Another month has flown by.
Holly and I took Hanna and Bridgit (hack and riding horse) to Addington to ride round and accustom them to the big indoor school to guage their reactions for the Your Horse Live demonstrations. They behaved impeccably - not at all spooky and seemed to take everything in their stride so fingers crossed they behave themselves on the weekend of the demo!
Dream the Donnerhall/Rubin Star N three year old has been making great strides but we have not been able to progress as quickly as we did with Milly the large hack three year old. Firstly she is a very big tall girl so has a problem initially co-ordinating her body as she is such a huge athletic mover and this needs to be nutured. Secondly as most of you will know all three year olds progress differently - some have lots of confidence and some need to take a lot more time with their lessons. Dream has been one of these cases - slowly slowly catchee monkee!! She is quite a bossy mare though so everything has to be very black and white. As I am writing this post she is now hacking out very happily with a mate but with her leading the way very confidently and working well in the arena with a full set of show jumps which has been quite a feat as originally they presented a very scary picture to her!! I still do occasionally have some sticky moments but these are getting less and less - she now goes out to the arena confidently on her own without needing nanny Holly leading the way - I have perserved every day and little by little we have developed a good understanding and she now trusts and takes more of a lead from me. She is going back to her owner in 10 days time and I know I shall be very sorry to see her go as she is such a fabulous dressage prospect with fantastic movement and a ferrari engine!!
Hannah has been progressing very well and her straightness which was the main issue with her is improving daily now with the additional help of Ellen Stanwells chiropractic help and Annabelle Galts equine sports massaging. She has such big athletic movement that she initially found it very hard to maintain but as her muscles have developed this is improving all the time. She has a very trainable temperament and I am looking forward to Steph and her developing a good relationship together. I think they will have a lot of fun showing next year - Hannah seems to take most things in her stride. She is going back to Stephs for a couple of months during December and January and then she will return at the beginning of February to start her training in earnest for the season.
Bridgit my lovely small hack is coming on nicely. She is a poppet in and around the stables and her schooling is coming on nicely as well. We are concentrating on her smooth transitions and throughn ess and submissiveness and this seems to be coming together now. Holly has had her as her project and is enjoying getting to know her and finding out what makes her tick. She has also been for a couple of lessons to Rhetts as well which is a good way of developing her education. He has helped show Holly how to get her to open out her shoulders more to develop a more open frame. It is good for Holly to ride all sorts of different horses and different temperaments so that she can adapt her skills to each horse.
On 6th November we went to Rhett Birds to collect another of Anna Harveys horses to produce and sell. This time it is a four year old 16.1 hh black gelding by Future (by Florestan). He is an absolute dream around the stables to deal with. He had some horrendous wolf teeth so these have been removed and his training has started. As he was backed as a three year old and has don nothing since, we have started right back at the beginning. He is now being ridden on the lunge and will be progressing off over the next week or so. We have had to take things steadily with him as he had forgotten most of what he had learnt but now he is really coming on. He is extremely smart and eye catching and I think Holly will enjoy competing him in the New Year.
On 14/15 November we went to Your Horse Live with Bridgit, Hannah and Daisy. My brief was to do a demonstration each day on Showing - Accentuating the good points. I had Holly riding Bridgit the small hack, Steph riding Hannah as the large riding horse and Teresa riding Daisy as the coloured riding horse. All the horses and riders looked a picture on the weekend and I was very proud to have such lovely horses and riders to display. Daisy came to me on the Friday before to be beautified and trimmed, bathed and plaited. I have never done anything like this before and to be honest I found it quite nerve racking at first but once I had got going after the first ten minutes I began to relax and enjoy it. By the Sunday I felt that I had fine tuned it all and was generally very pleased with the way it ran. The horses didnt get fazed by the atmosphere. Little Bridgit decided that she couldnt possibly remember how to do right canter but thats youngsters for you. This was one of the reasons why Holly and I decided that we would take her out and about after Your Horse to iron out any little quibbles in time for the show season. She is getting to grips with this travelling about and doing her job malarky!!
On 29th November Ruth Serrett's new three year old lightweight hunter arrived for me to bring on. He is a lovely 16.2 thoroughbred by Milkom out of a Ballyard Bess mare. He was bought at the John Dunlop sale. I am really looking forward to getting my teeth into this boy. He has a cracking temperament, three really good paces and has already settled in nicely. He was well backed by Guy Landau so all I have to do is concentrate on educating him in his basics. What a lovely prospect!!
I have also been busy teaching, clipping and doing all the other bits and bobs that seem to pass me by in the summer. At last my lovely gas log effect fire is back in action so we are nice and toasty in the living room at long last. I am busy going to the physio for my back to try and get it less painful. I have also been visiting Clare Nicholls the chiropractor to keep it straight as well.
Holly and I disappeared off to Holland for a day to look at 2 year old potential dressage horses and we did find a lovely one by Vivaldi that seemed to tick all the boxes. Unfortunately he failed the vet on an OCD chip in the fetlock so we are back to the drawing board on that one.
Christmas is looming up fast and furious so on that note I will head off to write lists and Christmas cards. It would be nice if Santa would drop a new lorry down the chimney for me!!!
Hope you all have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year and lets hope we all enjoy a successful 2010 show season!!
