Aoife Clark Eventing – Fernhill Adventure wins at Burgham
Fernhill Adventure (Biscuit) marked his first win back from chipping his stifle at Chatsworth in May with an easy win in the Open Intermediate at Burgham on a 21 (!) dressage, and double clear to win by 7 marks. He has made a remarkably quick recovery, and huge thanks to Woodlands Vet Servies in Lambourn for the brilliant job done in removing the chip. He will hopefully now make it to Blenheim for the CCI*** – exciting!
Vaguely North in the CIC***
Vaguely North (Jimmy) had a super pre-Blair run in the CIC*** and feels sharpened up and ready to go. He was a bit excited in the dressage and made a few little mistakes but still managed to get a 45. He had a very unlucky pole in the show-jumping around a very up to height and technical track, though I seemed to take quite wide turns and ended up with 3 time faults as well – oops. Still he jumped brilliantly and keeps improving with each run. Cross-country he felt amazing and skipped around, and overall it was a really great confidence building run before the Europeans. We like to leave him a little fresh so he won’t run again, but will probably go to Hartpury to practise the dressage test.
Wasting Light (Archie) was a superstar around his first CIC***. At just 8years old and having only done his first advanced the week before, he made it feel very easy. Dressage was not bad at all – with a 46.5! Andrew Fletcher has been helping me with him lately and has been a genius in teaching him his changes. Poor Archie has had a mental block about these forever, but with Andrew’s help managed to nail both of them in his test. He was a bit surprised by the huge show-jumping and rolled two jumps, but it was a very promising round, and cross-country he gave me an incredible feel. I would love him to go to Blenheim for the 8/9year olds, with the plan being to go to Millstreet CIC*** next.
Wasting Light flies around his first CIC***
I get teased for my poor knowledge of English Geography, and true enough Burgham – the other side of Newcastle – wasn’t quite a quick trip up North for a run, but it is a fantastic event – great courses, ground, and a brilliant atmosphere, and I will definitely be back next year. The logisitics of getting from there on Saturday back and out in the lorry again to Cholmodeley in Cheshire on the Sunday proved a bit more of a headache than I had imagined however!
It was well worth it though with Jennifer Mason’s Kiwi winning the BE100 on his 25 dressage, and Richard Last’s Jensen 3rd in his section on a 24 dressage and double clear. Sadly I struggle to get the rhythm right at BE100 – when I think I am going at a nice gentle pace I can end up with penalties for going to fast, and so I put the handbrake on and get them for going to slow! Knowing Jensen was in the lead and that he is speedy, I had a lovely spin around and lost the win with 4 too slow time faults. Definitely time to move them up to Novice!