Hello everyone!
I'm sorry its been a while since my last post. I've been super busy working like crazy and I've just come back from a fabulous 2 week trip to Crete (excuse the bragging).
Now that I'm actually home properly and not jetting off an fabulous holidays (which you can read about on my lifestyle blog if you're interested) its time to start getting Jasper fit again so we can tackle a few outdoor events this summer.
Have to say I am seriously excited about this!
While our plans are not...
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Hi guys :) I've been so bad at writing this blog that many of my readers probably don't know that I've actually got myself a job. This is pretty tough to balance alongside uni and driving Jasper in fact I wrote about it on my Lifestyle Blog because it can be hard at times. My job involves shift work and this weekend saw me getting up at 5am on both days. Not an easy feat when: a) you are meant to be revising for 3rd year exams and b) you sure as hell aren't a morning person.

While I was at sc...
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Hello again!
I'm kicking off my New Years resolution off early and starting this blog back up again. 2014 has been a difficult year for Jasper and I and we have faced many setbacks (mostly my degree getting in the way!).
After well over a year off from the carriage driving scene Jasper and I were back on Sunday for our first competition in what felt like forever.
Despite not knowing my test very well and feeling like I was just driving about randomly we were 4th after the dressage. Jasper then ...
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Today Jasper and I headed off to Lyvers Farm near Salisbury for a ODE run by the WHHC. After 3 seasons of pretty much exclusively doing Nationals taking a step back down to club level was rather weird and for me remembering everything in 1 day was very challenging (must be getting old!). I had another chance to practice the test I am doing this season and we had a great score of 50.04 with just one ball down in the cones. This was slightly frustrating as Jasper and I were cantering along nice...
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Nice big parcel has arrived of Horse Quencher and the weather here in Wiltshire is scorching as we are gripped in the heatwave. Jasper now has plenty of his favorite drink to help him stay hydrated and in top condition. It will definitely be coming with us to Lyvers Farm ODE this weekend. Also new pictures from Sandringham in the Gallery page.

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Home today from our first family holiday in 8 years. We've had a fantastic time in Majorca with plenty of sun, sea and sand. Now tanned beyond all recognition having enjoyed some well earned R&R. Glad to be home though and Jasper was certainly pleased to see us :) Shame we missed Catton but it was certainly worth it!

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Jasper was a star today with a fantastic clear in the cones to win our class. With less than 5 penalties in hand when we went in our cones round was rather nerve wracking as the competitor in 2nd place is extremely good at cones, so any mistake I made could be costly. She then had 2 cones down, allowing me to relax and we had a fab round with just the tiniest amount of time penalties. I think I am going to have to spend some time practising the faster cones speed I have to make in Intermediat...
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Today the rain has finally let up and we've had glorious sunshine. Our marathon time was really early at 8.30am and it was freezing at that time of the morning. My teeth were chattering the whole way round the marathon! Today Mum is back on the backstep but she has hurt her foot and can't walk that well so I was really nervous as I knew it was completely down to me to remember where we were going. However I remembered it fine and we had a good round. Jasper was extremely lively this morning a...
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Today's dresaage test has had its fair share of drama. After coming down the centre line the judge beeped the horn and said I was doing the wrong test! This caused a fair bit of panic amongst the Intermediate Pony Class as we had all learnt the same test I had but as the first competitor in it was fairly stressful to be told you had learnt the wrong test. Eventually it turned out what had been printed in the shedule was not what the judge had been told to mark and I was allowed to restart. I ...
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After 5 hours of driving we have finally arrived at Sandringham National. An hour of that was spent stuck in traffic on the M25 (no suprise there!). We are set up and its been raining since we arrived. Fingers crossed it brightens up for Dressage tomorrow!

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We came 2nd! Not bad for our first attempt at Intermediate level! With 1 ball down and a few time penalties we held our place to come 2nd overall. Its been an amazing weekend with glorious sunshine the entire time. Now for the long trek home and back to uni to start actually doing some work as my exams are rapidly approaching!

Thanks to all my sponsors for their support.

