...and I have to say I can’t wait for the few days off! I’ve been getting the horses Christmas pressies ready for them, starting with some Horsebix, fruit and veg, mints etc but also have a few more goodies to buy them too. We have had a fair bit of wet weather this week which hasn’t been fun in either the field or the arena, and the horses have definitely been displeased getting the hooves wet in the mulchy sand! It’s a bit frustrating as our arena isn’t the best in the wet so I’ve had to postpone any jumping until the surface dries out, but it does mean I have to come up with other ideas and get them to do something different which is always good to keep them thinking and interested!
Autumn has been doing more flatwork schooling – concentrating on her bends and circles alongside transitions – I got her to do quite a few good trot transitions where she opened up more down the long side of the arena before coming back to me down the shorter side. She was however treated to a day out at the weekend as I wanted to retry her in her close contact saddle with some jumping. She has also been on the blue chip senior balancer so I was interested to see if that had given her anything extra.
Well what can I say – she was amazing at the show; the first class – she was the only clear and a good 6 seconds ahead of 2nd place and she didn’t even get out of breath (rider on the other hand had streaming eyes from the cold and needed a few minutes to regain herself).
I was really looking forward to the second class – then I seen all the fillers – and the dreaded wavey plank that Autumn always knocks! We were second in (not by my choice) and on entering the arena, Autumn started a beautiful balanced canter which I felt oozed her confidence, so all negative feelings aside we went for it! Aside from a rider error loosing a stirrup between fences 2 & 3, the round went really well – careful jumping from the old gal, and very fast paces and incredible turns (almost knocking into the photographer and pole picker who were in the line we were taking – think they thought we would go wide – no chance! Ever the filler was jumped perfectly with no hesitation, the wavey plank, we sailed over and the treble jumped foot perfect!
I was so proud of her and I know people heard me telling her this the whole way round; upon leaving the arena we heard the commentator say what a superb round it was which had me beaming – my jumping girl was definitely back on it! We patiently waited for the results and were so pleased to hear our names announced in first place! The old lady had done it – a double whammy, this time incredibly winning in 26 seconds with second place being 35 seconds! What a fab way to end the year, my good old gal back out and doing fab - what a brilliant Christmas present! She earned herself some prize money which I’m putting towards an xmas pressie for her as she definitely deserves it.
All I want for Christmas is... 2, 3 or maybe 6 horses?? Totally doable Santa :) xx
Bob has been a bit challenging this week, again he’s been fine when exercised in the evening, but when ridden in the early afternoon (or daylight in general) has become spooky again in one corner of the arena, so much so that I had to lunge him for half an hour before being able to climb aboard. Roll on the lighter evenings so I can get him back to normal! I can see a few eventful schooling sessions coming my way over the Christmas Holiday.
Aria has been a good girl (yes I do mean Aria). We went for another wander round the village at the weekend with her pony pal. All Hi vised up so the people on the space station could see us, and I even had a caution Young Horse tabard on this time instead of my wide and slow – I have to say, barring one driver – everyone took heed of it and slowed giving us plenty of space. Aria was extremely calm, and half way round we even took the lead – not only walking but trotting too! She went a lot better on the road with her shoes on, it has made such a difference to her. Brownie points to even out the little madam after she tried to boot me the other night whilst picking out her feet!
I also attended an informative charity evening at the end of the week, by a local showjumper, Dan Delsart, in memory of Tim Stockdale (one of my idols) and to raise money for the Tim Stockdale Foundation at my local equestrian centre. The turnout was great and despite a few microphone hiccups the demos were really good to watch and I’ve picked up a few tips and training ideas from them as well – definitely worth attending – I’m hoping to go to another one he is doing in January as well. I love attending these types of demos as it’s interesting to see how different people train their horses, and also the exercises they use.
Now I'm off to go pressie shopping for Autumn and spoil the others too, unfortunately unlike my dogs I cant take the horses into the shops to choose their own presents – well not if they want the shop to remain in one piece HA!
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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.