July / August 2011

Ellie and Crunchie

Ellie Lloyd Jones has had an amazing couple of months...winning the BE90 National Schools at Tweseldown on Lad, then going on to win her Section at the Pony Club Area Intermediate Eventing on Crunchie, qualifying for the Pony Club Nationals, where she came home 5th! Fabulous result!




Grace Lloyd Jones got a fantastic dressage score of 29 at the Pony Club Nationals Intermediate Eventing (team seventh) and won the Pony Club Intermediate Eventing at Hambledon with a dressage of 21.6!


Katie and Sue

Katie Patrick and her mare Sue have also had an amazing couple of months....winning Prelim 12 with 68.8% at the National Riding Club Area Qualifier, and winning the Novice Riding Test with 76%. Off to the RC National Champs! Then went on to win her section of the Pony Club Intermediate Eventing Area Qualifier with a dressage of 23.3 (three 9's!) and was part of Graces team that came seventh at the PC National Champs!

Emma Thomson's and Quinn's unaffiliated Novice scores are nicely improving with a 68.46% and five 8's and they got their first 8 at affiliated Prelim. Now looking forward to BD Area Festivals!

What a day for Sarah Thomas at the Riding Club Area Qualifier winning the Advanced Riding Test with Dysko with a whopping 87%, beating her younger horse Davidoff into second place with 84%!

Emily Farrar and her 5 year old gelding Inca have got some lovely %'s at affiliated Prelim so good luck to them at the BD Regionals!

Anni Denton and Mercury won the British Riding Clubs Open Dressage Qualifier with 71% and won an unaffiliated Elementary with 69%, her nearest competitor on 66%.

Clare and Prince

Having convinced Clare Grant that Prince is now ready to Affiliate, am very pleased to say they have qualified for the British Dressage Area Festivals at Prelim!



My favorite news for this blog is Sue Jones winning an Affiliated Novice on her event horse George (who has been sadly off with an injury for a long long time) WITH OVER 73%!!! I'm still smiling from that now!

So proud of Laura Normand for coming 10th in her first FEI CIC* (International Novice Eventing). Double Clear too round huge courses! Brilliant!







May /June 2011

Emily and Inka

Delboy and I had another super clinic at the TTT in Guildford with Stephen Clarke. Del has come on so much since we saw him in February and he declared that Del has "Grand Prix stamped all over his forehead!" Woohoo!

Emily and Cathy Howard had a brilliant day out together with their lovely black mare Inka, Emily winning an unaffiliated prelim with 75% and Cathy with 72%!

Emma Thomson and Quinn won her first red rosette at an unaffiliated prelim....time to affiliate me thinks!

She realised was right to affiliate when she won her first affiliated Prelim! Also came third in her first unaffiliated Novice!  

Emma and Quinn

I rode Delboy at his 3rd Affiliated competition and he produced his best ever Novice tests and got his best ever %'s of 69.1% and 71.09%!!!

Our British Dressage Novice Open Regionals ticket came through in the post, but sadly we cant go this year as Del had a celebratory buck in the trailer on the way home from his brilliant tests at Checkendon and needs to just walk until the heat has gone from his fetlock joint. Try again next year! Would anyone like to sponsor us so we can upgrade again to a horse box?!?!?!



I am very excited to be back in Horse & Hound after such a long break from competing. Am so lucky to have had lots of name mentions as the trainer but its lovely to be back in as a rider. Thank you Delboy for your Novice win last month that allowed this to happen! Clever boy then went on to win both his Novices at Snowball in May. Happy happy. 


Clare and Loki

Clare Wilson and Loki came second in an unaffiliated Prelim with her best ever dressage score of 68.3%.

Anni Denton and Mercury won an unaffiliated Novice with 69% and 2nd in an elementary, both under List 2 judge Patt Watts.
It was a day out for Team Lawson when at Merrist Wood affiliated Prelim, Corrina Heddle won with Savvy and Emily Farrar and Inca second, both with over 70%.




