The recent exceptional rainfall has left the ground at Badminton totally waterlogged and partially flooded. Further rain is due this week leaving no chance of the ground drying out. Very sadly therefore the 2012 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials & The Mitsubishi Motors Grassroots Championships have been cancelled.

Purchasers of advance tickets, exhibitors, Sponsors and riders will of course be refunded as soon as is practical.

See www.britisheventing.com for more details.

Hugh Thomas
Event Director

A view through Viz'sears

Well my last week pre-Badminton so far hasn’t gone quite to plan….What was meant to be my last showjumping lesson before going to the Grassroots

championships with Viz was cancelled on Thursday, due to rain, then my Friday was spent in casuallty with a lump of rusty metal in my eye, a occupational hazard to the extreme! That was very sore I can tell you..

So, I missed a full day’s work which i need to do in order to catch up before I head south on Tuesday which is not ideal for a farrier or my clients.

Saturday was a hectic one, as I obviously had to catch up on some work as well as ride, all before 11am! I then went to the wedding of a great friend of mine (from Pony Club and team chasing).

This afternoon I finally manged to jump some coloured poles with Viz in preparation for the Grassroots Championships. Tomorrow (Monday) I go back in hospital to have the rest of the rusty metal removed as they hope it will be ready to come out by then! Some time between all this I need to pack ect but thankfully Linda who is coming with me as groom/companion has said she will sort the horse and the wagon and thankfully my Mum is going to shop and sort food and living arrangements out. Thank God I have those two!

On Tuesday, I have an 8am chiropractor apointment from a previous injury from shoeing horses and will hopefully set off at 9am ready to rock – I am just hoping the doctor was kidding about the eye patch – or maybe I will be the first Grassroots pirate?!

Sue's father puts the final touches to the family lorry

What a week nerves are now kicking in now that I finished work on Thursday for my week’s holiday for the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Grassroots Championships.

On Friday, Formula One (the stallion) and I went to Yorkshire Riding centre with Christopher Bartle had an amazing lesson, formula and Christopher both brilliant. On the way home had a very exciting call from Nina (BE office) conclusion to this conversation I had a HUGE OMG moment – all will be revealed next week!

Currently on a high, Nightingale and Formula both going really well just hope we can keep it up.

On the down side Northallerton horse trial has been cancelled this was due to be my final competition before the Grassroots Championships, though saying that I had a fantastic time at Eden valley horse trials two weeks ago both horses winning their sections.

At the present time I am just starting to pack the horsebox, check list horses, tack, plating bands and huge studs if this rain continues! I tend to keep every thing to a minimum; Nightingale does all three phases in a plain snaffle and a treeless dressage saddle (yes even the jumping in the dressage saddle!) and no martingale or breastplate. Formula is completely different animal in the way he goes so for him I borrow nightingales, bridle and saddle for dressage then he has Fulmer cheek snaffle and treeless jumping saddle for other phases, including breast plate – the latter is more for me to use as a handle when he tries to out-jump me – trust me, it has been known!!

Both horses are getting freshly shod on Monday by my fantastic farrier Liam McDonald (originally from New Zealand), then bath-time followed by putting on their sexy body stockings. Nightingale is used to this treatment as I used to do a lot of showing with her, Formula on the other hand gets rather embarrassed, he doesn’t feel that pink Lycra is very macho!

With the competition starting on Wednesday, we will leave on Tuesday morning at 9ish. In the horsebox there will be Trudi, Sam, Formula, Nightingale and myself. Trudi (my secret weapon when it comes to competition), she is fantastic at keeping me organised with time checks – I like to do the plating, studs and tacking up myself. Sam on the other hand is there to keep everyone having fun. In the middle of all this planning Sam and I are going to take her pony out (which I ride) for it first show of the season a RIHS qualifier on the Sunday fingers cross – nothing like staying busy!

I would like to thank everyone for their support be it coming to Badminton for the Grassroots Champs, or staying at home, its all greatly received; the horses and I couldn’t do it with out a big team effort, I know not all Grassroots-riders are in the same position, so THANK YOU!

Will Telfer and Vesuvius 'Viz'

Spring outings

Since my last blog my Grassroots-ride Vesuvius, my young horse and I have had a few interesting outings following on from a great seasons hunting so they are on great form although I am not so much following a bit of an incident with a client’s horse that I was shoeing. I ended up with a twisted pelvis which sent my back into spasm but it was nothing that a couple of trips to the chiropractor couldn’t fix. The joys of being a farrier eh!?

