Hot of the press, brand new Peak Power Powders!

After huge success with the Organic Horse Power Powders launched last year, Forest Farmacy have put their expertise to good use and created three brand new, all-in-one, herbal supplements designed to maximise performance levels and encourage a happy, healthy competition horse...

Peak Power Powders have been created using the latest research to support your horse during training, travelling and competition. The range consists of 100% pure, unadulterated, herbal goodness designed to work in harmony with your horse’s body to encourage optimum vitality even during intensive exercise.

Available in three formulations; Peak Protection, Peak Condition and Peak Performance. All three contain a balance of ingredients to support, protect and maintain the physical balance of the competition horse.

Peak Protection is designed to offer support to the immune system whilst also aiding respiratory function and includes a comprehensive joint support package to help remove metabolic waste, develop stronger more supportive tendons and ligaments and protect against joint wear and tear.

Peak Condition maintains and builds condition on the outside whilst gently taking care of digestive condition on the inside. The inclusion of Psyllium husk helps relieve gastric conditions, including ulcers, and keeps a healthy internal balance enabling your horse to utilise his nutrition and fight against bacteria. In addition Peak Condition balances the diet against any deficiencies and includes pre and pro-biotics – making it an ideal all round performance horse supplement.

Peak Performance works to develop muscle and support vital bodily functions whilst also assisting in recovery after intensive exercise. In addition, the comprehensive list of herbal ingredients includes a powerful joint support package which helps maintain healthy joint function and encourage a fitter, stronger competition horse.

Peak Power Powders not only give you peace of mind that your horse is receiving all the support he needs in just one product, the RRP of just £45 (for 40 days supply) makes it a very cost effective method of supplying your horse with the back up and support he needs to perform at his best.

For more information give us a call, tel: 0800 970 9421 or drop us an email info@forestfarmacy.com

Jemma Harrison gets her first taste of Grand Prix jumping!

Since my last blog update we have been very busy competing ! During April the BSJA rallies continued and Piquet and I have now been jumping Newcomers, although a few unlucky poles meant no rosettes came home but still he was jumping on form.

At the end of April we had our big Liberation Show, where competitors come over from our neighbour Island Guernsey and even the Kings Troop come over! Piquet was on form and we managed to gain a 2nd, 4th, two 5th's and two 6th's over the show (along with some prize money as well). The number of competitors in the classes were a lot higher than normal meaning that some days we would be up there for the first class at 8am and the last class and not get home till about 8pm! But the great atmosphere and competition up the showground always kept us buzzing.

On the last day of the show I was crazy enough to do the Grand Prix as Piquet was jumping so well. We weren't expecting the first round to be 1.20m but still Piquet jumped round it brilliantly with only a few knockdowns due to my inexperience of jumping a technical course at that height! The photo is of one of the uprights in the Grand Prix at 1.20m!

Overall we had a brilliant show and I couldn't of asked him to jump any better. Piquet now has a well earned break for a couple of weeks and then we have a Spring Show where hopefully we will be in the rosettes again.

Some lows and highs for Sam Penn!

It has been one of those weeks that has shown just how bad and then how great this game can make you feel. Last weekend I had a lovely day out spectating and shopping at Badminton, I walked the xc and decided that of course I could tackle it, easy peasey, (lol, why is it that courses look so much nicer when you dont have to ride them) and then we watched some of the action, Sussex was well represented but I had to feel sorry for Tina Cooke - that water looked very cold, and Francis Whittington who rode such a great round only to have Lady Luck turn against him so close to home.

Our next outing was to Moreton Morrell. First out on the Wednesday was Lite My Fire, she has been improving every time out so I was hopeful that things would go well, however for some bizzare reason our dressage was nearly half an hour late, by which time her limited attention span had well and truely run out, so we ended up with a mark of 41.5. However she managed to redeem herself somewhat in the jumping with a lovely double clear, and is definately starting to feel much more grown up about the xc so all in all I was pleased with her and optimistic about her next outing in which she is going to have a crack at a BE100.

Then came Tickeridge, who as ever performed a beautiful test spoiled only by the fact that I had a total mental block and forgot where to go! We managed then a nice clear showjumping and then a fab clear xc in which he really started to gallop and jump much more fluently only to be told that I had missed out a fence, which made me feel like a complete idiot. His owners Bill and Jenny Cooke were lovely about it, saying that it didnt matter as he had gone so well and looked really good but I still felt a bit of a prat.

