Oasby Success!

Not to be deterred by the less than favourable weather in the run up to our season opener, team DE were up bright and early with new lorry “Kev” packed and ready to rock for the 5.15am departure from DEHQ.

With Kate, Lauren and Hayley still out perfecting their showjumping skills on the Sunshine Tour, it was down to Amelia and Craig to get the 2020 season going with some of the younger horses.

First up were the Novice horses Boleybawn Dassett Cruise (Joey) for MiMi (as Ella named Amelia!) and Dassett Curra Candy (Candy) for Craig.  Now Joey has always been a bit of an independent character and upon hearing that the ground conditions around the event were near perfect, he took the decision to check it out for himself…… alone…….twice!!  Having been caught, cautioned and awarded with a lorry park ASBO he was under strict supervision for the rest of the event!  However Joey put his wild start behind him and got us off to a great start with a super double clear adding just a few time faults to finish in 8th place.  The pair had a ball on the XC and finished full of smiles looking forward to what we hope will be an exciting season for this talented little chap.

Candy tackled each phase like the true professional that she is, producing a very confidant double clear and picking up exactly where she left off at the end of last season.  With a handful of time faults just dropping her out of the top 10, we couldn’t have been happier with her performance.

MiMi rounded off the novice horses with a spin round the open novice aboard her own Eboy and it wasn’t a wasted trip.  After leading the dressage and posting 2 faultless jumping rounds she saw off the competion to take the WIN in one of the most competitive sections of the day!  Not a bad start to eventing 2020!

While Craig went off to walk the Intermediate XC for the next day and Joey firmly enclosed in the lorry, it was on to the BE100 sections with Dassett Select (JJ)  and Dassett Rock Star (Rocky).

These two lovely 6 year olds have made it a bit of a habit to try to outdo each other and today was no exception.  JJ kicked things off with a polished dressage test gaining a very respectable score 26, whilst stablemate Rocky put his best hoof forward in the BE100Open for a 29.  Onto the showjumping and both boys jumped well, although an unlucky pole out of a short distance fell for Rocky, much to his embarrassment, especially after hearing that JJ managed a lovely clear!

The XC caused no issue for either of the boys who both enjoyedg their runs over educational tracks on excellent going.  It was lovely to see these top quality youngsters out and about doing what they love and even better to see them being rewarded with 2nd for JJ and 4th for Rocky.  This rounded off a great first event for MiMi, with all four rides coming home in the ribbons, well done Amelia !!!

A quick turn around and it was back for day 2 with Craig riding MBF Dassett Legacy (Zam) in the Intermediate.  This super young horse always tries his best and as a big horse he is still growing into his himself, but a winter of training and strengthening work has really paid off.  Zam was slightly distracted during his dressage test, spending rather too much time saying hello to his fellow competitors in the next door arenas!  However, his improved way of going still meant a very competitive mark of 33 moving forward to the jumping.  Top DE trainer, Robert Snaddon (Bodge), has been giving Craig some top tips on how to get the best out Zam’s naturally scopey, careful jump and as a result the pair jumped one of their best rounds to date adding nothing to their score moving onto XC.

Proving himself yet again as one of the best XC horses on the circuit, they cruised round for a classy clear picking up just a handful of time faults to finish up the day in 2nd place!!

With the first event behind us, it feels good to have blown some of the winter cobwebs away and get down to the business of eventing!  With a few new fixtures on the Spring schedule, as well as some new horses to get to know, we are all looking forward to finding out exactly what the season has to offer!!