The way to heaven is on horseback

Why is it when you think that you are going to do a dressage test, your brain freezes up, you can't think and you tense up? Well that was exactly what happened today. When we got there we all got given the tests that we would do I got to do a British Young Riders Dressage Scheme 'C Squad' test. This test included Walk, Trot, Canter, serpentines, 20m Circles and half 20m circles. We walked through our tests first and I noticed just how much canter work I would actually be doing and I think that this is the thing that I was most nervous about. When we had walked the test, we then tacked up the horses that we would be riding, we tacked up Gatsby, Rascal and Rocky. I rode Gatsby, JaimieLeigh rode Rascal and Mollie started off riding Rosie but then later switched to riding Rocky and JaimieLeigh got on Gatsby.  In walk all the horses was fine, Gatsby was active and stretching, he was responsive and listening well. Rascal and Rosie were also fine. JaimieLeigh and I are used t...

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...

This afternoon was Pony Club. I woke up this morning still feeling tired but also aching, I think I must have tossed and turned a lot last night because I was stiff and aching all over. I spent all day chilling until it was time to go to Pony Club in the hope that my hay fever would settle down quickly, it just settled down when we got there!  We all sat chatting for a while waiting to see what we would be doing this week, it turned out that we would be looking at hay nets, hay, haylage and why you feed different horses different things. So that kicked my hay fever off again but I didn't mind that to much. For Gatsby we had to fill his hay net with haylage to roughly 12-14 pounds so we went for 13, as it was in the middle. I loved being able to learn more about why you give different horses different things. I also love the smell of haylage.  While we had done that Elaine had set up the next task that we needed to work in two's or three's for. We had to go around f...

Today has been an amazing day, filled with lots of gorgeous horses and loads of laughs. For the past week I've been keeping you all in suspense about what I'd be doing today. I'll tell you now but tomorrow I'll go in to it more.  Today I was the writer for a judge (my riding teacher) at the interregional British Dressage Under 25's.  Until Next Time  A Girl With A Dream