This month Spirit and I participated in a clinic at Brendon
Stud with Geoff Billington. The clinic was very interesting and I learnt many
new schooling techniques to help with our jumping.
I went to Olympia London Horse Show and helped on the Pony
Club stand and got to meet all the people who help make the Pony Club happen,
they were the nicest bunch of people and it was great to get more information
on the Rider Development Squad and what is coming up in 2016.
For the New Year I will be travelling up to Liverpool for
the Liverpool International Horse Show to be arena party and working under Bob
Ellis (Olympic course builder 2012 and many other events).
Our plans for 2016
For 2016, Spirit and I are planning to qualify for the 1.05m
Amateur Championships alongside competing in the 1.10m Opens.
Within the Pony Club I am aiming to get onto the Rider
Development Squad and will be attending an assessment day in April.
I will be competing at the annual Hickstead shows and will
be aiming to get into the International ring.
I am also aiming to qualify for the South East Young Riders
and the JB Arena at Brendon Stud.
I will also be joining the KW Academy and will be travelling
up to Wales for the End of Season Derby Show and other events in the Academy.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Happy New Year! I
worked Christmas day again this year so I had a short hack on Pumpkin on Boxing
Day as the weather was horrible, it has been so windy recently and rained
nearly every day. Though I can’t complain as luckily we don’t seem to get
flooding in Norfolk like there has been up North.
I was supposed to be taking Pumpkin cross country schooling but
I decided to cancel as the weather was so bad the day we were supposed to go. I
will hopefully rearrange to go with some friends when the weather improves and
the ground dries up. We haven’t been out anywhere in December, just been hacking
and schooling at home.
I have renewed our Senior Showing membership ready to do
Olympia qualifiers this year. The first one is at the Royal Windsor Horse show
in May which I hope to go to as I really enjoyed riding there last year and on
Pumpkin in 2012. Pumpkin had a year off Olympia qualifiers last year while her
mane and tail grew out so can’t wait to see how we get on this year.
Pumpkin had the vet out two days before Christmas as she had
a very swollen eye lid and the upper eye lid had sort of turned itself inside
out. She must have bashed her face in the field as the vet said her eye was ok
but her eyelid must have swollen up to protect the eye and did a good job! A
couple of days later she was back to normal. I will be clipping her again soon
as she has got very hairy!
I hope everyone has a very happy and successful year with
their ponies. Good luck to everyone competing this year!
Well there we are the end of 2015 and what a way to finish.
It’s been a year of ups and downs, some amazing tests and some we would rather
forget about, but I couldn’t be more proud of the way Stanley has dealt with
his first year of real competition – sometimes I forget that he is only six!
We started the month off by visiting Sparsholt, Stanley
hates Sparsholt due to the fact it’s a working farm with cows – his nemesis!
Our first test was a little erratic due to some cow spooking but we did however
still manage 67% and a third place.
The big ‘E’ word has been mentioned so many times in the
last few training sessions that I decided perhaps I should give it a go, it
also allowed me to focus my training at home and ensure no bad habits like the
naughty right hind snuck back to haunt us! Well he went into the indoor arena
and his eyes and ears were totally on me; I didn’t stop smiling the whole way
round and I was thrilled with a super score of 71.21% and a red rosette- it’s
been years since I have ridden an elementary test and what a way to start
again!
A lesson with the super Sara-Jane was next and what fun that
was; the right hind was only mentioned in a positive light and we were able to
work on harder work such as leg yield zig-zags and walk to canter and canter to
walk transitions. It is so rewarding thinking back to 18 months ago when I
couldn’t even guarantee a trot canter transition when I asked for it and
sideways was impossible!
The following weekend we were back to Sparsholt and we
finally achieved it a huge personal achievement; plus 70% in a straight Novice
test despite a few tense moments in the killer arena! The day was topped off by
winning the Novice Freestyle with a whopping 75%! I didn’t dream we could ever
achieve that sort of score so I am finishing this year with a massive smile!
