Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2011 | Page 90

EQUESTRIAN

My 2011 review
ROBERT BOOTH BHSI

EQUINE TRAINER

Bunty Girl at Hickstead

Rydam Regis at Addington

As the outdoor competing season
draws to a close I thought I would
look back on the year and our
horses' progress. We started the
year with four horses jumping,
Bunty Girl a five year old, Co
Star six, Rydam Regis seven and
Riverwood, our old reliable Grade
A now 15.
Co Star was sold early in the year
as we felt we did not have enough
time and resources to keep all four
competing and we wanted to put
as much work into Bunty Girl and
Rydam Regis (Greg) as we could.
Riverwood , although fit and well
as ever is being given a slightly
easier life and has just competed
on the Island this year and as usual
has been very reliable at 1.20m and
1.30m level as well as performing
his other role of accompanying
young horses on the roads.
Bunty started the season well
in Discovery ( 1metre ) classes
and Newcomers (1.10 m ) classes
and quickly achieved her four
double clears to qualify for next
year's regional finals. She has
proved very honest and brave in
the ring as well as careful and a
real trier, being a bit of a 'clear
round' machine. In June she did
her first Hickstead at the Derby
meeting, jumping several double
clear rounds including the five
year old class at 1.20m. As horses
do, she then sustained an injury
in the field which unfortunately
meant she could not compete

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TEL: [phone] www.rodgebrookhorses.co.uk
90

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at the British Young Horse
Championships in August. This
was a big disappointment as she is
a homebred horse we had produced
mainly with this show in mind.
But this is one of the ups and
downs that goes with horses and
we still look forward to her next
year.
Greg made up for any
disappointment by jumping
consistently and upping his game
this year jumping well to 1.35 m
classes with several good places
including ninth place in the
seven year old championships at
the British Young Horse Show
held at Addington EC in August.
The show is held over three days
with qualifying rounds for the
championships on the first two
days, the final on the third day
which for the seven year olds is a
course of 1.35m-1.45m. This is a
big test at this stage where Greg
rose to the occasion and jumped a
brilliant round showing his class
with the ease that he jumped it.
As a result he has attracted the
attention of some of the top riders
and we are now forced with the
decision, do we keep him or do we
sell him?
Although the British summer has
not been the best, on the whole we
have managed to escape jumping
in mud. Now it is time for indoors
and new young horses to start, let's
hope its not too long a winter.