Winter is coming....

  We finished qualifying for the Winter Regionals this week. Urbanus II won at Patchetts Equestrian Centre with Cleopatra II in a close second to gain her final medium point.

Young Show-Off (by Show Maker) competed in her first dressage to music class at Bury Farm. She was extremely well behaved and gained a whopping score of 75%! My mum was also at Bury Farm and had a very good day winning the Area Festival Regionals,  she is now heading to the Elementary Restricted Finals! 


  What a year it has been, three National titles, 6 out of 7 Regional wins and heading into winter with four horses qualified for next year, Cleopatra II,  Bing, Urbanus II and Show-Off. 

Also have the Young Proffesionals Award Final to look foward to in March 2014, British Eventing Young Rider Training and further training with the Excel Talent Programme. 

 I had a great time at my first High Performance camp held at Vale View. I received lessons from  Gareth Hughes, rider analysis sessions, farrier talks and practicals, nutrition and sports psychology. It was a very interesting few days and I learnt a lot. Now its time to take a much needed holiday till the end of November. 

Would like to say a big Thank you to my mum and family for all their help and support, my owners Felicity Norrie (who is looking after Louis while he goes away for his own little well deserved break), Judy Firmston-Williams, Melise Witkin, all my trainers and friends!

That went quickly...!

Can't believe its the end of October....

I have now been to the Excel Talent Program induction day. It was a very interesting day filled with inspirational talks from people, such as Rebecca Romero MBE  who won Olympic medals in two different sports, captivating videos and lots of educational information.

I am now very much looking forward to the first training weekend!

The Equilibrium Products Photo-shoot went well and the shots are being used in the new catalog which you can pick up first  from 'Your Horse Live' where they have a stand.

Freaky Friday...

Today I competed the fabulous Cleopatra II at Windmill Farm in her first Medium tests....

The first test went well scoring 71% even though it felt a bit wobbly! 

The second test proved to be a bit more tricky as the corner at K seemed to suddenly be haunted! And apparently Daya is scared of ghosts. Some interesting moments but still some really promising elements meant she still got a reasonable score of 67% (to my shock).

Had some exciting news yesterday, I have made it to the Final viewing day for the "Young Professionals" award. It is held in March and I have a lot of work to do in preparation, including getting some experience on advanced horses (which I'm looking forward to!!). 

At the semi finals I got to spend the day with Carl Hester. I had a great time and learnt a lot so it will be interesting to see what I have to do at the final!

I am off to the BEF Excel talent program induction day on Monday....very excited except that weather warnings are looming that we are expecting the worst storm since 1987! ekk! 

Last Events of the 2013 season...

Urbanus II competed at Keysoe in the Open Novice section. He scored a 26.5 dressage and double clear. We went steady as the ground was a bit hard and incurred some time penalties to finish 4th. Louis then competed at Dauntsey Park where he got a great dressage score of 23, two down show jumping and went clear round a technical cross country course to finish 6th after some time penalties.

Weston Park Festival of Youth was our last event of the season. The manor house was surrounded by vast parkland which I found myself sprinting across with Louis within minutes of arriving at the event as we were extremely late for the trot up after getting stuck in traffic! Louis settled in well and enjoyed hacking round the estate and meeting new friends. The weather was freezing, I have never slept in so many layers or multiple sleeping bags!

Louis did his best dressage test ever and got a great score of 36.2 which put us in second out of about 80 competitors. The cross country rode brilliantly and we finished with a very quick clear round. One of the fastest of the day! Unfortunately the showjumping let us down, poles were taken out which dropped us down the leader board from second.

It was a great event and I cant wait for next season!!!

British Dressage Summer Nationals 2013....and more!

Well.... it couldn't have gone any better really!

Cleopatra II won the Elementary Stretch and Flex class on a brilliant score of 73% and her stablemate Bing came second on 69%! Cleopatra II's test was fluent, forward and accurate, she was on good form on the day and I couldn't have asked any more of her. Although Bing was a little bit nervous he really kept his cool in the arena and did a great test even with a bit of tension.

I didn't think my national experience could get any better....until Cleopatra II won the Novice open the next day on 71.8%!