The remainder of the month has been pretty quiet, Stanley
has had some downtime and I have been working every hour possible. I firmly
believe that downtime is as important for a young horse as ‘up-time’ so I love
seeing him out in the field relaxed and happy.
What a month of firsts, our first elementary, our first plus
70% score at Novice and our biggest score to date! Thank you British Horse
Feeds for your ongoing support and feeding my pony so he is able to shine, what
a difference a year can make! Next year we hope to establish ourselves at
elementary but also to have fun, learn together and enjoy every ride because
you never know when the fun may end!
Happy New Year to you all; we hope 2016 is good to you and
you achieve everything you want and more.
Hannah & Stanley xx
Well, what a hectic December, I was so last minute with my
Christmas shopping. This December we had a yard Christmas Fayre on the 1st of
December, this involved lots of baking, lots of decorating and lots of fun. My
sister did a cake stall, I did Christmas gift bags, and we had a clothes stall,
a handbag stall and a home ware stall. There was also plenty of hot chocolate
and mulled wine! Everything was located indoors in the stables, all the stables
were decorated with tinsel, lights and Santas, my cheeky Welsh stallion Jack
enjoyed pulling down his tinsel and eating it! Everyone enjoyed the Fayre and I
know the horses did too loving the attention.
So we were all wondering when Jack Frost will turn up, what
strange weather were having, it’s not funny when you have a white horse called
Pikkert and mud! Talk about a mud bath. He’s enjoying it though, he’s been a
star the past few months as he only gets ridden twice a week; I am still struggling
with my head injury. The good news is we have a new rider joining our team;
Jemma is only 14 years old but very dedicated to her horses and riding and
Jemma will come 3/4 times a week.
This December we have great news that my three top boys have
qualified for the Regional Dressage Championships. QD Esquire & D’artagnan
have qualified for the elementary freestyle to music and Aragon has qualified
medium and advanced medium freestyle music, so I am very happy considering I
have been off riding since August.
Next year my aims are to stay healthy and get back on track,
the horses are feeling well and ready to start going again. I am also very
happy with Jack my new Welshie, he lunging well and even having the odd jump. I’m
looking forward to riding him in the future.
I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, all the best
for 2016!
Just before Christmas I was looking forward to our lesson,
we had been preparing for months and Jason was fit as a fiddle, so I was
absolutely gutted that our trainer had to cancel, but these things happen.
Although I must admit I often feel “these things happen” to me more than most!
We have cracked on in preparation for our first dressage
competition, I have been learning a test and I think I’ve memorised it, but
being new to this I’m really hoping my mind doesn’t go blank when we enter the
arena!
Jason enjoyed his Brussels sprouts for Christmas dinner, he
has had a week off work because I have been so busy at home, we are having a
good clear out ready for when we move house. Our calendar is filling up with
shows and competitions for the year ahead, so Jason’s holiday will be coming to
an end very soon.
I must have been a very good girl this year because I got a
very cool Xmas pressie! Well actually I bought it for myself, so does that
count? It’s a robot camera, no need for a cameraman. You just pop it on the
tripod and it automatically pans, tilts and zooms to keep you in the picture,
it also takes photos. I love gadgets and I am particularly excited by this one
because I never have a cameraman, and it will help enormously with my riding –
being able to play back our training and competitions. The downside is that
it’s on pre-order and I have to wait until spring to receive it!
There are some new and exciting horsey developments on the
horizon for me, so I hope to have some news to share soon – fingers crossed
everything goes to plan…
My New Year resolutions for last year were to ‘be healthy’
and ‘seize the day’, and they seem to be working quite well for me so I will
continue with those for 2016… Happy New Year!!
Until next time…
Sophie
Tilly and I have been out and about again this month. We did another arena eventing (just show
jumping and cross country) pre-intro class.
