The season is well underway and there are exciting times ahead
It has been a busy start to the year for the team at Hector Payne Eventing…it is crazy to think we are heading towards the end of April already! We have been very lucky so far that the rain has held off and all our competitions have been able to go ahead with good ground conditions, however we are getting to the point where we will have to start a rain dance as it is firming up. We also need the grass to grow!
Yaz is having some time off riding at the moment as we look to welcome our first child in the imminent future, so I have been rather busy competing her horses alongside my own.
I am fortunate that her horses are all reasonably established at their respective levels so it has been fairly straightforward for me to take over the reins. I definitely feel a little bit of pressure, particularly with Cos Me Will who she took to the European Championships at Blenheim last September!
Hopefully all going smoothly Yaz will take back over for the second half of the season and we will find a way to juggle parenting duties and eventing.
Our first event of the season was at Poplar Park at the beginning of March, a mere 4 and a half hour drive from our base in Hampshire, so it was definitely a slight baptism of fire with a 2am leave time with 4 horses. We also got back just in time to head to our local hunt ball, meaning we had a 24 hour day getting into bed at 2am but it was worth it for a fun evening!
Luckily our next events at Tweseldown and Barbury were much more local, meaning much more civilised start times, although Barbury was particularly busy with 8 horses running. We had some great results with the horses, the highlight being a win for Global Karina in the intermediate at Barbury. She missed last season with a minor injury so it is great to have her back on flying form with exciting aims for the latter part of the season.
Larkhill, another local, and Tetworth, a new and exciting addition to the calendar, were next up and we managed three podium finishes with Bueno 2nd and One For The Road 3rd at Larkhill and Hidalgo 3rd at Tetworth.
Next up was the first international competition of the year at Burnham Market. Unfortunately we got stuck on a shut motorway for nearly three hours on the journey up turning a 4 and a half hour journey into a 7 and a half hour journey, which was far from ideal, but luckily we were heading up the day before the competition started so it wasn’t as stressful as it could have been. We took 5 horses which definitely kept the girls looking after them plenty busy enough.
I had some great rounds in the 3*. Canalatto Denfer, one of Yaz’s horses, is gaining some qualifications with me so we can aim for a 4* in June so he had a steady run but the stars of the weekend were definitely Hidalgo and Global Karina who finished 3rd and 4th respectively in a big 3* section. They were neck and neck in the dressage scoring 29.5 and 29.7 and both finished on their dressage scores with a clean sheet in the jumping phases. They are both 9 years old this year so it is exciting to feel how established they are becoming at this level and means we can make plans to step them up to Advanced and 4* level in the coming months. Hidalgo is naturally quite a nervous and quirky horse so we have worked really hard in the last month or so to slightly retrain him and really make sure the basics are in place, so I was thrilled for him and his lovely group of owners to pull off a competitive result.
We head to Kelsall Hill for some more international runs this weekend, with Canalatto Denfer contesting another 3* and the two 7 year olds Bueno and One For The Road in the 2*.
After that we have a quieter couple of weeks to welcome our new arrival before gearing up for the first long format international of the year at Bicton at the end of May.
It always feels strange not to be preparing for a run at Badminton but we are definitely looking forward to watching it, along with Kentucky 5* this weekend, and cheering on lots of our friends!
