Freddies Diary

Frederick II - Our homebred Future Star!!

16.1hh Dark Bay Gelding

2003

by Chairman out of a Baron B mare, - Oakfields Rococo

2010 Campaign 

We are now going to give Freddie a break - we had every intention of competing at Firle but the ground is exceptionally hard, and in our opinion it would take many hours of steady rainfall before the ground would be acceptable. Freddie is still young and it is not worth an early injury.

Smiths Lawn Novice 

2nd August 2010

Quite a long drive to Windsor but Freddie and Rachael arrived in a calm state. A nicely performed dressage test scored them 34 and Freddie had two poles down in the showjumping. Unfortunately Freddie had a very green moment in the cross country, and hovered for a moment too long at the top of the quarry, jumped two steps in one leap and arrived at the bottom in a rather unbalanced state. Rachael wisely circled him before taking the steps up and out. Freddie is still learning and we'd rather he incurred a few penalties at this stage (especially as the ground was so hard) than risk an injury.

Brightling Novice 

18th July 2010

First Novice event - but did their nerves show? Not a bit! Freddie completed a rather excitable dressage as his mind occasionally wandered over to some loose horses in the field behind the arena - still their score of 39 was good. Three poles down in the showjumping, but it was a tricky course and others were having the same problems so we're not too worried about this. Clear cross country as is Freddies way!

Twesledown BE100+  

11th July 2010

Up with the lark at 4.30am! Oh what a hot day - and lovely atmosphere at the venue, excitement in the air. Rachel and Freddie had a dressage score of 36.5 which in their section was good as some folk thought the judge was marking quite hard. Unfortunately Freddie had 2 show jumps down but had a brilliant clear XC round. So no placings this time but Freddie and Rachel feeling quietly confident about Freddies first Novice event at Brightling the following week. Freddie is counting the days.....

Rackham BE100+  

26th June 2010

Such a hot day but Freddie kept his cool and thrilled us with an excellent dressage of 35.5 and a double clear! Following a week of endless sun, the ground was hard and Rachel sensibly took it slowly going cross country, Freddie has a busy Summer ahead of him and we don't want to jar him. With a few time penalties they missed a placing, but came home sound and happy. Freddie is really excelling himself!

Berkshire College  

Horse Trials

12th June 2010

Freddie ups his game! 7th place out of a field of over 60. A remarkable score of 33 in dressage, clear Cross Country and just one pole down in the Show Jumping which the jockey admits was pilot error. Just think where he'd be if he'd had a double clear!

We know Freddie looks forward to his job! We are careful not to overdo his training and events. It's important for a horse like Freddie to have recreational time. He has a very quick brain and soon gets bored; he can so easily get uptight and then find it difficult to relax. Recreational time must never be under estimated in a horses training schedule. We help Freddie relax by turning him out with his friends (Tom and Barney), general hacking, and a blast on the forest – where he can lose all his inhibitions!

Borde Hill

Horse Trials

30th May 2010

Freddies first Horse Trail of the season went well with a 39 dressage score which was a good score in his section. The showjumping caused a lot of problems but Freddie jumped well just having two poles down and jumped a clear, fast cross country round gaining an 8th place.

Felbridge

1 M Amateur Qualifier

23rd May 2010

Well it's been a long winter for us all. Rachel has continued Freddies schooling, both at home and taking him to Liz West for lessons. We have kept Freddies interest with hacking and attending clinics here at Hurstwood Farm - but mostly he really enjoys going to an event.

This was his first outing showjumping on grass before the BE100 at Borde Hill. We viewed this a success - Freddy had just one pole down in the jump off and Rachel was really pleased as he jumped a lovely round.

2009 Campaign   

Tweseldown

At his last outing of the season, we were more than happy with Freddies Dressage score of 33.5, he has shown significant progress over the year and can now produce a lovely relaxed test.

Rachael rode a lovely, scopey clear show jumping, after a season of frustrating single rolled poles, proving that all of the time spent at home under the guidance of Lucy Thompson and Sam Jennings was coming into fruition and time well spent!

Fred proved himself to be once again bold and clean across country going clear on minimal time penalties on a day where 95% of competitors gained time faults. Unfortunately no placing was achieved, due to the extremely high level of Dressage performances. However everyone involved was over the moon with the combinations performance and Rachael can now look forward to Winter of honing those Dressage and SJ skills through the Indoor season.

