Charlie, Eventers Show Jumping, but a set back for Fling

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.