Tilly and I had a super, flowing round, and even cleared the joker show
jump fence at the end. Despite going a little too fast, we managed 8th place.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153834662526934.1073741967.750911933&type=1&l=f1…
The following week was back to serious schooling, as we were
competing at dressage. As it was the centre’s last dressage competition before
Christmas, a lot of us took the opportunity to dress up, with lots of horses
wearing tinsel and the odd horse, including Tilly, wearing a pair of red
antlers on her head.
The test was prelim 18, which we had not done before. We
warmed up in the indoor school, but then went outside to the outdoor school for
the actual test. Yet again, it was a rather windy day, and I had to really work
at riding Tilly accurately and get her to listen to me, which was not easy when
some ramblers walked through the next door field. I hung around to wait for the
result, and then could not believe it, when Tilly and I were announced as the
winners. I was in complete shock.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153851529271934&set=a.414777856933.211000.750911933&am…
Tilly and I have also been working on the fitting of our
side saddle, and trying a different size and style saddle to see if that is a
better fit for Tilly. We have ridden
side saddle several times over the last week to see how we get on.
All this side saddle preparation is going to be going on for
months, as we prepare to compete at the National Side Saddle Show in the
summer. This is a huge show, and I can’t
wait to be part of it, although I must admit to also being scared at the
thought of competing at such a high profile side saddle show with competitors
from around the world.
As it was such a lovely sunny day the other day, I took a
little selfie video of us riding side saddle in the arena. You can see our shadows riding at a walk,
before trotting, and then finally cantering.
https://www.facebook.com/jennie.daniels.18/videos/10153873682881934/?l=943833809955908026
Tilly and I wish everyone a Happy New Year.
Happy new year everyone!
It’s been a quiet month here with not much happening
unfortunately! Prince and I had our first attempt at gridwork and he was
surprisingly very good at it, he has a habit of dangling his front legs a bit
over a fence so we did lots of bounces to try and convince him to pick those
toes up a bit! I hope it worked!
We’ve also been having lessons with the people I work for to
crack our dressage after Solihull not being too great. He’s working very well
on the flat now in basic work, we just need to break his habit of picking up
the right lead canter on the left rein! Naughty horse haha!
He’s been a bit fluffy these last few weeks so it has been
very difficult to ride him without him needing six hours to cool off and dry
afterwards so we haven’t done much. He was clipped this week again so hopefully
we can get much more work in and crack that canter! Well we had better, as I
spent too much money at Olympia on new XC colours and tack for competitions,
whoops!
There will be lots more to tell everyone next month as we
have more chance to do things thanks to me starting a new job. I’m sure most of
you can sympathise with the rubbish weather putting a halt to things and I hope
that if any of you are having trouble with the flooding that it eases off for
you very soon.
Until next month…
Keana
2015 has been a good year for Charlie and I; we have
improved together a lot since last year and I couldn’t happier with him. We
started off the year jumping unaffiliated round 70/80cm quite wobbly and green
at fillers and distances. Now we are jumping 1.20 at home with ease and 90/1m
very nicely in competition.
He doesn’t even look at fillers now and takes the distances
in his stride. He has especially taken on the sport of eventing very well, what
with being warmed up and cooled down about three times in one day. He knows
just what to do now and I think he will come out next year stronger and bolder.
We have had our bad days, for example when I fell off cross
country and broke my wrist but this didn’t stop us tackling our goals. He is so
good round cross country and really looks after me and gets me out of trouble.
At the start of this year, he used to get very excitable show jumping and would
run up against the hand. Now he is much more rideable and his jump is becoming
more rounded again.
Next year we aim to compete in more BE events including area
eventing at Epworth and Breckenbrough which will be really good training for
us. We will also try some working hunters as I think he would really excel in
the show ring.
I would also like to thank Speedi-Beet again for giving me
and Charlie this amazing opportunity and I look forward to endorsing their
brand next year when we move up to BE90.
Thank you for reading and I wish everyone a happy 2016 for
them and their horses!
Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! I’m still on “holiday”
at the moment and don’t start back teaching until the 2nd – it’s nice to have a
break and the riding school ponies are enjoying some well-deserved chill out
time. It’s also given me the opportunity to set out some XC style fences in the
school to practice around whilst we have no lessons going on. My horses have
stayed in work and they are loving life back jumping again!
The BD competition with the two boys (Robbie and Hutch)
didn’t go completely to plan! Hutch was up first and it was a rather blustery
day. I thought we would be competing indoors but on arrival, it turned out our
arena was outside. The dressage boards were blowing everywhere and were
re-pegged back down again numerous times. Some metal hurdles that separated the
warm up and the arena blew down at one point just missing Hutch! We were warmed
up and ready to go, trotting around the boards when the judge called me over
and said there would be another delay for a generator to be delivered at the
venue. After around an hour we were back inside the boards. Although it
couldn’t have been helped and was no-one’s fault, I think by the time we
entered the arena 23-year-old Hutch was feeling a little tired. He felt as
though he had lost his sparkle so we didn’t perform to our best. Robbie was
feeling very fresh and cheeky that day – which I was expecting from him! He
makes me giggle as his knees come up higher and higher and his stride becomes
short like a little pony when he gets excited! Never the less we came home with
two pretty ribbons, a 4th place for Hutch and a 6th for Robbie, both in the
elementary. I’d love to take them both back out BD again in the near
future…now they have settled back into their work a little more as I’m sure
we could do better. All being well, I then plan to step up with Hutch and have
a shot at a medium test.
I have quite a bit planned for the New Year. January seems
to be filling up on my calendar quickly! I’m hoping to squeeze in more training
sessions this next month. Darcy and I had a great flatwork lesson last week.
Starting to also think about pre-season MOT’s for the horses – time of the year
for vaccinations, saddle fittings etc. Towards the end of Jan I’m hoping to get
out to a couple of show jumping shows so we then should be ready to go off XC
schooling in February when the horses’ shoes get put back on again in prep for
some early season eventing in March.
Best wishes for the New Year!
Here’s to hoping it’s a successful one with lots of fun had
along the way!
Coral x
Well Christmas came … and went – far too quickly for my
liking!
At the beginning of December we had another jump lesson with
Ros. It’s a relief to feel Harry starting to mature in his way of jumping,
starting to move up through his shoulders rather than taking a leap of faith.
Although we only knocked one fence last season, this should make his jump feel
stronger and help us go higher.
The highlight of this month though had to be our annual
Christmas hack down to the beach! Harry as usual behaved well with the tinsel
and reindeer antlers but it was me that had the problems. I take my hat off to
anyone who works as Santa over the Christmas period, in just a couple of hours
I consumed what seemed like a hundred cotton balls; which by the way, aren’t
very tasty! It was no surprise to receive so many strange looks from passers-by
but we also had a lot of ‘Merry Christmas’ wishes and made a few people smile –
mission accomplished. Next year the plan is elves and for the horses to be Christmas
presents (Anna’s suggestion there).
Santa was very good to Harry this year. Our favourite
presents included a new pair of jodhpur boots, estribo polo belt, photograph
from Chepstow BE earlier this year and a Charles Owen Pro II in silver
(unfortunately this wasn’t in stock before Christmas so I won’t have it until mid-January).
So now all that’s left to do is start planning the 2016
season!
Next month I’m looking forward to: Arena eventing lesson
with Ros, dressage competition towards the end of January and … My 18th
birthday!
Writing this sitting overlooking the piste in Selva, in the
Italian Dolomites, makes all the hard work, pre 6am and post 9pm finishes throughout
the year worthwhile…my winter adrenalin fix! I am very lucky!
