What a 6 months! My life has been turned on it's head from losing a contract on falsified reasons, and with it has come some changes.

Sadly in May I said goodbye to Pondy (Cathael Fanfare) who was sold to a fabulous home about an hour away. We found she had a love and talent for jumping and she is jumping 1m plus with her new owner. I do miss the ginger one, but it was the right thing to do.

Summer Regionals were disappointing, with Genie being 2nd under one judge, 5th under the second, and 3rd from last under the third.  Sadly this left us just out of the top 10 which was disappointing, as she pulled a really smart test for me.

We qualified for the BRC National Championships in the Riding Test class as both an individual and a team, which is judged on the rider, not the horse (although the horse going well and not arguing is certainly helpful!). Having won our qualifier on an amazing 88% the pressure was on for the championships, and Genie did not disappoint.  We posted 80% and won our arena, were 10th out of all horses over 6 arenas, and the team was also 8th.

October brought a lovely evening out at the British Showjumping Ball courtesy of NAF.  I went with my trainer (Matt Jenkins Dressage) and we had a lovely time at the Hilton, Birmingham NEC, just a stone's throw away from HOYS, including having our photo taken with World Number 1 Scott Brash.  I may have gone back that weekend for some sneaky shopping....

We have also been to the BD Team Quest Finals with team Veni Vidi Vici.  The team came 14th (12th once mistakes in additions were spotted!) with Genie scoring a slightly disappointing 67.9% on the first day, and an amazing 72.7% the second day.  In true Genie style she split the judges on the second day, with 15% (35 marks) difference between our highest and lowest judges!  Our top one had us on an unbelievable 81%!  Very proud of Genie who took the incredible atmosphere in the indoor arena completely in her stride and just cracked on with the job, showing off for me as always.  Unfortunately due to being let down by a local embroidery company who I will never ever recommend we were unable to display the Redwolf Equestrian logo, so some creative initiative was required to display it in the stable yard at least.

Most recently we have had a new edition - Arwen (Cilsane Daioni).  She is a 6 month old Welsh Section D filly who had come directly from the Cilsane Stud in Carmarthenshire.  I am thinking ahead to when Genie is ready to take it a little slower (if she ever is!) and hope that Arwen will step into her shoes a little in a few years time.  She will have some VERY large shoes to fill!  Completely unhandled, she is coming round very well and will be turned out for the first time this weekend I hope.

I hope you all are well, not sure when Genie is next out competing but we shall see!

Fiona, Genie and Arwen

xxx