Last weekend I took both horses to Eden Valley (Cumbria), which with hindsight was a bit of a mistake because the pair of them didn’t stop calling to each other throughout Vesuvius’ (Viz) test! Saying that, he didn’t actually put a foot wrong and being big and pretty he was marked very well. Viz did manage to get his head back into gear in time for the showjumping phase; it was quite a tight arena but he is so well-balanced and getting increasingly skilled with his job. He jumped clear and found it really easy, he even managed to look after me at the last fence when I got the approach very wrong.. He was absolutely mega across country and has generally come out this season with a very professional and accurate head on his shoulders.

Building up to the champs

I don’t tend to do an awful lot of schooling with Viz because he tends to get bored and start to try and find things to amuse himself if he is drilled too often. All the hunting he has done has turned him into a reliable and brave jumper, so again I try not to spend hours training over the coloured poles.

The main thing we are working on at the moment is his fitness which entails interval training in my Dad’s silage fields then once that is cut we have to use the cow’s fields – neither of which are your typical ‘all weather surfaces’ but they do the job. Now the days are longer, I manage to ride and lead my two boys out for hacking work before work, so again the hunting mentality has come in useful. Although I have to say, Viz is a bit particular about where he puts his feet when he is not in hunting mode, at home he picks his way around puddles and doesn’t like the mud!

Dressage stars

Our local Riding Club, the Corbridge & District asked if we would be able to join their team at the Riding Clubs Dressage Nationals at Hartpury a few weeks ago, so we have had a recent chance to acclimatise to the South – although it was colder there than home! We finished 4th individually with the team finishing 8th overall which was made the trek to Gloucestershire from Northumberland worthwhile. I think he was schooled on a surface a lot by his previous owner so when we stepped into the arena he deflated and seemed to say a sad ‘oh no’ but still pulled out a good mark of 69%. He loves doing his test on grass so hopefully that bodes well for our trip to Badminton!

Making a week of it

I have a few friends competing in the International competition so I have decided to take a few days off work and stay down to watch the ‘big’ competition once the Grassroots one has finished. The Badminton organisers kindly offer Grassroots competitors the stable and camping pitch for the full week which makes the 7 hour trip to Gloucestershire even more worthwhile.

My ‘one to watch’ in the 4* will be Lauren Shannon – I got to know her back at the Young Rider Europeans in 2006 when I was grooming for my good friend Amy Young at Pardubice, she has since come up to Northumberland and hunted Viz a few times

Between now and then it will be a busy time for me on my day job as a farrier with all the warm weather and rain there are a lot of problems with laminitis plus getting all my regular clients seen before Viz and I hit the road.

Read more about my day job and my story so far with Viz in my last blog.

Follow me on Twitter @willthefarrier for my ramblings about eventing, horses, farriery and general chat about what I am watching on TV!

We have been having a really good build up to the Grassroots Championships – I can’t believe we are getting so near now!

Both of the horses I have qualified won BE90 sections over the weekend at Eden Valley in Cumbria which is fantastic, I just hope that we haven’t peaked too early….We also had top five results at British Eventing’s new event Breckenbrough in Thirsk. As it was our first time out both horses were like un-exploded bombs, even the dressage judge made comments such as ‘rather full of expression’ on their test sheets, but they still scored us in the 20′s which was great. Before we went to Breckenbrough, Nightingale (our mare) hadn’t had an outing since we went to Turnberry in the Autumn, so it was great to have her out. Formula One (our stallion) is a bit of an old boy so we kept him ticking over all through winter doing show-jumping regularly.

Pre-Grassroots Training

I have had a session again recently with my trainer (and German Team trainer) Chris Bartle who is absolutely brilliant at keeping us tuned up on the flat as well as getting training from my Mum so on the whole now, I am feeling confident about heading to Badminton but it’s just the nerves I have to keep hold of and try and stay chilled…

Foaling is not the same as delivering babies!

Just a little story for you which relates to horses, sort of… Last night, as I was about to drop off the lorry I was driving (for my day job as a lorry driver) to write this very blog, I got a call from one of my closest friends saying that she had gone into labour and could I get to Lancaster hospital quickly as her partner wasn’t able to make it! So I hot footed it over there, arrived at 7:36pm and by 8pm a little baby girl was born at a very healthy 9Ibs.

Having delivered lots of foals at home this was not surprisingly a totally different experience, I kept patting my friend’s shoulder, saying ‘good girl’ like she was a broodmare – the only problem was that she didn’t have a forelock to stroke! Normally I keep really calm when the mares are foaling but not with a real life human-baby, I didn’t really know what to do, luckily the new mummy was very calm and made those girls on ‘One Born Every Minute’ look very dramatic indeed.

Follow me on Twitter as we get on the road to this year’s Badminton Grassroots Championships @suechappelhow

I am a full time farrier working and living in Northumberland, its such a beautiful county and the Tynedale hunt country where I live is amazing, the only down side is that our average travel to an event is about 2 hours, if only there were more events up north!!

