Ashley Harrison’s Blog: Reaping the rewards!

We caught up with Horslyx Ambassador Ashley Harrison, who is having an absolute flyer of a season! There’s lots of success stories to cram into her latest blog – and some exciting news about a new ride!

“We have finally had some rain, unlike most normal people I was very pleased to wake up the last week to pouring rain! The ground has been so hard recently but luckily I only had one event during the very hard ground where everything was done to ensure good ground. But the sound of pouring rain made me very happy as I have 3 championships in August with Zeb and I really did not want to run him on the hard ground.”

“Zeb and I have qualified for 3 championships since my last blog so we are currently very busy training! We will be competing at Hickstead for the Hurstpierpoint College National Schools and Pony Club Championships where our Pony Club came 2nd as a team at the qualifying event. Zeb and I then came an amazing 1st at our Pony Club area eventing at open level where we led from the start with a 34.4 dr (with a couple of big mistakes in the test) and then we went double clear to win by over 20 penalties! It was such an amazing day and its days like those that make you realise how much you love the sport and why all the lows are worth it! This meant that we qualified for the Pony Club championships in Cheshire, which was my goal this year but I didn’t actually think we would manage it as we only stepped up to BE Novice level at the end of last year!”

“Zeb and I are having an absolutely fantastic season and I can’t ask any more of this horse who just performs to his best every single time we go out and brings me back a rosette pretty much every time out! I really think that having a year out to focus on my riding is helping us so much and we are now reaping the rewards of all the hard work we have both put in over the 3 years I have owned him!”

“Karlo has also been out and about, XC schooling, he spent a few days at my pony club training camp and has even been to his first 2 competitions! He has been so well behaved for everything and has just taken it all in his stride and has improved massively since I first got him! He has come away with a rosette at each competition and came 5th in the 1m at his second show and showed us how much scope he really does have. I am so excited for this horses future and can’t wait to get him out eventing!”

“Ria has had a quieter couple of months but we can’t forget her 6th placing at only her second ever one day event! She was an absolute star that day and got a 33.5 dr and double clear where she flew round the XC like she had been doing it for years!”

“I also have some other exciting news I have got a new ride, she is a 16.1 9 year old Irish sports horse who has done some SJ in the past and I am competing her for her owner. We clicked straight away and although she is not a straightforward ride she is very talented and we have already won 3 rosettes and won our second competition! I am really looking forward to joining British Showjumping and affiliating her over the winter and then hopefully next year we can try eventing her.”

“I look forward to writing my next blog and hopefully I will have some good results to share with you from my 3 championships and the Festival of British Eventing!”