The way to heaven is on horseback

Well I got reminded last night that I don't think I ever posted on here the results from my dressage competition, I didn't manage to place in either of the tests but the good news is that in both of them I was one place of placing. I got 7th in both and even managed to get a '9' score on my first test. My riding was better in the walk trot test because I had a bit of a melt down in the second test because instead of focusing on what I was doing I was stressing about who was judging me however I didn't come last on either of them so I was quite happy. Gatsby was a star that day, I still need to put the videos on youtube but as soon as I have put them up I will post them here and you can let me know what you guys think.  These are just a couple of photographs that were taken at the show, these are my two favourites and the one at the top is even my laptop screensaver, after having done one show I have realised that I would love to do another one. But first I wa...

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...

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 ...

At the end of my ride Fiona asked me what I had changed to get Gatsby going as well as he was doing, I said that the main thing was that I was sitting properly and in the right position everything was where it was supposed to be. I then mentioned that on Broomfield's Facebook page that they would be doing the winter league dressage again and I wanted to know in my mind if it was something that I could do, if I was able to get Gatsby working in an outline and also if I could keep him going in the outline. There is now a possibility that I might be taking Gatsby to Broomfield to do some of the winter league competitions but I needed to find out dates. So last night I sent a Facebook message to Steph who's in charge of the competitions and she told me that in September she will start accepting entries and then in October the Competitions will be starting.  Today has been another chilled out day. I didn't manage to get to sleep until 2am this morning, so had a lie in this ...

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...

Today was my own a pony day, and I loved it. For the first time this week that the weather was pleasant. It was so hot that it made riding hard work but just loved it. I think I might even have got a tan, which is awesome as I normally burn not tan. We got there at 9:00 and the horses were all out except for Gatsby and Rascal, who had already been mucked out and fed. By 10:30 we had all the feed buckets cleaned, the stalls mucked out and water buckets emptied, cleaned and then refilled. All we had left to do in the stables was fill and hang hay nets. I got on Gatsby and Fiona asked if I would like to jump Gatsby. I agreed as this is something that I used to love doing. I got him groomed, tacked him up, and got ready to get on him. Because he was jumping we decided to put his front boots on but not his back boots. I got on him and started warming him up making sure that he was working long and low and really stretching out. As I was riding for half an hour instead of an hour, I had to ...

Hey Guys we'll ive heard a little bit more about Arthur today, he was rode by the staff for the past two days and hasnt shown up being lame but I have been told it will be a last minute thing whether I know if i will be doing the competition! so what have i been doing today? Well this morning i took my daddy to the hospital whos got to have his eyes checked because of being diabetic and cause of glucomer (no idea what it is or if thats even how you spell it)! Then I went to see my gorgeous big sister and my little Nephew Brody, who was all awake and hyper until towards the end when he started to get hyper because he was becoming tired which as you can imagine at 6 months old you know when he is getting tired! I then went in to school for two hours for a revision session for my english lit exam that is tomorrow! Hopefully my spelling will be better by then but you never know it might not be hehe nah I am sure that everything is going to go fine, In the morning I've got my ph...

eeepppp so tomorrow is riding day hehe cant wait its my last practice for my competition and then its competitions the week after CANT WAIT!! Its only a quick one tonight to say thank you to all my followers for following me i appreciate it guys :') but tonigth is a night with my girl evie where we ar going to watch gerard butler and enjoy that! and then we are going to watch jason statham and have a generally fit lads night maybe even including ashton kutcher? but i watched him last night and ended up crying myself to sleep yeah cause that was a great night! well it was because I love the film. Anyway I will let you know about my riding tomorrow hehe wish me luck :) Love A Girl With A Dream xx