Yesterday we had another beach outing with smokey and loretta and darcy. 7am on the beach and there were loads of other horses there! When I usually go I'm the only one, think darcy was unsure of the other horses but was such a good boy. I love hayling its such a massive beach that it doesn't matter if there's others there you can all spread out and it still feels like your on your own! There was seaweed everywhere so my first canter I had to sit up and hope darcy didn't do any massive spooks like he usually does out hacking and although he was looking at all the seaweed he didn't do any proper spooks. He was brilliant on the second long canter with smokey along side us this time as he trusts smokey 🥰 I'm still so surprised how good he is at the beach so much better than in the woods! And he loves going in the water too he's so brave 🥰
Today we headed to speedgate equestrian to do a music run through for the area festivals. Proud of myself driving to a new venue 2.5 hours away each way so 5 hours driving the lorry today! Only driven the lorry about 5 times locally so that was a big thing driving on m25 and all the way to Kent. Traffic was really quiet luckily! Had a really straight forward run there until they closed the road when we were 10 mins away. Had to go a very long way round and some horrible narrow roads for lorries too 😬
Forest was a superstar and was totally relaxed with the music system which I was worried about. He's really getting the hang of this music lark! Got a big kick up the bum from leanne in my lesson and we changed my floor plan again but I'm really happy with the result. For some reason our half passes or extended trots arnt as good as they were and he's a bit too layed back ATM and loosing energy so I'm not feeling totally ready. I still don't know what area festival he's going to as I didn't realise there's no stabling on site so now trying to find local stabling as the long drive and two tests is too much for him all in one day. If anyone knows a very local yard that might have a free stable on 15th August overnight please let me know!
Absolutely over the moon with my 3 tests at the weekend. I enjoyed every single one of them and was so happy with the horses when I finished each one they tried so hard and I couldn't have asked for more from them. Worked so hard with them and really feeling it starting to pay off.
Forest 1st advanced medium freestyle 67.2%
Forest 1st advanced medium 5 66.7%
Diesel novice 4 (his first novice test) 2nd 68.3% just 0.5% away from the win!
Managed to go on a decent hack, school diesel and have a lesson on forest this morning by 11.30am so it wasn't too hot. Hacked forest before work yesterday at 6.50am then rode doodle early. I'm going to give mine the day off tomorrow and just ride in the morning at work then ride early Thurs and Fri before work (and at work) then by the weekend it's back to 20 degrees yay! I can go back to riding at whatever time and riding all day long lol. I hate this weather. I even brought myself a paddling pool 😂 it really does the job though!
Forest having his pre lesson nap this morning 🥰 he was practicing dressage in his sleep he's so cute. He has an amazing life for a dressage horse. He's out over 10 hours everyday. He comes in at night as he gets scared in his field and will probably break a leg overnight 🤣 but he loves his stable so that makes him happy.
Had a fantastic lesson on him with liz. I was finding him a bit stuck in the neck and hard to stretch and supple at the beginning and he was coming round the corner on his inside shoulder again like he used to. I knew how to correct these things but still wasn't seeing much improvement. Just little tips and tricks throughout the lesson made Massive improvements. Went through advanced medium 5 and was really happy with him and all my changes were exactly when I asked. No jumping ahead of me early or going tight against me or running through them. That test is hard for him and his anticipation as theres 4 changes in the same place so he knows whats coming! I've got so much more control, collection and suppleness I just have to ride the collection forward now and keep him on his hind legs. So exciting though as there's loads more to come and I feel were improving so much everyday
Very late post as I was waiting for video but FOREST IS BACK COMPETING!!!! Wasn't the score or performance I was hoping for and know he's capable of but that was just due to tension and spooking and the excitement of being out again and doing changes! Plus the music always makes him more difficult 🤣He did huge changes which were marked down but I didn't collect him enough and I let him take over and run through me. When you don't win you learn and I've learnt a lot from this test. I know what we have to work on and I'm excited to try it again in hope we can get ourselves together in time for the area festivals. He definitely won the warm up and was so chilled. Just got transfer that to the test arena and show what we can do! With us we seem to get rusty if we don't regularly compete and although 2 months off is not much to a lot of people it feels a very long time for us! We definitely need more practice and that we will. I just have to remember to enjoy it lol
Here's diesels beautiful winning 72%+ test from a couple of weeks ago. So proud of how far he's come recently he's starting to look more uphill and in a more consistent contact and I'm getting more energy at home, but he still drops behind the leg at shows but I would rather lazy than the other way! We had a massive spook before I started and he really didn't like the sunlight on the end letter so really pleased he didn't spook at anything in the test! Had my first run through a novice on him yesterday and it felt easy! Planning on trying an ele next month! Now he's got going fully and getting stronger I think it won't be too hard to move up the levels at a good pace and get OK scores!
