2011 has been another successfull year for the “Team”! Janou had some fantastic results in the spring Pony Trials, including: 5th at Oasby with Lisnalea Grace; 10th at Aldon with Cregaan Scenic; 2nd at Weston Park and 6th at Withington – again with the wonderful Scenic! These results were good enough to get Janou selected for the 2011 GBR Pony Team. At the European Championships in Jaszkowo (Poland) she was the pathfinder for the team. She and Scenic did a great job to finish 13th individually and help the team to a Bronze Medal. Janou also picked up 2 new rides over the season: Toberpatrick Larry and Rooks Nepomuk. Neither had evented before and she has done a fantastic job! Rooks Nepomuk finished the season with a 9th place in the BE100 3 Day Event at Aldon, showing great potential for the future. Toberpatrick Larry flew up the grades, jumping double clear in the CIC* at Varsseveld (Holland) finishing an amazing 15th in a very competitive field, that included most of the German team from the Luhmuhlen Senior Europeans. They went on to the CCNP** at Weston Park and ended up 9th! Katie has also had a very exciting 2011. With Prince Apollo she has made the step up to Intermediate and International 2 star level look very easy! Together they picked up a 5th in the Intermediate at Withington and flew round Osberton CCI**. Katie has also been slowly producing Granite Lady in the 4yo classes picking up some good places. Althea has been confirming her form at Advanced and International 3 star. With probably the most exciting result coming from Meepswood Conquestor, who flew round his first Advanced easily. This is particularly incredible as he was only 7! Ziomf has become much more managable in the dressage and Althea feels that she and Meepswood Conquestor are more than ready for 3 star next year. Billys Lad is now comfortable at 3 star and they are really looking forward to picking up some good results together in 2012. Anmarsch is looking more and more exciting and will hopefully move up to 2 star next year. However, perhaps the most exciting news is Althea’s nationality change!! When her parents married, Clarissa changed nationality to her husband Edward's and rode for the Netherlands in the Stockholm World Championships 1990. Althea who has dual nationality has decided to follow in her footsteps and ride for Holland. Althea says: “I’m so excited about what the future holds for me riding for the Netherlands. It was a big decision, but Holland has always meant a huge amount to me and I also have Dutch owners. I can’t wait to ride for them in 2012” Since the youngest generation of Team Bleekman started BE in 2006 we have marched forward in huge steps – or jumps – and this is where it all began... Team Bleekman is very much a family affair. Edward and Clarissa (Clissy) Bleekman have been together at Whorridge Farm since 1986 when they met at Boekelo CCI. Clissy’s parents Michael and Wendy Strachan moved to Whorridge from Chertsey, Surrey in 1953 with their 3 children – Christopher, then 14; Sally, 8 and Clissy, 2. Michael and Wendy started the Culmbridge herd of Friesian cows and the successful dairy farm of 95 acres was perfect for continuing their love of horses – pre war Wendy had hunted with the Bramham Moor, Michael had kept his hunter at the RA stables at Larkhill and had ridden point to pointing. Christopher was fonder of cars than horses – aiming at the RAC rally rather than Badminton – but Sally and Clissy took to the Pony Club like ducks to water!		Whorridge was – and still is – an ideal site for producing horses. Sited in the Culm Valley, 5 minutes from the M5 (junction 28). We have level fields with the river running through them – great water jump practise! Our fields behind the house and yard are steep and excellent for fittening hill work – as are the roads around us. Our neighbour Graham Vallis lets us ride out to the roads over his fields which also have a brilliant hill. We can see the sea at Exmouth from the top of one of our road work hills! Not only do we have a wonderful schooling field of 10 acres directly infront of the house, with a great variety of cross country fences and show jumps, we also have a small indoor school which is invaluable, particularly in the winter! We have a neighbour, Chris Down, who is a National Hunt trainer and we can use his gallops which are just a stones throw away – brilliant – and our horse walker never seems out of work. Also, very near to Chris Down in our wonderful owner Sarah Allan who has a fantastic outdoor Arena that she very kindly lets us use. When Sally left school she started a “horse business” with breaking and schooling liveries to fund her eventing. ‘Parlour Maid’ took Sally to and around Badminton – and when Clissy left school she joined Sally. Sally married and moved to Canada, and Clissy – with Wendy and Michael’s help – carried on to a successful event career. Over the next twenty years home produced horses competed internationally with Clarissa – they brought back team gold and silver medals from the 1977 and 1979 European Championships at Burghley and Luhmuhlen (Merry Sovereign); the team gold medal in the 1986 World Championships at Gawler, Australia (Delphy Dazzle) and many other team and individual trophies. Seven different horses completed Badminton a total of fifteen times, finishing in the frame on several occasions and Delphy Kingfisher was leading event horse of the year in 1981: Lifeline went on to win the the Working Hunter of the Year at Wembley with Gail Hancock in 1987, and Chatsby to 10th place in the 1994 World Equestrian Games with David Green. Through the eighties and nineties great sponsors were invaluable to Clissy – Wadham Stringer were the first, followed by Intercept Alarms and Gateway Foodmarkets/ Somerfield. When Edward arrived at Whorridge together they thought of standing stallions and starting a Stud Farm. Edward’s career had been running parallel to Clarissa’s before coming to England with a long involvement with the Venderbosh family’s stud in Holland and working in the USA with racehorses. Stud work and bringing on young horses has always been his first love and with their super staff he and Clarissa still combine breaking, schooling and selling on youngsters with their stud work. The world record goes on – we are proud that in our first year the stud produced Primmore’s Pride – who gave Pippa Funnel two of the three wins needed to take the Rolex Grand Slam World record prize of $250,000 in 2003. Our stallions keep producing International and National winners – click on to our stud pages for more info! With all three of Clissy and Edwards daughters taking the next generation on into the future Team Bleekman is a force to reckon with!