Pleasurable victory for FursedonnL
Michael Fursedonn takes two 1.40m wins aboard Cevin’s Pleasure, while a one-eyed horse “pulls out all the stops”
Forest Edge Arena, Norfolk
MICHAEL FURSEDONN and Cevin’s Pleasure polished off their preparations for this horse’s first international two-star at Keysoe (report, p50) with a pair of 1.40m open wins.
UKCC-qualified coach Michael had been at Forest Edge in the week running up to the show hosting a training camp, and was supervising clients at the event as well as showing them how it’s done himself.
“Between my pupils and I we had 32 horses based at Forest Edge for two days’ training, so we were there from Wednesday through to Sunday,” he said.
Michael has owned Cevin’s Pleasure, who was bred at Weston Lawns Stud, since he was an unbroken three-year-old and is now working on the horse’s consistency at 1.40m level.
The eight-year-old gelding will hopefully be aimed at his first rankings classes later this year.
“He is the first one I’ve campaigned at this level for a few years, so I’m also getting my eye back in,” said Michael, who is based in Brentwood, Essex.
“With Covid making things a little stop-start we’ve been extremely lucky for him to have come up to the level we had hoped at this point.
Jessica Cunnington was another winning rider who was on familiar territory, as Forest Edge is her home base. The 15-yearold was on great form with
Iminko 5 to head two Foxhunters and a 1.30m open.
Jessica, who sold the last of her 148cm ponies at the beginning of this year, has produced nineyear-old stallion Iminko from British novice.
The partnership, which is trained by Sam Ward, stepped up to 1.30m level recently and have all their clears in for newcomers and Foxhunter second rounds.
“We bought him unbroken from a video – he showed talent and we were quite lucky as he has turned out to be such a lovely horse,” Jessica said.
“HE’S COPED REALLY WELL”
STACEY COOK was out for a “bit of fun” on her 16-year-old gelding Gigant and made light work of the FMBs Therapy Systems star qualifier to collect a win.
Right: Jessica Cunnington and Iminko 5 secure two Foxhunters
and a 1.30m open
The partnership won the silver league final at Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) in 2019 but Gigant then spent 16 months out of the ring after he had to have his right eye removed because of a uveitis flare up.
Stacey was also out of action after being diagnosed with a cyst near her optic nerve that required two surgeries.
“Last week he did his first 1.30m in over two years, so we dropped him down for this class to keep him confident. He’s coped really well with having one eye but you never really know how they’re feeling,” she said.
“Because it was that bit smaller, I could play with jump-off turns. I have to be conscious on turns to the right and make sure I give him a bit more room. He has jumped loads of double clears but not quick enough to be placed, so it was nice to have a bit of a go. He pulled out all of the stops the same as he used to.”
Georgia Mitchell and 11-yearold Baryshinkov shook off their rustiness to claim the Blue Chip Joint RLF power qualifier from an early draw.
Competing had taken a back seat for the pair while Georgia focused on completing her equine science and business degree at the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester.
“We’ve done about three shows now and I was really pleased to win as last time out was a bit of a car crash. I knew I was in with a chance but had to go as quickly as possible,” said Georgia, who has produced Bary since he was a five-year-old.
“The Blue Chip Championships will be the main aim for us now as other than that we’ll be focusing on training for the next few months – I am working for Philip Spivey exercising the horses he hasn’t taken to Portugal on tour for five weeks, so we have a nice opportunity to train.”