Rehabbing King….
King completed his 5 months of box rest he did 2 months before the vets said another 3 so 5 in total. As soon as he was allowed out we started walking him twice a day in hand for 15 minutes. As you can imagine that was how shall I put it interesting, daring, taking one’s life in to one’s hand 🤣 I literally had my own TBx shaped kite. Trying to keep him sane and not ballooning was exhausting. So being stabled at Crow Wood Equestrian we get the option to use the water treadmill at a discounted rate.
After the first week my dad said for safety let’s put him on the treadmill. He has to complete 60 days of water treadmill and inhand walking then I can tack him up and ride him in walk. I cannot wait to get back on him I have missed being behind his ears so much. It is a long slow process of kings rehab but we want to ensure that he’s fully healed and back to full strength before we start putting him back in training mode.
Our farrier Ben Dewhurst decided that now that he’s out walking he needed to have his graduated shoes taking off and leaving him barefoot for a while as the shoes had done their job whilst on box rest but were becoming detrimental to his rehab whilst walking.
The girls at crow wood love king I mean who doesn’t right. When they put him on the water treadmill for the first time they fully expected him to lose his head as some horses do especially with him being box rested for so long, but they were amazed that the little champ just does what he does and takes it all in his stride. They do laugh at him though as he’s that lazy he doesn’t pick him feet up walking in the water but doesn’t realise that he’s actually making harder work for himself 🤣
Petplan area festival….
On the lead up to petplan this weekend just gone King headed over to Lottie’s for boot camp 101. It seems that King has been hiding a lot of his talent in his lazy attempt at “giving his all” anyway the difference in him was phenomenal. He was working uphill, in front of the leg and overall more rounded.
My dads been studying the BD tests and where horses should be at what age and king ticks all the boxes of where a 5 year old should be. This of course makes me extremely happy and cements that i am doing a good job with him. Obviously he needs a little bit of polishing but overall he’s doing good.
So the day before petplan the nerves were literally kicking in. I stayed out of my dads way and my dad out of mine because we handle stress and nerves in the exact same manner, by snapping at the nearest person to us 🤭 we gave King’a’ling a bath made him sparkle and finished him off under the solarium lights like a proper pampered prince.
D Day or as mum called it the ultimate DDay had arrived. Lottie plaited him up this time as I don’t think my plaits were quite on point for a championship and can I just say it took her 15 minutes and the plaits were mint!! I’m defo asking her for lessons.
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We got to myerscough on what was the rainiest day in July on record. It was awful!! It was that rain that literally soaked you right through, luckily it was all indoors.
My time slot was 12.46 and it soon got to my slot, I entered the arena saw that there were 3 judges (that was new) and whispered “right King let’s do this” and then we danced our hearts out. It was quite fitting really as the song playing throughout was Jamelia’s your a superstar and to me King is my superstar. Lottie said it was so refreshing to see that throughout the test I smiled and looked like I was having the time of my life, and you know what I was. I didn’t care what the judges thought of me I did my absolute best, my
Touching base…..
You may have noticed I’ve been radio silent for a while and I have. I’ve been busy with lessons and riding my other horse Elsa. Lessons have consisted of keeping king rounded and working consistently from behind and he’s really coming together. I’m really pleased with how he’s working lately he is so willing to please. We have also shook things up to make it a little more fun for him by having a gallop and popping a couple of little jumps (obvs not at the same time 🤣) but it’s really worked with him and he’s going better than ever.
We have recently changed his bit because he started to hang on it and became really heavy in my hands. The one we have changed too seems to work really well but to be 100% sure we have booked Megan Barlow - Independent Bitting Consultant out to check him over completely. We have also got the saddle fitter coming this week as well in preparation for petplan area festivals.
Weekend just gone we went to crow wood again and did 17a. I know I’ve qualified already but with nerves getting the better of me at times we felt it would be better to keep in the competition environment. This time I didn’t have a reader in prep for petplan. Now I’ve done it plenty of times before without as I do have a good memory, well for this at least. But what Lottie Flinn found I was doing was focusing on remembering the test that I wasn’t concentrating on what King was doing, so she said on the last 2 tests that I was to have a reader so that I could work on King and it definitely worked because my scores shot back up. It was a really good test I was really pleased with how he went and it’s made me really excited albeit nervous for petplan.
A special thanks to Holly McMurdo for filming whilst my mum was at work.
