Less than 4 weeks after Verity had broken her collarbone she was back in the saddle at the BSJA Scope festival of Show Jumping last week. Verity rode Stormhill Sun Bean in the Adventurer championship, lowering a single fence in each of the qualifying rounds, the second of which took place through the night as documented in this week's Horse and Hound. Although it was 4am when Verity finally got into the ring, it was nice to compete in the championship arena.

(Above: Verity and Bean, jumping in the early hours of the morning in the Championship Arena)

 We gave the ride on Harrison III to our good friend Tom Lloyd, a professional rider based on the Wirral. Harry had not jumped at this level and we felt it was best to give him the best possible introduction to the atmosphere and bigger tracks. Harrison III was entered in the 5 yo classes, with a first round of 1.15m and a second of 1.20/1.25m, a tough ask for a horse that has only jumped two newcomers! Tom was delighted with Harrison, only having 4 faults in the first qualifier, jumping in the championship arena as if he's been there a thousand times!

(Above: Harrison and Tom tackle the first fence in the championship arena)

In the second qualifiying round, held in the Grand Arena, the new combination jumped a fantastic clear in the first round, and had an unlucky fence, but jumped well around a very strong second round.

(above: Harrison III makes light work of the penultimate fence in the 1st round of the to qualifier, held in the Grand Ring)

Drew Rode Verity's lovely 4yo mare Redhill SR in the 4yo Class at the Show, jumping a lovely clear on Thursday, scoring just outside the top 8 and missing out on the final. As she has only done a couple of BSJA shows this brave and willing daughter of Secret Rumor showed her fantastic nature throughout the week.

(Above: Redhill SR and Drew)

We are very pleased with the manner in which our horses coped and performed during the week and we look forward to seeing them develop.

On Saturday 1st August we had a bit of a bad day!

After Drew fell from his novice at the double, at this horse's first bsja show, Verity took a tumble in the same class as her novice took off a stride early at an oxer and shot her out of the front door. There must have been something in the water as later in the day a friend of ours said that there had been six fallers in the British Novice alone! Verity landed heavily and broke her collar bone. After secondary Xrays on Monday, the break in her collar bone has been confirmed and she has to return to the hospital in three weeks time. Her horse has been checked over and is absolutely fine, she has been jumped since her tumble and is still full of confidence when jumping.

Special thanks to Kat Horton who drove to the show to collect Verity and take her to hospital. We would also like to thank everyone who has offered to help with our horses, an has enquired as to how verity and her horse are getting on.

Having been placed at their second consequtive Novice event at Malpas on Sunday, and having gone clear jumping x country, Bean and Verity have now qualified to compete at CCI* Level. In order to qualify a combination must jump four clears x country at novice level, this is an objective that Verity could only have dreamt of achieving after only 4 starts at this level.

Verity and Bean overcame the worst possible draw, terrible weather and the worst of the going in the x country and show jumping phases to finish in a very respectable 9th place. Special thanks must go to Janet & Bill (Verity's parents) and Dave and Danielle for helping out and supporting us in such chalenging conditions.

We are pleased to introduce two new members to the dvsportshorses team:

Scampi & Titch have been recruited as the official mascotts of dvsportshorses, these two rascals have just been taken off their mothers (seperate littlers) and have been a joy to have at the yard (so far...)