Charlotte Platt’s blog: being bucked off and our first foal of 2009

After a quiet couple of weeks schooling the horses, we have been busy competing this week.

I have just got back from a show at Royal Leisure EC where we took the babies and they were all super. I didn’t fall off which is a bonus — last week I took a couple of them to a local show for the clear round jumping and fell off twice in about 30secs — I was a bit sore afterwards!

I took four horses to Crofton Manor on Friday and they all jumped well. My six-year-old Willem won the H&H Foxhunter class and my eight-year-old Ulien, who is Paulien’s sister, won the 1.40m so I was really pleased with them.

BSJA trainer Corrine Bracken, the junior and young rider chef d’equipe, came to the yard yesterday to give my fiance Ron and I some instruction. We got totally soaked in the rain but, as always with Corrine, the horses jumped and worked brilliantly.

At home, I have been doing a lot of work using poles on the ground into a fence so they really learn to sit on their bums — it seems to be working at the moment as they all feel great and I’m really looking forward to the new season.

The exciting news is that our first foal was born on Sunday night in the field. She is a filly out of a thoroughbred mare by a young stallion called Wallenberg and we have decided to call her Frankie. There are 15 more due in the next few weeks so we’ll have our hands full!

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