Out again at last!

First outing of the year today- down to SNEC for their unaff SJ show. Decided to enter the 85cm class (comfort zone!) and be brave and enter the 95cm class also.

Not very busy- was everyone else staying in as it was so cold?! ;) Had a nervy first round in the 85cm but Heidi saved the day at a couple of fences where I'd panicked and not quite found the right stride and we went clear. A nice speedy jump off (she loves these the best!) and some tight lines kept us in the lead until the 2nd last horse went and just pipped us to it by 2s. Very happy with 2nd place though as George definitely had his BSJA hat on and was building up to height!

Decided to do the 95cm first round but w/d if the jumps got scary big in the jump off. Thankfully didn't need to worry- but for a good reason! ;) Only four of us in the class, with us last to go. The first three all picked up 4 faults each and a more relaxed and more flowing clear round gave us first place and red rosette without needing to panic about big jumps in the jump off or wimp out! ;)

There was a photographer there today, so look forward to seeing the pics when they go online. :) (sadly our usual personal paparazzo had a prior engagement so no Bob pics! :( )

Merry Christmas?! ;)

Well for Team Hopalong it was on Thursday as we got "our" new saddle at last! :D A lovely Chrismas present from my husband and parents, we were supposed to get it delivered and fitted right at the start of January, but the snow scuppered that plan.

Here's Hopalong modelling it after our first hack out in it. :) It's a Kent & Masters jump saddle and very adjustable for both her (changeable gullets) and me (blocks are on velcro so can swap between flatwork and jumping set up).

Off to SNEC on Sunday to try it out jumping. :)

Team Hopalong find fame at last?!

Last September, Team Hopalong were fortunate enough to win a XC lesson with Ian Stark at Hendersydwe Park, Kelso, courtesy of HORSE magazine. Even more exciting, this months magazine has a 5-page spread covering the lesson, including lots of photos featuring green grass, blue skies and sunshine... I can almost remember what all three are like! ;)

Ww will be digging out the article to read before our first XC competition this year and hopefully put Ian's words of wisdom into practice. :)

Happy New Year! (January cancelled!)

Happy New Year and all the best to everyone for 2010 from Team Hopalong. :)

As per the rest of the country, we are suffering a lack of normality due to the "Big Freeze". This means we've not been riding since 17th Dec and everything takes twice as long to do- defrosting the car, breaking ice on water troughs, spreading hay in the field as grass well and truly buried etc. Hopefully we'll see a "Big Thaw" soon and we can go back to complaining about the mud! ;)

So all plans for January have been cancelled and I think Heidi is enjoying being a lady of leisure. At least she's still able to get turned out 7am-4pm each day as normal or she'd be going stir crazy (like I am with the lack of riding!).

Had a "mild" couple of hours yesteday afternoon when the sun came out (I know it doesn't look it, but photos were taken on my wee camera phone!) so thought I'd let Heidi enjoy a wee break from her rug, thinking she might enjoy a naked roll etc... no, she just wanted to stand and eat!

Had a battle to get her to stand and let me put her rug back on again- think she was quite happy without!- but then got a lovely photo of her being interested in a fox trying to catch a rabbit for dinner next door.

So I'm afraid it will be a quiet month for us until we get rid of the snow/ice and can get fit again and out and about.

1st Blog Post! 2009 Round Up

Before we get all excited about 2010, here's a quick round up of 2009. :)

January- Team Hopalong were just starting out their competitive "career" with some unaffiliated dressage and SJ. Rosettes aplenty with the SJ... not so much with the dressage! ;)

February- We took part in two of Les Smith's Arena Events at Dabbs (now Howe Country Centre) and had fun, not fast enough for a placing at the 1st and not clear enough at the 2nd! :p

March- Team Hopalong had their first taste of XC up at Strathearn Eventing with Sarah Houlden, a great day and we covered almost every possible type of XC fence!

April- We took part in our first competitive XC outing at Montrave HT, the giddy heights of 75cm! ;) A lovely clear round, but 1min over the optimum time gave us 6th place! :) A trip to Craigie HT was next and having realised we could jump, we kicked on and came home under the optimum time! 2nd place after a long wait for results, our support crew/'tog was not convinced the hanging around was worth it, but we were! :)

May- We took part in the first of a number of BE training days with David Gatherer. This one was at Scone and we had a ball getting to go round and play over the Intro fences, maybe the mad notion of doing a BE competitively wasn't such a mad one after all?! We also did the Doune pick-a-fence XC where we were able to test ourselves over bigger fences but with a "get out" option! Only one "get out" option required at the horrid skinny pimple, but great round the rest.

June- Another BE training day, this time at Oatridge, this time being brave enough to jump some of the PN fences and even a few Novice! :D

July- The third of our BE training days at Hopetoun, this time mostly jumping the PN fences (and a couple of their kinder Novice fences!), camera man enjoyed the below moment but pleased to say we stayed together and did it with a bit more style the next time as shown in 2nd photo! ;)


















We had a busy month, meeting up with Anna and Indie for a ride along the beach at Dunbar, doing some outdoors dressage and SJ at North Lammermuir's show (and earning our first dressage rosette, 3rd!) and then completing our first ODE at Dalmeny unaff 90cm event, it was very wet and soggy, but we came away with 5th place. :)

August- Our first BE! We headed off to Strathallan Intro and although the less said about the dressage the better (Heidi found it all very exciting!), we completed with a double clear to pull us up to mid-table. We then entered Scone Intro a couple of weeks later and (with a slightly improved dressage!) with another double clear came 4th, absolutely thrilled! (Bob disappointed to find out that 4th in an Intro doesn't pay prize money though!)

September- A trip back to Craigie to take on the 90cm course saw us finishing 4th with a clear round including a fair number of ditches on course, very happy! We were very excited to head down to Hendersyde Park for a lesson with Ian Stark courtesy of Horse magazine and had a fantastic day. We then finished up the month with our last ODE of the season at Dalkeith, Heidi enjoying being back at her original home and coming third in the open (1m) class.

















October- Our last XC outings of the year were at Gleneagles and Kinnaird for their unaff HTs. We had lovely clear rounds at both, but were too fast at Gleneagles and were unlucky at Kinnaird where the fence judge managed to miss us flying over one of the fences (which we most definitely DID jump!) and so were eliminated. :( Still, Heidi brilliant and jumped all the skinnies and ditches brilliantly so a great end to the season, if not on paper!

November- Our first attempt at BSJA at the SNEC Intro show saw us come 3rd in the 80cm class and 6th in the 90cm with two double clears, very clever pony! Attempted another couple of prelim dressage tests and even came home with a 6th place in one of them, very surprised!

December- A busy month with work, so a bit of chill out time for Team Hopalong and a chance to train and plot our plans for 2010...! :)