So another busy month for us with more trials and tribulations, highs and lows! The combination of winter and horses!
February started with an outing for Ruin to Summerhouse for his second BD show. Did a little elementary and he was a good boy! Very flat for some reason, apparent within minutes of getting on him so didn’t do too much in the warm up. He did his best in the test but it was super messy and inaccurate as his fuel tank was most definitely empty!! Quite pleased to still manage 65% and not come last! Ruin’s still very new to this competing malarky and I always say to my pupils that it takes a handful of outings to work out the best ‘tactics’ for your horse – how much warm up is best, what kind of warm up, workload leading up to the show, best preparation the day before, etc…it’s all trial and error! I’m very much figuring out what works best for Ruin, but today wasn’t a bad outing because he didn’t do anything wrong and I’ve learned more about him which should help for next time.
A few days later it was Bertie’s turn and we had a typical ‘Bertie day’ at Hartpury! Two Mediums; first test wasn’t great, Bertie was a weird mixture of relaxed but spooky so our marks were widespread including a 3! Second test was a big improvement so while it wasn’t perfect it was much more consistent. So we got the lowest score in the first test with 60% then came 1st in the second test! As I say; a typical competition with Bertie!! Emotionally exhausting as always. Anyone able to offer trauma counselling?!
Bertie has had a action-packed month preparing him for the BD regionals at the start of March at Summerhouse. Summerhouse are running an arena hire in one of their indoor schools almost every single day, set up like it will be for the regionals with all the white boards, flowers and judges tables. What a great idea! I will be doing the music class at the regionals and this will be in the indoor. Bertie does lots of Summerhouse’s dressage shows but they are in the outdoor so it will be a new experience for him. I booked several of the hire slots (he is scared of his own shadow after all!) and each time he has walked in with his eyes on stalks! But he tries hard and by the end of the 30 mins we manage to get around the arena! Hoping when we get to the regionals all this practice and preparation will pay off…
We’ve carried on with Bertie’s regular shows so another visit to Summerhouse for their BD competition. It was a busy day for me! Started with riding 2 horses, teaching, vet appointment, physio visit, lunged a horse then off to compete! Thank god for my mum and my amazing liveries Emma, Lisa and Jamie. The competition itself was an bizarre affair…Bertie was the hottest to ride he has ever been (which is saying something!) and I had a real struggle controlling his exuberance and I don’t think I really managed to let the handbrake off at any point. But, despite a pretty horrible test, he managed 66% and 2nd!! Preparing for the second test didn’t go quite to plan…the classes were running behind so by this point I’d been on Bertie for over 1 1/2 hours which is not ideal at the best of times. Unfortunately this did not ‘work’ for Bertie and there’s no other way to describe it – he was furious!! It’s slightly embarrassing when your horse has his ears flat back and starts to look daggers at the other horses in the warm up, genuinely looking like he might ‘go’ for them! We navigated around the second test but it was littered with mistakes and so I retired at the end with some nice trot and a pat.
Not great but it is important to remind yourself that the horse isn’t doing this to spite you! Although it can feel like it. Bertie is naturally quite ‘on edge’ and occasionally we don’t get the right ‘ingredients’ on the day to keep things relaxed and happy. Each time we learn something though and what to avoid in the future. Still positives to take from today though – definitely braver! & some of his extended trots were mega – I mean could you get your leg any higher Bertie?!
Ruin’s water treadmill sessions and another lesson with Gareth Hughes. Really good lesson and Ruin tried hard. Things are definitely coming together, including my ability to sit to his trot without looking like humpty dumpty! Some of the more difficult lateral work is becoming less difficult, which is a great relief. I did confess to Gareth that at one point I googled “why can’t my horse do travers?!” !! But Ruin learns slowly and one step at a time so things do come, eventually, you just need extra patience and lots of praise and pats when he gets a few milli-seconds correct, in the desperate hope that he might repeat the rare feat again and slowly actually achieve the desired result.
Some fun on the yard with some good jumping sessions. Ruin enjoys his jumping, as long as it’s small and easy. We are combining forces with Jamie on the yard and her eventer Frankie; we put up a course then play over the jumps together. Both enjoy jumping in company and more hands make light work!
February ends with some horrendous weather; freezing temperatures, gale force winds and snow. We’ve just had news that the Regionals at Summerhouse have been postponed a week. In the meantime all our efforts go in to ensuring the horses are warm, fed and watered until the weather improves – supposedly in a few days…fingers crossed!
