. BDRC had done a great job with the times and everyone was riding between 10.40 and 12.20 it really encouraged some team spirit, which can often be lacking in dressage, nerves were eased by the support of other team members and some really nice tests were ridden.

20 teams were entered, each consisting of 4 riders, each riding a different test, three novice and 1 elementary, per team, with the best three scores to count. Some very smart horses were on display, and some very nice tests were ridden, I felt that we did a really good job, all our riders were at the 60% mark and the teams came 12th and 16th.

Of note, Ron and Rhythmic moved up to Novice and nearly pulled it off, but a mishap in the medium canter really pegged his marks back, a pity, even the judge was “gutted”, Becky Northover, stepped up a level to do the elementary test at the last minute and gave it a really good effort, Megan and Michelle came closest to getting placed - they were 7th and 9th respectively in their arena, Heather produced an obedient test on Dutch and he stayed in the arena, so all his connections were happy, Sian and Jenny both having stepped up to Novice this year, had good tests, and Noel and Hazza did the Elementary, and in spite of the lack of practice and Noel saying I don’t really enjoy dressage, they came away with 62%. Well done to you all, and thanks for an enjoyable day.

Full results from the Open qualifier can be viewed through the Berkeley website www.bdrc.org.uk

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News From The ODE Team

Meg Morgan

As the BRC Horse Trials National Championships on 9&10th August draw closer the Cheltenham Chasers are putting the finishing touches to their training and excitement mounts!

Lucy and Lauren have been to the BE ODE at Ascot Under Wychwood at the beginning of July as an interim run and both did very well. Lucy finished a creditable 9th and Lauren finished 6th in an Intro Regional Final on her dressage score of 25.3! In fact Laurens performance meant that she had qualified for the BE National Championships!! Unfortunately these championships run on 9/10th August (the same dates as our BRC championships) which left Lauren with a bit of a dilemma…. But I’m delighted to say that Lauren has stuck by her team and is coming with us to Offchurch! – you won’t regret it Lauren – I hope!!

We have practiced our test in the long arena in Sharon’s field to ensure that the three mile trek up the centre line doesn’t come as a shock to either us or our horses! Michelle and me had some further practice on grass as we were on teams for the Area Open Dressage qualifiers and just missed out on a place with some strong competition!

Lauren and I have been up to look at the course at Offchurch whilst a Pony Club Qualifier was being run, and were very impressed with the venue. Well built fences set in beautiful parkland – you could be forgiven for thinking your were at Badminton! It only took 1hr 15 mins to get there (but I was driving!) so don’t be shy if you want to come and cheer us on. If anyone wants more info, give me a call / text / email?

After much rearranging, we all gathered at Lucy’s gorgeous home for a very entertaining and motivational evening of education with Carole Broad. Carole shared with us her valuable knowledge and experience of the Road and Tracks phase (A, B and C) covering some very obvious points that we hadn’t even considered i.e. through tarmac sections don’t anticipate trotting if you normally stud up ….. ding!

This lead to an evening at Court Farm to assess our speeds at walk, trot, canter and a faster canter to enable us to better anticipate the paces to employ on the R&T. The occasion even generated an audience, and although they were heard to heckle during the walk and trot phases, they cheered up once we got galloping!

All four of us went off in the heat to the show jumping area qualifiers this weekend, albeit with Lucy in her valuable hostess role administering bucks fizz to all who looked like flagging – I for one felt very faint!! The lovely Hal was left at home having some valuable rest in the run up to “the big day”.

Lauren (open) Michelle (intermediate) & I (novice) put our best feet forward in temperatures in the 30’s, jumped lovely clear 1st rounds – & all had a pole or two down in the second round!!! After our fantastic clear rounds at Broadway, it just goes to show you can’t rest on your Laurens’ (pun intended!) This week it’s off to Newbarn Equestrian Centre for a play over steeplechase fences (at speed!), then another run through the dressage before stepping down the training, recharging our horses batteries and letting them build up valuable reserves for Aug 10th.

Team saddle cloths, polo shirts and hat silks are on order, kindly sponsored by Mis en Place, stopwatches have been bought and Henry has a new diamante brow band for the dressage!
Did I mention I was excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!