First blog of the year! 

I 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

Well 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.

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

I 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.

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.

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

This 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!

Hello 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...

Sorry 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

Let's hope the snow and ice is over for the winter! What a nightmare for everyone.

The only good that has come out of it, is that I have time to catch up with all my jobs, including replying to emails. On that note to the several ladies that sent me very nice emails regarding training (both dressage and show jumping) please could you re email me? Having found the time to reply to my emails as I was at the table ready to go, 'Ivy' and 'Peaches' my 2 naughty cats came storming in from outside (they aren't keen on minus 10!) and did their usual galloping around the house to warm up, sadly straight over the delete key on my PC! Now I can't find your emails anywhere! So if you happen to read this and have not had a reply from me please get in touch again!!

At last time to update the blog. It's no excuse I know to say I have been frantically busy and then struck down by severe bronchitis, followed by a fall down the stairs and a week on crutches! All back together now and ready to go, but due to snow the arena is now frozen solid! Oh well it gives me time to catch with other jobs
We had a fabulous end to the season with horses and riders who have stuck to their guns and kept up their training and lessons which has paid off with good results, and high scores in dressage and show jumping.

A special mention has to go to Chloe and her little ex-racehorse 'Soap'. I have only been teaching Chloe since March this year and they came to me through a recommendation from the well know and brilliant physio Melanie Gurdon. When I first saw them 'Soap' looked like a little, weak, under muscled thoroughbred. Wrong muscles head in the air etc. Their competition record reflected what I saw in front of me! Chloe and Soap have worked hard with me all season and the pair look completely transformed with scores to prove it! So well done to them when they won the highly competitive ROR and Tattersall's Retrained Racehorse Class at the Royal Berks County Show. Such a thrill to be called in 4th, but then to be moved up to 1st once the judge had ridden Soap, because he said he was the best trained horse in the class, and this judge knows a thing or two as he himself has ridden round Badminton! So well done Chloe and Soap who are now aiming for the final at next year's Hickstead Derby Meeting.

Hopefully we won't have a winter like last year, and we can all get stuck into our training ready for next season.
Happy horses, and happy training
Amanda x