Plans to go to Hand Equestrian for BSJA today were cancelled yesterday when the Met Office forecast heavy rain and 40 mile an hour winds for the morning which would have made the journey treacherous. However I woke at 6am with an uneasy feeling that something wasn't quite right having not heard any wind through the night. A quick look on the BBC website and the so called storm seeemed to have disappeared, so I hurried up to the yard texting Fiona (Millie's owner) to say that jumping was back on! Zooming through the mucking out, we groomed and loaded up for just after 8am with Millie and Ben on board as poor Fling is still on box rest.

Arriving just as the British Novice was starting it was all abit of a rush to get both into the class. Millie first was a bit flat warming up, but then was very strong in the arena and unfortunately spooked on take off at the 4th fence landing in it and managing to break a pole! Luckily it didn't put her off and she finished the rest clear. Back at the lorry I quickly tacked Ben up and got on leaving Fiona to try and persuade Millie to load back on the lorry. She obviously felt she hadn't done enough yet. After taking 5 minutes to get to the collecting ring with Ben having other ideas, he felt very tense and rather grumpy to warm up. This gave me some doubts that I should have brought him at all as he has only had a couple of jumping sessions at home and hasn't yet shown the power and pure joy he usually gives me. Luckily Fiona managed to get down for me to jump about 3 practise fences before I had to go in. However once in the ring any fears were unfounded as his ears flicked forward, he fixed on the fences and popped nicley round for a double clear and 4th place. Rather blurry video of only a few fences please click here. Photo below of him waiting for his prize and showing that his diet still has some way to go!

Given that he really isn't fit yet we decided to leave it on that good note and get back to yard to sort out the rest of the neddies. We have plans to go back a week on Wednesday when hopefully Fling will be able to go too and we will endeavour to be more organised....

The last week has again been very busy. Charlie a 14hh sports pony arrived for 2 weeks boot camp whilst his family were on holiday. He has recently lost a bit of confidence jumping so my brief was to work mainly on that with some schooling as well. I have had great fun working with this cheeky character. After a couple of sessions working on engaging his back end particularly in the canter we started jumping and he started off trying to charge blindly at anything and launching him off long strides whenever he could! He was obviously quite worried about the whole process and was making it all much harder for himself and occassionally would put on the brakes the last second as he bottled out. Therefore I went back to basics with lot of pole work until he could comfortably canter over poles wiothout changing his rhythm or leaning on my hand and then progressed to cross poles and small jumps. With regular sessions always finishing on a good note, his confidence has grown and he has stopped rushing or pulling and has remained calm and confident as the jumps were raised up to 1 metre and he showed off an impressive pop for a small pony.

On Sunday Millie, Archie and Fling all did the Eventers Show Jumping at Stockland Lovell where a complicated course of 16 show jump and cross country style fences gave them a good work out. All of them produced lovely clear rounds in the 90cm class with both Millie and Archie incredibly excited and needing the long course for them to settle down.

Millie flying the water tray

Fling came out remarkably calm having been rather wild the day before and jumped a great round in a hackamore where I felt in total control. With a bit she can get quite anxious and fling her head and back end around whilst being incredibly strong.  For the 1 metre class I decided to try out a new bit called a nathe combination bit combining a snaffle with a hackamore. The result was some head flinging at the beginning, but she did settle as the round progressed and this may provide the answer for the show jumping and cross country phase at events, although I think she is going to be a horse where bits are changed regularly.

Fling enjoying the cross country phase

After these good rounds, I was very excited for Wednesday as Kate, Fling's owner had organised us to go to a clinic with William Fox-Pitt. However disaster struck on Tuesday when she escaped from the field and slipped over on the concrete resulting in numerous scrapes and bruises mostly superficial but slightly deeper on her elbow and knee. As a result she is confined to her stable for 5 days with bute and antibiotics for the cuts and bruises to heal. Hopefully then she will be able to start walking after this and come back into work slowly, but this is all very frustrating when after 4 weeks of working her virtually a very day she had finally settled down.

Ben who has now been back three weeks is going well and had a great lesson with Sue Edwards in the week. His belly is slowly subsiding and I hope to start jumping him soon. I have also finally managed to get back on Sadie who has hacked out perfectly, but has shown her naughty side with some impressive acrobatics on the lunge although they subside as she gets tired and eventually decides that it isn't so bad to go round in circles.

Finally I have another new arrival Monty, the ex-racehorse I sold before Xmas. After a couple of months turn out and hacking, Dee his new owner has sent him back for some more training for 6 weeks or so and is coming down every weekend to ride him. He has come back very settled and is now much less excited when seeing other horses when in the arena and is focusing well in his schooling and over poles. He has athletic paces and really tries and is an exciting prospect. The next step will be to introduce some jumping and try to teach him that he can't hurdle over show jumps!

Monty before I sold him in November; new photos coming soon.

