Barnsby

We would like to announce the latest stockist of Barnsby as Ox Vixen Ab who are based in Finland.  Their details can be found by reviewing our stockist list.

We would like to announce the latest stockist of Barnsby as Cath Lonsdale who is based in Great Harwood, Lancashire.  Her details can be found by reviewing our stockist list.   

Well the London 2012 Olympics are finally over and what an amazing event they were.

We sat here in our offices in Walsall, enthralled by the events and cannot say how proud we are to be British and to be associated with three amazing teams.  To come away with 3 Golds, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze is a fantastic result and something that, as a nation, we should be very proud of.  However, we must ask, what next for Rio?

Our main rider in the eventing was Mary King and what an amazing result from someone competing at her sixth Olympics.  When she came into the dressage arena and asked the crowd for silence, you could almost cut the tension with a knife.  It was a lovely test, marred only slightly by the mistake and greatly deserved the 40.9 dressage score which left her well positioned overnight.

Cross country day dawned bright and dry (a relief after the previous weeks of rain) and people began to wonder what result would the course have on the results.  Would it be a shake up or not?  Well the terrain really did make the difference and the people who had prepared well were rewarded.  Mary set off strongly and was going lovely until she was held at the water.  This gave her time to take in the atmosphere and allow her a chance to breathe.  On completion, she came home slightly over the time but most importantly clear.  Mary described the atmosphere as electric and the most amazing she had ever experienced at an Olympics.  Apparently, it was like a wall of sound following you round the course.  What amazing supporters Team GB have to support our riders every step of the way.

Team GB went into the showjumping in a very strong position, hoping that Germany would have a fence or two down to open the door up for Gold.  Unfortuantely, this was not the case but a clear from Mary ensured that we came home with the Silver.  In the second round, Mary (like Tina) had two fences down which dropped her down the order slightly but she still finished off in the very respetable place of 5th.  This is her best position as an individual at the Olympics.  As she keeps improving each year, one has to wonder what will happen in four years time!

We have worked with Mary for a number of years and cannot say what a pleasure it is to work with her and her team.  Long may this continue and the results keep rolling in.

Now to watch what will happen with the Paralympics and Barnsby rider, Lee Pearson.

Since the rain finally stopped, it was full steam ahead planning, preparing and entering Events to make up for the two that were planned but abandoned due to the recent spell of very wet weather.

As my 6 yr old had still not managed to have a Xc run this season yet, I decided to enter Tweseldown BE 90 ROR section on Sunday 20^th May. I decided it would be best to take him for a Xc schooling session in the week running up to this due to the length of time since he last played on a Xc course. So we headed off to Littleton Manor, Reigate, Surrey with a friend and her ex-racehorse 4 days before the event. We had a very fresh warm up and run round the gallops before heading into the Xc fields. Salto felt very very bold and was eating up everything I faced him at. After having a good session, I decided to string a course of fences together to finish, and sadly this is where things took a turn for the worst. After jumping a handful of fences, I headed on down to the water fence, which I had been playing in and out of foot perfectly not 20 minutes beforehand. However, sadly this time we jumped a small fence on the approach to the water and then as we were half way through cantering through the water, Salto tripped and went head first down into the water, sending me flying, where I became completely submerged under the water, although fortunately I managed to hold my breath! When I got up after realising what had happened, I checked Salto over to find that he had grazed both of his knees quite badly. I then found three rather large grazes on Salto’s face and between his ears, so I can only guess that when he tripped, he fell to his knees and then completely submerged his head under the water where it must have made contact with the surface of the water jump to cause the grazes. I think we were both rather shaken up at this point, but I immediately decided to get back on and walk him back through the water in the hope that it wouldn't have any lasting effects on him. Fortunately Salto happily walked straight back through the water as if nothing had happened. After that though, I called it a day because there was quite a lot of blood coming from his knee’s, so I patched him up as best I could and loaded up and brought him home.

