Farley Hall

What a gorgeous weekend! Which was very lucky, as we had 2 rather early starts and bright sunshine makes everything better! We had a mixed bag of results over the weekend, but some great results mixed in there…

Star of the weekend has to go to the wonderful 7yo, ARD Dassett Spectre, for finishing 3rd in a very hot Intermediate section. This youngster certainly ticks all the boxes and we are delighted he can add yet another great result to his CV. The dressage still needs some developing, but Craig and ARD Dassett Spectre came away with a credible score of 35. They were one of very few SJ clears and made the round look effortless. All Craig could say on his return from the XC was “This horse is pure class, just pure class!”. The only booboo of the day was Craig misreading his watch and chasing the time too much to end up with 1.2 TOO FAST time faults!! Luckily this didn’t cost them a win and we are delighted with the 3rd place. There’s a short video of ARD Dassett Spectre cruising through the water combination attached to this blog.

Craig also rode MBF Dassett Legacy in the Intermediate and the pair started their day very well with a competitive dressage score of 30. Sadly, on the way back to the lorry, MBF Dassett Legacy managed to badly stud himself. As he was sound we carried on to SJ him, but he was most certainly not himself at all, and the normally reliable jumper had an uncharacteristic 3 rails. We withdrew before the XC. Safe to say he was very sore the following morning, so we feel a bit bad for trying to carry on and hope he will be on the mend within the next few days.

Craig’s final ride of the weekend was the upgrading 6yo, Dassett Empire. He did a lovely, but still a bit wobbly, dressage for 34 and followed this up with a stunning, steady double clear, adding 13 XC time faults to his dressage score. The step up in height was nothing to this athletic horse and Craig gave him a lovely, confident first spin at this level to gain his Osberton 6YO Championship qualification.

I rode Drombane Dassett in his second start at Intermediate level and he was ace for 10th place! He has made big improvements in the dressage, but there is still some way to go. We scored 35. We had one unlucky rail in the SJ, coming out of a rather short line, but he was super around the rest. And he absolutely nailed the XC, cruising home clear and inside the time! Thrilled with him!

I also rode SVS Dassett Enterprise in his second Intermediate. He did a lovely test so I was a bit disappointed with a mark of 33. Our SJ round started well, but the same rail fell as with my first ride, coming out of a short related distance. Then a big spook going into the last combination caused another rail to fall so we came away with 8 faults. Some new style shoes and a good XC school a few days ago seemed to really pay off, as we stormed around the first two thirds of the XC course. But annoyingly I rode a combination badly and we ended up with a cheap run out. I was very surprised and disappointed to have a second, rather aggressive run out when I represented, so I put my hand up to retire. We will go back to the drawing board with this horse, both with his sensitive front feet and confidence.

My third and final ride was HHS Dassett Class in his first Novice. He did a good test for 33. Our jumping round started brilliantly, but a loss of concentration by the end meant 2 rails very annoyingly fell in the last combination. We made up for things XC, with a brilliant clear inside the time! I am so pleased with this horse’s progression and a photos attached to this blog shows him getting lots of fuss off Lauren!

Amongst riding several of her own horses, Amelia rode Dassett Code around the Novice. Their dressage wasn’t quite to the standard we were hoping for, plus Amelia forgot her test!! She let this put her off somewhat, so is pretty annoyed with herself! They scored 37. They followed it up with a lovely double clear and are now set for their first Intermediate together in a few weeks at Aston-le-Walls.

Hayley rode the Wright Syndicate’s Dassett Diamond in the Novice and did a good test for 33. Hayley rode a brilliant SJ round and were really unlucky to just touch the penultimate fence and came away with 4 faults. The XC caused no problem and they added just 4 time faults, which is great considering the track was full of questions.

Alice (Rocher) rode her own Dassett Supreme around the ON and being a bit over bent in the dressage left them on a score of 36. They jumped a great clear round in the SJ. They looked amazing around the XC until a very cheeky 20 penalties at the water! Naughty Elvis! They popped in at the second attempt no bother, and cruised home. Very annoying!

A big thank you to the Farley Hall team who put on a great weekend’s competition – thank you very much!