Secondhand Tack Online

Blue Chip Feeds

Horse Quencher UK

Mr & Mrs J Young
Barleycroft Farm


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Best marathon of my life today :D so proud of our little pony! He flew round the marathon to move up a place to 2nd with great times. I am particularly proud of our last obstacle which we had similar times to Advanced Pony Pair!
He was raring to go round the marathon and had a nice low heart rate of 57 at the halt. He drank his Horse Quencher and electrolytes and the sun shone. Great day, looking forward to cones tomorrow.

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After a hectic early start with lots of rushing around the stressage is done! Picture is of Jasper chilling in the sunshine before our test. Thanks to Kate for plaiting him for me.
Jasper warmed up beautifully and then decided to impersonate a steam train in his test and proceeded to yank my arms out. Not sure what that was all about but we still had a good score of 57.07 so we have already nearly hit our season target of a low 50's dressage score now we have moved up a level. Currently lying ...
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Today we are off to Essex for our first event of the year, Ashfields National. This is one of my favorite events and I'm really excited. This also our first event at Intermediate level and the forecast looks excellent so should be a really good weekend!

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Today was obstacle day and also the final day of the competition. Jasper flew round the obstacles but we always find Indoor obstacles challenging as they are often tight which doesn't suit Jasper and the scoring places greater importance on this phase. We were delighted to come 3rd overall and it was a great end to a fantastic season. Now we have got a 4 hour drive to Pembrokeshire as I am supposed to be on a field course in wales!

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Today Jasper has been a star! After a lethargic start Jude jumped on for 5 minutes and we then had an awesome lesson. Much improved with his medium work and rein back. Although he does reins back well in harness he has suddenly decided he doesn't know what rein back is under saddle, which is odd as that is where he orginally learnt to rein back. Very pleased with him. Spent the rest of the day getting ready for our competion tomorrow. Thank you to my sister Kiera for cleaning my carriage in e...
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No, this isn't some mushy post about how cute Valentines Day is, or some angry post about how life isn't fair. But the fact I am at home, on this particular day, writing this post should give you some clue about my relationship status. I have simply made a list of the reasons why I think horses are better than boys. That's not to say I hate boys, I don't. I just think there are some advantages that my horse will always have over any boy.
1. My horse thinks I am wonderful, no matter what. Unles...
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We should have been at an Indoor event at BCA today but it has been called off due to the snow, despite the fact that it has nearly all melted here. It was decided that it was too dangerous and it has been cancelled due to Health and Safety. While its a shame we can't compete today there is a small bit of me that is glad as it is very cold and I  did not have to get up at some unearthly hour this morning.
Instead we drove Jasper this morning, and then met up with Ann, Hester and Julie at the R...
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Great drive with Jasper in the snow today, he was not very impressed! You can see a video of our drive here
The other picture is Jasper galloping up the field today as he was desperate to come in and out of the cold.
He is such a wuss! I have done some revision today as I have yet more exams next week which was a lot less fun but I do at least feel productive.


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Woke up this morning to about 4 inches of snow! This was all incredibly exciting but... I had an exam in the afternoon so spent all morning cooped up indoors revising :(
But at 12pm we were told the uni was shut, exams were cancelled and we escaped outside to freedom and a massive snowball fight! Amazing fun!
The bad news is that obviously I still have to do the exam but they have postponed it to a Saturday that I am away competing on. Not sure what happens now but hopefully it can be sorted ou...
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Today we headed back to Sparsholt to compete at in the Wessex Regions January event.
After being in second place after dressage, we then had a clear round in the cones with several time penalties to be 2nd place in the phase and then remain in second place after dressage and cones. Knowing we had to make up ten penalties to win (and the person in front of us is renowned for being speedy) we were hoping to hang onto our second place. However, Jasper thought otherwise and we had the fastest obst...
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Happy new year from everyone at Team O'Neill! Hopefully 2013 will be every bit as awesome as the past 12 months have been. Looking back, my highlight has to be representing Great Britain with Jasper back in July during those glorious few months for British sport, I have never been more proud of my country or of my pony.
Much as I wish Carriage Driving was in the Olympics, I feel privileged to have a small taste of what it is like to compete at the highest level, and you never know, one day we...
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Jasper and I scored a hat trick today without third consecutive win in Novice Pony in the Thames Valley Region.
After an early start we arrived and did a nice dressage test to put us in 2nd place. I was particularly pleased with Jasper's attempt at lengthening today, as I thought he really tried. We then had an easy clear in what looked like a very challenging cones course but it actually drove fine. Jasper was then amazing in the obstacles and we had the fastest times in our class to win the...
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ITS CHRISTMAS! No matter how old I get I still have exactly the same, child like attitude towards Christmas and get stupidly excited about it. Today Jasper and I dressed up as Father Christmas and went to spread some Christmas cheer around our Village. Jasper was keen to be out and was trotting along proudly, which was probably to do with the fact his blinkers prevented him from seeing quite how silly I looked! Jasper is a bit of a poser and if he was human, would have been embarrassed to be ...
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I can hardly believe my first term at uni is over! I have enjoyed it so much but I am definitely ready to come home to recharge my batteries. My holidays look set to be busy as usual with competitions and work to do to as well as the usual commitments of family and uni work.
In truth right now I am very tired and just looking forward to a nice lie in as well as to driving Jasper.

