 Road testing my new checked breeches and stirrup irons I got home the other day to find a huge brown box with my name on it waiting for me! I was worried at first that maybe I had begun 'sleep shopping' and had been indulging in some nocturnal bidding on eBay, but thank fully it was a whole host of goodies form my sponsor Mountain Horse! Angie at Mountain Horse had posted me a load of lovely summer products including lightweight breeches, t-shirts, baseball cap, zippy top, and best of all some gorgeous leather long boots and the corresponding stirrups!   Hacking in walk, well.....trying to! 06/21/2009
  Hacking Soap out in walk to aid the recovery of his strained muscle is very dull so to kill two birds with one stone I invited my friend Shelly to hack out with me so that I could get both horses exercised, and have a bit of a catch up with her! Soap was feeling very michevious and as we were leaving the yard he decided that the little pony coming the other way was just too scary, and so he shot off back down the road bucking!!!! You can see the moment just before he turned tail in the pic above as he has hunkered down, and his legs are doing all sorts of things! I think he is in desperate need of some faster work to help use up some of his excess energy! Soap's Slendertone! 06/17/2009
In order to speed up the recovery of Soap's sore muscle I called out Mel Gurdon NAVP. She is a top physiotherapist who has worked wonders on other horses I have owned in the past. Mel gave him a quick once over to asses him, and he seems to have already improved as he exhibited much less reaction to having the sore muscle manipulated than he did for the vet's visit on Friday 3 days earlier, which hopefully points to a quick recovery! Mel then proceeded to set up what basically looked like a horsey Slendertone on Soap! It is in fact a 'Muscle-Stim' machine which sends a small electrical pulse through the muscle creating a rhythmic muscle contraction which increases blood flow, prevents adhesion forming and helps to maintain good elasticity in the muscle fibre. You can see in the video below how much the muscles are pinging! Soap was very well behaved and seemed almost oblivious to the treatment!  Soap's Slendertone! I am trying my hardest to hack him out in walk as the vet suggested for the next 2 weeks, but it's hard to convince a fit tb that walking is a good idea! I am using distraction techniques like throwing in the odd halt, rein back, and a bit of leg yielding to occupy his brain, but he is still on springs. It can only be a good thing that he feels well, but leaping and shooting off are not exactly part of his 'careful muscle rehabilitation' To date we have been on 5 walking hacks all of which I have managed to keep the lid on any major outbursts, just! So I wasn't surprised to arrive at the yard this morning to find this fruit loop in the video below! What makes you think he's feeling better?...  Soap enjoying his temporary easy life! Unfortunately when I brought Soap back into work after Mattingley he seemed a bit unlevel. I had the physio check him over, and she agreed that he was a little out behind. Soon after the physio he was shod and suffered a bit of nail bind on his off fore! I have been icing his foot for the nail bind and putting him in a magnetic rug to help with his muscles post physio, but then his leg blew up! So completely baffled at what the problem was I called the vet. After flexion tests, lunging, trotting him up, testing the leg and foot for pain he finally came to a decision. It seems that sometime during his week off after Mattingley Soap slipped/fell over in the field and pulled a muscle in his off hind 1/4s. This explains why he was out behind, and being so naughty to ride as it was probubly sore to work properly on, and then working him on the Pessoa just made it worse! He didn't find anything on the leg that has swollen up, and put it down to a knock, so I am cold hosing that. Soap's Mattingley BE90 SJing round 06/06/2009
My laptop is doing its best to try and stop me uploading video but I managed to get it behaving long enough to upload my round at Mattingley. I was really pleased with the round as the rhythm was much better, and he got a good stride (not a flyer!) to each fence, even if we did end up with 3 down! He has fence 2 which I think is because he just ran on a little down hill, and then we get it together (despite him trying to snatch with his head into 5!) until the last 2 fences where he just became too strong and flat, and I am too late to check him. It's a step in the right direction and a different round from both of us compared to our first of the season. Pessoa far, so good! 06/05/2009
click images to enlarge   To activate Soap's hocks and strengthen his back muscles so that he can produce a more active canter my SJ instructor Rosie Moss suggested that I work him on a Pessoa training aid. I thought ok I'll give it a go, until I saw the price! eBay to the rescue once again, as I found this fantastic seller who makes an exact replica of the genuine Pessoa for a credit crunch friendly price. Click here to see their version of the gadget     Last Sunday was a very rare non-horsey weekend, 4 friends and I took part in the Cancer Research Race for Life 5k run. It was a glorious hot sunny day, which made my desire to run about even less! We all completed and I came home in under 35mins which I was quite pleased with for my first ever (and probubly last!) 5k, and best of all we raised over £1000 in sponsorship. Fun in the sun at Mattingley 05/27/2009
