Event Diary - Jays Silver Spirit goes double clear at Mattingley

Jays Silver Spirit goes double clear at Mattingley
26 May 2009

Jays Silver Spirit has had a tough life. He was born three weeks late and was somewhat "ovecooked" with extremely crooked legs. The vets didn't rate his chances of ever being ridden, but his owners The Haywoods wanted to give him every chance of being a normal horse. He was backed by myself aged 5, and although a strong horse to lunge, he behaved well and was soon hacking out quietly alone. A year of building him up slowly, was followed by an injury, possibly related to his poor start, and he had another year of mostly walking till he was given the go ahead to start working fully again.
Sam showed promise on the flat, doing well in his first dressage season, and started jumping the next year. Again plagued with minor injuries our first event season was short, and another year of mostly fitness and strength building work was required. This season he has been made the fittest ever, as he is not a TB type, he needs to be super fit to make the time even at intro. His legs seem to be doing well, and his jumping is now improving and he is strong enough to push himself over the fences from his back end, which has been one of his problems. A lot of work and much grid work and jumping practice resulted in our first double clear at Mattingely. I have to thank Mark Phillips for his extremely useful suggestions regarding getting Sam more forwards, and Charlotte Lassetter for her ever present words of wisdom to develop his capacity to sit and develop his dressage performance. ;-)

Links to other Events

Elstead RC dressage

June 8th Chiddingfold Pony Club ODE event at fairoak

Acadmy Pony wins at Mini SJ

Unaffiliated Tweseldown ODE

Munstead Combined Training

Duke of Bartle 2nd at South of England

The Empower Your Riding Clinic

Tiger Tim IV makes it three placings in a row

South of England nearly fantastic!!

Lisa is National Riding Test Champion

Rackham, Iping and Mattingley