As part of our exciting scholarship scheme, our 2006 scholar Daniel Moseley will be keeping us up to date with his busy life in the show jumping world.

In his diary, Daniel writes about his everyday day routine and tells us about his horses that are currently in competition.
 

I currently have five horses that I am training and ride usually six days a week. Within these six days we are either schooling at home, with the help of my Dad, Colin, or competing at a show. They each have one day off a week, normally a Monday if they have been competing over the weekend.

Every morning I get up at 7am to feed the horses and to muck out. Luckily the horses are bedded down on shavings so it doesn’t take me too long, and we skip out regularly throughout the day. At around 8:30am it’s my turn for breakfast before I start riding at 9:15am. It’s a fairly tight schedule so I have to keep moving.

Each horse gets half an hour schooling in our ménage each day or a jumpng session. I try to give the horses a jump before a competition, but not too frequently and always aim to make their work interesting and varied.

After my lunch break for half an hour, I ride the horses that I didn’t manage to ride in the morning and have usually finished riding by 3:00pm. Then before I know it, I need to clean the tack, tidy the yard and it’s feeding up time.

Apart from the five horses I have in competition, I have a couple of youngsters that I am bringing on. These take up some of my time too as we’re still getting used to each other and I don’t want to rush them.

The horses that I have in the main stable area are the competition horses. Let me tell you a bit about them:

Utopia Red is a 16.1hh, five-year-old, chestnut gelding owned by Fiona Down. We came fourth in the five-year-old championships at Scope Festival this year and third in a good class at the Unex Towerlands International. There is hope for a potential Grand Prix horse with Utopia Red, he is very talented and could be a major player in the future.

Shadow Breaker is a 16.2hh, eight-year-old, grey gelding, also ownerd by Fiona and we have had him for five months and is proving a great horse to have. We qualified for the Young Riders at Olympia and he is competing at Grade B level.

Shebeen is a 17hh, 10-year-old, bay owned by my mother Lorraine. We’ve had a steady year after qualifying for Olympia last year but after injury just before the show so we didn’t get the chance to compete.

Port Royal is a 16.2hh, 12-year-old, grey, owned by Heather Bennett. We came second in a great class at Arena UK this year and he is a very useful member of the team.

Think Twice is a 16.2hh, nine-year-old, bay owned by Alan Robertson. He hasn’t been with me long but we are confident he has a lot of potential. He is a Grade C horse.

My three-year-olds have just come out of Holland and have only been with me a few months so we are still getting used to each other.

We’re at Olympia in a few days so well on the way with the training for that. I will write more next month and tell you how I got on at Olympia - so until then, safe riding!