 Mattingley has to be one of my favourite events, and it seems we never fail to have a lovely day there whatever the result. I had late times with a big gap between dressage and SJ in which to walk the XC so at midday we set off from home. Soap warmed up really nicely for the dressage, the last 7 weeks works on his canter is definitly filtering through to all paces as he felt much more balanced and straight. Walking around the edge of the arena before the bell I asked him into trot and he squeaked and grunted! I think he is getting the idea about this eventing lark! so I concentrated on keeping his mind on the job. He did a lovely test, nice and straight but could have been more forward still. We got 38.5 which I thought was a little high but seeing the section results the judge was quite strict, and infact that score placed us 15th/45 after dressage, so I was pleased.  Over the corner after our hold on course Our SJ faults dropped us from 15th to 21st, with just the XC to go. I couldn't wait to get out on the XC and neither could Soap he had been gazing over from the car park to the XC all day, and every time a whistle went off his ears pricked up. We shot out the start box, and I could hear the XC commentator mention my sponsors Equine Premium and my blog so we went smiling into the first fence :) Over the brush, house, roll top, and log and up the hill to a double which 2 of my chums were jump judging (I decided against waving as I went by, I was busy struggling to see as a fly had lodged in my left eye, so they probubly thought I was winking!) onto the trakhena, then a sharp right to a grass topped box and sharp left to another one. We then had to jump up onto a bank 3 strides and off again then 3 short strides and over a log, onto an angled double of tyres, over a lovely big brush (see 1st pic) down hill to an open ditch, through the woods to water, trotted in and cantered out over another nice big brush, up onto a bank over some tyres then RED FLAG!! I got pulled up! I instantly started racking my brain to try and think if I had gone wrong but there had been a fall and the horse was loose so they had stopped the course. We waited for about 2mins, and then set off again. Soap just picked up where we left off, over a house, then a fab line to the corner, and onto the 'lovers seat' I thought we might have lost a bit of time with the hold so put my leg on towards home and he seemed to go into rocket mode! Over an open ditch to a house, then to a pig! and the last, home safe and clear. We finished on 5.22 and the OT was 5.31 so another clear round, chuffed. After washing off and cleaning up we went to see the scores and photos, and catch up with my jump judging pals. Our clear XC had taken us to 15th! I was over the moon, Soap had equalled his best score this year. If we had finished on our dressage we would have come 7th, and with 1 down we would have placed 10th, so once we start going clear SJ we will really be in contention :) Soap is having a mini holiday now before BCA Intro as it was such a hot day and the ground was quite hard, I on the other hand have to get ready for Race for Life this Sunday!!!! Anyone want to take my place?.... A fantastic and local new sponsor for GHE! 05/20/2009
Well this week just gets better and better!  'where champions choose to train, and now me too!' This is going to be such a fab opportunity for us because costs start to get ridiculous when you have to pay to hire a venue, pay an instructor, and fill up with diesel to tow somewhere, so it will do my bank balance the world of good! Most importantly for us it will give us the chance to practise our SJing at a competition standard venue but minus the distractions of an actual competition. We have Mattingley BE90 this Sunday and once Soap is recovered from that I plan to take him to Hoplands for some SJ practise over their 'Jump for Joy' fences, so watch this space for lots of pics!!!  As well as the outdoor SJ arena and jumps they also hire out their - . XC training paddock with 60+ fences from tiny to Intermediate. . 70x25 indoor school with jumps. . 1 mile gallop track with warm up loop So if you are planning to go schooling at Hoplands I might see you there! 'Extreme dressage' and jumping from walk 05/19/2009
Despite the crazy winds and horizontal rain on Sunday I took Soap to some local dressage at Larkhill. Most of our warm up was done with both of us overbent trying to shelter from the weather! Soap did a very sweet test, and I noticed a huge improvement in the rhythm and balance of his canter as a result of all the SJ training we have been doing. His halt and centre lines weren't straight as he just wanted to swing his quarters into the wind and his free rein walk was pretty nonexistent as he just tucked his head in and tried to hide between his front legs from the rain! Who knew dressage was an extreme sport?! He got a very respectable 64% with lots of 7's and a couple of 5's for weather induced wonkiness! | I'm an amateur eventer looking for sponsorship.
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