Laura and Jack



At Borde Hill BE100 Under 18's Laura Normand came second on Jack. They were also second at BCA BE100 and Laura was second with Vardigo in the BE100 Open. I then asked for a first place please and Laura obliged by bringing home the winning dressage score of 27 at Longleat International Novice. Unbeatable after her two double clears!









Laura and Vardigo



At the Pony Club Intermediate Eventing Qualifier at Hambledon, Grace Lloyd Jones and Classic won the dressage section with 21.6 and then went on to win on her dressage score after two double clears.

Ellie Lloyd Jones and Lad were on the winning Intermediate team.



March /April 2011

Clever Delboy attended his first competition and gosh his front legs really can fill the air in his trot and canter work! Very excited boy in the first test of Novice 22, but settled in Novice 35 for a very respectable 67.13%. I only entered the Affiliated Training Section but am pleased to say we would have won the class by 4%. The test was full of lots of little baby mistakes and wobbles like cantering a few strides at the beginning of the medium trots, not yet really relaxed in the free walk, working canter too onward bound, therefore the medium canters were on the forehand, but i am still over the moon with him. I am a great believer in working at least one level above the level you are competing at, and Delboy is really not there yet! But i believe he needs to go out and about so he can start to gain his confidence in the big wide world, whilst we also improve the quality and consistency of the work at home.

Claire Roissetter and Harvey Hooves have had a fantastic start to the season winning both her BE90's. Coming first after the dressage definitely does help! At Munstead her score of 17.5 contained two marks of 10, with her nearest competitor after the dressage on 23!

Emily Farrar and Inca

Siobhan Coultrip and Solly brought home their first red rosette at this level winning Novice 36 at Merrist Wood!

Laura Normand and Zac won Novice 22 at Oldencraig with a whopping 74.48%! To make this even more special this was under a List 5 judge who gave her a 9 for her riding and a 9 for her final centre line and halt!

My clever Lloyd Jones girls are the Surrey Schools Champions! Grace and Classic won the Prelim Championship and then Ellie and Lad won the Novice Championship with Grace coming second on Jack! Emily Howard and Inca won the Prelim at WEC with 73% and Emily Farrar and another lovely Inca won the Affiliated Prelim at Merrist Wood with 69.55%.

Sue Jones and Southerly Roberts had a super successful day at Priory and came home with red rosettes and over 70% tests.

Delboy and I campaigned our first official affiliated Novice. First test was rather fresh with a buck, 3 neighs and a flying change! Second test was much nearer how he felt in the warm up and we won it with it with 68.46%, even though I lost us so many marks for forgetting the test ........TWICE!!  I'm a middle aged lady now and need to revise my tests much much more than I did when I stopped competing 6 years ago!

January / February 2011

My clients have been braving the weather to get their horses out and about competing!  Siobhan Coultrip went to Merrist Wood and came home with third place in Novice 27 with 70% and fourth place in Novice 30 with 67.3%.  Well done to Katie Patrick for coming joint first in the Junior Dressage Qualifier for the Royal Windsor BRC Championships. All that hard work on their dressage position becoming more functional was so worth it. My young horse Delboy behaved beautifully at his first two day training course at the TTT with Andrew Murphy. This was also his first time of staying away from home and he took it all in his stride (although I am very glad I had my partner James lead me round the block on the first day and my lovely client Mary Mounsey on the second day).  I am very excited about a new venture I am doing with Clare Turner from Skylands Equestrian Centre, a Combined Training Series for those aspiring to compete from BE80 to 2*.

I am so proud of my show jumper slowly being converted to dressage client Emily Farrar for taking her four year old Inka to his first dressage competition and bringing me back a test sheet with one 8 and seven 7's.  I had an amazing two days training with Stephen Clarke.  Delboy has made so much progress since he came into full work three months ago and now we believe he is strong enough to take more weight back in the canter to start to balance his extravagant pace (as opposed to bowling on around the arena like the "charge of the light brigade!").  We then had our first hack around the block by ourselves!  Delboy had a few days off after Stephen and then the super star did his home work brilliantly in the canter.  It became more engaged, slower but with much more time in the air.  Less speed means my eyes don't water so much thankfully!  He could not have done any better so had a few more days off.  He is a big young boy who is giving me his all and I need him to stay happy and sound in the mind and body to make sure the Grand Prix goal is obtainable.

