Displaying items by tag: She's All Class

Sunday, 27 April 2014 00:00

She's All Class

Why Colina Rates This Horse:

"After a slow start to her Eventing career Princess is looking forwards to the 2015 season. Princess is owned by myself and Lady Butler and we are looking forwards to this season to give her plenty of experience at BE100. She has so much talent for the future we are in no rush to push her before she is ready."

Published in Horses on the Yard
Saturday, 26 April 2014 00:00

Well Overdue

It’s been a while……… but not due to the fact I have been sunning myself in the Caribbean or holidaying ‘down under’ but due to the fact we have been having so much fun at home with our lovely babies!

Coco, Roxy, Ruby and Little George have all been coming on leaps and bounds. Coco has muscled up and is becoming more and more consistent in her training. I forget she is only 4 years old and have to refrain from doing too much with her. Roxy is a lovely three year old, who we are breaking in, she has a real zest for life with a cheeky streak and I am hoping bags of talent!

Ruby has the ‘WowFactor’ as her name suggests and is a forward thinking, kind horse with heaps of presence and Little George belongs to Little Al and we have just got him under saddle. He is a really smart type but sharp as you like and has taken some time to get going – however, we are now riding him and he looks like he has the makings of a lovely pony.

We also have a very exciting new arrival on the way, in fact we have two new arrivals on the way, one planned and one not so planned. The planned one takes the name She's All Class and she is every bit of that. We took a trip to the Emerald Isle,  after seeing Lot no.33 in the GoforGold catalogue and short of a major tantrum I decided I was not coming home without ‘Princess’ as she is now called! So you guessed it home with Princess we came! She is now having a well-earned holiday and will be at the Team Pickles Head Quarters in the new year………

The other new arrival is one that was not so planned. After taking a trip to Ireland in the summer we fell in love with a very cute 14.2 that looked like it needed a bit of the Colina Pickles treatment and so the gullible idiot that I am bought the very sweet and unassuming Hacketstown – named after the town she was bought from. We could see nearly every rib when she arrived and she seemed to hate life and was definitely not a fan of humans or horses either. Over the months she has blossomed and has gained in weight and muscle. At a dressage competition a few weeks ago her co Owner did comment on how well she was looking and I did tend to agree! On closer inspection it turns out that Hacketstown is in fact in foal and is due…………….your guess is as good as mine!

So the CCTV is back in operation and we are all on foal watch, maybe a Christmas baby – Jesus is on its way! Only I could get myself into such a Pickle – quite literally!


The Team Pickles end of Season Party was pretty good fun and we seemed to have enough canapés to feed an army thanks to Miss T catering – can only give Vicky a huge recommendation if anyone is having a party, the food was excellent and plenty of it. Thanks to everyone who came, we were well over 40 which was great. It is just a really nice way to say thank you to everyone for their support this year as I genuinely couldn’t do it without each and every one who came.

We have a new member of the Team in the form of Vicky Ingles who is very hard working, conscientious and has a major passion for eventing. She has two lovely horses and has qualified for the Grassroots next year so we are aiming for a great season and a fun Badminton!

Mary B has gone on her holidays and is currently raving her way round Europe whilst Little Al is coming away in January on a ski trip with the boss – not sure who to feel sorry for there!

Jodie P is sadly leaving us in the new year but total respect to her for working her notice and not letting the Team down, she would almost be the first! Just as I think I have a really fab team, somebody wants out, I try not to get too upset about it now as sadly it’s a common occurrence!!!!!

So the next blog will most probably be in the New Year when we are back into the swing of getting ready for the 2014 season.

 

See you then………….

 

Published in Blog
Monday, 10 March 2014 00:00

A long time coming

Hi folks,

I know it's been a while since my last blog but it's been a busy winter and the days have been long and very very wet.

Winter is a good time for sorting out the wheat from the chaff it takes it's toll on staff and riders as the wet conditions make it so difficult to work in and the eventing season can seem so far away. Not anymore fortunately, my team have been amazing this winter and come out the other side so we are all raring to go.  We delayed competing for the first events in March and not competing the younger horses until April. They aren't in need of a long season so we've had a few weekends at Weston Lawns which have done them well and are now looking forward Aston Le walls unaffiliated next month.
Ernie (Olympic tracer) is the my first ride of the season at Aston this weekend. He has been going well over the winter so I'm hoping it will continue.

I am looking forward to seeing the new all weather XC course there I have heard so much about it but not been over to ride on it yet.
The following weekend were off to Swalcliffe so some nice local events to ease us in with Olympic Tracer, Rosie pony and Winsome Wendy - Just hope we don't get really early times!!

Mr P has reluctantly been taking one for the team by mucking out every morning to take the pressure off the yard staff. We really appreciate their hard work and welcome two new members of staff Emily and Liz who we hope will enjoy working here and benefit from there experience.

A job I hate at the end of the month is invoicing all my owners and clients. It seems to take forever but is obviously very important.  I set aside my time in the evenings for this but the only thing I really want to do is go to bed. I need to get Mr P trained to do it so I can fob this job off on to him although he seems a little reluctant preferring a glass of red wine in front of the tv!!

I have possibly got the strongest team of horses I have ever had this season with some lovely young ones who will be aiming for BYEH. I have a new ride in the form of Beau who is a lovely type by Jaguar Mail who I can't wait to get going on. He is 4 this time and will aim at the Lycetts classes aswell as the BYEH his owner Lucy - who bred him is about excited as I am to get stated.

Myself and a colleague have set up a enterprise named Hathaway Horses with the aim of producing and selling some nice event horses. We have three lovely youngsters who are up and running who again I can't wait to get stated with.

Miss Coco Chanel belonging to Hannah and Michael Henderson is on great form and is looking forwards to her debut next month. She has taken time to mature but has a fabulous nature and will be a fun horse for the season.

We have a new member to the team of horses named She's All Class who I am looking forwards to campaigning this year. Lady Butler and Tina Faulkner have both got shares in her and are both chomping at the bit for her season to get going. Watch this space.....

TJ Blousey Brown has wintered really well and is jumping out of her skin at the moment. So far she has won twice at pre season competitions and I think could be my secret weapon for the season, let's hope so!

Airtime and Ciderpress are getting underway at Gatombe so let's hope for some good weather to get them going. I love Gatcombe as an early event as it always seems to get them into the swing.

Tullyoran Field of Dreams will now be known as Direct Miss Cruise and again has wintered really well. I can't wait to get going with her as she showed such amazing promise last year and is one I am particularly fond of.

The mighty Dennis belonging to Sue Dawson is back from his winter holidays and again will hopefully be aiming at BYEH young horse classes this year. So you can see I have a lot to be getting on with as well as doing my invoicing.........

Mary has a lovely new horse called Tintin who I keep threatening to steal but seriously I am really thrilled for her and can't wait to see her getting started with him.

So as usual, mega busy, all a bit manic, but pretty exciting times ahead and a team who can hopefully help me achieve my goals, one day I will make it to advanced, one day.............

Until next time

Colina

Published in Blog

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