<![CDATA[AMANDA BREWER  - Brewer's Blog]]>Mon, 21 May 2012 13:45:42 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Rain rain go away!]]>Thu, 17 May 2012 13:11:20 -0800http://www.amandabrewer.co.uk/1/post/2012/05/rain-rain-go-away.htmlSorry this blog update has taken so long, but we have a full yard and have been so busy!!!

I am very proud of everyone I teach as before the dreadful weather, and all the cancelled competitions all had been going so well. Sarah and William, what a thrill to get them to Advanced level and competing with all the pros. In Sarah's words when she rang me after he had jumped round the Advanced track at Burnham Market 'he was awesome'. Since then all his events have been cancelled so he is taking a step back due to the delays and now heading for the 3 day event at Houghton.

Lily Bradstock and her pony are continuing to do really well with their schooling and training, and although it hasn't been reproduced at competitions yet, it has come through in the jumping and at the last event he was one of only a very small handful of ponies to jump a double clear. Really proud of them as well!

Everyone else continues to improve although we have had a lot of bad luck with horses off work but hopefully all will come good now. The show hack we have been producing was due to do 3 or 4 shows before Royal Windsor, all of which got cancelled, and then the night before Windsor we had a phone call and his class at Windsor was cancelled too! Hey ho!

Anyway onwards and upwards with all our horses, and I will keep you posted

Happy horses and happy training
Love
Amanda x]]><![CDATA[Spring has sprung!]]>Sat, 07 Apr 2012 10:33:05 -0800http://www.amandabrewer.co.uk/1/post/2012/04/spring-has-sprung.html
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Christopher schooling at home
At last I have the time to write an update! We have been so busy with a full yard of ten horses for a couple of months now. What a mixture...we have 2 very well bred tb's to break in, one aimed at flat racing and the other over jumps. They are both 'bred into the purple' so that's lovely for Dave to work on.

We also have 2 in to re-break, one full tb and one part bred, 5 and 4 years olds.Also on the yard is a lovely eventer who has come in to improve his dressage and 2 young dressage horses. Christopher our re-schooled ex-racer went to his first show the other day at Addington and never put a foot wrong, so he is now headed for Royal Windsor and the Novice Hack - aiming high I know but he really is a star!

Our eventers have started the season very well - William and Sarah went to Tweseldown and made the Intermediate look like a pony club course, even his dressage was good all 7's and 8's but naughty William still did his stopping going into right canter, and counter canter and threw marks away but at last I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Sadly William had a corn, and was not right so had to be withdrawn from Gatcombe and Belton, but is well again now and off to Burnham Market this week.

Lily and Smokey have been storming round their events and we just need to keep working on the dressage, but we are getting there - at home at least.

Michelle and Dennis have had no luck as Michelle had a fall on another horse and was knocked out and had to miss her 2 star start on Dennis, but here's hoping for good things in a couple of weeks time when they start at Withington Intermediate.

Our other pupils are all going well, and looking forward to various competitions, but recently they have had everything go wrong bruised feet, splints, strangles scare, lorry problems goodness me no one has got started yet! Hopefully by the next blog I will have some good results to post about from the rest of the team

Happy horses and happy training
Love Amanda x
]]><![CDATA[Fantastic February!]]>Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:32:15 -0800http://www.amandabrewer.co.uk/1/post/2012/02/fantastic-february.htmlThis is only the 2nd blog of the year and it's another good one!

Following on from the last blog and 'Berry's' great win first time out has become even better as since then 6 of the other 2yr olds in the field that she beat have gone on to win their next races. That makes Berry's achievement even better!

I'm very proud because at the regional finals 2 of my riders finished in the top 10. One was Amanda Royal and 'Archie'. Amanda had had a back operation just a week before the regionals and so couldn't ride or train, so it was a fab result considering the circumstances. I only wish the operation could have been scheduled for after the regionals because then who knows what could have been?...