Throwback Thursday…..
On my mums memories today is a very special video. It’s a video of the first time I rode my heart horse my first pony Folly. I think this post should be a little appreciation post of Folly because without her I wouldn’t be where I am today…
A little bit about Folly or Folly Dolly as she’s so affectionately known. She’s a 13.1 Welsh section C and she’s 25. We have owned folly for 9 whole years. She is honestly the best pony in the world. She’s taught me how to ride, how to jump and most of all how to fall off. She adapts to her rider the more confident you are the more forward she becomes but if you are nervous then she almost becomes a donkey.
It’s amazing looking at this video and seeing memories popping up and seeing exactly how far I have come in my riding. Gone is that little 6 year old girl whose legs barely passed the saddle. If I got on her now I’m sure I could wrap my legs around her 🤣
It’s so nice that spring is finally on its way. Outdoor lesson this morning and it was awesome. We are so lucky to have both an indoor and an outdoor arena so we can ride in all weathers 🙌🏻 Lottie Flinn
When D Day becomes disaster day……
D Day. I’ve become accustomed to how D Days go because of the roaring success that I’ve been having lately. Well I certainly broke my winning streak. Sunday just gone is now known as disaster day. It was my worst score to date. 62.80%. What went wrong?? Complacency, cockiness or just plain old rider error. Well for me it was rider error. On the last part of the test I had to canter between M& C then at C a 20 metre circle in canter. King struck off on the wrong canter lead, I brought him back to trot did it again same thing happened. 3 times this happened and he just kept going on the wrong leg. It doesn’t help that we have trained him to do counter canter so he was perfectly at ease going on the wrong leg. I wasn’t though. I got so frustrated fought back tears and almost forgot the rest of the test. Part of me thought should I just excuse myself and leave before I finish, but I didn’t I finished the test. What would you do in that situation?? Remember my dad saying if I didn’t score high enough I’d be walking home?? Well that day I did…. Granted I walked there first as it’s only up the road 🤣 he’s teased me about that all weekend thinking he’s dead funny.
After the test I spent the rest of the day with my mum and we had went to her yard so I could play ponies with the ginger ninjas. I had a lovely hack out on my mums friends mare Alana who just so happens to be my mums Mares mum. I then had a schooling session with her and Rags’s gelding Lowyn. It was so nice spending the afternoon with everyone and the ponies that I’ve asked mum if we can do it more often.
My adopted big sis Olivia has moved on to Royles with us and her 3 year old knabstrupper warmblood mare Khali and I’ve been helping Olivia work with her. We’ve been covering lunging and general groundwork and she’s taking to it really well.
Lessons this week was a welcome therapy session. She said it’s ok to get it wrong sometimes and to
Wracking up these D Days…..
Sorry I’ve not posted in a while to be honest I’ve no excuse as to why other than time just slips away. Anyway I’m back and I’ll try and be a little more on it with my posts.
So my 2nd D Day came around way to quick as it doesn’t seem two minutes since my last one. However I didn’t need to practice and learn a whole new test as it was the same one I did a Cockshot 🤣. This time we were at Crow Wood and it was interesting because I can hack to crow wood from the new yard only took me 10 minutes, so not having the trailer and getting him ready on the carpark was actually quite relaxing, well for me at least my dad really doesn’t cope very well on D Days his nerves are literally off the chart. He doesn’t even watch the test he always watches the videos then breathes a sigh of relief and says good job Ania or not enough walk etc. To say he’s my biggest supporter is an understatement. Unfortunately my mum couldn’t be there for this test as it was on a Wednesday at 11.30 and she has to work so it was up-to my dad to film it and in true Bart style he managed to sweet talk the steward in to doing it for him so he could concentrate on pacing up and down🤣
The test itself I thought went quite well considering King has been an absolute turd all week he managed to hold it together for the 5 minutes of the test. He did however get marked down for his medium walk because he decided he wanted to jog first. I must say though that my hands were the stillest they have ever been so I’m taking that for the win!! According to Lottie the judge we had is known for being quite hard to please so for us to get 67.52% and another red one I’m thinking we did extremely well even with his little blip.
Have I told you all about James yet? I can’t remember if I have so at the risk of repeating myself I’ll introduce you all to him. (Look out for videos on my FB page) James is a 16.3 bay warmblood and he belongs to David who owns the yar
D Day first affiliated…..
