Less saddle time and more jobs seems to be the theme around here since the clocks went back, and annoyingly the ground has been lovely and dry for riding, for the first Winter in 3 years, but we are determined to have jobs done while the weather is still just about on our side. On the plus side I do have unaffiliated dressage booked as it will be the first time since early September we have been out, and if all goes well I will register BD and get him to some low key prelim ready to get ROR qualified next year. Keeping our feet firmly on the floor will be the best thing for both of us at the moment!
It was my birthday this month, and for my present I got my arena fencing and kick boards! It was not the birthday weekends I remember in my twenties, it was being out in the freezing cold hand driving 80m of posts, but I wouldn't have wanted anything else, and a huge shout to the other half who not only paid, but slogged his guts out all weekend!
I also got some lovely new wellies, identical to my old ones, which have lasted me 5 years, and practically built a house! The only reason they broke was because I stuck a garden fork through them and into my big toe - Who knew gardening was more dangerous than horses, retirement sounds risky!
Ben has been treated to his regular saddler and chiropractor visit, the saddler only had annoying news that my cheapy GP saddle still fits him like a glove and my nice dressage saddle no longer fits him at all, it looks like I am going to be buying myself a birthday/Christmas present!
Django went to have his first session with David Depford who runs Sovereign Quarter Horses, who is teaching me western and we had such an insightful 20 mins, to see your horse turn to butter in his hands was lovely and overwhelming. His horsemanship is incredible and I am so excited to be on this new journey- Django and I have lots of basic exercises to practice daily, which are going amazingly. I also had my normal ridden lesson too on his wonderful schoolmaster who had me half passing and doing flying canter changes. I felt like a proper cowgirl, and now Django is looking less foal and more horses I am definitely getting impatient to get on, so I think I am going to have to up my lessons just to keep me preoccupied from the fact I have at least 18 months left before Django is ready!
Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.