The following day began with Nyala in the Novice, things started out well, she can be a somewhat opinionated young lady to say the least, but she worked in well, the begining and end parts of the test were good but her tantrum in the middle knocked down the mark to 37. The jumping side of things posed no problems however and she jumped an easy double clear, although we did add a few time faults but just scraped into the ribbons to be 10th.

Last of all came 707, he has not been quite himself recently and pulled a muscle on his last outing at Burnham Market, which did at least explain a lot about what went wrong there. So this time out we thought that he could have a nice easy run in a ON. His dressage was super with one of his best ever marks of 28, he was almost so quiet that I was concerned that he may still not be right so I warmed up for showjumping with a little trepidation, however he very soon showed me that he was feeling absolutely fine and jumped a super round just making up a bit too much ground through a double and having the one fence down. He then proceeded to cart me around the xc in his usual style, but 3 fences from home he had a very naughty duck out at a step up, bounce, to a small log, he has never refused with me without a genuine reason before so I was quite cross. He happily popped through it second time and completed without further incident. However bearing in mind his recent issues he will have a visit from the physio on Monday to check him out before maybe going for some schooling! So all in all it was one of those trips that could have been really good but ended up being rather depressing, but as my Mum keeps telling me 'You cant win 'em all'.

Saturday and Sunday were spent at Hambleden, with Coevers Diamond Clover (Flynn) having his Novice Regional Final and Boundalong for an Intermediate. It is not an event I have been to before but I will definately be going again, it's a lovely event with a strong but nice xc that rides really well. Flynn did himself proud, a 34 dressage mark in his first ever attempt at an intermediate test was good, he did get a little strong but was still rideable and I think that having more to do in a test will suit him. He had the very last fence down in the showjumping but felt awasome across the country, it was by far the toughest course he has met and he just devoured it adding just 1.2 time faults (only 5 horses made the time in the whole section), we finished up 18th, but it was all very close, with a clear sj we would have made the top 10, but he was the only 6 year old in the section, at least a year younger than any other horse there so I was very very pleased with him.

It was a lovely relaxed weekend, being stabled on site with just one horse each day, we even had a bit of a lie in on Sunday as Boundalong did not have dressage until 12. Her test was a huge improvement on previous outings, I hope we are starting to understand each other better now and although she was still a little tense she was much more rideable than she has been before. 37.7 was about what I expected for her mark, I did have to smile at the judges comment that she was 'aptly named'. The showjumping caused us no problems and she stormed around the xc in amazing style, the whole thing felt much more in tune than our previous outings.The course itself didn't cause too many problems in our section however the time was having a lot of influence, and by virtue of being the quickest in the section we won, by just 0.2, with just a further 0.3 between 2nd and 3rd. It was a fantastic result made even better by the fact that it qualifies us for the Intermediate Championships at Gatcombe, hopefully by then our dressage will have significantly improved.

The other big piece of news this week is that we have a new sponsor to welcome on board, Gary Mold and his company For Animals are based in West Sussex and sell everything you might need for horses, poultry, pigs, dogs cats and pretty much every other animal you might have, all available through their online store or by telephone or email with free delivery across West Sussex, they are now looking to expand into the Eastern side of the county so please do check them out.

Katherine Begley's season so far

Well it’s been a while since my last Forest Farmacy blog and a lot has happened, but here goes!

Firstly Belvedere – well as you know Tor Brewer had been helping me totally re-vamp his dressage and it had been going really well. At the start of the Easter holidays I went there for a week to work and ride Belv everyday whilst getting tuition from Tor. It all went well and I even started jumping him again, at the end of the week Tor drove me over to an arena in Gloucester with both my horses (Jack was at Tor’s with me) to jumped around a set of fences, both horses went brilliantly and Tor was very complementary. So after that Belvedere came home with the plan of doing an unaffiliated ODE at Stockland Lovell. He continued to go quite well at home and I took him over to Tor’s for a lesson about a week later which went very well.

However then things took a turn for the worse, the Chiropractor came out to see Belv and discovered that his pelvis was out, which meant his shoulders and jaw were also out and that his muscles were really knotted. I was devastated as she concluded he wasn’t fit to canter let alone event. However having spoken to Tor about it, it’s actually quite good news as it explains why things were going so wrong at the end of last year and over the winter! Hopefully once that is all fixed it will be better than ever! So right now he is just on walking and trotting around the roads on a long and relaxed outline to try and build up some top line. He is being strapped daily on his hindquarters and has just started doing 5/10mins very basic schooling in the same outline. However he is going nicely and seems happy!

Onto Jack, well to begin with it was all quite gutting because he was with me at Tor’s and was going really well so I was very excited for our first event of the season. Unfortunately a combination of a sore foot from shoeing and some mud fever meant that he wasn’t fit to compete so we had to withdraw. However, onwards and upwards – we had Withington ON on the weekend which went really well! Jack warmed up fairly well for the Dressage but nothing amazing. However when we were trotting/cantering around the outside of the arena he went around brilliantly about five times. Unfortunately once in the arena he became really tense which caused him to become very unsteady in his head and contact. We ended up with a score of 46.2 which I was very disappointed with. However when we looked at the scoreboard we realised that the vast majority of scores were in the 40's and that it was a stiff judge, so the score wasn't quite as bad as it seemed!

Next up was the Show Jumping, I was actually quietly confident because recently I have been BSJA-ing him over much bigger courses (see video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltyzh5Cs0uo ) and the novice track at Withington seemed quite small and straight forwards. True to form, Jack warmed up brilliantly, and then posted a lovely clear in the ring. Although I think we lacked a bit of energy at the beginning of the course. Finally was the Cross Country. I was a bit concerned about the ground but after speaking to my trainer I decided to ride forwards to ensure that we remained in a good forwards rhythm throughout the course. I wasn’t worried about any of the fences and was confident that experienced jack wouldn’t have a problem with anything, and I was right! He absolutely flew over everything and gave me a fantastic round! I had kicked on but didn't rush him for the time and we finished with 2.8 time penalties (7 seconds over).

All in all, a very good day - we just need to work on that dressage! However a double clear at our first event isn't bad going! In the end we finished 13th and without the 2.8 time penalties we would have been 7th! Onwards and upwards to Hambleden CIC* in a few weeks and then my first ever Intermediate at Aston Le Walls!

More pictures and videos of Withington can be seen on my website blog here - http://www.katherinebegley.com/1/post/2010/04/withington-on-supplejack.html

A fantastic month for Georgina Rose

Fantastic month! April saw Rose Equine off to a flying start selling all of our stock! Wally, the lovely little 4yo NF gelding that I broke last August, sold to a wonderful family on Exmoor where I'm told he will be enjoying lots of hacking and stag hunting which I can just picture him being brilliant at. Top Chianti, a well bred TB mare I bought in March, sold to a home in Bristol for showing and hacking as a first horse. At the beginning of the month I also bought a super 2yo roan NF type filly called Ruby- she sold in 2 days sight unseen to a fantastic home in Cornwall where in time she will be brought on for showjumping, so all in all a cracking start !

A successful month set us thinking about the next stage, which will (fingers crossed) be a small stable block and arena as well as additional land next September. It should mean I will be able to keep more stock through the winter, not to mention keeping the horses in fuller work through the wetter colder months so hopefully will allow us to be out and about competing much later on in the year!

One blot to a great month was Penny developing a cough just in time for a hunter trial, so decided it would be best to hold off. Bit of a mystery what brought it on, so I found the last of the Respiratory Power from winter feeding and dosed her up on that for a week - you'll be pleased to hear it worked a treat , so back in business and have some showjumping planned at Bluehayes next weekend weather permitting!

Also started my BHS Stage 2 training this month, going well so far so looking forward to moving onwards and upwards towards a teaching qualification. The exam is end of June.

With the competition season now well under way, and with the business off to a good start which will hopefully continue, I have started browsing for my own competition horse. I will never sell Penny, my jumping pony, but I am now looking the bigger model! Preferably 15-15.3hh for showjumping, planning to affiliate with right horse. Off to a sport horse sale in May, so who knows I may find my superstar yet!

Looking forward to May, Ive planned a packed few weeks of compeitions and sales so hoping our successful streak continues- and of course not forgetting Badminton Horse Trials, where I will be treating myself to some retail therapy!

Hope everyone has had a good month, and thanks to Organic Horses Respiratory Power for saving the day again!

Chloe Chubb is a busy little bee!

