Oliva Week 2

Not a bad second weekend at the Med Equestrian Tour.

Curly jumped his first big classes of the year. Clear and placed in both GP qualifiers Friday and Saturday - top form, he really jumped beautifully so couldnt be happier. No joy in the Grand Prix. We ran out of steam towards the end of the course, had the combination down. He's still getting jumping fit I suppose, but to be honest i just rode in too strong.... and that's all folks :-)

Merlin isn't quite himself just yet. A little tap here and there, and slightly over-excited at the whole surroundings - which i suppose is good at his age. Patience is a virtue and that's all he needs right now. He'll get there in his own time, no need to push him too early.

Maggie May is in top form. Its like sitting on dynamite. We're starting to figure each other out and gelling more and more.

All three have had a couple of days of work along the beach which they're loving. Will try not to bring them back into the exercise rings until Thursday - nice for them to chill out and look at the waves rather than the same ol' crowd :-). Wish i had some pictures to put up but that'll have to wait unfortunately.

Fingers crossed for this weekend.... keep you posted!

Hola Oliva!

Just finished our first weekend, or "seasonal debut", at the Mediterranean Equestrian Tour. Fabulous place i have to say, just wish there was a bit of grass around! Think the horses will be craving it within the next few weeks - irish n all.

The three horses are in top form. i kept them all in the smaller classes (1m35 and 1m40) to get back into shape and stretch themselves out, without putting too much pressure on them. clear or one down all three days. Maggie (aka Westwinds Cirracruise) actually managed to snag herself a minor placing in the accumulator saturday afternoon without breaking a sweat :-).

Back to business this weekend though. We've spent the last two days riding the horses along the beach. Great fun! The sea was a little rough today though so we (Pam and I) kept to dry land. Haven't really decided what the plan is for this weekend yet. Perhaps Curly in the big class Friday and maybe let Merlin pop around the small one again. I've another two days to decide... no panic around here thats for sure! Plus, no need to peak too early....

Top names here too - Billy Twomey, Bosty, Peter Charles, Geoff Billington etc etc. Great support for the organizers.

I'll write more in the weekend - thank God for WIFI - just thought i'd give you a quick update.

speak soon :-)

En Route to Valencia

We've had a busy few weeks trying to get the horses "up and running" after their winter break. Frosty weather conditions haven't helped... so we're a little behind the curve. Regardless, Merlin, Heracross and Westwinds Cirracruise are en route to the new tour in Oliva Nova (Spain) as i'm writing this. As a matter of fact, they should be arriving in the next couple of hours.

Three day drive has had its fair share of drama - from drastic temperatures (-15°C at times) to breaking down on the side of the road. Thank God for the very calm personas of Pamela O'Rourke and Julia Bunn!

Backtracking slightly: Westwinds Cirracruise (aka Maggie) is Francis Connors GP mare in ireland owned by Barry & Alice Kehoe. They have very kindly sent her away with me. She's a wonderful Cruising mare and this will be her first trip abroad (and my first time jumping her). We'll be taking it slowly as her last show was Cavan in November (where she won the GP actually, its on youtube), and we need time to figure each other out. That goes for the two boys too, the last two weeks did not work out as i had hoped so i'm not really planning on any bigger classes the first weekend, but i'll see what happens when i get to the show :-).

Oliva Nova is supposed to be a lovely tour (see website www.metsp.es) orginially 4 x CSI3, however i recently discovered it had been downgraded to CSI2 level as the young horse prize money is no longer accountable in the total prize fund of the show under FEI regulations. Very disappointing.

I'll be flying out very early tomorrow morning. Apparently there's wifi there so i'll be able to keep you up to speed!

Wish me luck....

Isabel Allende: Tales of Passion

Isabel Allende is a Chilean writer with american citizenship. I came across this video on ted.com - her "Tales of Passion". Wonderful orator, so really worth a listen! Quote:

"What is truer than truth? Answer: the story".