The last week has been hectic as the horses' work is stepped up in preparation for eventing season which is now only weeks away. Firstly Fling and Millie did a show jumping clinic with Eric Smiley last Thursday. I love Eric's simple, but effective teaching style which focuses on the premis that it is the rider's job to present the horse to the fence correctly; ie straight with a good canter between leg and hand and it it the horse's job to jump the fence. In particular his idea that the rider should have a constant comverstion with the horses at all times helped me get my leg on Fling who is quite fiery to jump. I actually rode her in a hackamore as the dentist had found her lower bars slightly sore a few days before. Although she was a little strong and opinionated during the pole work she did settle when the jumps went a little higher and ended up jumpinmg a few fences with no fighting at all and waiting for the fence with my leg on and so I was very pleased. Millie behaved impeccably in her lesson although the fences stayed quite small. I concentrated  in keeping constantly in front of the leg, but not running on her fore hand and also in getting the right leg on landing.

This was followed by unaffiliated dressage on Saturday where I had Archie, Fling and Millie entered. I started on Archie going early as he can be rather difficult warming up with other horses by spooking and bucking if anyone dares to approach him! A quick warm up with only a couple of horses and straight in, he did an accurate and obedient test with only one tense moment when he slightly spooked at a horse walking up the track alongside the arena. To be critical he didn't quite have enough connection form my leg and was a little stiff to the left, but I was pleased for a first attempt of the year which in the past has incorporated airs above the ground! Nevertheless I was surprised to find we won the class on 69%, let just hope we can repeat this at the events on grass when it is all much more exciting.

Next was Fling. When I entered the warm up it was quiet and I was amazed she felt relaxed, soft and obedient. Unfortunately as the warm up got busier,she got very worried about horses coming too close and I had to abandon any work. The wind was bitter as we waited for our turn and it was a very cold horse and rider that finally went in to do their test. As soon as she spied the white boards the penny dropped that this was a competition and I literally felt her heart beat increase! With this her back and quarters tensed up and she lost the softness and straightness I had earlier. On the plus side we got through the test without any major mistakes for a score of 63.5%, but there is potentila for much more if I can keep her relaxed. She is a very athletic horse capable of lovely work, but the challenge is going to be to get her brain on side.

Fling just before she started her test.

Finally it was Millie's turn and as the arena was running late and I had no intention of getting that cold again waiting I left it a bit late before taking her up. As a result  just had a rather rushed 5 minute warm up and she went in to trot round the boards spooking violently at invisible monsters lurking omn the other side of the fence. She settled to to an accurate and forward test, but just did bear down on her forehand slightly which was a pity as this has been improving so much in out schooling sessions. She scored 65% to finish 5th which both Fiona and I were pleased with. Video of dressage test here

After the dressage finished it was time to say good bye to Aragon as his new owner Pauline Parker came to pick him up. Pauline was the first person to come and view him the weekend before and decided he was the right one straight away. He is such a joy to ride being so genuine and easy going, as well as has incredible potential in both dressage and jumping. I would have loved to have kept him a bit longer and taken him eventing again, but it wasn't to be and I wish Pauline every success with him in the future. I will miss him.

However with 3 new horses in over the next few days there was no time for tears. More on them next time!

Ben has finally come back from his winter holiday complete with a rather huge stomach. That means diet and that is something that Ben does not take kindly to. His modest haynet this morning disappeared in 10 minutes flat so he was put on the walker where he squealed alot, complaining that everyone else still seemed to be eating. As he was rather bright I decided a lunge would be the easiest re-introduction to work and to be fair, he was very restrained on the lunge. After jogging and spooky up to the arena and a couple of circuits bucking her realised that it was quite hard work with the extra weight and soon settled down.

Back at the yard the banging demanding more food started and so I decided that turn out was probably the best option as there isn't much grass at the moment. I tied him on the yard and then popped to the tack room to get the camera to take some first day photos. Ben obviously thought I was taking much too long and immediately pulled back, breaking the lead rope, and bounded down to the fields himself naked. As I followed him down he found the huge pile of droppings by the gate from pooh picking and yes, turned looked at me shouting "NO", he got down and rolled in it!!! After 5 minutes chasing him around he finally gave in to the temptation of food and I caught him and dragged him back to the yard. His penance for his antics was putting on the 'lovely' new, bright pink print rug that Anita so kindly sent down with him. I assume all her other horses refused point blank to wear it, as you can see from then photo even Ben looks a bit dazzled by it!

Down at the fields the other horses did look slightly alarmed at this luminous creature, not that Ben cared as he has some serious rolling to do and preceeded to spend the next hour rolling in every possible muddy patch. When I brought him in a few hours later, said rug was more brown than pink and there was definitely a smug look on his face; 'That will teach you to try and ruin my street cred and don't worry it will be all brown in a week.'

Think I need to browse through photos of Ben jumping just to remind me why I love this horse so much!