Penny Gill also did fantastically on 'Romeo' it was their first ever regional final and she was equal 9th and finished 10th on collectives. So well done to Penny and Romeo and it's now onwards and upwards for these two now.

Sarah Hordern and 'William' are gearing up for the first event of the season and have been out showjumping and jumping double clears so it's all looking promising for them this season.

Lily Bradstock on 'Smokey' is also improving rapidly and she went out to Bury Farm and won her Open JAS class so we are all very thrilled about that and if they keep improving like this they really will go out and wow the judges!

It's all looking good for the rest of the year, fingers cr
]]><![CDATA[Start as we mean to go on....]]>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:16:18 -0800http://www.amandabrewer.co.uk/1/post/2012/01/start-as-we-mean-to-go-on.htmlFirst blog of the year! 

A great start to 2012 so far for us as 'Berry' the 2yr old thoroughbred that Dave broke in and did all the pre-training work for went off to her first race from Marco Botti's yard in Newmarket and won! She was a super star. All the schooling in the ménage really showed as the other 2yr olds cantered down to the post with their heads in the air and mouths open, but 'Berry' looked amazing, neck down and round, and cantering over her back to the post. Once the race started she looked absolutely fabulous and went on to win really well, a great omen for 2012.

The eventers are preparing for the new season with show jumping and dressage competitions so that's all very exciting, and the dressage regional finals are also coming up in the middle of February so watch this space!

Happy horses and happy training


]]><![CDATA[A successful season ]]>Thu, 03 Nov 2011 06:43:35 -0800http://www.amandabrewer.co.uk/1/post/2011/11/a-successful-season.htmlI can't believe it's the end of October! This year seems to have flown by it only seems like yesterday that David and I moved into Petwick Stables and started up our business what a great time we have had and I feel very proud of our achievements with our horses and riders. 

I am particularly proud of the fact that I have trained 2 riders in 2 different disciplines (one of which only rides at the weekend) to advanced level. Claire and Nerro went out and won at their first attempt in advanced with a percentage of 66% and Sarah and William having jumped a double clear round Gatcomeb 2* went on to complete both horse and rider's 1st advanced event at Little Downham with a clear xc.

All my other riders have done so well with various wins and places at dressage and eventing venues. For those of you who knew 'Wally' and have followed his progress since David and I broke him in and sold him on to a showing career, what a thrill that he was reserve champion hack at HOYS! One of David's 2yr olds that he broke in and did all the pre-training with is also going well in training with Marco Botti at Newmarket.

So all in all a great 8 months, and I can't wait to get stuck in to everyone's training over the winter and step out next season, I only hope my horse Rudi comes good who at the moment is turned away down in Devon with a splint, roll on next year.

Happy training and happy horses

Love Amanda x ]]><![CDATA[Competition success continues!]]>Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:03:42 -0800http://www.amandabrewer.co.uk/1/post/2011/08/competition-success-continues.htmlWell what a fabulous blog to write all my competitors have been doing so well, before I start, for those of you who know ‘Wally’ he is still going brilliantly well and has had his photo in H&H a couple of times this season, with big wins at Hickstead and Kent County. It’s lovely to know and follow his progress.

Well where to start?... Claire and ‘Nerro’ have continued to do brilliantly well and at their last start before the regional finals they won another advanced medium with a score of 68% with a 4% lead. It was their regional final on Sunday and a 5th placing was a brilliant achievement although Claire was disappointed as she felt they could have done better and a couple of mistakes that they would not normally have made dropped them to 5th, still well done to them.

Jemima Gray and ‘Rolo’ have been training with me since March and the pair of them have transformed in that time, we have taken an ordinary cob and turned him into a posh cob! They have been placed in all their events, been in the PC teams for SJ, eventing, and dressage with dressage scores of 66% and 67.9% so we are all trilled (insert pic) Rolo’s jumping has always been sound, and with several clear rounds under his belt I am wishing for a top result when he competes in the area trials on Tuesday.