Quote of the Day

"In history, the man in the ruffled shirt and gold-laced waistcoat somehow levitates above the blood he has ordered to be spilled by dirty-handed underlings."

Francis Jennings

... One of the enduring principles of intellectual history.

A Day in a Life...

A bit delayed I know, but here's a photo reel from the local show Pam and I went to during our stay in Hickstead. I had some visitors in toe (who wouldn't normally get to see us in action) which was a real treat for me that day. Lovely memories from an otherwise very normal day, hope you enjoy a glimpse of it. 

No Place Like Home

I've had such a lovely week in London. The horses are at home, resting in Ballylawn for the month - which gives me all the time in the world to catch up with friends and family, and basically have a semi-normal life.

The week's been busy enough. Surprise birthday party for my sister Trish (the big 3 0), apartment hunting across NW London with Allan, Dave's goodbye party in Clapham, Priscilla Queen of the Desert west-end show, catching up with high school friends Alex and Patrick in Camden last night - such great fun!

On a more serious note, trying to market the horses as best I can and see what happens by the end of the year. Always an experience to review the results of the year, what you did right, where you went wrong - adapt and improve for the year ahead. STRATEGY will be the word of the month. A lot of my year was spent chasing after points to perhaps attempt to "fit a profile", the straight and narrow (as they say) has never really been my thing. Merlin played a massive role in all of this, but I wont use him in the same way next year - no matter how tempting it is! He's in the best shape of his life and that needs to be preserved.

Hope to get to work on some non-horse related projects over the winter as well, here's hoping. Interview set for Monday (can't tell you about that just yet), christmas dinner in the City with Cass Masters class (can't wait to see everyone) Friday, and hopefully some ice-skating and Avenue Q muppet show in the weekend. Might try to nip down to Hickstead to ride a bit. I'll keep you posted :-)

CSI3W Leszno

All is well that ends well... 

We had such a great weekend in Poland. Started off very unlucky - Merlin injured himself at Hickstead the day before we left (only slightly, nothing to worry about!) but what timing! Obviously he came along "for the ride"  -  could never leave him behind :-) but he just had a bit of a vacation in freezing leszno. This meant that Curly would have to hold up the fort. 

There were two qualifiers for the World Cup and two for the GP - the same horse could not compete in both and the average result (in terms of ranking) after both qualifiers would determine the top 60 riders eligible for each class. 

I decided to put Curly (Heracross) in the World Cup qualifiers and hope for the best as neither of us had ever done one before. Last fence down in the first phase on day 1 (ended up 33rd) hmmm.... clear and 7th in ranking class day 2, great result. World Cup day, the course was actually much bigger than I'd expected - apparently one of the FEI judges was there to inspect that the course was in fact at the dimensions specified in the program i.e. up to 1m60 in some spots. Luckily for me Curly is a bit of a beast and quite frankly isn't phased by anything... The triple combination was quite spooky for the horses and having watched the other riders, they all seemed to struggle as they came in too fast - i went the opposite route and actually took him back too much which meant he really had to stretch to get us out... my bad... that's life -  you live you learn. He is so elastic that i should have trusted that I'd have no problems getting him back from a higher pace.

I really think he showed himself off though, jumped absolutely beautifully and I'm thrilled to say we're back in sync.  

Other than that, must say that Pam and I had a fab time in Leszno - really a great show and special thanks to Edward and Julia Bunn (Hickstead) for driving us there and back, what a treat! On such a high now... we left the show early Sunday morning and I hopped off the lorry at Gatwick airport to take the train back to london. the boys will be back home at ballylawn (Waterford) Thursday morning.