So D Day (dressage day) is here again. This time we went to Cockshot and what a lovely venue that is. The weather was cold but dry which is a blessing as it’s all outdoors. I was the first test today at 8am and that meant my poor mum and dad had to get up at 3.45am to get me to the yard and get King ready to rock and roll. We arrived with plenty of time to spare tacked up calmly and had a good 25 minutes in the warm up to get “in the zone”. Todays test was prelim 17a there were 6 riders in total for Bronze. I scored a very respectable 68.10% earning me yet another red rosette 🥰 some good feedback from the judge mentioning kings balance which we know about and she also said that we are a pleasure to judge. One good thing about being on first at 8am is that we are all back home chilling now at 1pm.
Lessons this week Lottie has had me working on Kings balance especially in his down transitions and we have also been working on engaging his back end to make him work more uphill. I’ve really enjoyed lessons this week and I can’t wait for our next one and our next outing.
Memories show us just how far we’ve come…
I thought I would do a little memory post today. My mum shared a post this morning of me and my first pony Folly on our very first ever outing from 6 years ago (check it out below)I was only 9 and had owned Foll for 3 years at this point and we went to Croft top for one of their jumping nights. Let me tell you a little bit about the pony who started it all for me. Folly or Folly Dolly as she’s more affectionately known is my heart horse. She’s a Welsh Section C and she’s currently 25 years old. We have owned Folly for 9 years now and although I’ve outgrown her she’s still in the family and is ridden by my little Friend Jessica or Lil Ginge as we all call her (don’t worry though she’s proud of her nickname) Folly was a jumping pony and when I was younger that’s what I thought I wanted to do, until that is I found my passion for dressage. Folly is and always will be the best pony a girl could wish for and I thank my lucky stars that my mum and dad both found her advert on different selling sites like it was meant to be. Folly is also the one who started my obsession with matchy matchy sets and she currently has 27 of them 🤣 She’s taught me how to fall off and not hurt myself, she’s taught me how to sit to one of her dramatic spooks but most of all she’s taught me everything I know.
Yesterday I had a brilliant lesson and we worked on getting King to lift up off the forehand and work from the hind. And we practiced our leg yields which he is really starting to perfect.
It’s my first Affiliated test this weekend at Cockshot which I’m really excited for so watch this space to see how we get on.
D Day…..
So D Day was fast approaching and by D Day I mean Dressage day. All week I have been practicing my test with Tori. I’ve memorised it and nailed my transitions now I’ve just got to nail my nerves.
Lessons this week after finally managing to ride after the dreaded snow were full on practice mode. We practiced what we do in the warm up and the test itself. Tori said I need to think about my test as just another lesson and ride it like I’m at home, so that’s what I’ll do. Riding Belle this week was tough as she hadn’t been ridden either and with her being so green it was almost like starting back from the beginning, but because she’s such a genuine mare she just gives you her all and really does try her hardest to please you. By the end of the lesson though we had got her balance back and she was starting to get the hang of being ridden once again. We have hacked out loads this week and she really loves that and considering she’s so green she’s absolutely awesome to hack out…
Fast forward to today and D Day was finally here. We got to Crow Wood with plenty of time to spare and tacked up king, I would say calmly but I’d be lying my nerves were through the roof and I kept snapping at my poor dad for getting in my way. So much pressure was on me today (well it felt that way) as my mum had invited some of her friends to watch us and my dad said I would be walking home if I got less than 70% 🤣 I was really nervous that I would mess it up and get a really poor score. Any way I didn’t mess it up I absolutely nailed it!! 72.95% and a red rosette. Not bad eh 😝 honestly I am on cloud 9 all I wanted was to go in and ride my test without messing up and not walk home, I never even dreamed I’d score so high let alone win out of 12 other riders. I really am proud of king and myself. Tori says it’s now time to affiliate 🥴
aniadzieciolkiewicz Tori Peter
29th Jan 2023
Radio silent no more….
Hey guys you missed me? Sorry I’ve been radio silent I’ve been a typical teenager and had my phone confiscated for cutting corners and not pulling my weight. Literally felt like my right arm had been cut off. Trust me from now on everything will be on point because that was the longest 2 weeks of my life.
