Following on from their success at the Regional Championships and as part of their preparation for the 2011 British Dressage National Championships next month, Jan and Zeus were competing at Norton Heath in Essex today. The weather was typical for a Bank Holiday weekend, brief bouts of sunshine interspersed with squally showers – I was just waiting for it to snow for a full house!

The test looked good to me and as always their partnership worked very well resulting in a second place with a score of 67.69%, this means they have also qualified for the British Dressage Area Festival and part qualified for the British Dressage Regional Winter Championships.

There are some people we would like to thank and they are:

Steve and Andrea Bond of Bond Fitness who have helped Jan with developing some equestrian specific exercises to assist in her training regime. Bond Fitness are a specialist gym based in Hertford but don’t expect any treadmills, rowing machines etc. What you will get is a personalised and tailored fitness programme whatever your goals are.

John Lancaster of The Lancaster Clinic. John has been a tremendous help in Jan’s preparation by getting her mindset right with some Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) sessions. Thanks John, you’re a star!

Onto some pictures from today:

A few months ago my wife Jan and her horse Zeus Stonegrove qualified for the British Dressage Regional Championships after entering local competitions and winning with high scores. There has been a lot of prep work for the Championship over the last few weeks and today was the day! Jan was up bright and early to get to The College Equestrian Centre in Keysoe, Bedfordshire and after preparing the picnic I got there about lunchtime just after Jan had arrived. The next couple of hours were spent getting Zeus ready and warming him up as well as trying to keep him calm as it was extremely busy there as you can imagine.

Jan started her test around 2:45pm and it looked good to me but when she finished she thought she hadn’t done as well as she could have as Zeus had been a bit spooky. She wasn’t bothered by this as she was really pleased just to have got this far, the competition is immense and hundreds of riders enter. Todays Championship saw her up against 60+ other riders and the standard appeared to me to be very good. The riders that come first and second qualify for the National Championships in September so the competition was always going to be fierce and you can imagine Jan’s surprise when she came second! Yep, she’d qualified!

After it had sunk in it was time to get him tacked up again and back in the arena for the prizegiving and lap of honour. Well done to both of you, the hard work has paid off and Warwickshire here we come!

Here is the story of the day in pictures:

Setting up camp

Picnic

Mmmm, Pimms o’clock!

Zeus admiring himself….

Into the warm-up arena

Focussed

Under close scrutiny

Final salute

Finished!

Getting ready for the prizegiving

Parade lap

Being interviewed for Horse & Hound magazine

Tuesday saw me covering another in the series of the BEF Futurity young horse gradings and this time I was at Catherston Stud in Hampshire which is always a good venue to attend. There were some lovely foals and horses being evaluated and here is a small selection of some of the entrants.

To view the rest of the photographs please go to my Greenlees Equine site which can be found by clicking on this link: www.greenlees-equine.com

Today saw another event in the BEF Futurity series, this time it was at The College Equestrian Centre in Keysoe, Bedfordshire. Yet again there was a very good turnout with some extremely good young horses and foals being evaluated.

To view the full set of images please go to my Greenlees Equine website.

A couple of years ago someone we knew had been working in Eastern Hungary near the Ukrainian border and had come across a young Cremello Warmblood mare who had been mistreated and was apparently in a pretty poor state.  It’s a long story but somehow we ended up putting a rescue operation into place that involved dispatching a horsebox and driver from Germany to pick her up, the trip was apparently  very ‘interesting’ but that is for another time. The first problem was that we had nowhere to keep her but a temporary home in Devon was soon found for the year old youngster and she was transported there via Germany

Cremellos are an unusual looking horse in that they have cream coloured coats with blue eyes and are often mistaken for Albinos (which actually don’t exist in the equestrian world).

We decided to call her Marci and this was what she looked like when she arrived in Devon, I think the photos are pretty self-explanatory at showing the abuse and neglect she had been subjected to. She also had three brands on her and was very wary of any person coming near her.

Just by coincidence we had booked a family holiday in Devon and we were not far from where Marci was being kept so two weeks after her arrival we were going to see her in the flesh for the first time. We were aware of how badly she had been treated in Hungary but nothing prepared us for what we saw on that Devon hillside. Marci was a bag of bones and obviously suffering from various ailments. You can also see from these pictures that her mane was matted and that she had been suffering from rain scald. What started as a two hour visit ended up with us being there most of the day and my wife Jan returned during the week to treat her further.

