2005

 

Nibeley Union Jack has the sort of movement we could only dream of, scoring 9 for his walk, 9 for his canter and 8.8 for his trot in his first ever Young Dressage Horse Competion which was judged by Carl Hester. With the score of 86% Jack won and qualified for the 4yr old Shearwater Young Dressage Horse Competition.

 

 

 

(Jack winning The 4yr old Panacur Potential Young International Dressage Horse Class at The Welsh Festival)

On 19/6/05 Jack won and qualified for The Panacur Potential International Young Dressage Horse Competition with an outstanding result, this time he got a 9 for his trot and an outstanding 9.2 for his canter, all his marks were equal or better than any other horse's marks. He was a real show off on the day and again stole the show. His exceptional temperament makes him so ridable in any situation. He ended up on a score of 89%, runner up with 80.07% was our other stallion Nibeley Utopia, so they both qualified.

 

 

Jack at The Welsh Festival

 

 

After winning at The Welsh Festival, Jack also won and qualified for The Badminton Potential Dressage Horse Championships, but more significantly Jack acheived an outstanding win at Addington on 26th June 05.

Jack won his first National title, he became the Shearwater 4yr old Champion Dressage Horse with the most outstanding score of 89%. 2nd place was on 81.40% so it was an incredible win! The judges were Jane Kidd, Ferdi Eilberg and Jennie Loriston Clarke, they all loved him!

 

 

Jack and I receiving our cup.

 

Jack and I doing our lap of honour.

 Jack giving the camera his best look.

 

We had a fantastic day, Jack loved being centre of attention with everyone clapping for him, he thinks its a great excuse to show off his paces.

JACK WINS THE BADMINTON YOUNG DRESSAGE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 2005

Another incredible day!

An amazing 45 horses entered which made looking at the score board pretty daunting. There were some phenominal horses in the class which made us even more proud of Jack for winning.

Badminton is a very scary venue for the younger horses as they have to go into a very enclosed school which is beautifully decorated to the highest level. The judges table is set up on a higher level and all the people are sat behind. The atmosphere is very tense!

Before the final Star Appeal phase the horses have to congregate outside in the car park which can be quite crowded and sets the horses off, fidgeting and worse! Jack, chilled Jack, didn't mind any of it. He was a bit spooked by the tubs of flowers in the school to start with but with a pat and a few gentle words he soon forgot them and played to the crowd. I was more nervous! In the crowded car park Jack just watched the other horses shuffling around and greeted anyone who wished to give him a pat. I was so proud of him, mere words can't quite describe how I felt. He is a once in a lifetime horse!

Countess Inchcape said the final decision was very difficult especially with River Dance, Damon Hallam's ride being such a world class horse, but Jack had even more than that. Henk Van Bergen just smiled and agreed with The Countess and said ''what a beautiful horse''. He also commented, ''Jack was so uphill with off the ground movement, he used every muscle in his body, the British haven't got the excuse that they don't have world class horses now''.

On our lap of honour Jack's strides just got bigger and bigger the more the audience clapped and cheered the bigger the trot got. He amazed me, most 4yr olds would flee at the noise but not Jack the more people clap and cheer the more he loves it!

Event Digipix Ltd tooks some fantastic photos of Jack and kindly presented one to me which is below.

The Next Championship is on 16th Sep which is the ride off for the Supreme Shearwater Champion and the on 18th Sep which is The Panacur 4yr old Pot International Dressage Horse. Both will be at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire.

 

(Photo kindly given and taken by Event Digipix LTD)

 

The morning after The Badminton Championships, Jack and Berni having a sleep-in.

YES, you are being watched!

The National Dressage Championships 2005

Nibeley Union Jack becomes The Shearwater Supreme Champion.

 

Friday 16th September was yet another unforgetable day for Jack and his on-growing fan club. Competing against us for the title of Shearwater Supreme Champion was Daniel Sherriff of Bayford Hall Dallaglio, Carl Hester on Tyson, Sarah Pidgley on Diva Supra and Darryl Thickett on Korenbloem Ludanchelo. The judges were Stephen Clarke, David Hunt and Eric Theilgard.

Jack felt good in the warm up but it was a big stage for him going alone into the huge arena with the crowd around him and the electric atmosphere. He did very well even though a couple of times he got a bit of stage fright, he still put his trust in me and carried on. We were both relieved when we came to the halt at the end of the test.

