I am really hoping the worst of the weather has been and gone, although I thought that was the case last weekend, but oh no we had another covering of SNOW :( that didn't stop our play though (for once!) when it melted quickly! Living in Derbyshire does have its downsides when it comes to the weather and we sure do see plenty of snow this time of year! The girls have been enjoying a lonnnnnnnnnng well deserved break over the winter months after a cracking end to the season. Mother Harrold has been doing a brilliant job brining them back into work for me hacking out & having lessons with local trainer Sarah Healy. Where would I be without them! (probably a lot thinner because I would be the one riding more but jobless...hmm hard choice!!)
After an incredible first lesson with Holly Gillott 2 weeks ago, you could say I threw myself into the deep end! I now know how it feels to have lost ALL your riding fitness and ache like hell!!! It was really good to get back into it with something fun and Holly always makes me such a confident rider from the get go so it worked out very well and I loved every minute. Annie took a while to settle, actually it was half the lesson! But it was great to experience the worst so I can prepare myself for competitions, right?!! After a good half and hour... finally we were in control and aloud to jump! She was brilliant! I picked up some great techniques to get Annie listening to me from the get go, one was to circle around the jumps as tightly as possibly, the other was to leg yeild as much as possible! These both worked a treat and I put this to the test when I took her to a local centre full of show jumps a few days later. It took me 5 minutes if that (I know I was shocked too!) to get her to settle and relax! Hallelujah... so then when I had total control going to the fence, over the fence and after the fence I thought she must of had a brain transplant! Wow it had clicked. Video evidence below..!
After an incredible first lesson with Holly Gillott 2 weeks ago, you could say I threw myself into the deep end! I now know how it feels to have lost ALL your riding fitness and ache like hell!!! It was really good to get back into it with something fun and Holly always makes me such a confident rider from the get go so it worked out very well and I loved every minute. Annie took a while to settle, actually it was half the lesson! But it was great to experience the worst so I can prepare myself for competitions, right?!! After a good half and hour... finally we were in control and aloud to jump! She was brilliant! I picked up some great techniques to get Annie listening to me from the get go, one was to circle around the jumps as tightly as possibly, the other was to leg yeild as much as possible! These both worked a treat and I put this to the test when I took her to a local centre full of show jumps a few days later. It took me 5 minutes if that (I know I was shocked too!) to get her to settle and relax! Hallelujah... so then when I had total control going to the fence, over the fence and after the fence I thought she must of had a brain transplant! Wow it had clicked. Video evidence below..!
Feeling rather smug I suggested to take her to a local dressage competition on Saturday. It was freezing and the arena had a covering of snow but that didn't stop us! The warm up was beautiful again.. yes, yes, yes! I was thinking to myself it wasn't a fluke! So we went into the arena to perform the test, it started well, carried on really good, then small jumpy spooks started to creep in, then some rushing came into it, tension showed its face and before we could get to the canter work she was showing the judges her flying changes across the arena! Trying to stay calm we finished the test back in control but the worst of it was yet to come! Annie did a lovely halt and salute, but happened to see the 2 judges through the wooden box and before I had time to breath out, I was existing the arena over the white boards! Yikes, I had another test coming up in the same arena too!! So you could say the next test was... interesting! It started of not so great, we couldn't get near H, C, or M but after a few laps of the test she started to give in! When we came to the halt again her eyes were on stalks and she soon became a dragon not a horse! I am really hoping she has forgotten about this before next time! A video of the start of the good test before I forgot where I was going and mum had to shout out the test and stop videoing!
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