Even now writing this and thinking back to the Nationals it seems like a surreal experience  filled with rosettes, trophies, rugs, jackets, TV interviews, podcasts, reporters and sashes. The horses got lots of beautiful new boots and bandages from Equilibrium Products who sponsored the class, which they are now using for every day wear and competitions.

Here is a clip of Cleopatra II's prizegiving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zMltz-e_kA


A lot has gone on since the Nationals.....

I have been selected onto the BEF Sport England Excel Talent programme. The induction day is at the end of October which I am extremely excited about! I also got an Interview for the Young Professionals award which was held at Carl Hester's yard. It was an amazing day and I felt very privileged to not only have a lesson from Carl but also spend the whole day watching him train and chatting about his methods.

Bing has been out competing at medium level, he has done four tests and won all of them (his highest score being 72%). Cleopatra II won the medium freestyle at Patchetts and is now aiming to go out and compete at medium level.
Mabel (aka Show-Off) made her debut at affiliated dressage and so far has had  a 100% winning streak with scores all above 70%!

Follow me on twitter to keep up to date with all the news as it happens @DaisyCoakley

Two Horses Heading for the British Dressage Nationals 2013!

What a couple of weeks!! 

Cleopatra II owned by Judy Firmston-Williams won the Novice Open title at the British Dressage Regionals held at Keysoe on a great score of 74% on Friday 26th of July. Daya then had to go back the next day to contest the Elemenary restricted class, we thought she would probably be a bit tired having competed the day before....we were wrong!

Daya felt amazing on the Saturday, she tried so hard for me, and her test felt great! She won again, this time on 76%, you can see her test on YouTube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXMcOyUFSN4.

Having had two wins she is now heading towards the British Dressage Summer Nationals in September! 

Daya then had two days off before heading to Hickstead International, where she had qualified for the National 6 year old Final.... unbelievably she was Reserve Champion at Hickstead! We received a  beautiful rosette and flowers.

Bing, owned by Melise Witkin and Judy Frimston-Williams competed at the British Dressage Regionals held at Addington  on Friday 10th August. We had an early start as his test was at 8.58am, and as we entered the arena it started to rain...however, this didn't put Bing off! He produced a beautiful test to score 75% which won the class and gained a National qualification! I now have two horses in the elementary class at the Nationals, lucky me!

Inflation at Great Witchingham....

A mere three hour road trip to Norfolk with Urbanus II to compete at Great Witchingham International Event. 

Having been prematurely smug that I wasn't eventing on the hottest day of the year the weekend before, the weather upped its game. The heat was unbearable for poor Louis, me and all of the team. We had so much water for drinking, washing and coolers of ice to stop it all from heating up (Thanks Felicity!) which was the best we could do. I also put all my kit in the fridge between phases...it was very effective!

The day started well with the dressage, Louis scored a very good score of 24, we received two nines and a ten! The show jumping showed much improvement from our last event.... and we went onto the cross country feeling positive....

My parents bought me an air jacket last year, and I was in the dark as to how it felt to pop and inflate the jacket....until Great Witchingham. I fell off at fence five, or 'unseated', as Horse and Hound magazine so kindly reported. Fence five was a rails with one stride to an open ditch to a skinny flower box, Louis was back in a canter suitable for the fence, however, the ditch took his focus away from the rails and we went through the top bar  (luckily it had frangible pins). Louis scrambled of to the right and I was thrown to the left. 

I now understand why riders get winded when their air jacket inflates! 

Louis had a few bruises and physio work, but is feeling very sprightly and is wondering when we are next competing! 

Dressage and a last minute qualification...

I am extremely lucky to now be riding the fabulous 'Bing'. He is an energetic, good looking bay horse with great paces and he has been trained well. 

Having ridden Bing a handful of times we took him out to compete at a local venue, Patchetts Equestrian Center, then, a few days later, to Keysoe Equestrian Centre in Bedfordshire . Bing won all four Elementary classes he was entered in, notching up high scores and more than enough points to qualify for the Summer Regionals. 

I now have two horses qualified for the Regionals, Bing and Cleopatra II (a.k.a Daya). 

Cleoptara II hadn't been out competing since Wellington Premier League so we decided to take her to Keysoe Equestrian Center for a few Elementary classes. Having arrived late we only had fifteen minutes warm up, which made for a grumpy Daya, so we were happily surprised with a win in the first class on 72% followed by a proper warm up and another win on 76%. 

