The way to heaven is on horseback

 So I realised that it has been a while since I updated this blog so thought out was time to bring it back to life. Magic is now 6  and the b dream finally came true. Since I last posted we have moved yards and magic is now on a lovely yard, it's a working farm with lots of character and a family atmosphere. Magic is coming on in leaps and bounds me as you gu us have been on this journey with me from the start I decided that it was time to bring you guys back along for the journey.  Magic got backed over a year ago now and since then we have entered our first online competition, we have competed at our first ever competition at a venue and we've done our first ever endurance ride. We have changed coaches, made friends and lost friends but most importantly we've learnt together and come a really long way.  So let's talk about our most recent adventures, the first one being his first ever endurance ride. We are so lucky to live within hacking distance of a endurance ri...

It's been a while since I have posted guys but things have been pretty hectic here. Jack is now home again and I think it's taking him a bit longer to settle in than he thought that it was going to. But it's good to have him back. Uni is going okay, I've got two of my final prints to do this week and then thats part of one module done. I'm in uni now and we are talking a portraits but as per usual the teacher is wandering off the subject and now talking about something completely different.  On to the horse riding it's going okay, I've done some canter work with Gatsby recently and we did some canter poles which was fun. We did it during my lesson with Elaine but there was a bad end to the lesson. Elaine was riding Tubby and he tripped over a pole and he fell, he ended up landing on top of Elaine's leg. Luckily nothing is broken just lots of ligament damage so she's been told that she needs plenty of rest. I get Tubby on loan starting from this ...

Well guys, I don't think that this post is going to be very long from me as I am still not quite 100%  back to normal. I've been on antibiotics all week for my throat but that is not getting any better and my ear is now starting to get painful as to. So I think on a day off I need to get back to the doctors.  Saturday I had my weekly lesson on Gatsby and to say it was eventful was an understatement. It started off really well, Gatsby was warming up nicely, he was providing me with a good stretch before I even asked him to pick up the contact in both walk and trot. He was a little bit lazy off the leg but other than that he was being very well behaved.  When I started asking him to pick up the contact he was willing to do it, we needed to get more hind end engagement but it was still really really good. He was soft and forward, we did a small amount of canter because it was important for Gatsby and I not to over do it with the canter work before we tried riding th...

Today I rode Gatsby, it was amazing! I have now managed to remember my dressage test well the 2nd one (the hardest one) and started my walk warm up by practicing it. I walked through the whole test before moving on to doing sections of the test in trot. I warmed up for about five minutes on each rein in walk and then roughly four minutes in trot, before picking up. At this point I did not want to ask for the canter because I know that canter work it what wares me out and this made a whole difference to the test. I managed to ride it through a lot more positively. The only bit of canter work that I did in the warm up was half a 20m circle twist. I then moved on to riding through the test. For me I needed to not stress out and just focusing on my riding at the end of the day. I KNOW what I am doing, I CAN ride all of these movements separately now all I need to do is string them together. So when I went on to riding through the test this is what I needed to remember. When I ...

Hiya Everyone,  Well I'm just waiting for my homemade lasagne and Garlic Bread to cook that I made with my mum so I thought what better time than to write a post :). First of all I thought that I would let you know what Dressage Tests I am planning on doing in March. The first one is Intro B (I haven't seen this test yet, but I do know that it is a walk/trot test) and the second one is Prelim 14. My riding Teacher told me to learn this test this week so I thought what better way to do this than by writing it out here :), hope you guys don't mind but if you find it boring feel free to skip.  1) Enter at A in Walking Trot and proceed down the centre line. At C turn Left.  2) H to E working Trot, at E Circle Left 20 metres, E to K working trot.  3) Between K AND A transition to walk for 2-5 steps, then proceed to working trot.  4) FXH Change the rein in working trot.  5) Between H AND C transition to walk for 2-5 steps, then proceed t...

Today was the first ride of the year and it was an eventful ride, it wasn't the best riding that we have ever done but it was good enough for me to know what I need to work on before my competition in march.  We started up warming up, Fiona said that I needed to figure out what the optimal warm up time for both Gatsby and I is, for us this is no more than 20 minutes, probably 10 minutes in walk/trot stretching,  followed by 5 minutes to completely stretch out at a walk and relax, then another 5 minutes starting to collect him and add a couple of little bits of canter in! I've got to remember that this is mine and Gatsby's first trip out together so we might not win but we can only do the best that we can do. Also that I am not to put myself under extra pressure just because this competition is at Broomfield, yes there are going to be people there that want to see what Gatsby is like now but I am not to let that bother me.  stretching and Gatsby doing his giraffe...

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...

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...

So more information on the dressage clinic, it amazed me how much my riding changed the minute that people mentioned test to me, it was like I immediately became nervous even though in my mind I knew that i had got no reason to be nervous. Below I'll put the movements the score I got and the comments that I got:- A - Enter working trot rising. Score 8/10. St Cl Active.  C - Track Left. 7/10. Active paces. E - Circle Left 20m. 7/10. Could have been rounder.  Between K and A - working Canter Left lead. 7/10. Good Balance.  B - Circle Left 20m. 5/10. Broke.  Approaching B - Working Trot. 6/10. Could be safer.  C - Medium Walk. 5/10. Jogged.  HXF - Free Walk on a long rein. FA Medium Walk. 8/10. Good stretch and length of stride.  A - Working Trot. 8/10. No comment  E - Circle Right 20m. 7/10. Becoming Softer.  Between H&C - Working canter right lead. 5/10. Late to Canter.  B - Circle right 20m. 5/10. Broke.  Appro...

