Friday, 4 July 2025

Poppies

On Thursday I was out in Edinburgh with work and from a fabulous high point I spotted two scarlet fields in the distance.  I realised they were the two fields mum would have seen from her kitchen windows so stopped to take a few snaps on my way home.







Cairngorm 100 - Part 2 - Interim Report

So seven horses headed out in to the gloom at four am, it was exciting and strangely emotional watching them on the tracker.  It's a tough ride at the best of times and the weather was pretty brutal.  By roughly half way numbers dwindled to three as riders either retired or vetted out and Jessica was then riding on her own.  At vet gate five at Loch Builg (roughly seventy miles?) he trotted in happily, passed the vet and Jessica decided to end on a good note.  A brilliant effort.






Cairngorm 100 - Part 1 - The Preview

Jessica Crighton  100 mile rider

Any Previous Experience of the Cairngorm 100?

We rode the 20mile class in 2021 with a friend and thoroughly enjoyed it. Ever since then it’s been a dream to ride the full distance, I never thought I’d get to this stage!

Rider Background

I live near Fort William in the highlands. I live with my partner and top crew Fraser, my two children (although one is now 18!) I work for Harbro part time and I’m also self employed as an artist and photographer. At home in the highlands we regularly ride and explore challenging terrain, including travelling through the hills while wild camping with the horses.

Horse Background

Chamfron Colorado, Cody at home. He is my 15 year old 16hh Appaloosa x TB, I’ve owned him for nearly 9years. We first heard about endurance through a friend and tried a pleasure ride locally with the Argyll branch of SERC in 2018. We loved it and have been hooked since! Cody has completed every competitive ride we’ve entered and always with a gold award, a highlight was competing and winning our novice class for the Scottish team at the home internationals in 2021. More recently gaining our gold thistle final and best condition at Tentsmuir.

Crew Members Background

Fraser Mackay my partner. He doesn’t ride but he holds my horse, my nerves, and follows me round half the country! He's the one carrying the water buckets, grabbing the rugs, and standing at my side with a calming smile. He doesn't care about the score - he cares that we come home safe. He's seen the tears, the dust, the grit it takes to chase my crazy dreams. And even though he's not the one in the saddle, he shows up — every time — with just as much love and just as much belief. 

Rebecca Crump - My fabulous friend. We met through our horses, endurance and with a little help from the horses breeder Laura Muir who’s also great at crewing us! Our horses are half brothers. Rebecca’s own horse Chamfron by Dand is a very talented endurance horse in his own right and I’ve had the pleasure of crewing her a few times, although she will moan about me letting the seagulls eat her lunch!




Tuesday, 24 June 2025

Chamfron Outings

Chamfron Colorado has been photographed by Rachael and Callum at Great Glen Creative as he enjoyed the beach at Corpach.  Chamfron Paloma has been back out at a Western show.  Chamfron Agata de Fuego went down to Tebay for a 25km pleasure ride.  She was also at Drumlanrig, as was Chamfron by Dand,  they both did he 30km, gaining SC3 Gold and Aggie won "Best turned out combination"








Sunday, 22 June 2025

Latest Garden Update

The Wildflower meadow is starting to do "something"!  Great successes... The bargain garden furniture from Aldi, even if Craig did have to visit a few stores for it, it is the perfect spot for an evening Aperol Spritz.  We've found the supermarkets a rich vein of cheap and cheery plants, though we do now have a favourite garden centre and we have a loyalty card and everything (officially middle aged).  The chilli plants have provided a great harvest and we've been eating them, including on pizza, cooked on the decking.  Less successful...  We are yet to sample a strawberry, security has been ramped up and we might get one before the birds before summer is over. 












Saturday, 21 June 2025

Keep Moving Week 25

Trying to do more with Spider this week, I rode Cactus on Sunday but he was still unsound in trot.  Finished work sharp on Thursday and walked around Beecraigs Country park and up Cockleroy Hill.  It is only 278-metres to the summit but you can see all around to the Ochil Hills, Campsie Fells, West Highlands, Linlithgow Palace and Loch and the Pentland Hills.  On Saturday we had a walk around Dalkeith Country Park as far as Newton Kirk Tower, another one of those places you regularly see from the road (in this case the Edinburgh By-pass) but have never been close to.  Craig pulled a very talkative new bird...










Sunday, 15 June 2025

Chamfron Outings

Chamfron grandchild, Widgeon Hill Ceilidh was looking absolutely fabulous at Three Counties show.  Chamfron Tizona had another spin around the tough (and very wet) Man Versus Horse course, finishing in less than four hours.