November / December 2010

Sarah and my favorite boy Red.

The day before I flew to Mexico to spend two glorious weeks with my lovely better half, I had a brilliant day out with Sarah Harrington's Andalusian Relajado (Red) at his second affiliated competition. Red is a hot little horse and we have taken things slowly with him to give him time to mature mentally and physically. He is now ready to climb the dressage ladder and I'm proud to say he won his first Novice with 68.82% and was third in the second with 67.10%. If it will now PLEASE stop snowing we will get his 2011 competition diary plans, not because I love competing, but because I LOVE training......and climbing up the British Dressage test structure helps me develop my systematic way. It's fun to win, but it's even more fun to see a happy horse improving his dressage skills and muscular development, purely because he loves his dance lessons!

My 5 year old chestnut Alf had his splint x rayed and unfortunately although there is nothing bad to be seen, the bone is still active therefore he needs more time off ARGH!. I will prey that this very very bored young horse will be able to come back into work soon to do the dancing that he loves.

Anni Denton and Mallingold Mercury qualified for the National Riding Club Championships with a lovely 69.5%

September / October 2010

A brilliant time was had by all at the National Riding Club Championships. Becky Friend came third individually in the Riding Test (with a whopping 84%!). Anni Denton and Mallingold Mercury were in the winning Rural Riders Team for Elstead RC and 8th in the Open Dressage!

My client Emma Thomson has bought the most delicious little horse and I am very much looking forward to helping her train Quinn up the dressage ladder.


Eilean and Shikira enjoying their winter sport!





Eilean and Shakira enjoying their summer hobby!



Another acquisition is a lovely four year old bought by Emily Farrar who originally started training with me to help her with her flat work so as to improve her show jumper Louis. Emily tells me any problems she had in her last show jumping round and together we solve them. Louis is now looking like he could do a PSG after all our patterns to supple and engage him, putting him more into his hind legs so he can now lengthen and shorten easily. I am embarrassed to say I couldn't stop giggling when I first asked Emily to show me her sitting trot. (oh the memory of it has me chuckling away in my chair as I type). So I'm INCREDIBLY proud to have seen Emily today floating around the arena in a beautiful sitting trot, new long legs back and underneath her, Inka working so beautifully under the saddle with Emily saying 'Oh my god I didn't realise how much my position could influence my horse!'

Grace Lloyd Jones and Classic have had a fantastic couple of months competing at BE100 Open. Winning at Munstead on her dressage score of 29, second at Pulborough with dressage of 28.5 and after all her hard work, a 9 for her free walk! Too many other good dressage score and placings at BE100 to mention, but the last four events had double clears inside the time. Wow. I think this proves that good flatwork improves the jumping! No wonder she passed her Pony Club B Test!

Ella Lloyd Jones and Kilcarroll Lad won the BE100 at Pulborough finishing on their dressage score of 27.5. Just as importantly, they can now do a row of tempi flying changes! Yay!





Eilean Appleton and Shakiras dressage score of 25 at BE100 is her best to date! With a 9 for her halts (we've been working on those) and an 8 for her riding (have you seen how good her position has got recently!)

         
Katie Patrick and her mare Sue have really picked up their game recently and came third in the London and South East Championships both individually and as part of her team. Sue has recently grown a lot and Katie was in need of learning how to start channelling this new found power of Sues in the right direction! We have done some more intensive regular training and loved watching Katie grinning as she rode through some lovely simple changes which helped her to find her super new canter for her dressage and to jump with more control and balance.



Sheryl and the one and only Blixen



Sheryl Holland and the breathtaking black Friesian Blixen have really made some progress recently in their half pass. This has really helped Blix find both his hind legs and both sides of his body, allowing the most beautiful mediums to now power through.