Well seen as there is nothing going on for me in the horse world today I thought that I would do the blog hop now, and probably a smaller post later just about my day in general, random thoughts you know the normal kind of thing that I tend to do. So while I was reading some blogs I noticed that Equestrian At Hart and Viva Carlos had done a blog hop that had been started by Collegial Equestrian and thought why not I might as well join in too soo here goes.   So here goes the theme is Share a memory from:  The first horse experience that you can remember.  Your first 'aha' moment - when something really clicked for you as a rider. Entering the Ring. Could be your first show, or another time when simply entering the arena could be considered a 'debut' of sorts.   Here are my answers:- The first horse experience that I can remember, was seeing horses and always wanting to stroke them and getting my mum to pull over at the side of the road next...

I know that I already posted today but I wanted to post about the first time that I ever met Gatsby, it was a friday and I had got time off school so after shopping mum took me up to broomfield college, I'd only wanted to see Tobias but when I was stroking him there was this gorgeous black horse tied up eating hay and kicking the side of the wall. The next time I went up I got a picture with Gatsby which I am so gutted about but unfortunately I haven't got anymore so gutted about that. That was when I decided that I wanted to ride him. My mum asked steph if i could ride Gatsby and the next week I got to ride him to say I was buzzing was an understatement. I got on him and I haven't looked back since. The first time I rode him we were doing a dressage test that I hadn't practiced, didn't know and was trying to remember, I could just feel the gorgeous trot and nice even canter that Gatsby had. we came 4th in that test and I honestly think that if it wasn't fo...

Woop I am finally managing to update you all on everything that is going on even though at this moment in time it is not horse related but hopefully it will be soon! Well what have I done today the shorter answer is not a lot well it didn't seem like a lot but geez I'm knackered today, last night I went to sleep between 3 and 3:30am I just couldn't get to sleep and me and my mum must have checked on little Brody a thousand times during the night to make sure that he was sleeping well and sure enough he was doing. He slept from 6pm all the way through to 7:20am this morning! Clever Little guy - sleep while you can, I like the way he thinks. Then this Morning I woke up at 10:30 I know late but the later the better is my thoughts! When I woke up I spent some time playing with Brody and then we shared some Pringles (he loves them almost as much as me ;). After that we got him ready for his lunch and I fed him his baby food today it was ' Fruity Chicken Casserole' and...

Hey Guys as I promised an update :)  I'm still missing Gatsby like mad hate not being able to ride and hate not knowing where he is! Hoping my dad will be able to find out where he is some time soon! Well who else has been watching the olympics? It was dressage today that will be continued tomorrow morning, not everyone in my family is a huge riding fan like me, my nan who used to breed horses didn't even watch it! But my dad let me watch two hours of it here and there, and I loved it saw some gorgeous horses. Tomorrow the days kicking off with Zara Philips that will be a must see I think, as she isn't riding the famous Toy Town does anyone know who it is now?  How are all your countries doing? It's more dressage tomorrow followed by cross country in the afternoon I do believer though it could possible be show jumping Well today it's going to seem like I've done a lot but I have had a good day, even though I am aching a lot, it has been good. So this mo...

so as your guessing from the title of this post, its been a interesting day at the yard for the competition i got there at 9:30 to start getting Arthur ready for my test that was at 11:13 at least that what i thought was going to happen whoever said life was easy was deffo not telling the truth! Arthur's bum all plaited and pretty and looking good clean for once it makes a change! He was fine when it came to tacking him up and I even managed to stand behind him and get a picture of his bum butt if only it stayed that simple but it didnt! I tacked him up and things were going really well as much as I don't like him I thought things were actually going on him, He let me get on him, tighten his girth (thank god my stirrups were already long!) and start walking down towards the bottom school where I was going to be warming up! Arthur had other ideas, he heard an engine start up and it spooked him so he a u turn went straight in to canter, and starting going mad, I was holding...

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, Before I went to bed, I thought i'd tell you more about my day. :) as i said I would earlier. Today's been a pretty normally day for the most of it i suppose you could say, I had art for two hours this morning (A-level) which as much as I'm knackered I was glad about as my dead line is coming up on Friday lunch time will be glad when its over then I have two weeks off and then I will be starting doing my second year of A level work. I also had an hour of philosophy which I'm starting to get its only taken a year but I'm starting to get my head around it you never know one day it might make complete sense but I doubt it. But on to the best part of my blog the part i am sure you are the most interested in, my horse part. So today was a good day for my riding whilest I didnt get to ride (not riding til Saturday too far away!) I worked on learning my dressage test the first one of two that I am going to be doing I found it okay to learn but I have a few qu...

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...

Hey,  :)  My blog is here to show people my steps towards owning my own horse for my 18th birthday, which is in just over a year. While this is going to be a hard task it is something that I am passionate about and will work hard to achieve, and having been working towards achieving since just after christmas (new years eve). So far I have said up £400, and am still saving (this is a hard task for me as I love to spend money).  Each Week I have one riding lesson at Broomfield College as part of an 8 week course that I enroll into every 8 weeks, and do an 8 week course. This morning I rode Aurthur (nickname Aurthur Bear) he is a 14hhish piebald cob, and was well behaved other than spooking! He kept spooking at a pair of fillers that had been put away, but he only spooked at them in canter. So at the end of the lesson I made him stand next to the fillers and gave him lots of fuss and attention because he stood next to them quietly (even if it only took us an hour to g...