Eventing Blog - Life Through the Eyes of a Groom

We caught up with super groom Jess Errington, head girl to Harry Meade, to find out the latest..

April 2016

Belton

We had a great few days away at Belton. We had 5 horses competing but luckily for me we had them all staggered so I didn't have all 5 at once! We left on Thursday afternoon after what was a manic morning with Yogi coming to do some dr sessions with the 5 that were going first. We took Away Cruising, Vrolijk, Cavalier Crystal and Catherston Definitive. We left Tenareze behind as he wasn't competing until Saturday.

I plaited all 4 on the way up as it was going to be early evening before we arrived and I would bar enough to do getting them settled without having to plait as well! We were lucky enough to be staying with some friends who were not far away from the event so all got looked after very well indeed. As there were no stables onsite it's always it's a bit more of an effort as having to muck out and then getting them ready to travel means your alarm going off earlier than it would do normally! By the time I had got into bed on Thursday night at midnight I was ready for some sleep! My alarm was going off at 3.15am as we had early times on Friday.

We had Away Cruising ( Spot) in the CIC 3* and Vrolijk ( Dude) in the CIC 2* who both had their dressage tests today. I also had Catherston Definitive ( Fin) and cavalier Crystal ( Nell) who were doing the intermediate and novice classes.

Spot produced a personal best of a score of 44.6 in a very high class field of good horses at 3* and 4* level. We were delighted with him and it's lovely to see him performing like a proper horse now and really enjoying his work. Dude also produced a lovely test of 47 and was lying in a good position after the dressage phase. Fin and Nell were both on great form and they really are lovely horses for the future. Fin especially surprised us all with his fabulous XC performance and his confidence was clearly not knocked from Burnham after his unfortunate fall as the intermediate course was apparently very tough and more like an advanced track. I'm really excited about him for the future.

Friday evening Fin and Nell went home and Taz was brought up as he was due to compete on Saturday but with the heavy amount of rain we had on Friday and Friday night I'm not surprised that they had to very sadly abandon the intermediate classes on Saturday. It was such a shame for Taz and his owners but there will always be another day! I was up at 4.30am on Saturday to find myself mucking out in the snow! I'm glad I packed for all weathers! With the cancellation of Taz's class I went back to bed for an hour as we didn't need to leave until later than originally planned which was very nice.

Saturday was a quiet day with just Dude doing his SJ and XC. He jumped very well but uncharacteristically had 3 down which was frustrating but he went XC and went very well indeed so we were all pleased.

Sunday morning I woke up to a frost and freezing cold weather but it soon changed and before I knew it it was sunburnt! We arrived at Belton for a very early SJ round at 8.04 With Spot. He jumped really well just having one down but is improving all the time.
He then went XC in the afternoon. it was a tough track causing it's fair share of problems. Spot jumped a brilliant but steady round making it look easy. I'm so proud of my lovely team of horses and they just went so well this weekend.

We made the long trip back home and I was looking forward to some sleep and rest. It's been a busy and long few days but as always well worth it! We have a few days at home and then before we know it we are off to Hambledon with the 5 young horses on Friday.

Until next time,

Jess

Picture by kind permission of Hannah Freeland Photography