Beauty and Brains.

LAMBRIGG CONFETTI. Thanks again to Dave for a great photo

Lambrigg Confetti.

4yo Connie at clear round again and trying her little heart out for us. She's only been in work a matter of weeks and I am really pleased with her.

Wednesday night jumping at Barton 10th Aug.

Playgirl is fully back in action and steps up the pace to reward us with second place in her first Open class.

Well done, and as ever, thanks to Claire for doing a wonderful job riding for us.

Showjumping at Barton

Both Playgirl and Confetti went showjumping at Barton this week. It was Connie's first time out and we were pleased with the way she took the evening in her stride and went forward nicely over the clear round course - hopefully there will be plenty of reports to come as she gains experience.




Playgirl has had an enforced break due to a jarred shoulder so it was great to see her back in action and loving it. Her lack of fitness told somewhat in the jump off, but even so she managed third in the Trailblazers novice. Thanks to Dave Gaskell for the photo.

Kestrel goes arena eventing

I heard recently from Kestrel's owner with news of his outings and this lovely picture of them at Aintree arena eventing :


"Since his departure to the sunnier climate of Lancashire Kestrel has been a very busy boy - at the Northwest Sports Horse Show he completed a lovely clear round to be placed 4th in the 5 year old Ridden Sports Horse in good company. He also attended his first arena eventing competition at Aintree and jumped a super round only for his jockey to gain them faults through catching her foot on jump wing over a narrow stile! His next outing is Bold Heath in the BE 80(T) class in August."

GOOD LUCK GABI AND KESTREL..... keep up the good work !

Lambrigg Mozambique

News of Mozambique was nice to receive recently. His owner Vivian made this lovely comment - "We are getting on very well. Bob is a happy content little chap who is growing well and so far, not wanting to count my chickens, I think that I am going to end up with a well balanced adorable horse with a big personality."

Here they are pictured at Cheshire county show, I am told his behaviour was excellent and he was a very respectable 5th against mature horses - as far as we know he was the highest placed yearling. Well done Bob !

Lambrigg R.Smartie

Congratulations to Smartie and his rider Heather Larson, pictured here on their way to 9th place at Somerley Park Open Novice BE where they were competing against Pippa Funnell and William Fox-Pitt amongst others. Smartie only needs 3 more points now before he becomes Intermediate.

Lambrigg Payday

Some nice photos of Payday competing. He was one of Dollar Boy's first foals and it is lovely to see him again. He was bought as a yearling by the Richards family from Greystoke ( well known National Hunt trainers ) and belongs to Gordon Richards's grand daughter.

We have his full sister here with us - Lambrigg Black Orchid, a 3yo black near leopard filly with a typically wonderful steady nature. Hopefully she too will make a very useful competition horse and is currently offered for sale to the right home.

June update

After much soul searching Kestrel has been sold. The opportunity to place him in an eventing home where he can hopefully fulfill his potential was too good to ignore when it presented itself, so after going on a month's trial, during which he competed at his first BE80 one day event, the deal was done. We will miss him, but have already had the great pleasure of going to watch him competing.

We do of course still have his full sister Confetti who will now step up to replace her brother as one of our showjumpers. She is making steady and encouraging progress in her training and really does share Kestrel's enthusiasm for jumping and his wonderful generous nature.

The first of the 3 year olds will soon be backed too, Starbuck ( also sired by Eclipse ) has bravely volunteered himself for this important position !

Lambrigg Playgirl Again.

Bunny went back for her second competitive outing, again at Barton, and won ! There was a very good entry in the novice class as it was a Trailblazers qualifier, but only 5 went through to the jump off. Of course it goes without saying that we are over the moon with her progress.

Lambrigg Playgirl's jumping debut.

It was Bunny's turn this time, in the novice unaffiliated at Barton again. I am delighted to report that not only did she jump a double clear, but she won the class and also had the fastest time in the jump off. What a star !

Many grateful thanks go to Bunny's new rider Claire Ingham, who has done a sterling job in the space of five weeks, and ensured that we now have one very Happy Bunny who is loving her job.

We do have photographic evidence, albeit taken in the dark in the car park !

Lambrigg Kestrel's showjumping debut

Kestrel entered his first competitive showjumping class yesterday at Barton EC in the novice unaffiliated. He went through to the jump off, finishing 5th overall out of around 20 entrants with one down, but a very fast time. He's loving his new career and is very enthusiastic - it's much more exciting than being a show horse ! A very late night for all of us by the time we got home driving back through heavy fog, but we all had a wonderful time. Sadly I forgot to take my camera !

SPORTABAC LTD

Several of you who are likely to read this will already be aware that we purchased Sportabac last year, and after a long process of work on a new website and ongoing negotiations with the planning department the end seems to be in sight.
So Sportabac Equestrian will be back soon, better than ever, with boots and the famous original turnout socks available to buy exclusively on line through the website.
Keep an eye on the equestrian press ( also on here ) for news of the re-launch and some great promotional offers.

Farewell Bob

Lambrigg Mozambique has now left for his new home having been stranded here for over two months past his original planned departure date due to the snow. In many ways it is sad to see the affable young chap leave, as he does have a talent for endearing himself to just about everybody he meets and has been a great personality around the yard. True to form he loaded easily and travelled well, even handling a popped air brake hose on the lorry with a much greater degree of collection than I managed to muster !

Early reports suggest that he has proved a big hit there too, and I wish Vivian lots of fun with him.

Lambrigg Rococo

Well here he is, Lambrigg Rococo aka Worzel, a bay leopard by Dollar Boy ex Starburst ( dam of Solaris and Starbuck, also dam to the 2010 scottish reserve supreme champion Lambrigg Cordelia who has undergone a name change to Spotswood Tizwiz along the line ). This is Starburst's first foal to Dollar Boy, but I plan to put her back to him for a 2012 foal having now seen the result.

He's a lovely bold foal, and absolutely huge so I wouldn't be surprised if he makes well over 16hh and may well be a keeper ! Which leaves me with the problem of who to sell instead in order to make room.

2011

Firstly a happy new year to everybody.

The last few weeks have been a constant round of feeding and watering - so here's to the delights of winter, the frozen water pipes ( still not thawed at the time of writing ), the diesel frozen in the tractors, gates frozen shut and our frozen faces. Everything taking three times longer than usual on top of rescuing neighbours on an almost daily basis from various snowdrifts. All in all enough to reduce a grown man to tears !

I have however had the pleasure of being called a divine gift by one neighbour when I gave her a lift on the quad bike after discovering her in the pitch dark walking the two hilly miles home on shot ice, pulling a sledge with her shopping on after abandoning her car on the main road !

The horses of course are thriving in the cold, bright and dry conditions.

There is other news to report, we have a new foal by Dollar Boy, more of him later. Also Kestrel attended a jumping clinic with International eventer JP.Sheffield who was extremely encouraging about his ability over jumps. Plans for Kestrel this year are to continue his showing, moving on from riding horse where he competed last season and into working hunter classes, also to start his showjumping which is a very exciting prospect for the coming year.