Feeling The Weight Of The Rein

20/02/2025

Petplan winter festivals…

It’s been a while since I last blogged and to be honest I’ve just not thought about it much so my apologies on that. Anyway me and Connie qualified for the petplan area festivals so we got busy prepping and training ready to go to aintree.
The week before petplan we had a lesson with Tori and she was amazed with how well we progressed considering we hadn’t had many lessons due to a busy December. She told me and dad if she rides like this on Sunday shes going to do really well. How amazing is that? Well chuffed.
Anyway petplan arrives we drive over to Aintree and start getting ready to go into the warm up arena. Tori was there working me in this time and I felt better knowing that she would be there coaching me right up to the last minute.
In the warm up it was clear that Connie was anxious and not playing ball at all. She was literally fighting me every move we made. I managed to get her back in the box and completely nailed it and had her working so well. We cleverly exited the arena when the first round had their presentation to avoid the clapping and the cheering to keep Connie’s head on. Once the presentation was over it was my turn to enter the ring.
Upon entering the arena it was clear that it was not going to be my day at all.. Connie’s head well and truly fell off. She reared a few times and Tori asked the steward to get the bell rung so I could just go in and do the test rather than fight to get Connie past the concession stands.
The bell goes and in between the white boards we go. I started the test with a pretty good centre line. In the video which was live streamed on Horse and Country you can see that Connie is literally fighting me every step of the way. You can also see I’m constantly reassuring her by stroking her neck to tell her “it’s ok, we’ve got this” how wrong was i! Halfway through the test something spooked her she shot sideways tried to rear or tank off I’m not quite sure which. I turned to the judge saluted and exited the arena. I chose to withdraw because it was the right thing to do for Connie. I jumped off and walked her past the scary stands and took her back to the warm up arena. I got back on her worked her in a little more because I wanted to end it on a good note.
Seeing how Connie reacted to the environment had us thinking “what can we do to make it easier for her when out and about” my main priority is ensuring that Connie is comfortable when competing and enjoys herself like I enjoy riding her. I’m pretty sure I need to build her confidence and I have done some research and we will be trying out different methods in the coming weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes.

12/02/2025

Me and my best girl Connie loving life at our new home Crow Wood Equestrian 🥰

11/01/2025

I have reached 200 followers! Thank you for your continued support. I could not have done it without each of you. 🙏🤗🎉

31/10/2024

Shaking things up…..

So we are back our competing fully. One thing we have decided we need to do is to get Connie out as much as possible and to as many different venues so that she doesn’t over think things.
Wednesday 30th Oct we went to Myerscough. Now I’ve been there before a couple of times with King but Connie hasn’t.
We arrived with plenty of time to get tacked up and have a proper warm up without feeling stressed on time.
Took Connie in to the warm up arena and she worked like a pro. She absolutely bosses the warmup wherever we go. She was elevated, bouncy and her transitions were on point.
“Ania your in next” those words when I hear them my tummy flutters like butterflies.
In we go. Round the white boards, alls well no spooking l, car horn beeps and it’s show time.
I’m really pleased with how this test went. Yes there are things I need to improve on and yes there are things I should have scored higher on but I do get nervous. So I suppose getting me out to as many tests and as many venues will benefit me also.
We scored 70% and got another red rosette. Did I mention reds my favourite colour 😍
I also have a little secret but you will have to wait till next week to find out……

29/10/2024

Back out competing…..

So after petplan and under 25s I gave Connie a well deserved time off from competing. We carried on having our lessons with Tori and perfecting everything in preparation for moving up to Novice.
I now also have King back in full work and it’s so wonderful to be back on board my best boy and getting him ready to start back having lessons.
We have been shaking things up with Connie’s lessons and going to different arenas to get her used to being in different places surrounded by different horses. We have been having lessons at Tori’s clinics at Craven College and Simon Constables yard. They are both beautiful arenas. On one of our lessons Tori said to start back competing and finish this year off qualifying for the petplan winter festivals and then starting next year out doing Novice.

Last Wednesday we headed back to our favourite venue crow wood and competed prelim 5 and 6.
Prelim 5 wasn’t the best test we had a spook from Connie at the banner she rode past at least 5 times and didn’t spook at. And then we had a rider error of going to the wrong marker in our change the rein in free walk on a long rein. But still we managed to score 68.33% gaining us a lovely red rosette.

Prelim 6 our 2nd test and Connie just shone… she really does like a warm up test first 😂 72.2% our personal best and the highest overall score in prelim boom!!
I’m so happy. We are at myerscough on weds so fingers crossed with can do it all again and gain our qualification for petplan.

21/09/2024

19/09/2024

Under 25s and more…..

After coming back from Crete I had roughly 2 weeks to prep for the under 25s championship at Sheepgate Equestrian. We had lessons with Tori Peter fine tuning our circles, transitions and centre line. We were ready!!

Day of travel my dad went to collect the box from CBF horsebox hire (mums car still out of action for pulling) and left me to get everything together ready to load once he got back. Now where is Connie’s passport? After an epic meltdown from both me and my dad because we blamed each other for not knowing where it was or for not putting it back where it belonged Mum came to the rescue and remembered that dad had it when she picked him up from the last box we rented for petplan. She checked her car and found it down the back of her seat where it had been put for “safe keeping”.
Ok Phew! Panic over let’s get this show on the road… Literally!

We arrived at sheepgate later that day unloaded everything, got Connie settled and then I took her into the arena in preparation for the next day. She rode beautifully didn’t spook at anything and gave me a little hope that tomorrow would be better than petplan.

Next day D Day..
We arrived early sorted Connie out and then went to watch some of the tests. It was a great atmosphere and such a lovely venue. Once it was nearing my time I went back to the box to get Connie ready. I came out of the groom area of the box and saw that my mum had driven down to surprise me. I cried happy tears and so did mum. I was so happy that I had both mum and dad there supporting me.

Once on board we went to the warm up arena and strutted our stuff there with all the other riders. It was busy but Connie stayed cool calm and collected and literally bossed it around that arena.
“Ania Dzieciolkiewicz” called the steward “it’s your time” and in we went…

The test started out so good. We had scores of 7’s and 8’s and Tori said when she saw the video it was a really good test. Then the horse in the parallel arena finished their test and exited the arena and that’s when it all went wrong, again! I asked for canter just as the horse left and she threw her head up as if to say wait shouldn’t we be going as well? That ended up getting a 4.0 she then did the same thing for the next transition and this resulted in our marks dropping drastically.
Now some of you may be thinking is it pain related or rider error and you know what we have been down that route but she doesn’t do it at home or at Tori’s and she never even did it in the warm up. She’s got attachment issues not with one particular horse just one that leaves her. She’s ok leaving them but god forbid they leave her. Once we had exited the arena the steward came to check my tack and spurs to ensure that it was all BD legal and to make sure that Connie wasn’t bleeding etc.

Once back settled in her stable we had to wait for the scores to come in. 64.38% placing us 9th in the bronze section and 16th overall.
To be honest I was pleased with that I really thought we tanked it but we didn’t. We didn’t get through to the finals the next day we missed out by 1/10th of a % as only the top 15 went through.
Anyway it was an experience one I will definitely be doing again. So until next time sheepgate see you next year.