Whilst she was on good grass in Devon we felt her rehabilitation required more intensive treatment to get her back to health and we decided to get her nearer to home as soon as possible. Luckily we found a transporter going from Devon to Cambridgeshire a couple of days after we returned from Devon so Marci was able to hitch a ride on that to the yard where Jan kept our other horse. After a long journey of almost 9 hours she arrived and still looked pretty bad, considering she had been over here for a few weeks feeding on rich grass she should have look better than she did.

In the picture above you can see our yard owner on the right visibly shocked at the state of Marci, the image shows just how poor she looked with ribs showing and an initial assessment revealed she had the following:

• Unspecified skin infection
• Intestinal worms
• Mud fever
• Conjunctivitis (quite severe in one eye)
• Rain scald
• Ticks
• Sunburn due to her pale skin and lack of hair

And this is just what we could see or were aware of so the vet was called immediately and he placed her on antibiotics for her skin infection and antibiotic eye drops for the conjunctivitis, she was also on Bute (bit like Nurofen for horses) and we started a programme of feed supplements to help build her up. This was vitally important as we needed her to be fit and strong enough for the winter, being the colour she is she has very thin skin and not much coat.

What a difference three days makes! The conjunctivitis had all but disappeared, her eyes looked brighter with a bit of spark in them and the ticks had gone. Obviously there was still a long way to go but the early signs were encouraging.

She went out in the field for the first time since arriving and had our other youngster for company, more importantly she seemed to be settling in:

Within two to three weeks Marci started to overcome her nervousness with plenty of handling and grooming every day. She was certainly becoming more trusting as she was easier to catch in the field, when she first arrived it was a two hour job but she now came to the gate when called although I think being tempted with apples and carrots might have had a lot to do with it!  She loved being groomed and on one occasion she fell asleep when I was brushing her which was quite funny considering you could hardly get near her a couple of weeks earlier. Here you can see her having her daily bath and wearing her gimp mask to keep the horse flies away from her eyes. A regular treatment for Marci was the liberal application of Factor 30 suncream around her face and nose as she suffered from sunburn due to her pale skin.

Jan worked tirelessly to bring her back to health and I grew very fond of her. She was a joy to be with, the nervous horse that we couldn’t get near was now full of life and enjoyed being groomed and handled. Unfortunately, due to the fact that our yard was for geldings only she had to be moved to a friends yard in Lincolnshire and whilst we would miss her she was going to be with other young horses of her own age so it was with a heavy heart we loaded her into the trailer for the journey.

The following images show her just six weeks after she came to us and I think you will agree she looked a lot better.

I didn’t see Marci for a few months and when I finally made the trip to Lincolnshire I couldn’t believe the difference – the timid, nervous and gawky youngster had growing into a beautiful, confident and calm young woman! As you can see from the pictures she had put on weight and was the picture of health, I’m not usually one to get soppy but seeing her galloping round the field that day brought a lump to my throat, particularly when I recall how she had been the previous year.

These images were taken over the course of a few visits in the following months.

Unfortunately during the summer we received some devastating news. We had a phone call one evening to say that Marci had sustained a serious leg injury caused by a rogue piece of barbed wire. It was not known how long she had been in that state but apparently there was blood everywhere, obviously a vet was called who said that she had to be transferred to a specialist equine hospital based in Newmarket. We live in Hertfordshire and Marci was in Lincolnshire so we had to arrange some emergency transport to Newmarket and Jan went to meet them when she arrived about 11pm.

Marci was sedated immediately for a more thorough diagnosis and there were two wounds, both very large and both becoming infected, on one of the wounds she’d nicked an artery which is why there was so much blood. The decision was taken to keep her sedated until she could have a general anaesthetic the following day in order to try and repair the damage. The surgeon called later that day to tell us that he had performed the operation and that the wounds were severe, apparently she had just missed severing her tendon by 1mm and both wounds were too wide to close by stitching so she would have a cast on for a few days. She was likely to be there for at least two weeks (luckily she was insured). Whilst it was heartening to hear that she had come round from the operation and was back on her feet he did say that it was too early to say how she would be, his exact words were “She was not out of the woods yet, we’ll take it day by day”. Which is exactly what Jan did, she visited her every day, groomed her, changed her dressings and generally fussed over her.

