Well we have been keeping busy this month. Not so much with eventing but with lots of training, and boy is it showing! Lady has gone from strength to strength and looking better than ever before. Her movement on the flat has come on so much with the thanks to Claire for the great training, I just want to mention Profile Technology and say a HUGE thank you, as non of this amazing training would be happening if it wasn't for them. I have been so lucky this year and because of this incredible sponsorship it has enabled me to have a lesson once a week. Having regular lessons has brought us both on so much and I am really looking forward to getting back out their now and doing some events to put it all to the test! 

Annie has been benefiting just as much from these lessons. The consistency in training has allowed me to get with her much more quickly, especially being so different to Lady I have had to adapt my riding slightly! Over the last few weeks we have taken her to local shows, farm rides and she even did her first British Dressage competition. I am now setting my sights on the BYEH classes and possibly a 4yo BE.

While June has been fairly quiet competition wise for Lady she has a busy 2 months ahead of her! We have Frickley BE Novice in July, followed by the Pony Club Area Show Jumping and Dressage. The week after that we head to the Riding Club championships and it doesn't stop their with the Hickstead Open team Show jumping final. 

I can't wait to show you the before and after picture of Annie the difference is incredible. Huge thanks to Blue Chip Feed for their ongoing support. Combine training and top feed = an extremely good looking horse! Annie has chilled out so much on the Blue Chip calmer and the Blue Chip Original feed balancer has kept her very level-headed while getting all the nutrients she has needed to develop. I had a great photo shoot with Blue chip modelling their merchandise range which is available to purchase. I particularly love the Soft shell gillet and jacket! 

Its also the last week to get your votes in for the Equilibrium Products rising star final. I need your help to get forward into the top 3 who will then face the judging panel to decide the winner. It really would be amazing to have the support from Equilibrium being a huge fan of their products. The girls use the massage pad religiously as well as using a range of their boots. My personal favourite is the very smart Stretch and Flex boots. Although I no what the horses favourite would be.. Vitamunch, the new product which really is fantastic to keep your horse occupied in the stable or lorry. 

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to spur people on to vote for me, all the Retweets on twitter and all the shares on facebook, I cannot thank you enough and it really means a lot to have your support! 

Here is the link if you would like to vote for me.

www.equilibriumproducts.com/risingstars.asp


Last but not least we are off to Holly Gillott's this weekend. Its been a while and I cannot wait to get the girls back down their. I really love training with Holly, she is great with confidence and telling me exactly what I should be aiming for. Its also the first time Holly has seen Annie since we bought her so it will be great for her to see what we have been up to! 

Its been a great few weeks for Lady & I. Probably more for Lady because she has been spoilt by extra grass time!! The decision to have a short break for British Eventing after Lady produced some fab double clears around Novice tracks proved to be a good idea especially with the wet weather recently coming! 

We have still been busy competing though and Lady can now add superstar all-rounder to her CV! We have done 2 pure dressage competitions. One with our local riding club where she scored over 66% in both Novice tests to win! However it was a very expensive event for us with my iphone getting very soggy! We barely had time to dry out for our second attempt at pure dressage, and this time it was against proper dancing ponies at our first ever British Dressage event! Lady really did try so hard and warmed up the best she ever had. I was looking forward to showing her off and we went in much more confident with the help from my trainer Claire who has really supported us over the last month which I am really grateful for.  Lady scored just over 64% in both tests to come 2nd & 3rd which I was really pleased about despite learning the wrong test and making a couple of mistakes in one. On the whole it was a great experience for the both of us (we survived!) and I finished the tests more out of breath than a show jumping round! (Never knew that was possible in dressage! )

We also got the opportunity to compete for my local riding club; Hope Valley in the Area 16 Horse Trials Qualifier. The team came 2nd just missing out on qualifying, but all the hard work on Lady's dressage proved key scoring a 34.4 and another lovely double clear got us the WIN! I was so happy, especially with the huge improvements over a short space of time. So we can't wait to get to the championships in August which leaves us lots more time to keep fine tuning the dressage with Claire. 

The following week we went down to Arena UK for the Pony Club Hickstead qualifier. The Barlow have been trying to pick up this qualification for the past few years and this year was the first time ever Barlow have WON the event! We had 3 clear rounds which meant we went through on a score of 0 and all the other teams carried through at least 4 faults round a tough long show jumping course. It was the most challenging Lady has ever done and I was so pleased with how she coped. I was a little nervous and messed up a few shots but Lady showed her true heart of gold and pulled me out of trouble to jump what felt like an amazing clear round!