Winter Busy Bodies

My camera roll is normally jam packed with horses, but as I scroll through the past 3 months there are many screenshots of kitchen handles, paint colours, bench-top types, and bathroom ideas.

We bought a (very) little bungalow a year ago, and after completing renovations we moved into our very own home at the beginning of the month.

It is in the lovely village of Ham which is the village just below the stables (a 4 minute commute!). There has been a fair amount of thought and effort gone into this project and we’ve had so many pinch-me moments now that it is finally complete. I have to say it’s quite a bizarre feeling being so excited about something that doesn’t have 4 legs!

It marks the end of an era at Merlin House, with many wonderful memories, team meetings and celebrations in that little flat for the past x6 years.

We have been pretty flat-out as far as Winters go this year, we did manage to get away to Sunny NZ for a short stint before Christmas – really nice to meet Finn Franks (our new nephew) and to get a bit of vitamin D into the system! Anyone who actually saw me in NZ will know that I spent the majority of the time sick with a bad flu. Pretty annoying but that seems to be the way that things go after a busy year of my body holding itself together for the “important” times!

So what HAVE I been doing with the rest of my time you might ask? It is off season after all! Without so many competitions we have instead been going up and down the country stocking up on our horsepower over Winter, and as a result we have some new faces to introduce you to!

New York aka Elmo

8yr competed to CCI3*L level with Ricardo in 2025. Will aim to compete at 3* level again this year finishing with Blenheim 8/9yrs all going well. Having had such good success with the likes of Charlie/Luca being produced from 3* to 4* level we thought we would give it another go! Neil, Sally, Jules & Marts have joined Brayden and I in purchasing this exciting horse who we hope to crack on with in 2026! Elmo and I have been getting on swimmingly – he’s jumped many super clear rounds jumping and we can’t wait to get out eventing!

Orenzo aka Enzo

7yr competed to CCI2*S level with Becky Heapey in 2025

Enzo is a little pocket rocket – lots of ability in a small package, just my type!

I had spotted him on the EquiRatings system, had tried to sell him to a few people with no luck, thankfully due to his smaller size he wasn’t suitable for all clients. So when new owners Claire and Ski signed up for the EquiRatings complete search and spotted him on their list I was pretty over the moon! He’s already had a lot of success with Becky at Novice level last year, so a bit more pressure on me which is a privilege for sure!

He will aim to qualify for Le Lion, we are looking to get his 2*L tick box completed in April at Strzegom.

Billy Be Special aka Betty

6yr who has only showjumped

Ali Spence who owns Billy Alberto was contemplating buying a young horse, she’d vaguely mentioned a 3/4yr but with a bit of persuasion and explanations of the pro’s of buying something further along the line we have ended up with a lovely 6yr mare who already has a decent amount of experience jumping. She will tick along with the stretch target of going to Le Lion, plenty of eventing education to come but she has a very sweet personality and an impressive jump! It was quite fitting that Bertie left our yard for an extended holiday and the following day Betty arrived, buying horses is never normally that easy but in this case everything just fell into place!

We had a fantastic open day, and really enjoyed welcoming so many lovely faces on a Winters day to meet our team. You can read a bit about it here (FEI) and here (an eventful life).

Sick bay updates; Quantas is very grumpy and Charlie is very happy.

Charlie is now scared of the outside world (everything outside of his box) and is much happier spending all of his time watching the barn work throughout the day. Quantas wishes he was the one doing the work! Sadly neither will be turned out for quite some time as in both cased their legs need to be strong enough to hold up to a hoon around the field before we can allow them to do so! We have however had our first ride back on Quantas (today!) which is exciting – a lot of walking ahead but we are on the road! Charlie has also had good news with scans improving and clean x-rays showing no additional damage within the joint - so far so good!

The other ponies have all been out and about aplenty in preparation for the year ahead!

So what are our plans for 2026?

You can have a look at our draft season plan here. But in summary, these are the highlights we are aiming for;

March – Begin eventing with Poplar Park, Tweseldown and Barbury

April – A month away at Strzegom for their x2 event early season tour

May – Royal Jump (France)

June – Bramham for the girls, Possibly Luhmuhlen (Germany)

July – Millstreet (Ireland) / World U25 Championships for Kaitlyn

August – World Equestrian Games (Aachen, Germany)

September – Cornbury & Blenheim (UK)

October – Le Lion & possibly Pau (France)

Yard efficiency

We’ve taken on a slightly different approach this year and have essentially invested in a fancy version of a check list for our team. Tick Tick has allowed us all to have more accountability over what each of us are responsible for, delegating repeating jobs and satisfyingly ticking them off as we go. It certainly highlights just how much goes into each of our roles!

Malibu

We were very sad to see the prettiest face leave the stables in December last year – Malibu has gone to a wonderful home in Germany with Maj-Jonna. MJ and Malibu look to have developed a strong partnership and we can’t wait to watch them out and about this year.

We’ve now ticked off the first event of the season, including a win for Weppy in the Novice. Starting the year off right I reckon!

Ready to make 2026 one to remember.

Cheers, Sam