Bonnie Fishburn’s Blog: New events + new horses = exciting times!

Three is the number this month for Bonnie Fishburn! Three events in the bag and three new horses … We caught up with her to get all the latest news from our busy Ambassador and her growing team!!

“When I last spoke to you it was the middle of March, so much has happened since then. I’ve done 3 events plus other competitions and also got 3 new horses, been to Aintree to watch the racing and to watch Dirty Dancing at the theatre.”

“Towards the end of March I had the British Riding Clubs Combined Training qualifiers. Not a bad day at all. Crosbie led the Prelim dressage by a huge 4% on 73.5% but unfortunately had a couple of fences down to drop him to 5th. Percy had a 70.4% in the novice, followed by 4 faults show jumping for 4th individually and team 4th. Florence also in the Novice had 70.2% and jumped clear for individual 2nd and a team 1st and qualification for the champs. The day after this I took the same three XC schooling in preparation for their first event which was only less than a week away.”

“So, Stafford was our first outing of the season. Crosbie went on the Friday for his first ever event in the BE80. The judge was a little harsh in the dressage for a 40, then he rolled a pole show jumping. He then gave me a fabulous ride across country but picked up an unlucky 20 penalties for a slight hesitation at a step, but it really was a slight hesitation. I was thrilled for his first outing. On the Saturday it was Percy and Florence’s turn. I dropped them back to do a BE90n Open as it was their first run with shoes and also the ground had been so wet there last year that I just wanted a good run to start. It paid off with Percy getting 28 double clear for 5th and Florence 25 double clear for 3rd. Great start!”

“Next was supposed to be Llanymynech with the same three but that was lost to the rain, so we headed out for some dressage instead. Frankie went on his own after last times performance when he went out with all the others! Much improved in the Novice at Reaseheath for a 76.78% and 3rd place (last time he was so naughty cause his friends were on the lorry and he got a 60% and was beaten by his sister by a huge 11%!!) Crosbie, Percy and Florence went the following day to Tushingham and Crosbie had 68% in the Prelim for 3rd, Percy 71.6% for 5th in the Novice and Florence 74.3% also in the Novice for 2nd, not bad considering it was 40mph winds!!”

“My next event was with Crosbie, we headed to Sapey for his first BE90. His dressage was much improved but in quite a harsh marked section he got a 39.8, so on paper it doesn’t look much better. The issue I’m having is him finding his balance on grass, on an arena he is much better but that is typical of babies. But he then went on to jump a fantastic double clear which put him up in 10th place. Delighted with him!”

“A few days later we were off to Llanymynech for the BRC FOTH qualifiers. Almost a perfect day but not quite. Crosbie jumped another fantastic double clear although we were a little bit quick XC in the 90, its hard to judge because you get faults for too fast and too slow,6.8 too fast wasn’t too bad and we were actually about 8th out of 64. Percy was loving his outing also putting in a lovely double clear in the 100 and was only 0.8 too quick for 4th place. Then Florence jumped super SJ and was flying XC until we had a naughty stop at the second last fence, which cost our team the win and qualification. We ended up 2nd in the team competition. Had they chose Percy for the team instead we would have won…. Hindsight is a fabulous thing!!”

“The following week Crosbie headed to Kelsall Hill for his second BE90, massive improvement in the dressage for a 28.3 and jumped a beautiful double clear for 6th place. Couldn’t be happier with him, he has been a little star in his last few outings. I also went back to Kelsall Hill on the Sunday with Florence. Percy was supposed to be on board but he was slightly unlevel so I left him at home. Florence did me proud though in the BE100 Open with a 26 dressage and double clear for 4th place, such a little star.”

“The following week Crosbie and I went on a little adventure down to Izzy Taylors for a bit of a lesson. That was a nice experience. Izzy also had a little ride on him, it was great to see him go as I’ve never seen anyone else on him, he looked fab. On the way home we did make a little detour to pick up three you members for the Bonnie Fishburn Eventing Team. They are all young horses for me to bring on and see what we can do with them. So I add Roxy, Ginger and Louis to my team.”