Fun Day

To celebrate Nick's 30 years working as a vet in Farnham, the practice held a Fun Day on the 3rd June which was a huge success! It was great to see so many people there, despite the rain! The Dog Show was a highlight and we were delighted to see such an array of dogs, from Great Danes to Beagles. All the Dogs and owners performed very well; it was particularly exceptional to watch the Junior Handlers who deserve a special mention. The petting zoo with pigs, ducks, goats and a shetland pony was popular with kids and adults alike! Furthermore, at the Fun Day we were able to raise money for Cats Protection and Guide Dogs, two extremely valuable charities.
We would like to thank all of those people and pets that came and Bells Piece for providing such a lovely venue for the event.

Start of the new season for Nicola and Monty

Spring is finally here and the new eventing season upon us.  A winter of training has paid off as the season kicked off in fine style.  A pre-season riding club combined training (dressage and show-jumping) qualifier at Munstead in torrential rain resulted in a win for the Farnham Riders Club with Nicola and Monty leading their section so helping the club to qualify for the National Finals which will be held at Aston-le-Walls in June.

Last weekend was their first affiliated event of the season held very locally at Tweseldown and in much better weather than the previous weekend.  On the back foot after dressage in 23rd position, a smooth double clear in the show-jumping and cross-country phases well inside the time limit saw them leapfrog all the way to 3rd resulting in a qualification for the Regional Finals later in the year.  An excellent start to the season.

The qualifying quest continues this weekend at Swalcliffe Horse Trials in Oxfordshire.  Fingers crossed for another good result.

 

Well Done

Well Done to Lewis Tennuci for completing his Level 3 Diploma in Customer Service.

Nicola & Monty Update

The Nationals didn't end up going quite to plan for Nicola and Monty. Lying 10th overnight and clear through the first 3 phases of the XC things were looking good but an unfortunate lapse of concentration coming to fence 7 on phase D resulted in their first run out of the season dropping them from 3rd to 26th. Onwards and upwards - their most recent outing was at Borde Hill where they were 2nd back in May. This time they went one better and finished on their dressage score of 32 to win their section, earning valuable points towards the series finale in October.

Next on the menu is Tweseldown followed by the dressage Area Festivals at Wellington - hoping for top 10 finishes at both.

Eventing update for Nicola and Monty

Rackham went well with a personal best in the dressage, cross-country well inside the time and clear, but an unlucky pole in the show-jumping pushing them down from 4th to 7th. Two weeks later they were back at Rackham for the Riding Club Area Qualifiers. In the lead after the dressage, a double clear inside the time proved unbeatable so they are off to the National Champs in early August. July also saw their first affiliated dressage qualifier finishing on 2nd place, just one mark off the winner on 70%. Not bad for the horse who more resembled a giraffe than a dressage horse 9 months ago. Monty and Nicola are now on a get fit campaign for the Nationals which involve a 3 day stay away and 2 days of competition including a steeplechase, several miles of roads and tracks followed by the normal 5minute cross country course.

Nicola & Monty update

Nicola and Monty have now been to three affiliated events. The first at Tweseldown was a good start but a slow time cross country kept them out of the placings. The following week everything went to plan and with his best dressage score yet and a clear round cross country bang on the optimum time they managed to finish 2nd out of 36 and qualify for the Regional Finals. Last week was a rather wet outing at Berkshire College, but due to the weather a nice steady but clear cross country round just kept them out of the placings. The campaign continues next week at Rackham in West Sussex. Fingers crossed for better weather.

Surrey County Show Star

Our Deputy head nurse Gemma's Dog Marvin Won Best Rescue & he came second in the most attractive puppy categories at the Surrey County Show on May Bank Holiday.