Mabel, the youngest dressage horse, doesn't like being left out, so we took her to an unaffiliated dressage competition at Patchetts Equestrian Center. Travelling in a horse box is still very exciting and exhausting for Mabel but her behavior was brilliant the whole day! She scored a whopping 75% in her Prelim test and the judge commented, 

"A star in the making". 

Mabel doesn't have the stamina of the older horses yet... the dressage outing really took it out of her, which made her extremely sleepy for the rest of the week.....

The picture shows me tacking up Mabel while she is still lying down. 

my first Intermediate event...

So far this year I have taken my event horse (Louis) to many different locations to compete in British Eventing Novice classes and successfully competed at two one stars. Today was a momentous moment, as I rode round my first Intermediate track, which is significantly bigger than novice.
It took us an hour and a half to get to Salperton Horse Trials, and I spent the entire journey wishing the rain would stop by the time we arrived. My wish was granted and the rain held off while I was competing!

The Intermediate dressage test consisted of simple changes, shoulder in, medium trots and canter, rein back and lots of ten meter circles. The arenas were on very good level ground, which allowed the movements to be executed with impulsion and accuracy, resulting in a great score of 26.8!

Unfortunately the next phase, the show jumping, didn't go to plan.... we picked up a cricket score round the tricky course which caught out many riders. Although I was a bit gutted, the cross country was next and I firmly focused my mind on getting round.

The course was set on rolling parkland, there were many up to height tables, hedges, gates and walls to jump, but also technical combinations such as a double of narrow brush corners down hill. The jumps were all beautifully dressed with flowers and there was even a carved wooden turtle jump before the water.
Louis had a great run around the course and finished clear.

It was a great feeling to successfully complete the cross country and I certainly got a buzz galloping round!

Wellington Premier League

The six year old dutch mare Cleopatra II, aka Daya, competed at Wellington Premier League competition, she was entered in the British Dressage National Six year old class. We didn't enter her because we thought she would win, because usually the horses entered in specific young horse classes are extremely flashy and extravagant movers. Daya has great paces, but isn't as obvious a winner as the other horses whose car comparison would be a flashy Ferrari.


The day of the competition didn't start well, before we loaded Daya on the horse box Judy (Daya's owner) and I went on a hack on two Milo (an advanced medium dressage horse) and his half sister Mabel. Mabel has just started her education as a dressage horse, she is four years old, and had previously been extremely keen to work. However summer is here (sort of) and the green grass is extremely lush in the field, so her work ethic has somewhat deteriorated.  She took the opportunity to be extremely naughty and rear repetitively on the road stopping the on coming traffic.

Having survived a horrendous hack we set off in the horse box with Daya. Our next set back was two hours of traffic on the M25. We were running so late that I had to tack Daya up while the horse box was moving, which is rather tricky while trying not to be squished against the walls when driving around bends.

We made it with sixteen minutes before our allotted test time, which is not an ideal amount of time to warm up for a dressage test. When you warm up you are trying to make the horse loose, relaxed and supple, so the mad dash from the lorry to the warm up ring wasn't very helpful.

Luckily Daya coped, and she produced a calm, smooth, rhythmical  test which couldn't be faulted.
Much to mine and Judy's astonishment she won! This means she has qualified for the Hickstead International Show for the finals! Just shows how a seemingly bad day can make a miraculous recovery.

British Eventing Houghton International

  You know you are heading into the deep dark countryside when all normal radio stations disappear and you are left with three stations, all playing obscure music and presenters that sound completely foreign to the southern ear.  

Houghton Hall was built by Great Britain's first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, it was passed to the Cholmondeley family through marriage at the end of the eighteen century. Once a year it hosts British Eventing's largest International Horse Trials in Europe, with a huge 380 competitors from 18 nations running at 3 levels (CCI*, CCI** & CIC***).

Arriving on the Houghton estate was rather spectacular, it took us about twenty minutes to reach the center of the estate after driving through the gates. There were immaculate lawns, avenues of beech trees and fields full of the best looking live stock around.  

My beautiful chestnut horse Louis, also known as Urbanus II, settled into his small temporary stable very quickly He had a short rest following his journey in the horse box before the first vet inspection. The trot up takes place in front of a panel of vets, who decide whether your horse is fit and sound to run. Louis was gleaming, his mane was plaited and his tack was especially clean. His hooves were painted so they were shining and my feet were just as shiny as I was wearing red diamante encrusted brogues, needless to say we passed! 


