I wrote a little testimonial and some general blurb for my sponsors Equine Premium about my horses and how they were getting on with their new suppliment, and the whizz kids in their PR dept have turned it into a mega news story! Click here to read, and select the story entitled "Protexin invests in the future" They also included me on their testimonials page. This is some great PR for me as they have linked back to GHE.
The horses are thriving on "gut balancer" