Hartpury Festival of Dressage

Our Super-Duo has had it's first outing! It was on Saturday night for the Gala Evening of Hartpury College's Festival of Dressage, and everything went really well - none of us forgot anything! When we started the show the whole audience clapped along with us really loudly - the atmosphere was absolutely electric! Both Becca and I, and especially the horses, loved it - as you can see from the top picture Tinker found the whole thing very exciting!!

I'll try and find some more photos of the show, the two above were the only ones on the website but I'm sure I can track some more down at some point!

We're off to Blenheim Palace tomorrow for the CLA Gamefair. This is one of our most favourite shows so we're really looking forward to it, and hoping for some decent weather! We're doing three shows a day for all three days, a super-duo in the main arena in the morning and then the two solo shows in the afternoon - so although Becca and I have to vault three times a day the horses only have to do two shows a day each - lucky them!!

Hope to see you there!

Love Rosie xx

Capel Manor

We spent last weekend at Capel Manor, North London, surounded by beautiful gardens - you wouldn't have thought the M25 was so close! We were doing another two day solo show for Oakleighs, so it was Rebecca, Ronan, Tim, Tinker and I for the weekend. Having just done the four day duo at the Royal, a two day solo semed like an absolute breeze! All the shows went really well apart from some slight technical hitchs with the music and mics - we seem to be cursed with this at the moment!

On Saturday night we were lucky enough to be entertained by Stevo. Normally a childrens entertainer at the shows he also does exceptional up close magic, with some amazing card tricks - no matter how closely we watched him we couldn't work out how he does it! We also had some lodgers in the tent for the weekend - Stevo's magic rabbits, Merlin and Mysti! The horses were quite bemused by them at first, especially when we started feeding them their carrots!

On the Sunday we went for a wander around all the beautiful gardens, and managed to get lost in the maze! We eventually found the middle but then had to try and work out how to get out again! We finally made it back to the showground in time to see the Wagtail Agility Group, those dogs can really shift! My favourite was Blaze whose best party trick is to catch eight hoops in one go!

We're off to Hartpury College on Saturday night for a Gala Dressage Evening, we're going to be performing our brand new Super-Duo. It's a combination of all the best bits of the two separate duo shows, so fingers crossed we don't get confused and everything runs smoothly!

I'll let you know how it goes!

Rosie xx

Capel Manor

Royal Show and Blenheim Palace Photoshoot

What a busy week we've had! Rebecca, Ronan, Tinker, Tim and I set off for the Royal Show on Wednesday for a four day duo show - our first four dayer ever! Thursday and Friday were a bit slow with only small audiences for the shows, but thankfully we were next to the forge so the farriers made up for it with lots of cheering and whistling! On Saturday we were looking forward to a good show as lots of our friends and family had come to watch. Unfortunately, we got five minutes in to the show when then music system and microphones completely failed - really embarrassing! There was nothing we could do so we just had to leave the arena and wait until it was fixed. So after about ten minutes we went back in and started again - only for exactly the same thing to happen at exactly the same point in the show - really really embarrassing! Thankfully it was fixed properly for the afternoon show, although by then most of our friends had left!

Both the shows went really well on Sunday - despite us all having slightly fuzzy heads and wobbly legs from the young farmers party the night before! We got a bit rained on in the first show, so all the tack, costumes and horses got soaking wet and covered in mud, but the sun shone for our very last show so we finished on a high! Even better, the organisers had asked us if we'd like to perform our final show in the main arena, but due to time constraints and lack of arena preparation we unfortunately had to say no. Maybe next year though...

After we'd packed up we managed to watch the Bolddog Motorbike Display Team in the main arena - some of the jumps they were doing were just amazing! We managed to get a few photos of them - unfortunately they were about the only thing we did take pictures of as we kept forgetting to get the camera out! Sorry!

We did a photo shoot at Blenheim Palace yesterday for the CLA Gamefair at the end of the month, and in between the showers it was great fun! We took the horses for photos on the bridge, in the main arena, and up the steps right in front of the palace! They were both fantastic and made us really proud! After the photos we went for a wander around the grounds and saw the Italian Garden, the Secret Garden and the Orangery. Both the boys were very generous with their gifts, Ronan leaving a huge pile in front of the palace and Tinker leaving one by the Temple of Health in the gardens!!

Click here to see (very few!) photos from the last week.

We're off to Capel Manor in North London on Friday for a two day solo show, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Lots of love

Rosie xx

Three Counties Show and Wedding Party

We had a lovely weekend at the Three Counties Show this weekend. This time it was Becca, Ronan, Simon, Tinker and I who set off on Thursday for Malvern for a three day duo show. The sun shone, the shows were fantastic and the audiences were brilliant! In a Jive Pony first we were welcomed into the ring with a fanfare, which certainly helped to gather the crowds! Saturday was an especially busy day though, as we were double booked to do a display at a society wedding in the evening!

So no sooner had we finished our second show we were off to the National Trust's Lodge Park and dancing away again! The wedding was amazing, with a vintage bus for the guests, a spit-fire fly past, circus performers and of course Jive Pony! It was quite different to anything else we have ever done before as the music we were vaulting to was provided by a live band! The boys were fantastic and didn't bat an eyelid, and Ronan's final job was to carry the bride and groom to the awaiting helicopter! Then it was back to Malvern and time for bed!

Sunday was another lovely day, and the shows went really well once again. Afterwards we went for a wander and watched some of the scurry ponies competing in the main arena - they can really shift! Click here to see some photos of them and other bits and pieces from the weekend!

We've got a couple of (very welcome!) weeks off now, with no shows until the first week in July when we're off to Stoneleigh for the Royal Show. This will be the first time we've done this show so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Hope to see you at a show soon,

lots of love

Rosie xx

Shaftesbury and Gillingham Town and Country Fayre

On Saturday Becca, Ronan, Simon, Tinker and I set off for Dorset for the Shaftesbury and Gillingham Town and Country Fayre. It was a long drive with no motorway, and at one point we counted twenty roundabouts in twenty miles! The two shows went well on the Sunday, except in the second show when my microphone died and we had to cope with just one between the two of us! Luckily we had Simon to assist us (in his own glamourous way!) and he ran backwards and forwards passing the microphone between us!

The show was very full with lots of gorgeous vintage steam engines, wagons and fire trucks, lots of alpacas, donkeys, pigs (and piglets), poultry and guinea pigs (my favourites!). Unfortunately though, by the time we'd sorted ourselves out after the show everybody had pretty much packed up and gone home, so we only managed to get a very few photos. Although I did manage to get one of the naughty little pig that escaped, he managed to run amok for about ten minutes before being captured, much to everyone's amusement!

The journey home went well until about twenty-five miles from home when our faithful old lorry (Bloody Wacky Dipstick) completely gave up and broke down. Thankfully we managed to make it into a layby, but then we just had to sit and wait for the rescue people. We amused ourselves by playing with the Haribo pancake that had been accidentally created by leaving our tub of sweets in the sunshine all weekend, it was the weirdest looking thing ever, but still tasted the same!

We eventually all got home, but I'm not sure Bloody Wacky will be coming to any more shows with us, so if anyone knows of a (fairly cheap) HGV horsebox looking for a lovely new home please let us know!!

We're off to the Three Counties Show at Malvern on Thursday. This is one of our favourite shows so we're all really looking forward to it - hope to see you there!

Lots of love

Rosie xx

Shaftesbury and Gillingham Town and Country Fayre

Surrey Country Show and Suffolk Show

What a busy week we've just had! Last Friday Rebecca, Ronan, Tim, Tinker and I all set off to Epsom for the Surrey Country Show, another three day solo show for Oakleigh Fairs. Everything went really well for the first two days, we entertained ourselves on the Saturday night with games of bat and ball, attempting gymnastic feats, juggling and tree climbing! However, on the Sunday evening the rain started and just never stopped! Unfortunately the whole show had to be pulled on Monday, with everybody packing up and going home early. This was a huge disappointment to us and the first time in the history of Jive Pony that we have been unable to do any sort of performance on a show day.

Anyway, next stop Suffolk, but it was a very wet and bedraggled team that arrived at the Suffolk Show on Monday evening. Our first task was to find some shavings and hay for the horses, but the organisers had told us the only way we could do this was to 'borrow' some from the Metropolitan Police compound! So we set off to steal from the police... and managed it! (they had far too much anyway!). We had a nice relaxing day on Tuesday, just setting up the ring and having a bit of a rehearsal, a welcome shower and a nice early night! Wednesday was show day!! We were quite nervous as it was easily the biggest show we have ever done, and in the biggest arena. But everything went really well, Tinker and Ronan are proper professionals and didn't let us down at all! Wednesday was also Becca's birthday, so Tim and I decorated the lorry with balloons and bought her a big chocolate cake! I gave her a pair of 'moon shoes' (mini trampolines for your feet) so we spent ages bouncing around and doing ridiculous running. They were such fun, they make you feel really strange but very comfy! Everyone else on the show ground obviously thoght we were a bit strange, but that's nothing new!

Thursday was again show day and once again they both went really well with the rain managing to hold off for us. Unfortunately it then rained incessantly whilst we were packing down, so once again it was a very bedraggled team that set off for home! Good news though, Suffolk show have rebooked us again for 2009, so we must have done something right!!

We're off to Dorset on Saturday for a one day duo show, lets hope for some sunshine - it is June after all!

See you soon,

Rosie xx

Click here to see some photo's from the week!

Newbury Parade

Rebecca, Ronana and I spent yesterday in Newbury for the town's Spring Festival. We were taking part in a parade through the town centre, ending up on the Giffords Circus site. It was a lovely little parade with a brass band and lots of huge colourful tissue paper animals, we were a bit worried Ronan was going to have a 'Thunderhoof moment' but he was an absolute star and took everything in his stride!

When we stopped at the circus ground we snuck in to watch the performance, which was full of amazing acts and absolutely brilliant to watch. We had a really good time, and I think both Rebecca and Ronan were a little bit tempted to rejoin! (It was, after all, at Giffords that they met and fell in love!) But they managed to resist and Jive Pony will be back on the road on Friday. We're off to Epsom for a three day solo show, then a day off on Tuesday when we're driving up to Suffolk for a two day duo show. Phew, mini-tour! I'll let you know how we get on...

Lots of love,

Rosie xx

Newbury Pics