The way to heaven is on horseback

The title says it all, yesterday during my last saturday lesson of the year I spoke to Fiona and we have decided that we are going to go for it on the 8th March I am going to be doing two dressage tests at Broomfield. We think the tests are going to be British Dressage Intro A (walk and trot test) and British Dressage Prelim 7 (walk, trot, canter test).  Yesterday in our lesson we worked mainly on getting the outline constantly, I was getting Gatsby to work really well long and low in both the walk and the trot before asking him to pick himself up while in the trot. However this did not go quite as planned, as I think i mentioned in an early post this week I have been having problems with my left knee, when I moved on to asking him to pick up and go in to the outline I discovered that I was bracing my left leg and trying to stop getting any impact on it and by doing this while I thought I was protecting my leg, I was unbalancing myself and making my position slightly off. So F...

Hiya Guys,  So today I didn't do much up until pony club (other than get myself some new water proof trousers). Then at Pony Club we got told because of all the bad weather (thunder and lightening) that riding was definitely off the cards. So we got told at the last minute that we would be doing a competition, grooming and turn out. I got to work with Betsy and we worked on getting Vettie ready which was really nice. We plaited his mane and tail. Brushed him all over, added hoof oil and came out with a lovely looking shining horse! (Pictures to follow). Then it was time for the judging, done by Fiona and Elaine. We had to wait to find out who had one and while we were waiting we mucked out the horse that we had done, made sure it had food and water and that it had got it's rugs in. When we got the results I was pleasantly surprised to find out that we had got 4th place!!! So I got a new rosette to put on my wall.  Then I had an eventful evening but I am saving that on...

Yesterday was the pony club in hand and best turn out show. When we got there Fiona had already chosen the horse and person combinations, and I was quite surprised but looking forward to having Sam. Sam's one of the newer ponys at the stables. We had an hour and a half to brush and groom them however we wanted to we could bath them if we wanted to, so I set to work going all over his body with a brush first. I knew from the beginning that I could not do his mane and tale because his Mane used to be hogged and is only just starting to be grown back (where he was before hogged him because he had sweet itch). His tale I think at some point had been pulled but I think that he has been rubbing it as well, so that meant that plaiting him was out of the question but I was okay with that. Instead I spent some time trying to get his white socks clean and then I washed his tale. I liked doing this although Sam didn't always like it but we got there in the end. I then went over his tale ...

On Sunday Fiona and I made the journey down to Keysoe, the College Equestrian Centre. The facilities there were stunning, they were honestly my dream equestrian centre, it had a massive out door school, enough for three dressage arena's that were being judged. There was a stunning indoor school, the great thing about this was you could sit eating (having our breakfast) and watch through the windows while the riders warmed their horses up. There was also a really nice equestrian shop that Fiona bought a stunning waistcoat from for the summer season. They also had a cross country course set up that I could see from a distance but I didn't see up close. The college goes on both sides of the road, it is truly massive, there show stables also looked amazing.  When we got there we had our breakfast as we had arrived earlier and we were not going to have a lunch break so we needed something that was going to last all day. Once we had eaten Fiona explained to me what my job was go...

UPDATE!! I bought this product from  Pony Print  this is a UK company but I know that you can also buy them in America, here's also a link to their UK  facebook page  and Australia  facebook page  I do also know that you can buy them in America. I decided after someone asking for pictures of my rider's Diary to do a product review on the riders diary, this will include pictures of all the different sections and pages that come in it so there are going to be quite a few pictures. The folder holds A5 pages and this is something that I think is good it's not too big for me it's just the right size. So on to picture one this shows the front of the folder, I love how theres a picture of horse and the fact that it's in black and white as I have always had a thing about black and white photographs! For me I also like how the bit that says riders Diary stands out with the red/Burgundy folder. When you open the folder up inside you then get a white page...

competing on my boy arthur tomorrow just wanted to let you guys know that cause i said id keep you upto date pictures will be up soon! well after it tomorrow x

hey guys just a quick update about my competition at this moment in time it is looking like it is not going to be happening, Gatsby's owner hasnt been able to be convinced to let me use him booo :( but theres still a chance that I am going to be riding but it is only a small chance that i will be competing, hate not knowing whether I will be or not! But there's still a 25% chance that i will get to ride arthur and do it on him! He's gone lame for no reason, but they are going to trot him up and see what happens on monday when he was trotted on the yard he wasn't looking lame but this could be very different when it comes to him being rode as nobody knows whats actually causing him to go lame. Finally got a video of my boy up might not be the best but this was some canter work and for some pictures guys :) So below are some pictures of my boy, yes he can be a pain and over excitable but hey that's why i love them, these were taken from another video that i...

Hey my loyal followers :) I decided to let you all in on why I tide and what it means to me, and why it's so important. I've been riding for about 10/11 years now, and I'm still riding everyone thought that it would be something I did for a while and gave up on like i did on most other sports but that never happened, I've stuck at it and kept working hard, because I know what I want to do. To me riding isn't just a sport, it's a passion, its something that means the world to me but it is also something that is completely indescribable because the feeling it creates the minute I'm even near a horse or think about a horse I know that its something I could never stop doing. I could never stop doing it and plan on doing this my entire life! But I'm going to try my hardest and put it in to words so you can know a little bit more about me and why I do what I do. I might not be the best rider in the world or the most natural rider in the world. But I have...

So just wanted to let you all know I finally entered my competition for May 19th now all I have to do is hand the entry form in. eeeppp buzzing! so the form's filled in and I've entered class no.4 which is PC Novice Dressage 2009 and class no.10 which is BD Prelim no.14. Buzzing but so nervous but hey I just can't wait. I've put down my first choice of horse my 17/18hh wonder Gatsby.  (more about him on horses i ride at the moment page). He's amazing and brings out the best in my riding, its plain and simple I just adore him. Second choice is my Tobias, I competed last year on him and would love to do it again that and i just love him.  Here's the beauty filled in. Tomorrow's school but I know my mind is going to be on learning my new tests, ones slightly harder and makes me push myself more and the other is more of a fun thing to do, that's a lot simpler and will help me to chill out. There both to bring on my confidence I'm not expecting amazi...