Really pleased with all the horses I'm riding at the moment as always. Planning a hacking day tomorrow with a nice long hack on darcy and competing on Sunday. There's hardly anything on bd in July and August so I'm going to try and get forest out to everything I can and try and get diesel out too. Plus I want to do showing, fun rides, jumping and xc but everything ends up being on the same weekend then nothing on other times 🙈 and missed loads when the ground was hard, now it's soft there's too much other stuff on 🤣 I will enjoy having too many horses to compete as I know it won't last!
I did another thing with darcy that I never imagined I would! Today we did our first ever ride and lead hack and he was perfect! A couple of days ago It popped into My head that I should try it as when he hacks with smokey he's always stuck to him 🥰 me and darcy both trust smokey with our lives so I was sure it would go well and it did! This is great for me as I'm not keen on hacking darcy on my own and means I can still ride smokey lots but darcy still gets out. It also meant I got all 3 horses hacked out for an hour each this morning which I wouldn't have had time to do them all separately! And all 3 of them were pretty much perfect!!!
Also had another great advanced lesson doing piaffe, passage and changes just trying to keep my advanced riding up to scratch for when forests back to that level so I'm not totally useless! And diesel was great to ride, really coming on tones now. Love this weather for being in the saddle all day. Last week was just too hot and I had so many to ride everyday it just makes it a chore when it's that hot but I'm quite happy to ride all day everyday in this weather!
A clip from our first dressage to music together where diesel was an absolute star! Getting way over the qualifying score needed we scored nearly 70% just lost out on the win by 0.3%. Really positive comments from judge throughout but we didn't score more than a 7 and 7 is only "fairly good" if you go by the scales. Cant wait to try it again and see where we can get with it. Absolutely love My music which fits so perfectly by Gaynor A Colbourn of course who always does an amazing job. It's so nice to ride a horse who is so relaxed with music and I don't have to worry about crackling speakers or jogging through all the walk! Loving my journey with this boy and seeing big improvements ❤️
Things are looking up! For those that don't have my personal page on fb I passed my hgv test first time yesterday with no driver faults 😁 so lots of adventures planned! And forest has started trot work this week and feels fantastic. He's so happy and willing and feels so comfortable. We start canter next week! I'm feeling quite hopeful about it now 🙏
The other horses I ride all feeling fantastic. Very excited to have my music debut on diesel this week. Its been a crazy busy week with fitting in 15 hours of hgv training/ test plus the drive to and from Bognor each time. Plus I've had 9 horses to work this week plus my 21 + hours of work and loads of poo picking which has killed my back and shoulders. I've been hacking at the crack of dawn or still riding at 8pm. Managed to have a lesson on an advanced horse on Monday, it was very interesting riding actual canter piros on a horse that's not still learning. They feel very different! Although I've now passed the test I don't see things slowing down any time soon, think I might actually get busier 😬 but I love it!
Well that was a crazy day. Packed so much into the day and was on such a strict time limit all day and somehow managed to be early for every single thing.
Started the day with a 6.50am hack on forest before a 5 hour hgv training session to which I passed my reversing part of the test. I have the main part of my test on Thursday. Then to have a quick brides maid dress fitting then to arundel park to walk the xc course and enter the hunter trials for tomorrow! So excited! Then back to yard to ride diesel and run through our music. Clean my tack and load lorry and do horses then out for birthday meal for 7pm 😄 I also avoided riding in the rain today too! Glad I got extra riding done after work late last night too so I didn't have to ride as many today as I just didn't have time to ride more than two!🤣🙈
Video from last week. Darcy loving being back jumping again. Hoping to get him back out round some courses soon and hopefully to a competition this year! 🙏
Now I've passed my hgv theory test I don't have to spend all my time revising! I finally got to edit all the videos from the beach. Darcy certainly doesn't look like a horse that has never been to the beach 😍 what an absolute superstar and I'm so greatful to experience this with my amazing horses and my great friend and have this beautiful video that I can keep forever ❤️ such great memories to cherish
I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present today. A 4.30am start to ride at the beach at 6.30am and have the beach completely to ourselves 😍 it was darcys first ever time at the beach and he was absolutely perfect and a dream come true! Can't explain how much it meant to me to be there with him having so much fun after everything we've been through recently trying to get him sound and comfortable and seriously thinking he would be retired. he absolutely loved it bless him.
