A little bit of gymnastic jumping with my very best orange lady 🍊
So much fun getting my eye in again - Aurora really is the perfect partner. BS affiliation is complete and I’ve been eyeing up a few shows 👀
Having fun with one handed riding on Gaelann East’s Vinnie today 🤚🏼 One handed riding is great for checking both horse and rider balance, and whether the frame is true, I.e. not being ‘held’ with the reins. If the horse is balanced and on the seat, not much should change when you put the reins into one hand!
When I’m old, and look back on everything I’ve done with horses in my life, my proudest moments probably won’t be in competition.
They’ll be times like this, in the arena at home, just riding walk and trot on a long rein.
Little Mo is here to be brought back into work, following 18 months in the field due to the wheels coming off when eventing. Absolutely no-one’s fault, just one of those things that happens with sensitive horses sometimes.
I’ve only really done groundwork with him, because he was so worried about life when he first arrived a few weeks ago.
Today I hopped back on, and hey presto… relaxation! ❤️
I’m very grateful to all the owners that trust me to work their horses the way I do - it’s not how most trainers work, but it’s what works for me. It may seem like the horses aren’t always making progress in the traditional sense, but once they’re relaxed and soft in their body, progress comes very quickly. To me, time spent working on relaxation is never wasted.
Little Mo will soon be looking for a new person to love him - he’s a quirky character that needs one-on-one attention. He’d be really well suited to someone who really enjoys the groundwork and building up a bond with their horse. I think he would do dressage, TREC or WE, but it would take time and trust. I’m very happy to talk to anyone who might fit the bill - his owners (who bred him), quite rightly, want him to just be a happy chap, in a job that he enjoys 🥰
Feeling STRONG 💪🏼 Big thanks to riderstrengthcoach for helping me get this far! Since having Raf I’ve noticed that I’m so much more stable through my left leg and stronger through my right upper body, which you can really see evidence of during this left. I work really hard to make sure I’m as symmetrical, straight and balanced as possible, but my body still wants to work harder through that diagonal. And that’s the most common pattern observed in riders.. it has differing effects on horses, but most of the people I teach are the same as me, so I can empathise! The quest to be more symmetrical continues! 🙌🏻
Working hard on the relaxation through the simple changes with Roopie 🦄
He tries to guess what’s coming next, and while a little bit of anticipation is a good thing, he will often get cross if I’m not doing what he thinks we should be doing 🤦🏽♀️
Aside from the wobble in the walk in the video (there was a scary bird on the fence 👀), I was pretty pleased with how chilled and ‘with me’ he was for this one… progress I think!
I’m slowly remembering how to ride this wonderful horse to a fence…
Having not really jumped for 2 years, it’s taking time and a lot of practice over little exercises like this one to get my eye and feel back, but it’s definitely coming!
I’m trying to make time for a couple of jumping clinics through the summer - I’m thinking it’ll be a short course of fences with some interesting lines and combinations.
Would there be any takers? 🤔
I promised I’d share the pole set up I used for my clinic a couple of weeks ago… I still haven’t had time to write it up, so here’s a video of one of the *many* ways it can be used, brilliantly demonstrated by Charleigh Petitt, riding Storm 🙌🏻
We had loads of fun at our yard polework day today - thanks to all who took part 🥰
I might even schedule another polework day… Would there be any takers? 🤔
Today I got my test sheet from E59 that Roops and I did at the weekend. I was a little disappointed with 68% for this test - there are a couple of bits that I can polish before regionals, (namely the simple changes and rein back) but I’m not going to change his way of going dramatically.
We did receive the kind of comments I always aim for though “Lovely harmony and willingness to please” 🥰
Plus, an 8.0 for his walk 🙌🏻 I’ll take that any day!
OOOOFFFF that was a big session with riderstrengthcoach last night 😮💨
Working hard, building strength, developing balance and improving coordination… And all the better I’ll be for it 👌🏼
I wanted Liv to take a video of me while I was putting in maximum effort. The horrendous faces I’m pulling aren’t out of pain. They’re a symptom of me working HARD 💪🏼 I could have lifted a lighter weight and posted a video of me looking serene and relaxed, but that’s not how I’m going to get the gains, AND IT’S NOT REAL LIFE🙅🏼♀️
Now, the real reason for posting a video of me pulling some supremely ugly faces is to demonstrate that effort isn’t (always) beautiful.
I have a photo of Rupert learning to piaffe under saddle that I’d LOVE to share with my followers, because I’m so damn proud of my little pony for trying so hard. 80% of him looks incredible. He’s sitting, engaged, round, through etc. I’d love to show you all the journey towards the amazing piaffe that I know, one day, will earn him high marks.
BUT he’s pulling a face similar to the ones I’m making in this video BECAUSE HE’S PUTTING IN MAXIMUM EFFORT. But I just know that someone, somewhere would zoom in, screenshot and drag my name through the mud for horse abuse.
Am I forcing him to piaffe? No.
Is he adequately prepared, mentally and physically, to start leaning piaffe under saddle? Yes.
Do I pull and kick him into submission? Definitely not - I’d be on the floor pretty quick if I even thought about it.
Have I got a tight noseband and massive bit in to help me? Nope - my noseband is so loose there’s not really any point in it, and I use a little snaffle at all times.
Is he under veterinary care, have regular saddle checks, physio, chiropractic treatments, good farriery, high quality feed etc? Of course. Nothing but the very best for my little prince🤴
You get the picture…
And yet we have now got to the stage where we can’t share o
After 2 years off jumping (‘maternity leave’), I’m so excited to have Aurora back from being on loan to my friend Helen ❤️ I’m extremely grateful to Helen for taking such excellent care of my best girl while I’ve been taking time away from the jumping game!
This week I started again with Aurora, so I booked a jump lesson with Bruce…. But I wasn’t allowed to jump 😂 So a very productive pole session it was for a super spicy Aurora 🔥
Now, I thought hard about whether or not I should post this video, because I’ve seen so many utterly ridiculous comments on videos of fresh horses, telling the rider to soften their hands, ride bitless and feed the horse turmeric 🤔
But I thought “what the hell”… I’m a big girl.
Any recommendations for a brand of turmeric to make her keep a lid on the spice? 🤷🏻♀️🙃
Yesterday Jack and I took Debbie Sharp’s fabulous five year old, Soots, to Fairoak Grange Equestrian for a lesson with Adam.
Soots has a huge frame that she still hasn’t finished filling… We’ve therefore taken it all very slowly with her, hence she’s greener than a lot of other horses her age.
Her canter is naturally MASSIVE. It’s taken a long time for her to begin to find her balance with a rider on board, but she’s improving each week.
I thought this was a great video to share, because although she misunderstands the request for trot, she so quietly and willingly comes back to Jack, just from the use of his voice - something I make sure every horse that I work with can do. .. You never know when you might need it 😆
Well done Jack - great riding. Big thanks to Lindsey for hosting again and Adam for another great lesson 🙌🏻
After a grand total of 3hrs sleep last night - Raf had an early morning rave 😳 - and definitely not feeling on my A game, I took Roops to Sparsholt to get the last of our qualifying music scores for winter regionals 🤞🏼
My little unicorn looked after me 🥰 and despite riding to the wrong markers and generally failing to prepare for anything, we still managed 69% and our final Q 🥳
I’ve decided to take a couple of months break from competing until January now, and get ready for our Medium & Advanced Medium debut.
A few little clips of my gorgeous little creature today 🦄