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So glad to be home right now. After a quite frankly horrid week at uni it was worth getting up hideously early on a freezing cold morning as I forgot all about my rubbish week and fell right back into what I loved doing. Thats not to say that I don't love uni, I really do. I have an absolute blast usually but I had so much work due in and it was really difficult! Heres a pic of Jasper out and about on a chilly autumn morning. Secretly this is my favorite season and it was so nice and sunny th...
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YAY!!!! Jasper and I won our first indoors of the season! We also had the best score of the whole event and he was an absolute star all day (none of his usual nonsense about loading either). We were joint 3rd after dressage with 24 (leader on 23) and it was all pretty close fought. After a clear in the cones and just a few time penalties we moved up to second. Today we also had a switch around in Team O'Neill with my Mum being in Crete to see my Grandad with my other two sisters my Dad was ch...
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Double clear! Jasper and I repeated last years feat to have the most amazing double clear!!
This enabled us to keep our 4th place meaning we have qualified to move up a level to compete at National Intermediate level next season. This is particularly good news to me as standing presentation is only compulsory in Novice classes and with my very old carriage we do not always get very good scores for this no matter how clean everything is.
Galloping round the arena on our lap of honour was the mo...
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Up early for the marathon this morning! After walking them in the dark last night they seemed much easier to remember this morning. The route was stunning and we ran into lots of dear this year (just like last year) all helpfully stood in the middle of a compulsory flag. They did move... eventually! I was not particularly pleased with our obstacles as I made a foolish mistake in the 7th which cost us valuable time but importantly we got round safely. I was less disappointed when I realised we...
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The weather here at Windsor is wonderful! I feel like I am back in Spain, although it is a bit chillier in the mornings!
We were on quite late today and Jasper did the BEST test he has ever done! He scored 45 and we are currently in 2nd place! We are quite a long way behind the leader but I am so chuffed with how well he went today. We also got 50/50 in our presentation so huge thanks to my 'Gleam Team' who are better known as my Mum, Julie, Ann and Kiera who have spent hours helping polish ev...
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Today we are off to the BHDTA National Championships at the Queen Victoria Review Ground, Windsor Great Park.
Jasper is bathed, clipped, shod and ready to go. He has also had his mane pulled and is looking very handsome!
His tail is all wrapped up to stop him ruining it and we are all loaded up ready to go!

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Jaspers home from Judes today, who tells me he has been a very good boy. I went to see him yesterday when our farrier Jerry came to shoe him for Austria and kindly gave me a spare set of shoes for him. Tonight was my Leavers Ball so I was busy getting ready for that so thank you to Jude for having Jasper and to my Mum and Dad who went and picked him up for me. I had a fabulous night and my feet are absolutely killing me! It was great to see all my friends and get all dressed up for once.

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Very exciting bit of post arrived today containing Jaspers FEI Passport!! Now we just have to hope and pray we get to use it and we get selected to go to Austria this July. It looks very posh, purple and official. Makes the whole thing seem much closer now! Tomorrow we are off to the South of England Carriage Fair to take part in the BYD display, so harness is clean, carriage washed and polished and everything is packed as we have to leave at 6.30am tomorrow. As if I wasn't tired enough!

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I am really pleased to announce that I have a new sponsor for this season; Horse Quencher UK!
I am sure that their product is going to have a role to play in enhancing Jaspers performance this season.
A huge thank you to them, your support means so much :)

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