Rachael and Mike are hoping to bring Fred out at Novice next Spring.

             Firle

                     30th August 2009

Having not had an outing since Iping Freddie did a rather excitable Dressage test, not achieving his greatest score - 44.

However with only one fence down SJ and a great clear cross country, We took all the straight routes over one of the largest tracks he has tackled to date and achieved an overall 9th at the end of the day.

                                              Iping

                                            25th July 2009

After a slight steering issue cross country at Brightling, (report to follow) we went to Iping having cross country schooled at home with Lucy Thompson during her Cross Country schooling clinic and had a lesson with Sam Jennings and feeling quietly confident.

A very good Dressage of 29, one pole down Show jumping and a clear cross country should have put us way up in the placings, however we acquired lots of time penalties XC. We came away happy and in a good frame of mind before heading off to Firle.....

Borde Hill

Riding Club Intermediate Area 10 Horse Trials Qualifier

28th June 2009

Having had a Dressage lesson with Andrew Gould on the tuesday before. We achieved a good dressage of 32.2.

Unfortunately poled a pole in the Show Jumping and clear XC. Gaining a 6th place overall.

Our next outing is Brightling on the 18th July so between now and then we will play around with the bitting for our SJ phase and go out to a few clear round days locally......

Rackham

BE100

13th June 2009

This is the first year BE have run an Event at Rackham, so we didn't know what to expect. The Dressage was slightly spoilt by tension as the Cross country ran straight past our arena! So we were pleased to achieve a 36. Unfortunately we had a pole down in the SJ, but went clear across country, leaving us just outside the placings.

We found the cross country to be a fair test, up to height with lots of combinations, so we  were altogether pleased with Fred and Rachaels performance!

Borde Hill

BE100

31st May 2009 .

After proving rather strong in the jumping phases at Mattingley, Rachael had a little bitting alteration for the outing at Borde Hill!

A 36 Dressage and four penalties show jumping set the pair up for another lovely clear cross country over the up to height, more technical track than the previous week

Mattingley

BE100

23rd May 2009

Freddies first outing this season. We decided to come out at BE100 having worked over the winter on his dressage and show jumping.

Proving a little excitable in the Dressage, achieving a 35 and four penalties in the show jumping purely due to general exuberance.

Freddie proved himself by going clear cross country showing his boldness and natural ability over solid fences and his ease covering the ground.

Freddies Upbringing!

Freddy was lightly backed in October 06 as a three year old by local producer William Plunket.

He was then turned away for the winter and restarted in Feb 07

Our now Head Girl Rachel Smith took over the ride in March 07, and hasn't looked back!!

As with any youngster, Freddy was initially taught to go forward off the leg, closely followed by the brakes and steering!

Incredibly quick to learn he soon progressed through light schooling and hacking and poles were introduced. Naturally bold and athletic, the gymnastic work proved to be great fun for him and his enthusiasm for jumping was soon apparent!

Using his enjoyment of ground pole work, Rachel has developed his flatwork, making it "his idea" and varying the exercises to suit his way of going. He quickly came on and was soon ready for a few low key events.

Parties proved to be very exciting for Freddy! A little too so! Freddy began to get very stressed when away from home, so investigations were carried out into the effects of his diet and it was found that he had a low sugar tolerance. After some research we sourced a range of products manufactured by Simple Systems, - completely natural grass based products.

With the help of our revised feeding plan Freddy soon learned to remain calm and training became less stressful for all involved!

With Summer 07 drawing to an end and a couple of XC schooling sessions under his belt, we began to look to winter dressage and jumping programmes, through out which Freddy matured and developed promisingly. He began to really enjoy his job.

Spring 08, - Planning to event, freddy proved to be very bold across country and was beginning to produce rather good dressage scores.

A season of five Intros progressed, through which Freddie coped very well and Rachel began to set her sights on ending the season on a pre-novice, however, ground conditions and event cancellations put an end to best laid plans. So a short holiday ensued and now we can look ahead to winter jumping and dressage with the aim of bringing Freddie straight out at Pre-novice next season.

Watch this space as Freddie progresses and we set our goal at CCI* / Novice two day, for the end of next year ......