Coming Soon

Just had a crazy week... driving back and forth to Hickstead, helping my brother with his dissertation and generally trying to keep on top of things, i haven't had much time to write! very sorry about that. Training show on at Crofton Manor tomorrow to prep for Poland next week - hoping to get some good pictures of our "new digs" on Sunday so you can see for yourselves where we've been hiding :-). planning to write this blog post (properly) Monday afternoon to fill you in on my wonderful Hallo-weeK at home in London. In other words, to be continued....

home sweet home

Merlins Magic CSI3 Caen 2011

CSI3 Caen: such a beautiful show but my worst show this season by a long shot. The excuses are there to choose from (first indoor etc etc) but all in all one of those weekends I just cant bare to relive so I'll try to keep my description of it short and sweet like a twitter feed:

I lost my stirrups day1 in the 1m50 GP qualifier. Against my better judgement i tried to jump the triple bar related distance down to the first combination anyways - not a good idea. Merlin is too sensitive for that, so after that line I circled and then finished the course. I'll spare you the exact details, I'm sure your imagination is vivid enough.

Day 2: I had to put him back in the big class as we were not yet qualified for the GP. Jumped 1-3 fine, if anything slightly too careful (to be expected after the previous day's charade) then three strides down to the first big oxer and he just lost his nerve, hesitated and gave it a good smack so i jumped the next fence and called it a day. No point going on after that.

All is well that ends well. I rode him in the consolation class sunday and as you can see (above) he was his usual beautiful self - fighting spirit in tact :-) he'd forgiven me! Placed 13th in 1m40 speed class and paid his entry fee thankfully.

Curly (aka Heracross), his usual mischievous self, decided to take the opportunity amidst spotlights and spectators to act up in the ring making quite the show of himself - didn't get away with it this time though!

Pam, myself and the boys are staying at Hickstead for the next two weeks before heading to the world cup qualifier in Leszno Poland 10-13th November. Hopefully enough time to get ourselves back on track. wish me luck.

PS my sponsors MUSTAD are hosting a massive clinic in county kildare 14-16th Nov together with the Grant Moon. Kildare Racing School, Irish Farrier Authority, Curragh House, Dublin Road, Kildare Town. Should you wish to attend or for further information please contact John at Irish Equestrian - john@irishequestrianproducts.ie or call 00353 45522999 or contact Louise Pehrsson on 0044 7792929877 or email Louise.pehrsson@mustad.se

Quick Catch-up

Long time no...

Crazy couple of weeks - getting ready for my first indoor show this season CSI3 Caen. The horses are leaving Ballylawn this evening, i'll take the train to Dover tomorrow and hop on the lorry from there. looks like a great show so counting down the hours now... CSI3 Assen were actually very good to offer me a personal invitation to their show (as the swedes had not been allocated any places) unfortunately its also on this weekend - seems my place didn't go to waste as other swedish riders will be going instead. Very thankful to the organizers for giving me a chance though!

I've had my thinking cap on this week - helping my brother out with his undergraduate dissertation. Really enjoying it actually, especially the added perspective of looking at my own dissertation 5 years ago, and how much more in depth my analysis has become after an Msc. Contemplating the prospects of taking on a PHD in Finance..... Dr S. Finetto.... ? Nice.

On a side note, my brother Max is hosting a great night at Dorsia nightclub (South Kensington) tonight - he's got DJ Sak Noel flying over from Spain to perform... you know: "Loca People"!!! check out the promo below and please contact him to get on the guest list (as its a members club). Will I see you there??

Back to the Drawing Board

Just back from our three week trip to Italy - Arezzo, Pinerolo and La Bagnaia. Lovely sunny weather, and the horses were in great form but some how, in terms of results, we were left wanting.

CSI3 Arezzo. I rode both Merlins Magic and Heracross. Merlin popped around the 1m35 classes Friday and Saturday to get back into the swing of things. Heracross and I jumped straight into the deep end in the Rolex Ranking GP Qualifier class on the Friday (we had been "separated" for a wee while) - clear with two time faults but qualified for sunday. Saturday again the RR qualifier, second last fence down. Merlin then jumped the 30,000€ Olympic qualifier Grand Prix. Clear in the first round - a walk in the park. I was third last to go in the jump off (we had a very fast time in the first round) out of 14. I made the mistake of turning sharply to the second fence (oxer) - BOOM had the second fence and then the third fence. One might call it a total lack of strategy, which is rather unlike me, terrible none the less. Ended up with a a 12th place and maybe 120€ after tax.... smart move Steph!

