Ronnie has been coming on in leaps and bounds over the last few weeks. He is still incredibly spooky at all the jumps in the arena despite having short jumping sessions over them atleast twice a week, but is developing a lovely scopey and careful jump. From doing lots of grids he is now confident with combinations and jumping all the very scary fillers. Some photos below including one at the unaffiliated show jumping where he jumped clear around the 2'6". Although he was rather distracted by all the other horses and people he behaved very well and really enjoyed himself. He has also been out on the cross country and finds the rustic fences slightly less scary although still gives them plenty of room which some big jumps!

In the last few weeks Sadie has been doing one session a week over the show jumps and her progress is incredible. She has hardly spooked at any fillers and we have progressed from a small grid to single jumps from both trot and canter with or without placing poles. I like to mix it up to keep her think and I am conscious to just keep her straight and in a controlled rythym and leave the rest to her so she learns to look after herself. I am really pleased that she always seems to learn from her mistakes and is developing great technique whilst staying very calm and relaxed. Yesterday she had her longest session yet and got lots of photos and video.

Started with a simple grid approaching in trot of two cross poles with a one stride distance and placing poles and this was her reaction when the filler was added to the second one!  Then built up to an upright and a spread and started putting it up a bit as she was finding it effortless.

Sequence of three as she popped down it as if she had been doing it for years. Whilst she was spot on, I must admit I was rather excited at jumping my first proper size fence on my baby and let myself get a bit too far forward on take off.

Next took her round the rest of the show jumps

Finally the water tray which warranted a little look and a big leap.

Videos of various below which I have finally managed to embed into the website.

In summary I am really can't express how pleased I am with my girl who is so rewarding to ride. I am still determined to take things slowly although after such a good performance we have decided to do the clear round at the show Jumping on Saturday here at Stockland Lovell just for a bit of fun!

Finally tired out and hot, but still happy! For a horse that loves to pull faces in the stable she has her ears permanently pricked when being ridden.

Last weekend saw us eventing at Bickenhall in the glorious sunshine, although the downside to this weather is the ground is now already very firm. On the Saturday i took Archidamus (Big Archie) having his first event outing for nearly a year. Whilst the dressage was disappointing and he rolled a pole in the show jumping form just getting rather strung out, he really performed cross country to post a lovely clear inside the time and felt great. I also took Tilly for ther BE100plus, but only run her in the dressage. She unfortunately had developed a swelling around her fetlock  a few days before and although completely sound it just didn't seem worth the risk on the hard ground. She warmed up great, but we both tensed a little trying to fit the movements of Novice into the 40 by 20m arena to score a respectable 36 which can definitely be improved on so I was very pleased. I did however feel so guilty taking her home without the fun bit as she was raring to go, but better safe than sorry.

Sunday was the turn of little Archie who felt rather important having the lorry to himself. A dressage time of 3pm meant a leisurely start, but unfortunately by then the temperature had risen enough to bring out lots of flies which really made this connie crazy despite puring copious amounts of fly spray all over him. As a result I did not manage to get him to settle before we had to go in for the test and we made it round with a lot of head shaking, grabbing the bit, running and a couple of minor explosions breaking into canter; so infuritating when he had scored 70% last time out.

He did however redeem himself slightly with a clear show jump round and then a foot perfect cross country round in a new bit we are trying, a cheltenham gag. In the warm up I found he jumped rather stickily if I checked him too much in it so I decided to lengthen the reins and just keep coming to every fence and it worked a treat, definitely helping to keep his head up and saving my arms being pulled out. Fingers crossed it continues to have this effect as in the past different bits have lost their effectiveness after 2 to 3 events. In the end he finished 11th on his dressage of 40.5; with the winner on 32, he really could have had a good placing if he had just behaved in that first phase.

As usual the last few weeks have been manic and I have been a little remiss on updating my blog, sorry!

Firstly we went British ShowJumping at Bicton Arena at Easter taking Ben, Millie and new addition Tilly (Ultimate Quest) who is a stunning mare owned by Sarah Worrel who i am hoping to event at Novice/Intermediate level this year. In addition Anita (Ben's owner) met us there with Archidamus, known on the yard as big Archie as at big 16.2hh he is slightly larger than the crazie connie of the same name.

To be honest with the terrible rain we all thought the jumping would be off, but the rearranged the classes into the two all weather arenas and as the sun was shinning we trundle down on Sunday. Unfortunately all my classes were in the rather tight 60m by20m dressage arena and as the format was 2 phase they squashed a good 15 fences in there. Furthermore the tiny grass warm up was so cut up it was like riding in plough and was defintely not suitable for jumping on so we had to resort to going into the clear round to warm up where the ground was a bit better costing £4 each time.

Quick summary was that mayhem seemed to reign the whole day with the horsebox a long walk away and just too many horses to fit into the classes and results were mixed to say the least. Millie had a silly 1 down in the British Novice and did not seem quite herself. Ben managed to get incredibly wound up with his mate Archie goading him on and as a result was like an unexploded bomb as he entered the arena for the discovery after only 5 minutes warm up. Jumping the first few tensely, he turned down the line to the double and just on take off dropped his shoulder so fast catapulting me into the air hands still holding the reins with such force that the bridle came clean off and then proceeded to eye up the outer fence to get back to Archie on the other side who Anita was trying to keep out of sight. Pete managed to catch it all on camera and just to show I post the bad as well as the good here it is for you all to see. Luckily it didn't hurt at all!

Fortunately the day did improve slightly from there. Big Archie just had the first fence down in the discovery solely due to lack of concentration before jumping clear and then jumped a beautiful double clear in the Amateurs Open to finish 5th. Tilly was rather tense and over jumping everything in the discovery just tipping a pole in the jump off due to me holding on to her a bit to tight. I therefore made the effort to relax my arms and body in the Open and she jumped superbly and also posted quite a fast jump off time to finish 2nd. Both Archie and her qualified for the Second Rounds later in the year.

Archidamus (Big Archie)

Ultimate Quest (Tilly)