After everyone had done their tests we were all asked to come back into the arena again before being called out into our positions. I was excited but also very nervous as they called us forward one by one. I watched as Daniel took fourth then Carl took third and then there was just Sarah and I left. I secretly knew then that we had won it! Sarah was called into second place and Jack and I claimed the Supreme Champions place. Wow! What a moment. Its what dreams are made of. I can't explain exactly how I felt but it was the best feeling ever. We were all so proud of Jack. He scored 9 for his canter, only 8.5 for his trot today as he was very nervous, 9.5 for his canter, 7.8 for way of going as we had made a few mistakes due to being a bit nervous and then a 9.5 for potential as a dressage horse and standard of training. The comment on the paper was FANTASTIC! So we ended up with a score of 8.86. Second place was 8.32 and third was 8.2. Quite an acheivement!

 

Jack rested at home on Saturday and we got him out of bed at 3.30am Sunday morning. This time we were also preparing Nibeley Utopia to go as well. Our test time was 8.40am. The test went well and Jack seemed to be on form. We finished with the highest score. The judges were Christoph Hess, Wilfred Bechtolsheimer and Emile Faurie. We were given 8.5 for his trot today, 9.5 for the walk, 9 for the canter, 9 for ability to lengthen, 8.5 for balance and attitude and 47.5 (out of 50) for star quality. The total after the star appeal was 92%. A pretty good score!

At 11.30 Jack had to come back out under saddle. The top ten 4yr olds came back into the ring and had to show off their paces once again, then Emile rode the top three. He rode Jack for quite some time. We were then called out in order of placing. Nibeley Utopia got 5th which we were thrilled with and then Jack of course took first place. It was yet again a fantastic feeling to keep doing so well. Jack is a very special horse.

I had to wait with Jack until the 5yr olds had done their bit before going in again to contend for the Champion overall. Jack was feeling very tired by now as he had been under saddle since 11.30am (an hour and half) plus the test he had done earlier at 8.40am and what with Friday it was starting to really show. We went round and round again everyone wanting to see more and more extended and expressive strides, poor Jack was fading on me and just didn't have the energy to sparkle as we know he is so capable of. In the end first place was given to Henrietta Anderson and Lord Lewinski (even though she had a lower score of 91.2%) and we were presented with Reserve Champion. I was still very pleased as I know that Jack had given me everything he could and was really starting to get tired and fed up, he just wanted to go back to the box to rest. What a horse, he is a real trier and I love him so much!

 Since all his winning Jack and I were invited to train with Herr Conrad Schumacher. Conrad loves Jack, he said ''This horse is the best 4yr old I have ever seen in England''. This was a wonderful thing to be told infront of all those spectators! He also went on to say that ''Jack is built for dressage''. He advised Bernard and I to go on breeding more horses like Jack because that is what Britain needs if we are ever to succeed at winning Gold Medals at the Olympics.

 

Jack and I working hard with Conrad.........

 

 

Jack was graded with The Anglo European Stud book. They loved him saying ''he is an exceptional horse, you must be very proud to have bred him''.

In 2006 we qualified for The National and International 5yr old Shearwater Championships, the Badminton Young Dressage Horse of the Future Championship and the 5yr old Pavo Championship. The Pavo qualifier was a good day! We qualified at The Welsh Festival, Carl Hester was Judging and we had 9 for the walk, 9 for the trot, 9.5 for the canter and 9.5 for star appeal. I was so pleased, scores can't get much better!

 

Jack and I working in at The Welsh Festival. Wow, it was hot!

 

 

JACK GETS TO FLY THE UNION JACK

FOR GREAT BRITAIN

Jack and I were selected to represent Great Britain at the World Breeding Championships in Germany on August 3rd - 6th in the 5yr old section.

We are all thrilled and very excited about it all here at home, especially Jack! We have never done anything like this before and the whole thing was a huge learning curve.

Report on Germany

Bernard, Jack and I headed off to prepare for The World Breeding Championships with Herr Conrad Schumacher at his home in Frankfurt on 26th July. It took 16 hours to get there, needless to say we were all very exhausted.

Jack settled into the stallion barn very well and the very next day we were in the school having a short training session with Conrad. Jack's general way of going was very pleasing but it seemed that we had to learn to ride a young horse test in Germany quite differently to a normal dressage test.

We trained every day with Conrad in the tremendous heat which reached up to 37c at one point. Every day we improved on one thing or another but my worry was that Jack didn't seem to have the same energy that he had at the beginning of the summer. We had a great time at Conrads everyone was very friendly, we even scratched the famous 'Silvano's' neck and back for him each day (what an honour!). We spectated at a local show which had dressage classes up to Grand Prix. Ellen Bonje was riding a mare from the yard in the Grand Prix class. She is a great person and such a character (she did Jack's washing for him!).

The day before we headed up to Verden the weather broke thank goodness, there was thunder and lightening and it poured but at least it was cooler!