With a working day of 8 am till sometimes 6 pm, fitting my two horses in is often a stretch however I’m really lucky that George my young horse is a pro at being led and most of the time leads himself and will wait at the gate till we catch up, I try to get up early to school him because I find after a days shoeing I have neither the will or ability to work hard! By the end of the day Viz also has a belly full of grass and living on a dairy farm that’s a full horse so nothing productive happens, also it means that if my day goes wrong and I end up late (again a late farrier surely not) i know he is done for the day.
My pre-event training starts as soon as my school (aka the only flat field we have) is dry enough, then the hunting coat is hung up and the dressage saddle is dusted off.

I give both of the boys the winter off schooling since Viz tends to get very stale, so I let him enjoy his hunting. He is hunted by myself and my friend Linda who’s horse is a little aged to be hunting, Viz likes this more as Linda lets him get away with murder and thinks i don’t know!

My journey with him began nearly 4 years ago when he was 6 and belonged to a friend who wanted him sold, so i took him for the summer as i was horseless, he was a walking accident, constantly doing or eating something he shouldn’t, rearing up whenever asked to do anything, climbing over doors or out the wagon!

I knew there and then we were kindred spirits, just needing a little time and understanding! I think he has taught me more about not just riding, but the power of getting inside a horse’s head and gaining their trust – getting to know them, than any other I’ve had. As soon as he started to trust me, I started to see the rewards ,and in the past few years we have competed at the Riding Club Nationals in Eventing and dressage before coming to British Eventing level competition.

After growing up hunting and team chasing, I never thought any horse could make me like dressage but he has managed!

Our first attempt at Eventing was BE90′s, getting two bits right both times. However, then I took ill with an Australian cow bacteria (told you we were similar!) that resulted in our season bring over and several months off, but did it lead to a seasons hunting where the boy became a man! I discovered, during a day visiting with the Cottesmore, that Viz was not a lost cause, and indeed a 6ft hedge was easy. At this point I bought him!

Our 2010 season kicked off with a good start and a lot of promise, until after our first BE100 when my Mum’s little cob (15hh) beat up Viz (17hh), leaving him with a pulled muscle and 5 months before he could compete again. Luckily we managed to come 4th at Aske sending us to a BE90 Regional Final, and then on to a season with plenty of hunting – which by now is his favourite hobby.

We headed into 2011 fit sound (surely not!) into what would be our first complete season. We managed to be placed at 5 events, including a win at Burgham which was the first running of a great new local event. We qualified for the 2012 Grassroots Championships at Badminton at Central Scotland and went on to do 2 Novices at the end of the season, during which he showed plenty more scope.

At the age of 10, Vis has finally matured into my ideal horse. He has decided he is clever and handsome and should be treated as the diva he is and I must say I agree.

As I write, it is less than two months to go until we head to Badminton for the Grassroots competition – our first Eventing outing of the year will be at Burgham at the end of the March so I will be updating you all on our progress after that.

I hope everyone is enjoying the start to the season and good luck to those who are just about to start!

To see some example footage, go to https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalhatcamcompany?sk=videos.

Anne-Marie Taylor

Taking on the BE100 Class will be Annie Marie Taylor, who rode for Britain in The World Championships in Australia in 1982; and Simon Laurens, himself a Paralympic Gold Medallist.

Simon Laurens

Heading up the BE90 Jury is Tim Downes a Fellow of the British Horse Society.  He has competed successfully in all the Olympic disciplines over the last 30 years and has also team chased and done some carriage driving. He is joined by Jennifer Ham from near Bath, a regular judge at both Horse Trials and Dressage competitions, a freelance instructor and former Chair of the BHS Avon Committee.

Tim Downes

Jennifer Ham

This celebration of Eventing at the introductory levels has given people who ordinarily may not have the experience or confidence for Badminton’s  International  competition a chance to compete on the legendary turf of the Badminton estate. Riders also benefit from the high levels of course design and build from the expert team,  the Willis Bros,  who have built courses all around the world including at the Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney Olympic Games.

Last year’s winners include Kelly Turner (the BE100 title winner). Kelly is a full time mum and freelance instructor: “For me, last year made me even more determined to compete at the very top of the sport. It was a fantastic stepping stone towards achieving my ultimate goal of riding around the four star competition at Badminton. As well as helping me decide that I wanted to compete with the best of the best, last year’s success did a lot for me in terms of my teaching:  following all the press coverage we got, I had lot of enquiries and have since launched my own website and am running numerous teaching clinics.”

We will be bringing blogs from previous winners plus riders aiming for their first Badminton Grassroots championships this year in the build up to event plus live updates footage and photos during the competition.

The qualifying period for the championships in 2013 begins again at Skipton Horse Trials 4-5 August 2012 for BE90 competition and at Central Scotland 11-12 August for BE100. Full information on becoming a member plus qualifying criteria is available from www.britisheventing.com