It was Faerie Good Golly who kicked off the day just after 9am in the OI at Aston le Walls and with a 30.5 she was holding her own in a grown up field of advanced horses where only 5 combinations made sub 30. Another gutsy clear showjumping followed by a cruisey cross country to add 6.4 time saw her tick all her boxes before her next outing at Royal Jump in France at the end of the month.
Jonelle’s next two rides were a little more challenging….Indian Tonic ( Indie) has been quite hot and J’Orange ( Daisy) somewhat fractious having spent much of 2025 on the sidelines. Indie was much more onside in the dressage for a 33 in her intermediate and ditto Daisy who scored a 31 for her first intermediate start which is very impressive. They are both super jumpers and left all the rails in place as expected but a good effort from Daisy for her first go at the level for sure.
Aston do a great job of watering the track when it has been dry but unfortunately several massive rain storms passed over the venue today which meant that the going was more soggy than expected. Golly went early so was fine but Indie and Daisy had to deal with somewhat over watered ground by the time they set off. Indie was all business and went clear and Daisy really did make a great job of her first intermediate despite the score board saying 40 jumping.
Jonelle actually went so far as to say that Daisy ” gave me a lovely spin cross country aside from the 2 moments”. Aston has a weird mound prior to the first water with a little log on top which catches a few out….Daisy went, then paused and came back and then Jonelle trotted it and she popped over fine. The at the coffin she jumped in, took one stride to the ditch and did one of her speciality fast stops which very nearly had Jonelle out of the front door and shot left handed. Jonelle wrangled her back in and kicked her over and she popped the skinny out easily. And the rest was awesome!
It’s all about learning at intermediate….Golly was having a reset after belting around Cirencester, Indie is beginning to come onside and lose the attitude with her new rider and Daisy is on a big curve upwards and ticking that next box. All three head to Royal Jump next so a good outing for all of them.