A beach ride is something I said I would never do with him as he can be so sharp and I didn't think he would cope but the last couple of years he's really chilled out and I've done so many things with him I could never imagine. He literally acted like he does this every week, straight into the sea, no spooking and just loving it. This is definitely going to be a regular thing! Thanks so much Loretta Wright for coming in Joe's place as he has injured himself and unable to ride! And thanks so much to my mum for getting up so early and taking us and everything you do for me and the horses daily and joe for also getting up early and getting loads of amazing footage which I will edit soon! I LOVE MY HORSES!! These two are so special and really are two of a kind 😍
This weekend didn't fully go to plan but was still brilliant. Planned a fun outing with all three horses and got to do two of them so not bad! Planned 6 rides over the weekend and managed 4 and they were such good horses too I have to say I feel so lucky to have such amazing horses that give me so much joy.
Yesterday I hacked to compton xc on smokey to meet up with josie and Bill to jump round the course then I hacked home. It's a 45 min hack each way plus we had a good gallop and fair amount of jumping. Smokey was jogging all the way back and not tired in the slightest 🤣 he's so fit and he's just so much fun! So lucky to have compton on my doorstep and mainly off road hacking to get there.
Today I had a brilliant lesson at parwood with leanne and forest was fantastic working on getting him more off my leg, more bounce in canter and getting more from the mediums and working on single and tempi changes.forest tried to get out of the lesson by pulling a shoe yesterday but Ron saved the day yet again!
We were supposed to be taking darcy too for a ride round the gallops but it was cancelled due to flooding. Never mind darcy will get his fun outing soon, he's going so well at home being ridden in the school and walked out inhand to strengthen his feet until he has his next trim and gets some hoof boots!
Forest my advanced dressage horse 🥰 one month until I ride a test in my tail coat 🥳 just casually doing some three time and four time tempi changes.
This level isn't easy expecially when neither of us have done it before but I'm learning so so much and improving everyday. I still need to sit on my bum and be straighter but to think 6 months ago I couldn't even do one single flying change and I've now taught him to do tempi changes 😁 I'm now able to correct the changes when they go wrong, I'm noticing straightness so much quicker and I'm able to problem solve when it doesn't go to plan and figure it out for myself. These clips were the beginning and the end of a session on my own where we had miscommunications in the middle but I realised I needed to collect him more, ride straighter and sit stiller and the end result was fantastic.
I get so frustrated with myself if it goes wrong I feel like training always has to be perfect but I need to learn that we are both learning and its not going to ever be perfect and some days it will go wrong and thats OK. The days it does go wrong are great learning days and help you to get results like this!
Tried to post this yesterday but Internet not playing ball!
I'm so happy it is finally starting to feel like spring. Its my favourite time of year. I actually enjoy riding horses all day now instead of it feeling like a chore. Had such a great hack on smokey seeing the lambs they were adorable. Smokey couldn't be more perfect if he tried I'm so lucky to have him and can't wait for our first fun ride of the year on Sunday!
Darcy hasent been out of the yard for months but we went on a lovely walk to start hardening his feet as he's barefoot and he walked so comfortably I'm hoping were getting somewhere with him now and I'm also back on board in the school.
Forest was incredible doing some expressive tempis were so ready for advanced now. My lesson on Tuesday really helped and my only issue with the changes is straightness now. When I focus on this he always pulls off a fantastic change. I'm learning so much.
The other horses I ride have also been fantastic. Won't say any more as this is already turning into an essay 🤣
The horses have been out at night for the last week and they are loving it. Forest stays in at night still but he's really happy. He stayed out till 7.30pm last night and when I left the yard it was still light at gone 8pm! It's such a huge relief to have them out and have more time as I was really struggling to fit everything in. I'm still rushing around as it's freed up more time for riding and getting jobs done that I've not been able to do for months!
Our first advanced medium national championships and we finished 11th out of 35 people against the best of this level in the country 🥳 this is the 3rd time I've been pushed to 11th by the last person by 0.2% 🙈 two judges had me in the top 10 and one didn't like us lol.
I didn't need to worry about him coping with the atmosphere, he was calm as a cucumber ( far too calm and lazy) he wasn't easy to ride today but I'm so proud of how he behaved. Those that know us know championships blow forest brain and its usually a disaster for us but he didn't put a foot wrong. We just lacked energy and sparkle and had jogging in the walk and a flying change down our final cl. Finishing on over 65%.