After all the trials and tribulations Marci had been through in her short life we couldn’t believe a freak accident like this could happen, the piece of barb wire was about 3 feet long and was in a patch of long grass at the edge of an 18 acre field – it was nobody’s fault, just one of life’s cruel twists. I’m not usually one to get sentimental about horses but Marci had got right under my skin and I don’t mind admitting that I was worried sick about her as we did not know whether she would pull through.

Two weeks later she was still at Rossdales Equine Hospital and the plaster cast came off. She had lost a lot of weight over the preceding couple of weeks so it was almost back to square one to get the weight on her for the winter again but Jan was very prepared this time – all the feed was in, the bandages, dressings and other first aid paraphernalia were on standby and we prepared a small recovery paddock for her (just put some temporary fencing round a small section of the field) back at our yard as she was coming home to recuperate. I remember we even bought some Manuka Honey which apparently has very good anti-bacterial powers and is an excellent natural product to use on wounds. The good news was that the vets believed there would be no long term damage.

When we arrived for one of our visits she was fast asleep in the stable and we could hear her snoring from halfway across the yard.

This was the first time in two weeks she had been allowed out of the stable and it was just a slow meander round the yard to let her graze a bit.

So there you have it, that is the story to date of Marci who is thriving and although she is back in Lincolnshire it looks like she will be coming to us next month for an extended period. I trust you’ve enjoyed the tale and I am going to leave you with my favourite photograph of her that I believe encapsulates all she has become.

Last night my wife Jan and I were very fortunate to be invited to Carl Hester’s private box at the FEI World Cup Dressage event as part of the London International Horse Show at Olympia in London. This was the main event on the dressage calendar during the Olympia show and involved the horses and riders doing a dressage test to music – otherwise known as the Kur and it attracts the best riders and horses in the world. Carl is probably the top British rider having won numerous national and international event as well as representing the UK at the Olympics and he continues to be an excellent ambassador for the sport.

We met up with Carl and a few friends at the hotel prior to the event for a couple of drinks and then it was time to get ourselves over to Olympia. This was the first time we had been in a private box and it was pretty impressive with commanding views of the whole arena. I also had a media pass for the event and I think I can safely say that I was the smartest photographer there although the photographer/media bib did look a bit odd over the top of a dinner jacket and bow tie! We were treated to a wonderful spectacle of horsemanship from all the riders and a huge cheer went up as Carl entered the arena on Liebling and after a solid test to a medley of Tom Jones music he briefly went into the lead with 78.45%. He was followed by last years winners Adelinde Cornelissen on Parzival who scored just over 82%.

The real crowd pleaser was Moorlands Totilas ridden by Edward Gal, this combination set a new world record a few months ago at the European Dressage Championships and many were wondering if they could match that score. A full house witnessed the 39-year-old rider and his nine-year-old Dutch-bred stallion produce an immaculate and dramatic foot-perfect test of seamless transitions, rhythmic elastic gaits and off the floor paces. They not only matched the score but went on to smash the world record with a score of over 92% to win the FEI World Cup Grand Prix freestyle qualifier.

At the press conference after the event Edward told the waiting press “It felt like a fairytale – all I have to do is to point the way and he does it,” and he maintains that Totilas is just a normal horse. “He is so easy going and hopefully he will stay that way but I do think he enjoys the attention.” British judge Stephen Clarke presided over the ground jury. “At Windsor we thought we were so lucky to witness that level of dressage and tonight it was simply amazing to see that they could produce even better,” said Stephen.

After those dramatic events we decided to celebrate a little bit and I won’t bore you with the lurid tales suffice to say we didn’t get to bed until 3am and I’m feeling it today – I think the ice in the drinks must have been off.

My wife Jan owns a young warmblood horse and she has recently become part of the Being Warmbloods dressage team run by Polly Hodges and her mother Gilly. Since going to train with Polly five year old Zeus has come along in leaps and bounds and today was another step in his dressage career with a competition at Manor Farm Equestrian Centre in Cambridgeshire where he actually behaved himself and got a half decent score!

Obviously I was there to take a few photographs and even though it was an indoor arena the light was okay and I’ve included a few images which can be seen below and for those that are interested the rest can be seen on here.

Good boy!