Tuesday night was a rather chilly night's sleep in the horse box, and Wednesday presented no competitive activity, so Louis went on a hack in beautiful fields to chill him out.  I was lucky enough to have a mentor walk the cross country course with me who trains GB young riders. This was very beneficial, as cross country courses are very long and there are many alternative routes, so walking it with an expert gives you much more confidence that you have walked the correct lines and know all the alternative routes in case your round doesn't go as well as expected.

The same day, in the afternoon my mum and I went to explore the house itself. There was an exhibition called "Houghton Revisited" which was host to a spectacular display of Old Master paintings from the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, which were sold from the house in 1779 to Catherine the Great.  They were hung in their original positions in the State Rooms, recreating how the house would have looked  in Sir Robert's time. Unfortunately, I had to read this information from a leaflet in the grande hall, as security denied my entry as I hadn't  bought tickets in advance . I would have loved to see the exhibition having studied History of Art at A-level, however, we went and did the next best thing, went to the tea room!  There was a great array of cakes and all sorts of fancy teas and we enjoyed them overlooking the dressage displays. This was definitely the best bit of dining we experienced at the event, having inadequately loaded the fridge in the horse box with lettuce, bananas, jam and some bread rolls. 


Thursday was the first phase of the competition, the dressage. I had learnt the test that Louis and I would perform in front of two judges and gave myself about forty minutes to warm up Louis before our allotted test time.   Louis was a little tense to start with in the warm up, grinding his teeth and fretting, but he came loose and worked beautifully. He looked very smart, his chestnut colour made a bright contrast with the white boots and saddle cloth.The warm up was opposite the lawns of Houghton Hall, so a beautiful setting. The dressage arena felt like a cricket pitch, the ground was bouncy and had good grip, which allowed for more extravagant movement in the medium canter circles and trots. Louis scored 40.8 penalties, a score which put him in third on the overnight leader board. On Thursday evening we went to a drinks party, hosted by the Marquess of Cholmondeley , who lives at Houghton Hall with her husband David and two sons. She was very friendly and loved hearing all about my dressage test and what I thought about the cross country course. She also kindly put my name on the door of the exhibition so I could see the works, this was a very exciting prospect, however the competition had begun and there was no time to spare! Saturday morning scheduled another trot up, another outfit, and another pass, phew! The cross country can be quite a strain on the horses so the next day they are often sore and achy. Saturday morning scheduled another trot up, another outfit, and another pass, phew! The cross country can be quite a strain on the horses so the next day they are often sore and achy. 

Friday...Cross country day. I had walked the course three times in total but went out on course again to see how it was riding and what the ground was looking like. Good job I did, the ground which previously felt like walking on a trampoline it was so well looked after now had a thick layer of mud on it following a night of rain. As I was watching some of the tricky combinations of jumps on course the heavens opened and it rained some more! Although when I had previously walked the course I had decided to jump all the direct routes, I now made a decision to take an alternative as the ground was ridiculously slippy and the downhill turn looked pretty dangerous.
I felt quite nervous in the warm up for the cross country, I didn't have much experience riding in such bad terrain, but I had confidence in my partnership with Louis so hyped myself up and got ready to go! Riding around that course was amazing, the wind and rain whipped at us the whole way round but it didn't put us off, we went clear with a few time penalties! I felt sick after riding round the course because of the huge come down after such a massive adrenaline rush.
The show jumping was the last phase of the competition. The course was built of brightly coloured fences in the center of the shopping village. By the time I jumped there were crowds shopping and eating, so there was a huge buzz around the arena. Unfortunately Louis and I didn't jump the perfect clear round, we incurred 8 fault after knocking down two poles. But our result was good enough to put us into 15th place out of 103 competitors!  We had a prize giving where beautiful rosettes were awarded and Louis cantered around with the other prize winners looking extremely pleased with himself.


Competing at the CCI* at Houghton International was a brilliant experience, I gained a lot of knowledge riding round such a tough cross country course (30% of starters were eliminated/retired on course) and look forward to attending the same event next year, perhaps we will even be entered in the CCI**!