We didn’t end up competing at Croft top because all the prelim places booked up super fast and they closed the bookings 🥺 not one to dwell my mum booked us in at crow wood for the end of the month, glad it wasn’t this weekend though because that dreaded white stuff has come back and stopped us riding yet again. Do you know what my favourite part of winter is? The end 🤣
Back to training, Tori has told mum and dad that I’ve basically outgrown prelim now and I’m working towards novice and elementary in my training but since I’ve not competed much in prelim I need to get a few tests under my belt before I move up. I also need to get used to actually going out and competing before I move up a level.
Lessons this week have had me working on my trot because as Tori said it’s become a little bit clunky, robotic, forward and kings been hitting the ground heavy and I’ve been hitting the saddle heavy too. So….. I changed how my balance was and how I sat in the saddle and that helped King to become more balanced himself. Little things like this make a massive difference. When my mum came to watch one of my lessons we showed her how good we are now at leg yields and shoulder in and how awesome Kings getting at medium canter.
We also changed Belles saddle this week and what a difference that made. She became freer, more fluid and genuinely seems a lot happier. I’ll update you more soon as this white stuffs gone and we can ride again.
Ania Dzieciolkiewicz 20th Jan 2023 Tori Peter
Woof Wear do you fancy sponsoring me and King in our dressage journey 🤣 I promise to use your products to their full ability.
On a serious note these over reach boots have been amazing and have lasted really well. I think I may need to retire them now though 😭 sad times.
New Year, New Moves….
Happy New year everyone, I hope you’ve had the best time. I spent my new year at home with my mum dad and brother and a few of mum and dads close friends. I didn’t manage to see the new year in though as I fell asleep, however my darling brother woke me up to wish me HNY by tipping water over me 🤬 is it just my little brother that pulls stunts like that?
First lesson of the year with King and we had an absolutely amazing lesson. We practiced our leg yield in trot and managed to get the whole 60m length of the arena nailed from top to bottom. And mum even managed to capture it on video. She also managed to capture my dad complaining that his sandwich tasted of cat 🤣
Combination aid. That’s something new I’ve learnt this week. Basically means combining different aids together to achieve the desired result. I’m not really good at explaining in depth but I just know that it works. And if it works carry on doing it ☺️
So we’ve been working on shoulder in for a while now but only in walk so it’s time to step it up a notch and start teaching King and i how to do it in trot, let me tell you though it’s much harder than it looks. My brain actually hurts.. Tori also threw in some 20 and 10 meter circles which are an elementary movement (how exciting is this ☺️)
I’ve got my first test of the year booked for the 15th Jan, Croft Top here we come. Although we are now practicing novice tests and elementary movements I’m not ready to compete in those yet so pre lim it is, well for now anyway.
Belle we have found out prefers one end of the arena to the other. In the top end where my parents and Tori sit she seems to struggle with whatever you ask of her yet if you take her to the bottom end she nails it on the first try. So we have decided that we will work at that end for now and slowly move up the arena so that she feels the same way in all parts of it. She’s a complex little mare but she really does try her hardest for
Bye bye 14…..
4 more sleeps, 3 more sleeps that’s all anyone has heard off me this week as I counted down to my birthday. I love a birthday and one especially close to Christmas as it means I don’t have to wait long for more presents.
So this weekend was extra special, not just because I turned 15 but because I got to have another lesson with Portuguese Olympic Rider Gonçalo Carvalho. How lucky am I that not only do I get to train with my awesome coach Tori Peter 3x a week but I also get to train with her coach when she flies him in throughout the year. I mean come on that must make you a little jealous 🤣 only kidding I’m very privileged. I almost missed the lesson though because mum picked the trailer up and on the way over some how all the electrics went on the trailer. She managed to get to the yard and super dad (ssh don’t tell him I said that) managed to fix the trailer and we got to the arena with literally 5 minutes to get tacked up and head inside.
Gonçalo mentioned that he could tell I’ve worked hard on what he taught me to do the last time he was over with King and that made me really happy that my work is paying off. One thing I must remember in my lessons with Gonçalo though is to breathe, I now know what oxygen debt is🤣 I think I’m that awestruck that I’m training with an actual Olympian that i forget simple things like breathing because I’m concentrating so hard on remembering what he’s said.
After Gonçalo training Tori had me implementing techniques that he taught me on Belle. I’ve now got to balance my hands on the saddle and half halt with my fingers so that i know I’m not the one pulling.
My lesson with King went really well. Tori is super pleased with my riding and said if I ride a test like I rode that lesson it would be amazing.
