Happy New Year! 2018 may have gotten off to a cold, wet and windy start but life continues as normal – just with more of a grimace than a grin on occasion!
We had our first competition of the year within the first week; Ruin at Summerhouse for his first affiliated competition and only his third ever test. We did an Elementary and he was a very clever boy! Rather fresh in the warm up but for Ruin that just means a bit of extra bounce and his baby version of passage which is very welcome, the humpy back canter and bronking not so much! He did a lovely test, not perfect but i was really pleased with him and chuffed that he won with a smidge under 70%. The Judge was very complimentary and particularly loved his canter – no surprise!
The following week we went off for training with Gareth Hughes, which was amazing – so pleased, it’s really coming together now and means this summer will be very exciting! Ruin is my first German-bred horse and it’s been a learning curve understanding how his brain works and how different it is to the other warmbloods I’ve worked with. I’ve previously thought him an old fashioned ‘dumb blood’ because he seemed frankly rather thick! Now I realise it’s more that his brain works in a different way and I’m working out better ways to teach him as a result, which of course means he learns quicker and the quicker he learns the more he learns – win win!
Ruin has also started using the water treadmill at Summerhouse Equestrian Centre. My physio Hannah Complin from Vet Physio UK suggested Ruin would benefit from some sessions – so some sessions Ruin will have! He was really good and seemed to enjoy it. He’s going to have fortnightly sessions so has already had two now. The aim is to improve his core strength and fitness. Looking forward to seeing how it helps.
Bertie has been busy starting his 2018 competition campaign. We started with a trip to Hartpury College for his first show of the year. He LOVES competing and gets super excited so we expected it might go to his head a bit…and it did! Beautiful in the warm-ups but very tense in the tests; he can suffer with stage fright and after a little break competing it was very evident. Big steps in the right direction as we didn’t have any big spooks and leaps, but lots of tension that led to rather messy tests with little errors and an un-required flying change in the second test. Very pleasantly surprised with the scores – a very understanding Judge who made very kind comments about Bertie’s ability but lack of ‘mental relaxation’ and my ‘tactful riding’!Fortunately it’s now back to regular shows to get him back in to the groove of it and we braved the cold and winds a few weeks later for a Summerhouse competition. After an interesting (aka spooky) warm up he was ace in the first test; super brave with all the shadows and mostly mistake-free, bar a tiny flying change he slipped in (cheeky!). Thrilled to come 2nd in a big class with a lot of classy horses. We had a few hours wait before the next class so untacked Bertie and popped him back on the lorry while I found some lunch. Grabbed him out and started the whole process again, however we have learned something new about Bertie…he does not think this is ok!!
Once he is untacked and munching back on the box then he is done thank you very much, none of this riding again malarky!! So I had a very uncharacteristically grumpy horse in the warm up, we made the best of it then went in for the test, joking with some of the other competitors (who had noticed how angry Bertie looked!) that he would make me pay for it in the test… Well I didn’t realise I would be so right! First mistake was mine when I entered in trot not canter (oops) The rest however were Bertie’s – throwing in flying changes left, right and centre! Lovely tidy flying changes but NOT REQUIRED AT MEDIUM BERTIE! So obviously very expensive, fortunately the rest of his work was quality enough that he still managed an early 60s score and 5th out of 10.
Overall very pleased though; he was much braver and there was a big improvement from Hartpury.
Bertie also enjoyed a lesson as we trekked to Richard Davison for our monthly session. Richard loves trouble shooting so hearing about our unplanned flying changes was music to his ears and he leapt in with exercises to help combat this! Of course Bertie decided not to anticipate ANY changes in the lesson so that didn’t make our life easy but we did some tempis and then repeated, then didn’t do the final one and finally had some anticipation that we could work with! Poor Bertie, we were rather sneaky but we were then able to work through some ideas and I have some great things to practise, not least during a test when he might try to be sneaky himself and slide them in! A really productive lesson and Richard was really pleased with our progress and complimented us on how quick we are to learn things.
Back on the yard all the horses are going well and continuing their individual training. My pupils are working hard and some have already started competing with great success! One of my favourite aspects of my job is giving my clients a much more thorough approach than just a 45 minute lesson – we look at aims and ambitions for both the rider and the horse (they don’t always match!) and work out a training and competition plan to suit. Seeing it all in action and producing the results we hoped for is so rewarding and definitely gives me such a buzz!
So February’s diary includes several competitions, some lessons, more water treadmill sessions for Ruin and the plan to introduce Bertie to a double bridle!
More Fun, dramas and adventures next month!