We are total newbies to advanced medium having done our first test 5 months ago, most people in my class have been doing this for years! 7 months ago we couldn't get a single flying change and I can't believe how far we've come in such small amount of time. It feels like a dream to be doing what we're doing and now serious training starts for our first advanced next month to which I actually finally get my dream of wearing a tailcoat!
I can't begin to explain how proud I am of my amazing forest this weekend. I have had the most amazing time and he's made all my dreams come true.
He was absolutely petrified when he started his dressage to music demo last night. Didn't want to go near the people and everytime someone moved he jumped, he wouldn't go near the corner where gaynor was sat with all the equipment. I didn't think I would get to do my test as couldn't get him down the whole of that side. Gaynor used gentle music to get him relaxing to start with and some tactical riding was needed from me, i gave him lots of praise and support and he ended up being totally relaxed, pulling off an amazing test and really showing what he's made of infront of the crowd. It was an amazing experience.
We stayed over night ready to compete bd today. Our first run through our advanced medium music was as amazing as I imaged it and despite spooking at the doorway quite a lot we still managed 69.5% winning the class with a 10% lead of 2nd place!!!!! Our music journey has not been an easy one, I've nearly given up several times as he doesn't cope with it too well but think I've finally found some music he will cope with!
We then had our first go at advanced medium 92. It's one of the best tests he's done which achieved an array of cheering when I finished! Liz My instructor said its the best I've ever ridden the changes and was a brilliant test deserving around 68%. Liz pushes us so hard and doesn't give praise unless it's really due ( this is exactly what I want and need and is why I'm progressing so quickly!) We were all shocked and disappointed with 65.5% and 3rd. No way he deserved that, he usually gets 66% with several mistakes and although we did have jogging in the walk and a wrong strike off his quality of work was fantastic but that's dressage! Still ended half way in a big class for advanced medium against lots of silver riders.
This morning I rode diesel in his first affiliated test. He was prett
I've finally created this video! taken me ages and the first time it got deleted! I wanted to show a typical competition day for me. Its not just fun and chilled times when I have a show day, its manic I always work it around my freelance jobs and never cancel on anyone it has to all fit in. Luckily i have close venues that I can just pop out between jobs! If I'm not working on a competition day then I'm busy getting them all ridden in between and getting the yard done. This day was relatively chilled compared to a lot of comp days I have but i actually remembered to film my whole day this day! This was our last comp in February.
Looking forward to getting out loads soon. Had some lovely sunny rides this week. Horses on top form. Forest felt great today after a week off schooling he was in some ways better than I left him last week! So happy my boy is OK!
Well that was an extremely busy day! Up the horses at 7am to turn out then take the lorry for MOT. 2.5 hours at my first job including 2 ridden then to gw equine for arena hire with diesel who was fantastic. Back to my yard to hack smokey and school forest. 4 stables mucked out, 2 fields poo picked bring in feed and groom nancy then off to my second job to do 2 hours there and back home at 8pm!
It's really great to be looking after winks and rolo again that i did two weeks holiday cover for back in October. Even though they have moved to another yard now that has their own grooms their owners were so happy with how I looked after them last time that they wanted me back this time when they went on holiday. Their owner said they don't have to worry at all when they are in my care and trust me completely and I'm the only one that has ever ridden winks other than his owner. we made huge progress last time from not being able to hack alone at all to going 40 mins routes on our own good as gold in a week!
Really happy with my work at the moment. Got plenty on and got such lovely clients who are so greatful and such brilliant horses to work with too! There isn't much loyalty in the horse world but some of my clients have become great friends and many of my jobs I've had now for 7-9 years! Sometimes being a groom is a hard job and I question it but most of the time I couldn't imagine doing anything else!
Lovely little BD outing between jobs today to get another qualifying score. Our second time riding advanced medium 98 the hardest at the level and the championship test, very pleased with 67.3% even with jogging in the walk and an unscheduled change down the cl. His trot work all scored 7 and 7.5 but canter work not as good today and he tends to go against the hand in the changes and needs to stay softer but they all happened in the right place and no lower than a 6 for any of them. It's a hard test with 6 changes in and loads going on and we're still new to the level and he's still young and gaining strength.
Judges comments " some nice trot work but then he thinks he knows best! When more connected and working with more energy and suppleness will be wow! " Couldn't agree with that more! Forest does like to think he knows best but he will also be wow I just know it!