Rolo the 'posh cob'
Rolo the 'Posh Cob' strutting his stuff in his lesson
Continuing on with the eventers we have been thrilled with ‘William’ who has now competed in 2 open novices, with double clears. Considering he hasn’t competed for 3 years his dressage wasn’t that bad. He show jumped in a large show at the weekend in the Newcomers and Amature Open with clear rounds, he goes to the Intermediate at Hatherleigh in Devon and then on to Highclere, and then Gatcombe CIC2* so I’m very proud of William and Sarah Hordern.

Michelle and ‘Dennis’ continue to improve and after their great performance at Brightling Park CIC1* went on to do a super dressage test at Wilton Intermediate and jumped a double clear with a few time penalties xc they finished in 11th place. Without the time they would have been 2nd so I know we are well on the way with that pair.

A final mention albeit at a much lower level is to Harriet and ‘Topsy’. Harriet is 15 and has owned ‘Topsy’ for 1 year and both were very green. They have improved out of all sight and completed their first couple of dressage competitions with respectable scores. But 2 weeks ago competed at their 1st ODE with a dressage score of 25, they did complete the showjumping and xc albeit with a few pens.

A special well done to Jessica and ‘Tixylix’ it was lovely to get a phone call from Poland to tell me that they had won the Individual Bronze in the European Championships. The British Team that she was also part of on Tixylix won the gold!

I am so thrilled with all our competition results and wishing Rachel Comely luck at her dressage regional finals on Friday at Addington.


Happy Training & Happy Horses
Amanda x
]]><![CDATA[Hard work pays off with more competition success for my clients!]]>Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:03:54 -0800http://www.amandabrewer.co.uk/1/post/2011/06/hard-work-pays-off-with-more-competition-success-for-my-clients.htmlI am so happy to be writing this blog as so many good things have happened since I last wrote! Things are going really well here at Petwick Stables for David and myself and its been great to have a full yard, of so many different types of horses.
Petwick Stables
At the moment we have 2 well bred fillies in to be broken in, and 1 also in pre-training to be schooled ready to go to Newmarket. We have a tb ex-racehorse being re-schooled to go eventing. We have a young Andalusian gelding to school towards a dressage career. In addition to those 'students' we have a lovely Dutch bred 4 yr old in for dressage schooling, a 2* eventer that I have been bringing back from injury for the owner and he is starting to compete again after 2 1/2 years. He is going to be the best ever so we have high hopes! 

Nerro has been getting better and better, and Claire his owner has been out and won and qualified for her Advanced Medium regional final, so they have both done fantastically! Our horse Rudi continues to be 'a challenge' but I know I am getting there with him - at last!

Another good thing to report is that Rachel Comely and her mother's lovely pony (which I found for them, and they bought in October) had been a good jumping pony, but never done a dressage test in his life. Rachel rode regularly about 15 years ago and has been back in training with me every week since October went out last weekend and competed on Saturday and Sunday and won both Prelims on Saturday with 68% and 69% and Sunday both tests were over 70%!!!! So I am REALLY proud of them both.
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Sarah & Coup
Sarah and Coup also had some great news, after being on box rest for 9 months and back in work for only 3 1/2 months Sarah and Coup went out and jumped clear in their regional final at Addington on Saturday. There were only 20 clears in the class of 58 and he had an unlucky pole down in the jump off, but a huge well done still to them for such a great achievement.

Chloe and Soap are heading off to Hickstead for their final of the retrained racehorse class this weekend so hoping for a good result there too!

I can't sign off without also mentioning Harriet and Topsy who went to their 3rd ever competition the Isis Dressage Day at Gainfield and came away with two 5ths and a 3rd and scores of 60% and 65.9% so well done Harriet and Topsy too!

All in all everyone is doing REALLY well, and we have a very happy and successful yard, till next time...

Happy Horses & Happy Training
Love Amanda x
]]><![CDATA[The competition season is kicking off...]]>Sat, 28 May 2011 10:15:22 -0800http://www.amandabrewer.co.uk/1/post/2011/05/the-competition-season-is-kicking-off.htmlThis is a long overdue blog, but David and I have been so busy with our new yard at Petwick Stables. All is going very well. On the young horse breaking side of the business we have 2 lovely well bred fillies to break in, one to be turned away again, one is heading off to Newmarket to go into training.

