Welcome back and to winter! I write this while I attempt to thaw from being in -3 outside…err it’s October, sure that kind of temperature is not meant to happen just yet. Another month has flown by and my US holiday seems like a distant memory. As I mentioned at the end of my last blog our junior rider Jamie has a new steed; a lovely 6 year old Irish Sports Horse chestnut gelding. He’s green but is proving to have an amazing temperament and we are really excited for them to get out eventing next year. It’s happened at the perfect time as we have the winter to bring him on and get everything ready for spring time! This tends to be the plan for eventers and definitely those I work with; the horses have a holiday/downtime after their busy event season, then come back in to work for lots of dressage and SJ training ahead of the following spring and hopefully cracking on and stepping up a level. I always feel the summer eventing reflects how well your winter training went.
The changing weather has provided some exciting rides on the youngsters as we venture out in gale force winds and horizontal rain. I was keen to do an Advanced Medium Freestyle with Ruin this month – a few quiet months has left me with seriously itchy feet! I’d prepared the music for the Midway Championships but obviously didn’t get to go and use it so decided we’d try again for a dance! I waited until the last possible moment to enter so I could check the weather forecast – heavy rain and strong winds don’t make hearing your music easy, after all! But the forecast was good – warm, dry and windless so we entered. I however hadn’t realised that I didn’t actually finish the music before the Midways though…so when I went to find it a few days before the show I realised I had a lot of work to do! Good planning there Holly.
The day of the competition arrived and cue awful weather – freezing, wet and windy…yep the absolute OPPOSITE to the forecast FOUR days before! Wonderful. I mean how hard can it be to ride to music you CANNOT HEAR… Well I have to say I was thrilled that we somehow hit almost all our music cues perfectly! In case the weather wasn’t challenging enough there were moving cows in the field by the arena too, which was terrifying for a lot of the horses. Ruin is a dude so he was really good and I was one of the lucky ones. It still affected him though, which was more evident in his halts where we actually had zero halt and lots of reverse! Pretty sure it says ‘Halt, immobility, salute’…well I achieved one of those, although done while not halting or being immobile! Fantastic. Expensive obviously but the most important thing, as always, is that Ruin had the best time. He loves playdates and regardless of how he actually did (good score and a blue rosette by the way) he thinks he’s awesome and obviously won with 99%!!
It’s easy to come away feeling disheartened when things haven’t gone to plan. It’s also easy to say ‘well the Judge just didn’t like us’. This was exactly how I felt when I saw she only gave his awesome flying changes a 7 and his fab extended canter a 6.5 as it didn’t have enough ground cover… Well welcome to dressage! It is completely subjective and the Judge is not wrong, that’s just what she saw in that test. That’s fine – this is now an opportunity for me to work hard and try to improve next time. Ultimately I was super proud of Ruin, he tried really hard in testing conditions and while others were retiring due to the cows, my boy dug deep and flicked his toes. What more could I want!
The others have been going well at home. Sweetheart Apple (you can’t talk about Apple without adding the word sweetie, darling, poppet or bless him) is such a good boy. He’s only 5 years old and had a year out after training to be a racehorse. He re-backed really easily and has taken to this flatwork malarky really well, he now does a lovely balanced walk, trot and canter in a soft outline. Such a cutey, he only wants to please!
All my horses have continued their weekly jumping, even if we’ve been drenched in the process. Ruin likes to show that even dressage horses can jump! And foal-face Friday (sorry but it rolls off the tongue and ultimately she does have a foal face) is really honing her jump skills and showing what a cracking eventer she should make next year. She may be small but she is mighty! Now clipped she looks even more orange (genuinely didn’t think that was possible) so just make sure you wear sunglasses if you want to look at her directly.
Talking about eventers, ‘mention of the month’ has to go to the lovely Louise Saum with her gorgeous ginger boy Cruise who have dressage goals as well as eventing ones. They went ‘stressaging’ (BD) and got a 1st and a 2nd – the latter only because of a sat nav issue (rider not horse) so lost two marks which cost them the win! An amazing result for this talented pair and well deserved as Louise works really hard with an awesome but sensitive boy! Lots to be excited about.
With the highs of horses there are always lows and we’ve had lots of vet visits this month for a variety of reasons…mare hormone issues, gastric ulcers treatment, suspensory rehab and a wonky leg! It’s a good job I have a great relationship with my vet – not surprising really, considering I’m basically funding his life! This is the reason I average 8 horses…at least one of them should be sound at any one time! Putting that behind me I start November with lots of excitement – it’s one of my favourite months (I was born in November after all). Lots of competitions planned as I make a ridiculously late attempt to qualify for the Winter Regionals…better late than never right?! 2019 resolution – be more organised!! Tune back next time to see if I manage it…
