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XC Schooling at Somerford Park
YEEEEE HAAAAAAAAA!!! Finally after a long winter of jumping nothing but coloured fences we were able to get the advanced horses out xc schooling! I’m not sure who was more excited them or me!! Both horses felt absolutely fantastic and really enjoyed themselves. I think the pictures say it all really!
After having a good trot and a canter round to warm up I started to jump some smaller more
straightforward fences like logs, rails, tables, houses etc. After that I jumped some slightly bigger fences
with ditches in front and started to incorporate some steps and drops, as well as some skinnies and corners.
From there I moved on to the coffin type fences, at Somerford you are very spoilt as there are five different coffins to choose from. Some with skinny single barrels on each side of the ditch, some with steep slopes down into the ditch and some with more inviting logs on either side. I did each one once or twice so that I can go to my fisrt event knowing that I practised everything I possibly could.!
Lastly I moved on to the water. Because they hadn’t been through a water jumped for a few months I just let them walk through first to ‘get their feet wet’.
It would be unfair to ask them to jump straight into water, even though they are both experinced horses. Agian I gradually built up the difficulty, starting by jumping down a little step, 
working my way up to a small bounce into water. I always made sure that I jumped something on the way out though as I think it trains them to always ‘look’ for a fence coming out of the water.
Both Sultan and Snowy felt on top form and I was really pleased with them!
After warming down, they were walked back to the lorry where Charlotte was waiting to wash them down and get them ready to travel home.
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Training, 1st March 2010
Had a great training session with Richard Waygood on Monday. I hired the show jumping arena at Port Royal EEC and took three horses, my two advanced horses Shannon Dales Skatman (Snowy) and Sultao De Valada (Sultan). I also took a young horse, Data, belonging to Judy xxxxx. It was really useful being able to use a course of fences especially for Sultan as I was trying a new bit, so it was a great opportunity to test it out.
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Team GB take double bronze in Hungary!
The team won team bronze at the European CIC** Championships at Nagykanizsa in Hungary missing gold by less than two penalties. The team excelled in the dressage phases and were awarded three nines for their performance by president of the ground jury Peter Wagner.
The cross country course was a true championship track and only three riders completed inside the time. It proved easy for Harriet and snowy though as they came 
home clear, having taken all the direct routes.
“Snowy gave me an amazing feeling and through the final water he was just amazing!” said Harriet.
Harriet and Snowy polished off their team debut with an immaculate clear round in the showjumping, one 
of only five combinations to jump double clear.
“Snowy jumped his socks off in the show jumping, and to be coming home with a medal is a dream come true.”
Peter Buist, Chef de Mission to the British team said: “It was a fantastic result; the whole team out-performed themselves in every phase.”