Overall I’ve had a really good birthday week. What’s that saying if carlsberg did birthdays ☺️☺️
aniadzieciolkiewicz
8th Dec 2022
Mum 1 vs Mum 2….
I know I’ve only just blogged about my dad like yesterday but this is too good to miss plus with this weekend coming up that will take over next weeks blog..
After spending so much time with Tori lately she’s decided now that I’m her kid not my mums 🤣 (I think she likes me). Anyway with Tori teaching me to be a super groom it’s all the stones being set on the path to my future. She’s determined that when I leave school and get a job on a top dressage yard that I’m going to be the groom that gets noticed and that gets kept. So with that being said I need to know how to plait, clip and pull manes and not just shovel 💩. So this week that’s exactly what we’ve done, well part of it anyway. I have now learnt how to pull a mane correctly without causing any distress to the horse (just look at the video I’ll post you can see King is not bothered at all) my mum (mum2 as Tori calls her) was a little apprehensive at first about mane pulling because she’s seen it done incorrectly before and it scarred her for life, but after seeing it done on King she’s a convert. Mum 1 (that’s Tori) taught me step by step how to pull and trim a mane correctly and I think I did a good job. Next on the list is to learn how to clip so Santa if your reading I would love some clippers for Christmas…..
aniadzieciolkiewicz Tori Peter
1st Dec 2022
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Appreciating dad….
This weekend my dad had to work away so it was down to me to take on his groom role at Tori’s. It’s been an eye opener to see what my dad does every single day of the week on his own and I now have a whole new level of respect for what he does in order for me to do what I love.
Working with Belle this weekend was so rewarding. Not sure if I have ever mentioned this before but Belle seems to have a bit of an issue with her canter work and she has no natural balance with canter. We have been working really hard together to guide Belle and give her the confidence that she can do it and she can balance herself whilst in canter. We still have a lot of work to do but this mare is the sweetest most genuine mare I’ve ever known. I’m excited to see how she progresses once she gets her confidence.
Kings extra spark seems to have finally settled down now that we have changed his feed and he is back to being the good boy everyone knows him as. He is still cheeky and will always be but that’s part of his charm 🥰 Tori has said we need to start looking at comps now to get him out and about I’m excited to show him off but also really nervous. I don’t know about you but when I’m riding at home I’m full of confidence and I know I can do it but when I go out competing the nerves kick in and I seem to forget how to ride. I suppose with time though that should get easier shouldn’t it?
I’ve really enjoyed this week with my dad being away not because he’s been away but more so because I’ve been doing more around the yard and with Tori. She’s taught me how to pull Kings mane “the proper way” and also taught me how to be a super groom like my dad. Mums also been here a lot so it’s been nice spending time with her too.
aniadzieciolkiewicz Tori Peter
30th Nov 2022
Getting the hang of this blogging…..
Well I think I might have cursed the November sunshine in my last post because it’s been grey and miserable since. However Tori’s new horse arrived late Thursday night and what an absolute beauty she is. Nàpoles is Tori’s 3rd Lusitano although she’s not the 3rd one she’s ever owned but the 3rd one she’s got now. After a few days settling in getting used to her new surroundings, the horse Walker and having rugs on, I mean that will take some getting used to considering she’s come from Portugal where you don’t need them it was time for Tori’s first ride on her. I got to film the whole thing and was under strict instructions from Tori “if she decks me carry on filming” 🤣 I’m happy to report she didn’t deck her and she behaved perfectly a really good first ride.
Kings been an absolute saint again this week we are still continuing to nail his transitions and his leg yields and they are pretty much spot on now and when they aren’t it’s usually down to rider error. I think I’m also starting to nail this whole elbow and hand malarkey because my dad isn’t losing his rag with me every 5 minutes shouting “HANDS” I have to say best compliment ever from Tori came this week via my mum “Every day she rides more and more like me 🤓” how cool is that.
Belle now stands lovely at the mounting block so I’m taking that as a win for me. Now as Belle is very green I have to be really “on it” in terms of getting everything bang on when asking her to do anything. Tori has been teaching me how to teach Belle to bring her back up and start getting her to work correctly over the back so that she doesn’t become hollow backed.
This weekend is a really exciting weekend and I can’t wait for it however that’s for the next blog so until next time 👋🏻
aniadzieciolkiewicz Tori Peter
17th Nov 2022
#equestrian #dressage #unaffiliated #affiliated #youngrider #younghorse #thoroughbred #warmblood
