Equine Strips-Flair Strips
Posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 3:35 pm.
March 15, 2010
Well what a winter it has been! It’s hard to believe the season has started again as we are still in the depths of winter down here in Dorset! Even today, the sun was out but the school was frozen again! Anyway, we were lucky enough to escape some of the worst of the weather in November when we ‘nipped’ back to Australia for a fantastic few weeks in the sun. It was bliss – we even managed a week up in Queensland on the Barrier Reef which was the most amazing experience – snorkelling on the reef was incredible and the island we stayed on was a real island paradise – the clearest of seas, white sand and mangoes falling from the trees! Wow.
Anyway, before we rub it in too much (!) we were soon back in the UK and hit with the harsh reality of a stable full of horses and a deluge of snow! But we did what we could and dug our way to the walker and that was all we could do with the horses for the next few weeks. However, once we had tidied the tack room 5 times, oiled all the tack - again – and re-arranged the rug room there was only one thing for it but to ‘hit the slopes’, no…not quite Verbier… but the slopes of Dorset instead!!
Not really so glam but so much fun – see the pic!! Despite some very competitive sledging and quite a few kamikazi runs no broken bones were sustained and once the snow subsided it was back to business as usual with some very fresh young horses to climb aboard! Some tentative lunging went on for the first few days, but that couldn’t last forever and we had to face our fears and climb on them all. Luckily, we have a brilliant working pupil, Phil, who has been with us for several years, and he bravely volunteered to get on a few of the more explosive ones! Then to really get back into riding mode, we went out for a few fantastic days hunting with the South & West Wilts Hunt. We had such fun – lots of jumping and galloping, a few near misses and plenty of hip flasks being passed around! Neither of us could walk the next day though – we were knackered!
But now it’s down to the serious stuff – between the two of us we have 18 horses to compete this year at all different levels. So as you can imagine, the entries are a logistical nightmare, but our first batch will be out at the end of this week at Tweseldown. We have the advanced horses, Motion Bound and Danaan Prince doing the Open Intermediate classes and thenTouchalier, Mumbo Jumbo and Eyfords Fidelio doing the Open Novice classes. Eyfords Fidelio is an exciting new ride this year. He was bought for Sam to ride, from Helen West last Autumn – he is a very promising horse who has previously competed at two star, but he is extremely quirky so it will just be a case of building a partnership up slowly.
Other events for this month are Aldon next weekend, Gatcombe the weekend after and then Somerley right at the end of the month. We have 8 horses going to Aldon and Somerley so it is an incredibly busy start to the season! We have some lovely new rides for this year – the aforementioned Eyfords Fidelio has heaps of potential and then we have some very exciting young ones just beginning their eventing careers - Beaurepaire Nemo is a very smart horse – by Sandro Hit, he is really bred for dressage but not only does he move well, he also has the most fantastic natural jump. Touchalier, who is owned by a previous working pupil of ours and who Sam successfully competed a couple of times at the end of last season, is with us for full-time eventing at the moment – he is a horse with a real future and he will initially be aimed at Houghton Hall CCI** and then Blenheim CIC*** later on. Happy Times (the star!!) will be aimed at several CIC*** runs (rather than going through the rigours of a four star when he proved himself so well at that level last year) with the aim of having him at his prime for the World Equestrian Games in September – everyone keep your fingers and toes crossed!! Motion Bound is aiming at his first three star – possibly Saumur, and Danaan Prince is aiming for a later three star such as Bramham or Boekelo. We also have three lovely 4 year olds to get out competing – two of our own that we bought in Ireland last year, and one very special one by Lux who was also bought for Sam last Autumn.
To help us through the winter we have also had one or two ‘turn ups’! Fristly, we are lucky enough to have an ongoing sponsorship from Flair – a long term support to us, and we are looking forward to wearing the new white Flair strips this season! We have also secured a sponsorship deal with Amerigo saddles which we are thrilled about. Sam has ridden in Amerigo saddles for years and really rates them, so now to be working in conjunction with such a great product and company is fantastic. Also, along the sponsorship lines, Sam won the BETA TSM Rider Award – Sam was kindly nominated for this award by Equilibrium Products – a company that we have worked closely with over the last few years and who have been a fantastic support to us. The BETA award acknowledges the way successful riders work hard for their sponsors. An independent panel of judges selected Sam as this year’s winner! A wonderful surprise and we can’t thank Equilibrium enough for everything they have done for us. It was really exciting for both parties!
All in all, we have never been so busy!! But it is all incredibly exciting and despite the icey cold wind we are looking forward to cracking on with the season!
- Sam Griffiths, March 15, 2010
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