Well where do I start, this season has got off to a very busy start with lots of ponies to compete and school ready for the shows. The jobs to do with the horses seem never ending!

The team has had a great start to the season with the Connemara stallion Spud winning the amateur rider championship at the PUK winter champs as well as the Concours D'Elegance class where I was made to go side saddle for the first time in 15 years! Thankfully Spud was very laid back about it and gave me a nice ride around the indoor arena.

Spud and Jacob my section C have been out competing in RIHS qualifiers and started off with some good results. Jacob managed to get his ticket the other week at South of England Spring Show which was great, as it means he does not have to do anymore qualifiers now for this and it is such a lovely show to qualify for. Spud has had some near misses and I am really hoping he will have his ticket soon to. It would be great to go to the RIHS this year with a couple of ponies qualified.

The baby ponies have had their up and downs or should I say I have after my little Dartmoor brought me back down to earth with a bump the other week (literally)! He has however redeemed himself by going to his first ever show to look around where he behaved impeccably showing some of the older ones we had there how to do it! He is continuing his education at home at the moment as I am in no rush to get him into the ring. I have just brought my young section B back into work after he got a kicked in the field so hopefully we will now begin to crack on and I am aiming to get to some shows in June sometime.

My baby hack Toby has had a few limited outings and has so far touch wood been a very well behaved little horse. He has managed to qualify for the Cherif final in October already which I am thrilled with as this is one of the main things I wanted to qualify him for this year. He also went to the Ponies UK Winter champs were he handled everything we threw at him with a smile on his face. He went in and out the evening performance so many times and had some great results for a youngster.

Now the sun is shining I feel like the show season has well and truly got underway. It is great to be back out there seeing all my friends and the new ponies they have for the year. Well that's my update for now, next time I will have contested my first HOYS qualifier - fingers crossed for a good placing.

Sam Penn's trip to Withington Manor

We have spent this weekend down in Gloucestershire at one of my favourite events, Withington Manor. Unfortunately due to its popularity we had both Brooke and Flynn balloted out and so it was just Captain Christy (Smurf) and Boundalong (Muffin) who made the trip. Both had dressage on the Saturday afternoon, Smurf was first up, in Advanced section M1. Apart from two minor blips (those white letters are very scarey things!) I felt it was a pretty good test, however we got a rather dissapointing mark of 43, we seem to get the recurring comments of 'tight through back' or 'needs to work more freely over back' however he feels pretty good and was very accurate, so it' s back for more homework with Mary Ann to see if we can figure out what we do differently at home compared to out at a party. Next up was Muffin in Intermediate section H. Its only our 3rd event together and taking a bit of time to get used to each other. The work at home is really starting to come together, but at present she is still getting tense in an arena, and then makes mistakes, such as changing in counter canter, then when corrected she throws a huge strop!! However things were better than at SofE as the first half of the test was lovely, getting 7's for all her trot work and there was even an 8 in there too so her mark of 42.3 was as expected.

Overnight we stayed locally in the most beautiful yard, that apparently is usually home to polo ponies, although I'm not too sure about the early morning alarm call from half a dozen peacocks! We were back on the showground nice and early for Muffin's showjumping at 9, the better ground is certianly more suited to her than the mud we have had recently and she jumped the most fantastic double clear, for the first time I asked her to move on a bit more xc as the time is always tight here, we had a few instances where we had different ideas but I think we will get used to each other pretty quickly and then with the dressage sorted she will be a real superstar. We finished 10th on 52.7, my first placing at this level this year, lol.

We then had a long wait until 4.30 for Smurfs' showjumping. 8 faults was comparativly good, and we set out xc feeling pretty confident. he gave me a lovely ride up until fence 20, a combination consisting of a left-handed corner, 4 strides to a wagon then 5 strides to a right-handed corner, where he very naughtily ducked out of the last part. I am always the first to say if it was a 'rider error', as was the case at Burnham Market, but on this occasion it wasn't and I was very disapointed as he jumped it fine at the second attempt and then happily finished the course. So Mr Smurf has a lot of homework to do before Houghton Hall CIC3*. As 707 missed his Advanced run he will now be headed for the 2* along with Muffin and hopefully we will be taking Pusiden for his BYEH debut. However we have plenty to do before then, our next outing is Moreton Morrell in a couple of weeks, so until then.........x