KBIS British Equestrian Insurance Scholar Daniel Moseley has had another busy month working towards the end of the season finals and championships.

Here we catch up with him in his latest diary.

July 2007

I’ve been to a few local shows this month including the Great Yorkshire Show and Driffield Show. Luckily for us, the weather seemed to hold out which was bonus!

At the Great Yorkshire, I took Lucy May in the 1.50m William Hanson Stakes and achieved a fantastic first place. We also gained a third place at Driffield Show in the 1.40m class and a sixth on Shadow Breaker in the same class. The partnership with Lucy May is getting stronger each time we compete. We seem to ‘click’ when we’re in the ring.

We have owned Lucy May now for just over two months, buying her from Andrew Saywell who has been a family friend for years. We weren’t necessarily looking for another horse, but we heard that she was coming up for sale and didn’t think we could miss the opportunity. Her excellent record on the county show circuit is incredible. Lucy May is just what I needed to get me to the next level in the show jumping industry. I am now looking forward to building up my team of horses around her. Lucy May has such a lovely nature for a mare. She is easy to get with in and out the stable, and she just loves to jump - it’s in her nature.

I now have at least seven horses to ride at competitions. 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 jumping 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.

Also this month I have also been riding Utopia Red and U2 The First in the KBIS British Equestrian Insurance 6-year-old Championship qualifiers. They have both jumped their past three qualifiers with double clears, so fingers crossed I will qualify to jump them both at HOYS for the final in October.

Next year, I will carry on with the 7-year-old Championship with Utopia Red and U2 The First. I will also compete them at some of the bigger shows next year and some shows abroad, in order for them to gain come experience and to move up to the next level. With only a few of the KBIS British Equestrian Insurance 6-year-old Championship qualifiers left to compete in, I have high hopes for both of these horses.

Next month I will hopefully be able to give you a report on the results from the Scope Festival of Show Jumping. I am also going to enter a few more county shows to get all of the horses out and about a bit more while the sun is shining.

Will write soon – best wishes Daniel.