WELCOME TO MANOR FARM LIVERY

Flagmount Diamond Diva Stable name – Poppy DoB – 20.06.2001 Bay 16.1hh Irish Sport Horse Flagmount King X Lyre Pamela

Poppy joined us in August 2007. She was bred by Leo O’Donnell in Ireland. We bought Poppy to jump, we are concentrating on her flat work at present & hope to start jumping very soon. We will keep you updated on her progress. She loves people, loves being fussed over and enjoys human company. We will keep you updated on her progress. On Sunday 5 May Poppy & I did our first ever dressage test. It was a BD Introductory A and we finished on a score of 60.4 placing us in 3rd position - we even got a rosette!! Considering it was our first outing and indoors I was very pleased. She was a little star. In the warm up area she went like a dream but my nerves got the better of me once we went indoors to do our test and I know I didn't ride as well as I could. We are back there on the 25 May, hopefully improving on our score.

We would like to say a big Thank you for taking on the ride of Flagmount Diamond Diva (Poppy). Through no fault of her own Poppy has had a very quiet 2008/2009 and is very green and unfit at the moment. Laura will be aiming for some BSJA this Winter and hopefully BE in the Spring. We wish Laura and Poppy good luck in their future partnership and hope that they have lots of fun together. We will keep you updated on their progress. For more information on Laura and her horses please visit www.lkequestrian.com Laura & Poppy’s first meeting, please check back here for further updates

Poppy was at Laughton Manor competing in a BD Walk & Trot Intro B test with our new rider Laura Keeley. Well, what a great day, Laura & Poppy finished on a score of 70.87% placing them 1st – WOW!! This was Poppy’s first competition of the year and she has been training with Laura for less than a month. Poppy was a star & we are very proud of what Laura has achieved so far, if this is what can be achieved in less than a month, I can’t wait to see what next year brings. We would also like to congratulate Laura on her 2 other tests with her own horse Peter Piper – being placed 2nd in Novice 28 & 3rd in Elementary 42, ending her day on a brilliant 1, 2, 3!!

In preparation for Poppy’s first BE event at Little Downham on 18 October we took her xc schooling at Aylesford, a great venue for schooling first timers and although Poppy isn’t a youngster she is very green and as far as I am aware this was her first look at xc fences. Laura had booked a training session with Claire Lomas. I’d never met Claire before – what an extraordinary, amazing woman she is. Laura is a fantastic rider anyway and watching them both under Claire’s instruction was really something else. Poppy was a star, she answered every question asked of her, including jumping a log in water, skinnies, ditches and drops – not bad for a horse that hasn’t even seen a xc fence before!! Nothing phased her, she was up for anything, was able to sort her legs out quickly at a couple of sticky moments. She made everything look easy, despite asking her novice questions and putting her at some fairly meaty fences. Fingers crossed for Little Downham!!

Poppy’s first BE event, quite a lot of questions for her, she hadn’t done a dressage test up to now that required canter and hadn’t ever been round a full xc course so today would be very educational for her and give her a feel of what next season will bring. She did a very good dressage test, Laura said she was a little tense in places but she was able to maintain her canter, and came away with a very impressive 35. On to the show jumping, she had fences 1 and 7 down but jumped everything else beautifully, so 8 faults. Cross country, Laura wanted to just nurse her round and complete the course, she jumped everything round to fence 13 where she had 2 stops, this fence was causing no end of problems all day but went on to jump everything else and complete. She came away with 60 penalties and 16.8 time penalties. So a great day was had by all. I felt incredibly proud of Poppy, it was a very long day and a first experience for us as owners into the world of eventing. I am looking forward to next season already. Congratulations to Laura for her excellent result on her own horses, 4^th with Peter & 10^th with Tally and a big thank you for getting Poppy to her first “proper” event!!. Great Witchingham - BE90 - Ridden by Laura Keely - www.IKequestrian.com Poppy coped with her test well, her first time in a long arena, she was a little green, it wasn’t her best score, she scored 41., she had never scored this low before. Harsh Judging Maybe ? On to the show jumping, Poppy warmed up like a seasoned pro, flying everything. Just as she entered the ring the heavens opened, thunder and lightening. She was giving everything plenty of room until number 7 where she clipped it behind, she came out on 4 faults, an improvement on Lt Downham in 2009. Onto the cross country, the fences seemed massive for an intro, she had schooled well at Aylesford and there was nothing over technical, an open corner at the end which was very meaty and the last water was very strong and always rides strong. The going was quite draining and there had been a lot of rain. Poppy stormed around the course eating everything up, never once considering not to go. She came home with 20 time penalties but she halved her score of Lt Downham. It was thrilling to see how she tackled a course that caused plenty of problems, her next run could well be a pre novice. Thank you Laura and Jayne Keeley

Poppy's Sire Flagmount King

Flagmount King is the sire of the All Ireland Champion Yearling Filly Class at Ballinasloe, 1995. Grade A International Showjumper The only R.I.D. Stallion to win open competition against the clock. He beat top horses such as Spring Elegance, Maloney's Error, etc. in Grand Prix Competition. Competed at the Kerrygold Dublin Horseshow (R.D.S.), Millstreet (Co. Cork) and Salthill (Co. Galway). Jumped on the British Junior Team winning P&O European Ferries Rose Bowl at Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh. Also jumped in Portugal, Belgium, France and Switzerland. He has 246 S.J.A.I. Points (220 International Points). A Big athletic horse, he is a full brother to both Flagmount Diamond and Flagmount Boy. A real quality R.I.D. sire with great temperament and correct confirmations and movement, sound of wind and limb. Jumped in International Competition until 1991. Siring good looking foals and young stock which are already in strong demand.