The following day Salto came out of his stable as expected, rather stiff and so I put him out into the field to loosen up. I gave him the next couple of days off but sadly the day before we were due to go to Tweseldown, he was still not completely sound, so I contacted the secretary and explained the situation and asked if I could substitute another horse into Salto’s place in the class. Fortunately, the secretary was more than helpful and agreed for me to bring Popps Princess instead. However, this left me with a minor problem that Popps had not been Xc since the end of March either because of the weather! I knew that water would be a problem as during the wet season, I had spent lots of time playing in the puddles, or rather lakes in and around the fields where I hack out. However, ditches and banks could be another story! The solution to this lay in getting my hubby to strim the bank which surrounds our arena so that the night before Tweseldown, I could jump on and off the bank in my field as I spot of practise! I also made use of an old shed door in place of a coffin on the grass which I think worked quite nicely. Well it must have done actually as once at Tweseldown, Popps produced the best dressage test she has ever done, and then a double clear, inside the time, taking all the direct routes round a tough little course which saw a very high number of run outs and falls at a particular combination of a full up to height roll top with brush on top, on a curving 5 stride line to a corner, all of which my superstar Popps sailed through, to finish 2^nd in the RoR section! To say I was chuffed was an understatement, so I reckon my little substitute really stood up to the occasion!

The following week I had both Popps and Crysto entered in the Area 7 + 8 Area Horse Trials Qualifiers, representing Billericay & District Riding Club. This time Popps was contending the Intermediate course which is equivalent to BE100 and Crysto the Open which is equivalent to BE Novice. Considering Crysto had not run Xc since Gt Witchingham CIC* at the end of March I though this would be a nice warm up run, ready for our BE Intermediate debut of the year the week after.

An early start, saw us loaded up and on our way to Little Downham, Ely. Popps was first on and here she produced an even better and more relaxed test that the week before, to the extent that I even asked who had stolen my normally very tense and sensitive mare! I could not have asked her to warm up any better and then produce a near foot perfect test, beautiful.

Next up was Crysto’s dressage, after a 20 minute delay though as the two competitors before me seemed to have no idea where to go during their test and the judge had to stop both of them at least twice to correct them, quite unbelievable I thought! Since this delay did not cause Crysto any problems whatsoever as he went in to the arena and produced an absolutely foot perfect test which I was absolutely thrilled to pieces with. Even more so when the judge stepped out of her car at the end of my final salute and congratulated us on our performance. I told the judge that Crysto was in fact an ex-racehorse to which she told me that he was the best ex-racehorse she had ever seen and further congratulated me on our amazing partnership! That is something that certainly doesn't happen every day! Further to this, Crysto scored a superb 24.3 penalty score which left him in second place following the dressage.

Next up was SJ and XC for Popps where she produced two fabulous clear rounds, but actually incurred 2 time penalties on the Xc for going too fast, well she is an ex-racehorse isn't she, what do they expect! Again I was absolutely thrilled with her performance, she was incredibly bold and brave the whole way round including over two large trekhaneurs! As Popps was actually in the Intermediate team, I was pleased to find out later on that Popps’ final score had assisted in a 3^rd place for the team.

Crysto later produced a fabulous clear Sj round over a very twisty course and then a rather hairy Xc round followed. I can safely say Crysto was feeling extremely good, fit and well and could quite easily have gone round the course a second time that day! Still he finished clear and was inside the time. A bit later on, when looking at the scored board, I realised that the horse who was leading after the dressage by only 1 point I hasten add, had rolled a pole SJ, which meant that Crysto and I had won the whole section and had qualified to ride at the British Riding Club National Championships later in the year, thrilled or what!!!

A great warm up round I would say to head us in the right direction to take on our first BE Intermediate of the year, the following week at Eridge, Kent. Here, I had Salto entered in the BE 90 RoR section on the Friday and Crysto in the Intermediate on the Saturday so an overnight stay was in order.

We travelled down at a reasonable time on Friday, leaving plenty of time to walk the BE 90 Xc course before warming up for the dressage on Salto. I was very pleased with Salto as he produced his best test to date, to score 29, in a very competitive class. Sadly though as we entered the SJ arena, I think his nerves got the better of him and although we completed the course it was a VERY green round with a few poles taken down along the way.

So onto the Xc which I thought was nice and straightforward and I actually could not believe that there was no water jump in the course, which obviously I was a little concerned about due to our earlier fall a couple of weeks prior to this event.

Salto warmed up confidently over the practise fences and then we were off. Over the first and onto the second, a little spooky but over the second, then onto the third and even more spooky but over the third and onto the fourth which was a log with hand carved mushrooms in front of it as a ground line. Salto was rather spooked by these and here were accrued a stop and 20 penalties but then jumped it a second time so onto the fifth. The route to the fifth fence took us down a narrow and rather steep gully and over a small bridge which Salto was definitely not happy about and I think that this really had rattled him up by this stage as he took one look at the fifth fence a straightforward chair and I just couldn’t get him anywhere near it. At this point I made the decision to retire him as he was obviously not happy and his earlier fall seems to have had more of an effect on him than I originally thought, so sadly we walked home. I am confident that we will get over this little blip with a bit of time and patience, but will need to do some more homework before taking him out again.