Week 2 Pinerolo: Francis came down to ride Heracross as there are not enough classes for these two horses with one rider - need to get into the CSI4 for that. Its not really the type of ring that would suit him, very small, no room for a "gallop" or any kick off the surface. They had a very unlucky one down weekend. I jumped merlin on the Friday in the ranking class, clear and 12th. He had the saturday off and then early to go in the GP sunday. Last fence down. Enough said.

Week 3 La Bagnaia: What a beautiful place but my God too many riders - 132 starters in the RR GP qualifiers.... So basically you work so hard, the horses jump their socks off and you end up with a 16th place.... the equivalent of 5th place out of 40 riders. Francis and Heracross had two super first days - clear and placed in both RR GP Qualifiers (18th and 16th). Merlin was clear and qualified on the first day (but not placed), and we had a fence down the second day so I retired (no point jumping for a 70th place). Sunday was a bad day - we both had two fences down in the GP - that's life I'm afraid.

So now its back to the drawing board. the horses are home resting in the field and i'll be heading off with them in just under three weeks time for a "last effort indoor tour" so to speak. kicks off with CSI3 St Lo October 13th to 16th, and who knows from there on.... the usual madness of trying to get invitations :-). I'll be jumping both horses and perhaps given a third... time will tell.

Heading back to Ireland next week to prep. Promise to be in greater spirits next time I write!

Quote of the Day: The Wall Street Journal

"What are we to think of his loyalty to his father, other than as a proverbial case of the dog returning to his vomit? Nothing much I suspect, except as a fresh reminder that tyrants are not just tortured souls or over-zealous ideologues or misunderstood dreamers, and that evil is never banal and often self-conscious. The essence of tyranny is lust for power. and people will sacrifice for their lusts."

Bret Stephens #The Libyan Apprentice: Seif al-Islam Gaddafi

Long Time No....

Just back from a 9 day summer break in Cannes (that's where my family lives and where i grew up). Its hard to believe that I didn't quite literally fall off the face of the earth, what with the London riots, US debt ceiling fiasco / credit downgrade for the government, and Europe's worsening debt crisis consuming every minute of the real world. What a novelty to truly shut oneself off and simply live in immediate surroundings; beach, sun, sea, nightlife. What is it they say? Ignorance is BLISS.

Back in the real world, Francis was given a place to compete at the CSI5 in Dublin so I was thrilled for him to take both Heracross and Merlins Magic and represent the Highfort Stud family. An unlucky weekend overall, one down and one down and one down, but my boys certainly held their own against the competition, it was just one of those weekends of tiny touches. Heracross was placed 8th in his first 6-bar competition, and beyond that what an experience for him to jump in front of such a crowd!

He continued with Heracross at Millstreet Horse Show the following weekend, racking up an impressive 2nd place in the GP qualifier, 1rst place in the 6-bar (he obviously learnt a thing or two in Dublin!) and a 3rd place in the 1m55 GP. Not a bad weekend's work.

And now, for myself, its back to business. I'm in London for a few days sorting out all the admin (i'll spare you the details) awaiting my return. Off to Waterford Friday morning, getting the horses ready for the trip - heading to Italy in just under two weeks time. So far I've planned for CSI3 Arezzo, CSI3 La Bagnaia - hoping to find other shows in between and after: tricky. With Merlin and Curly in toe (and perhaps a third....) Pamela O'Rourke and John Scarff once gain prepare to brave the open road.... all i can say is: here we go again :-) .

p.s. a little fun fact: remember the Jumping Follonica Tour I did at the start of the year? Well, they've used my picture (and Merlin's) for their promo (see link below):

http://www.jumpingfollonica.it/foto.html

I remember them telling me that they would use it on next year's ads that's why I had to sign it - first autograph ever! what a picture hey..... hahaha...