Early December focused on show jumping trips to our local
show centres, Markfield and Vale View, with our four-year-old Calvin. He’s a
real hidden gem; seriously talented, with that little bit of attitude which is
going to make him a super star. In just a couple of outings he’s already been
placed 2nd twice without even really trying – good boy! He’s going to be the sort where patience and
time taken during these early stages of his training will be a true investment
into his future. He’s got a massive jump and has a conscience – he does not
like to touch a pole – but this can lead to him scaring himself easily as he
tries so hard, sometimes too hard and over-jumping, particularly when at a new
venue. So, we are taking things very slowly with him, concentrating on getting
his confidence in his own ability and focusing on producing a clear forward
rhythm. He’s not particularly spooky, but can ‘dry-up’ when he’s unsure or presented
with something different. This where the early foundation of press the ‘forward’
button (kick) and he must immediately respond to the aid becomes vitally
important as his education progresses through the levels. For me, it’s
essential my equine partner should always be trained to be quick to respond to
the aids – both the go, and whoa (half halt!).
Calvin is reminding me of Lulu in many ways during these
early stages of training. He finds straightness a real challenge, mainly due to
his weakness behind the saddle, on his left side, so I’m often finding myself
correcting this by riding lots of counter canter and slight shoulder fore to
encourage the hind leg to step under and increase his muscle tone – exactly the
same as I had to do with Lulu. Remember folks, it’s easy to be caught out
thinking your horse is working nice and straight when you’re riding 20m circles
and around the edge of the school… So I often do a little test which is to
turn down the long side of the school around five metres from the track…. Be
critical and ask someone on the ground to watch and check – Do the quarters
follow the shoulders squarely? Are we drifting towards the outside track or
towards the centre line? Am I sitting
squarely in the saddle? If you can get
someone to video you, even better! I will use these next three months to really
focus on nailing the basics of straightness and my go/whoa principal
(lengthening and collection).
We plan to steadily build confidence over the coming few
weeks over the coloured poles and depending on how things go, perhaps consider
trying a few small arena eventing outings.
Finally, I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and
to say a massive thank you the team at British Horse Feeds for their continued
support.
Kick-on and stay safe!
Steve
Happy New Year!
Hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas and New Year….I
certainly have enjoyed the holiday and have got another couple of weeks until
lectures start again.
It’s been fun and games bringing Harry back into work since his
holiday which was longer than planned due to the silly injury prone animal
coming in one day with a hugely filled hock.
Now two weeks into walking and feeling very fresh, our hacks
contain numerous bucking episodes where I hang on and try not to terrify too
many Sunday afternoon walkers!
My last few weeks of the first uni semester were spent with
my brother’s lovely horse, Barney, at Hartpury. I really enjoyed having him
there and had a great lesson with Nick Gauntlett. Nick liked him very much and
suggested that might I steal him for the upcoming season!
None the less I am so happy to be back aboard Harry-even
though I can feel his belly swinging from side to side when he is walking…and
it is at times, slightly terrifying!
Harry is definitely enjoying a relief from the boredom of
box rest and is completely oblivious to the worry he has caused us with his
field antics. However despite coming back into work and spending a fortune on
ultrasound twice a week his swollen hock hadn’t really gone down and with the
season looking not so far ahead we decided a trip to Newmarket for a full
diagnostic examination was in order.
After a thorough examination, using the fantastic facilities
at Rossdales, the vet found that there was a slight fluid leakage into the
bursa from the tarsal sheath causing a false thoroughpin. Frustrating that he
has damaged his beauty but we are relieved that there isn’t anything too
serious going on in there.
So the fittening work really must start now as Harry is
looking more like a show hunter then an event horse at the moment. Great to
know that was are all clear to crack on ready to start eventing!
I am really looking forward to getting Harry back to
Hartpury with me next term and finally being able to have some academy lessons
with Lizzel Winter and Corrine Bracken, who make up the fantastic coaching team
available to the equine academy members! With their help I really hope to come
out of this winter in a great place to go out and smash it!
I have also just received an email from the academy saying
that I have a lesson with Carl Hester at the end of January! Wow what a great
opportunity. I am so excited but very nervous at the same time and I hope
Harold behaves himself!