We have another sport horse here to re-break, sadly he has been very spoilt and badly treated and is only beginning to trust again. He may not be destined for the racetrack but I also think he is lucky to have landed with us. We also have a lovely young dressage filly and an ex-racehorse to retrain, so that side of the business is busy busy!

My lessons have all been going great guns, Claire and Nerro have stepped out at Adv Med level, 3 competitions now, and about 6 classes, and won at least 3 of them, including Adv Med qualifier which she won by 5%, so big well done to Claire and Nerro!

It's really rewarding having trained Nerro all week, and then Claire has a lesson on Saturday, and I can really see the difference in him now each week.

Amanda and Puzzle have also been out to their first comp' of the season, and when he came in to me for training I worked hard on the canter so I was very pleased to hear he won his classes and got 8's for the canter!!!

A couple of young eventers are going well at home but the ground is too hard for them to compete, so we will have to wait and see... I have to give a special mention to Heidi and Connor who have worked so hard with me all through the winter. The dressage is improving so much and although we have a long way to go his scores are better and better, and his jumping is improving loads, so well done to Heidi and Connor.

Another young eventer although this time it's the rider that's young - Jemima and Rolo, only after about 7/8 lessons having always finished in the bottom few after the dressage phase they went to Mattingly ODE and finished 3rd! A great result as the leader was on 27 dressage and Jemima and Rolo scored 32. Jemima said Rolo's turns on the show jumping course and his canter overall was so much easier. Big well done to them too.

We are all really enjoying being here at Petwick Stables and there is so much more to say, and we have some lovely horses in, and who knows in the future I might not just be reporting back on dressage and jumping success, but maybe a race win soon too!

]]><![CDATA[Take a look around...]]>Sun, 17 Apr 2011 02:32:22 -0800http://www.amandabrewer.co.uk/1/post/2011/04/take-a-look-around.htmlHello All,

Finally the packing boxes are empty and we are all settled in our new home so I thought it was about time I uploaded some pictures of our new yard so you can take a look around...click on the slide show below...
]]><![CDATA[New beginnings and good results]]>Sun, 27 Mar 2011 04:22:38 -0800http://www.amandabrewer.co.uk/1/post/2011/03/new-beginnings-and-good-results.htmlSorry my blog hasn’t been updated for so long but David and I have moved and now have our own yard. It was a big decision as David’s job as head man in a top racing establishment came with a lovely house and garden, but to be able to work together and live on the yard is great, we only have a small flat and I miss my garden but being able to step out of the door in the morning and look at the lovely yard and our horses popping their heads out of their stables is wonderful. Facilities are super we have a Martin Collins school, huge stables, wash box, walker, tack and feed room. We also have a lovely coffee room better than a coffee room as it has its own kitchen, bathroom and bedroom so I can at last have people to stay with their own horses, and we also have David on hand to video the lessons which will be fun.

My youngest pupil Saffron who is only 9yrs old has been out competing in prelim, and considering she can only ride her pony every 2 weeks she has done wonderfully well, mum Rachel keeps the pony going in between. Last weekend she went out and finished 2nd at Blewbury with 68% not bad for a 9yr old up against adults! Claire and Nerro competed in their first advanced medium and did really well especially as Nerro was a bit wild as it was his first competition for a few months. A special thrill was even though he was feeling wild and tense they managed 7’s for all their flying changes. Claire also rode her mother’s lovely little horse to a placing in the elementary on his first attempt at elementary, so we were all very happy. The event season is under way but at the moment only 1 horse is ready to compete, the others I teach will start in a couple of months. Heidi jumped a double clear and her dressage marks were much improved since she started training with me in the autumn so it’s all looking good. Now we have our yard I do hope to keep the blog updated better.

Happy training and happy horses
Amanda x

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