We were one of the first to arrive at our stable in Verden and the stable manager was very helpful so we sort of knew what we could or couldn't do. Jack settled well after the first night there. I rode him on the Wednesday evening and he was full of himself doing the most wonderful passage (so we know he can do it). I was allowed to ride him around and in the arenas where we would compete and he took it all in his stride. The following day Conrad was there to give us some more coaching and Jack was impeccable as usual but not as on his toes as he had been.

Thursaday was the vet inspection and trot up. There were some tense moments for some of the countries as they failed the trot ups and had to be examined and trotted up again. After a long day we said good night to Jack and went back to our Bed and Breakfast as we were second on in the morning at 7.38am and in a very strong group of 8. There were another 4 groups of 7.

We were up bright and early and Jack and I were ready to go by 7.10am. Jack didn't need a lot of warming up as I felt he still needed a bit more energy. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. As we walked into the main arena we felt very important. We trotted up the centre line and halted and we were off. I remebered everything that Conrad had told me and the test went reasonably well. The rein back could have been smoother, the medium trot lack the all important energy that I was worrying about and the last halt we stepped back in but Conrad said he was very proud of us and that we couldn't have done better. The paces were good the walk was brilliant and canter was brilliant so now we waited for the scores. The walk score was very disappointing and Conrad said it was appalling judging 7.8, the trot was 7.10, the canter 8.5 submission was a dreadful 6.8 and 7.5 for impression. I couldn't understand why we got such bad marks which was backed up by Conrad who also couldn't understand it, the only thing is that we are new faces and sometimes it happens like that and it didn't help being on second following the German Hanoverian Champion.

We ended up 16th which wasn't too bad. The next day I was determined to do better. Well the proof is in the pudding for anyone who would like to see. We videoed both tests and the second test was foot perfect except the Medium trot needed to be a bit bigger but apart from that it was brilliant and I am very proud of Jack but do you know what, the Judges marked him even harder than the day before.

Even so, the whole thing was a fantastic learning experience for which I am very grateful, I am proud of Jack and grateful to everyone who was there and helped me. Many thanks goes to all my well wishers.

Jack thought he had died and gone to heaven when he arrived in Holland to be ridden by Hans Peter Minderhoud (won World Breeding Champs 4 times) in my absence, while he had semen collected and frozen. He was in the most beautiful stable complex you have ever seen with lots of other top stallions. Apparently Jack had the best semen the centre have ever seen in 35 years of semen collecting and freezing, the quality is hardly impaired even after thawing so that was great news.

Adjacent to the Semen Freezing Centre was Edward Gal's and Hans Peter Minderhoud's yards which is where we sat and had coffee with them all. We talked about all sorts of things including Jack and the World Breeding Championships. They liken Jack and I to 'Eddie the Eagle', I was told this is not an insult as it was a great achievment. We were thrilled when Edward Gal agreed to have us over to train with him.

2007

Having got Christmas out of the way I thought I had better put in a quick update on what Jack and I are up to. We had a change of plan and didn't end up training in Holland with Eddie Gal, not this winter anyway, I opted to buy a Inter 1/11 horse as a schoolmistress. I felt I could learn more from riding her than I would from being in Holland with the boys for several months.

Jack has been doing exceptionally well winning just about everything even his first Medium today. We will be going to the Winter Regionals soon at Novice and Elementary so we are training hard.

 

Jack won the Novice Regionals with 74.29% he went very well and behaved impeccably but it was a long journey home and a long journey back again the next day so poor jack was very tired which didn't help with the Elementary, he still came 3rd which still qualified him for the Championships.

During March we were offered a lesson with Emile Faurie which we were keen to have as we felt it would be interesting to hear what Emile thought of Jack, especially as I had not been entirely happy with the way he was developing, especially his top line. Emile does not mince his words and said that in his opinion if we continued with the same line of training with Jack then he would not make it to Grand Prix. He picked up on several issues which had been going on in my mind for sometime and they were issues nobody else seemed to see or be able to help me with. Emile spotted them immediately and for me that was such a great relief! He seemed to be on the same wave length as myself.

The down side to changing trainers was that we had to completely change the way that Jack had been going and that was very upsetting for Jack and especially as the Winter Champs were coming up. The Champs did not go too well, as expected really. We were 5th in Nov and 6th in Elem.

We kept up with the training and came second at the Summer Medium Regionals and that was followed by becoming Reserve Medium Champions at The National Championships. We were pleased but could have kicked ourselves as we broke in the trot half pass and then knowing we could not afford to lose anymore points we rode the rest of the test very cautiously. Had we not broke in the half pass we would have given it a bit more welly and we believe we could have won. Nevermind, its a learning curve! He did well and we are proud of him.

From here on in Jack and I have been having regular lessons with Emile who thinks Jack is a world class horse and believes Jack has the qualities to be on any Team in the World!