We packed up the horses and then went off to walk the Intermediate course for Crysto’s class the following day. My initially thoughts were that although it was very big, it was completely ride able and I felt confident we would make it home. There were a few combinations on the course that would take some riding and steering but nothing that Crysto or I hadn't practised for.

We left the lorry park and drove off to find our off site stabling which was a bout 10 minutes away at a nearby stud. We unloaded the horses and put them in their boxes for the night and my goodness, I have never seen stables so big in all my life, I reckon they were as big as the whole ground floor of my house, with doors to match that neither of the horses could actually get their heads over! Still they seemed happy enough and so we set up camp for the night.

Another early start the following day as my dressage was at 8.02am which meant I needed to be riding by 7am the following morning!

Everything went to plan and Crysto warmed up well and produced a nice fluent test, all apart from my slight mind blank which left me making a canter to walk transition a little too early which cost us a few marks. Overall though I was very happy with our effort and we scored 35.5, which in fact had left us 6^th after the dressage.

Next to come was SJ and Crysto did his usual move of not paying attention and stopping at a one foot cross pole in the warm up, before continuing to jump out of his skin beautifully and then producing a superb flowing round, but sadly breathing on one of the poles causing it to fall. Still I was chuffed to pieces with his efforts. And so onto the Xc course. Crysto felt great as he blasted out of the start box and we were off, sailing over the first 4 fences and then onto the huge coffin fence where Crysto boldly jumped in over the hedge where the ground fell away from the fence a little before absolutely exploding over the coffin itself! Infact Crysto jumped rather to big and slightly to the left over the coffin which meant that I had lost my line to get back and over the huge skinny box brush, so I very quickly made the decision to pull out further to the left and round to the alternative fence a little further away. This did cost us some time penalties but we were still clear. So onto a couple of big but straight forward fences, and onto another combination which consisted of a huge farm wagon, followed by a huge table on a curving right handed 5 strides and then onto a corner on a curving left handed 5 strides. Crysto was obviously feeling full of running at this point as he jumped so big over the first wagon that we sailed past our turning to the table so we had to wiggle round being very careful not to cross our tracks and then carried onto the table and corner. Then for a long gallop down a hill to a couple more galloping fences. Turning back towards home was a barrel combination set at tight angles which needed to be jumped with acute accuracy. I had planned to jump the first two barrels straight and then turn a circle as the third was individually numbered in order to get our line right as it was a skinny to finish, which we did very nicely, although again costing us time penalties but still clear. So onto the water fence, an upturned boat, then down a very steep hill to a brush fence drop directly into the water, through the water, up a step and then a sharp left hand turn to a roll top, all of which Crysto took beautifully. A short run off to the tricky quarry complex came next, which included 2 bounce steps up, 3 strides to a skinny roll top, 1 stride to a huge drop and then 2 strides to a roll top brush. After landing over the skinny roll top, I don’t think Crysto was actually expecting anything else as the huge drop took him completely by surprise and caused us to incur 20 penalties here due to a longer than allowed hesitation at the top of the step. Once finally off the step we continued and off over the roll top brush and up another very steep hill to a chair and then back down the hill to an Enormous palisade and ditch which we really did take a “hail a cab” style jump over as I gave Crysto a bit of encouragement, not that he needed it. So on to the last 3 fences, an oxer, then a trekhaneur and then a castle to finish.

The grin on my face must have said it all as I came through the finish line, although I knew I had been given 20 penalties at the quarry, we had completed our first intermediate of the year which is an achievement in itself as we are still fairly new to this level, but certainly hope that by the end of this season we will be well established at it.

Our next stop is Barbury International at the end of June for the Retraining of Racehorse Championships which we are definitely ready and raring to get to.

Hopefully we will be getting all our beautiful Barnsby saddles checked over before the next competition to ensure that all our equipment is in tip top condition for this event as this is the main one of our season. Having your saddles checked really is an important part of managing our team, rather like wearing an uncomfortable pair of shoes you really can’t perform at your best if they are not quite right!