Following on from our fantastic weekend at Firle was our last visit of the year to Hickstead. Squid, NT and Flight were the ones who got to go and play, although we are rarely fast enough to really trouble the ‘proper’ showjumpers, it is nonetheless great experience for the ponies and good for me to get out and jump some bigger tracks.

NT jumped reasonably well on both days, with one fence down in every jump off he was consistant! Flight was feeling a little too proud of himself after his first Novice event the previous week and took no notice of anything I had to say in the first days 1.10 class so we bumped him up to a Foxhunter in order to give him something to think about. He was still a little rude and notched up 12 faults however he then went home to consider the consequences of his actions and came back in a far more amenable frame of mind the following day.

Squid had a lovely time as he is actually pretty competitive against the clock and was placed in the 1.10 classes on both days. I was so proud of him on day 2 though, as we put him in a 1.20 open which, when I saw the course I thought was huge! I know Hickstead always build bigger but really!? He didn’t let me down and jumped the most fantastic double clear. We were not placed but he tried so hard and felt awesome.