Event groom diary: A season of highs and a career first

Jimmy & Crisy performing their circus trick

 - a kiss for a carrot

Meet Crisy Salmon, groom for international eventrider, Sarah Bullimore. Here she brings us up to date with her 2016 season - and what a season it has been.

Sorry for the long absence since my last post. It turns out I’m not very good at keeping up to date with blogging, but I see this as a good thing because now I can just summarise all the best bits from this season.

A new ride for me

Sadly, Jimmy, the lovely horse I had on loan, went lame over the summer. Injuries from general wear and tear that come with old age were diagnosed so we decided retirement was the best option. Fortunately, I found a replacement horse soon after. Lenny is my new ride and he’s working his socks off! He was certainly a tricky ride to start with and has tested my stick-ability (with mixed results), but we have a great bond and I look forward to seeing what we can achieve together.

And my first 4 star

Sarah & Lilly after the prize giving

Grooming wise, I had my first experience at a 4* event and where better than our ‘local’ event of Burghley with Reve Du Rouet.  But, before that career highlight, we had plenty of work to do earlier in the season.
The Bullimore Team started the year on a high out in Barocca D’alva (Portugal) and  I was thrilled to go out there for the final part of the competition.  Sarah achieved fantastic results, with Reve Du Rouet winning the CIC3* and Lilly Corinne coming 3^rd in the CCI3*. All the hard work and preparation over winter had paid off! 

In May we headed to the beautiful venue of Houghton(Norfolk) where Sarah’s up and coming youngster, Corouet, competed in the Burghley Young Event Horse 5-year old class, and Valentino was entered in the CIC3* as a member  of the Nations Cup team. Well, Corouet strutted his stuff and won the class; a real boost just prior to the Burghley young horse final for which he’d already qualified.  Meanwhile, Valentino showed his great reliability by finishing on his dressage score of 44.1 to finish a respectable 7^th. 

September arrived, and off we went to Burghley! Sarah took Blou, her Badminton horse. Now, crowds terrify Blou and he made himself a little famous for all the wrong reasons in the dressage arena at Badminton in the spring.   So, it was a nail biting moment for us all when Sarah entered the arena at Burghley. I was so proud of him when he held it together to give them a good score of 49.1.

Crosscountry morning dawned and, early on, the course was causing problems all over the place.  Yet again, I was incredibly nervous. So much so, that when Sarah and Blou set off, I couldn’t watch them on the screens. I stayed at the finish line listening to their progress via the commentary. It wasn’t until a week later that I finally watched  the cross country on catch up TV  and despite the first few fences being a bit sticky, Sarah and Blou  made it look so easy! Picking up 22 time faults put them in a good position overnight. Thankfully, the next day Blou was full of energy, fantastically sound, and ready for the show jumping. Unfortunately, the crowds got the better of him and he dropped out of the placings. Not the result we were hoping for, but from my point of view, I loved every minute of my first 4* and I know Sarah will be back. A great saying I overheard a rider say this year was, “to put it in the f**k it bucket and move on”, which I think applies to anyone who works with or rides horses - although I’m not sure there would be much in Michael Jung’s bucket!

Parties and celebrations

Part of an (interesting) fashion show

The most fun event of the year had to be Boekelo CCI3* in Holland at the beginning of October. Lots of parties! Every night there was social event including a BBQ and fashion show. After completing another tricky and testing crosscountry course, the whole trip was topped off by Lilly Corinne finishing on a great score of 54.9 and in 9^th place.

We finished the season on another victory with Corouet winning the Novice class at Oasby (Lincolnshire). He didn’t do as well as we had hoped at Burghley in the young horse class, so this win confirmed he is good at his job and an exciting prospect for Sarah despite his size – he’s only  15.2hh!

New arrivals

Milo (left) & his sister Mira

This year we also welcomed into the world a colt and filly, both born thanks to embryo transfer from Lilly into two surrogate mares. Having twins is a bit of a miracle, so we are feeling very lucky. With Corouet being the oldest of the current youngster and doing so well, the future is even more exciting.

Kathryn White is owner and director of Cathean Ltd Medical and  Copy Writing Services. She is a published medical, copy and equestrian writer with a passion for creating compelling text in collaboration with her clients. Her customers include pharmaceutical, healthcare and equestrian businesses across the world.