Just Jonelle at Bovington with her two novice horses and on a sunny Sunday afternoon she rode at her last one day for the 2025 season.
J’Orange (Daisy) and Brookfield Royale Love (Edward) were her rides and it was Jonelle’s first visit to the Dorset venue and her day started off well when she saw that the dressage test was 112 which is her favourite and also seems to be the least liked by most organisers as Jonelle has waited all year to ride it!
Next massive plus point was that the dressage area at Bovington was unexpectedly on super flat ground (there is not much flat ground in most of Dorset so events in the south tend to be on a slope at best) and also perfect footing. This seems to be as a result of it being held on the rugby pitch…whether this was popular or not with the local team is another matter but fair to say Jonelle was delighted!
Both Daisy and Edward did smart tests with Edward posting a 26.3 and Daisy a very credible 27.8. The showjumping didn’t quite have the perfect end of season result with Daisy kicking out the last fence as she is lacking a bit of focus whilst she adjusts back to the sights and sounds of the ring and Edward was described as ” needs to get his measuring stick out” as its only his second novice start and his default is currently set at 100 level. Jonelle did add that to be fair to Edward the first 4 fences were very straightforward and then 5 onwards were much more grown up hence he caught fence 5 behind and also tipped the vertical out of the double.
Daisy was very good cross country and has finally ticked her 5 novice MERS which Jonelle has being trying to sort since Little Downham last year. Edward showed his true colours as a gentleman when Jonelle was in the start box when a hold on course was called as someone had gone splat and he then wandered around the collecting ring for a further 40 minutes whilst waiting for his turn. Lucky it was that way round as Daisy would certainly not have been as patient! Edward then popped neatly around the course and has endeared himself to Jonelle in the process as the low sun was very much in Jonelle’s eyes but clearly was not an issue for Edward.
Bovington ticked allot of boxes and its holiday time for the young horses as three day season kicks in with Boekelo, Maryland and Pau lined up for the next few weeks. Here’s to a good last few weeks of the season!