A recent trip to Kelsall Hill Farm Ride with me on Troy, Stacey on Archie and Phil on Sam.

Topper, Archie, Tyke and Troy show-jumping at Adlington last Sunday.

Topper and Troy have had some jumping practice this week on a rare day when our usually incredibly reliable arena wasn't frozen, flooded or snowed under! We challenged Topper by putting up a course of 1.10m and he really rose to it. No problems for Topper!

Troy did some gridwork to work a bit on his technique. He's rising 5 this year so his work will become gradually more demanding now.

We arrived at Aintree just after 12pm and didn't get in the box to leave until 7.30pm! It was a long one considering we only had 3 horses! This show was a qualifier for the unaffiliated championships in February.

Archie - following an unusually lacklustre warm-up, he jumped double clear in the 75cm finishing 9th overall and qualifying for the championship. Very pleased with him, going to start introducing jump-off techniques now that he's a bit more confident.

Tyke - had a bit of a nasty experience in the warm-up arena which knocked his confidence and possibly hurt him a bit. He was really rattled when we went in to the 85cm and ended up getting eliminated in the second phase of the course which is very unlike him. I had him entered in the 95cm to see how he would do at that height. He handled the height quite comfortably so think it's a good class for him future, but he still didn't feel right and had one stop. He jumped the next few fences very nicely though so I decided to retire him and end on a good note rather than have a bad experience later in the course. I'd like him to keep on enjoying his jumping and never take it too seriously. He qualified for the Championship on a wild card regardless so he'll still get a chance to have a go with the others.

Troy did really well. After a very shaky first fence and a few near-misses he jumped his first double clear at this height and finished 4th, also qualifying for the championship and earning me a wild card to use for Tyke in the 85cm.

11.2hh gelding Misty is here just for the week for some work - here he is today in the paddock with Troy, who is thrilled to once again be in the company of one so small!

New boy Archie went out in the big-guys field for the first time this week. Here's a bucket load of pictures of how it went! Featuring:
Archie - Navy full-neck rug with red lining.
Troy - Big chestnut in red rug
Tyke - Little chestnut in purple rug
Oscar - Grey in blue rug
Monty - Small pony
Lady - no rug

And some bonus pictures of Misty and Topper having some fun too!

Oscar, Tyke and Troy all got turned out together in the field with the main herd today. Here are a few pictures from earlier.

We have moved to our new base in Little Bollington. Here's some pictures from the horses on their first day. We have 30yo Appaloosa pony Oscar, 4yo skinny chestnut Troy, and smaller chestnut 15yo Tyke. Tomorrow they get turned out in the herd for the first time so fingers crossed that goes smoothly. Will have my camera on hand!