August.
August has been fairly eventful here at Woodington one way or another!
With Mandy healing well after breaking her shoulder in July James was packed off to boot camp at Hurstbourne so the brave young lads that work for Matt Hicks could bring him back into work. He was actually very well behaved and after a couple of weeks he was reunited with Mandy who is loving being back on board.
Heather had a slight mishap when she managed to go through the decking on the veranda outside her house while we were hosting the BRC dressage to music qualifier. Luckily there was a paramedic in attendance for the qualifier and when her leg blew up like a balloon and was causing her rather a lot of discomfort she was packed off to a & e! Unfortunately there was so much swelling it was impossible for them to tell what was going on so she was sent home with strict instructions to rest. Thankfully a follow up appointment showed that she hadn't broken anything and after displaying a multitude of colours on her leg for quite some time she is now definitely on the mend and this last week or so has been judging at several different events including the advanced class at Wellington International horse trials.
Woodington camping really got going this month too with a steady stream of campers coming and going several who have promised to return next year. If you or anyone you know may be interested in camping in the area next year then please do keep us in mind, take a look at our camping page for more details. https://www.woodingtontraining.co.uk/camping
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We didn't have anyone competing in the riding club music qualifier this year but we were very proud of Jane Reeves & Una de Mas who won the novice without points section. Jane contacted us a week before the competition in a small panic as the date had crept up on her and though she had a floorplan in mind she didn't have any music!! With strict instructions not to use anything like Michael Buble Alison set to work putting some music together for them. Jane had mentioned liking Queen & Alison was able to find the perfect music to which Jane rode a beautiful test on the day giving them the well deserved win.
Please do feel free to contact us if you have anything dressage to music related you'd like us to help you with.
Alison and Lizzie went to Parwood this month for their first BD competition together in about 18 months. Lizzie had not been to Parwood before so we weren't sure how spooky she might be especially as we'd heard some people say they'd had problems with the new judges boxes! We threw her in at the deep end too with advanced medium 98 and the PSG but she was super, finishing 2nd in both classes with 66.31% in 98 and 61.05% gaining her first PSG point!
Denver also had his first BD outing in a while too when he accompanied his buddy Ryan to Sparsholt along with Mandy & Penny. Both horses had a lovely day, they are best of friends but are also sensible Irish horses so you don't get all the drama you sometimes get when horses go to parties with their friends!
It was Mandy's first show back since damaging her shoulder and they were looking to complete their qualification for the Draught horse championships at medium level. They achieved their goal gaining the required scores (65.51% in 61 & 64.41% in 73) in both classes even though Ryan felt they should be doing flying changes rather than simple ones!
Denver thoroughly enjoyed doing an advanced medium again and smiled his way through 98 to take an overall win with 68.15%. He wasn't quite so sure he was as impressed with going straight into the PSG with barely enough time for Alison to change jackets though! He stayed on side and made a really good job of it finishing 2nd in his section with 63.15%.
Thank you as always to Tlovellphotography for all the super photos!
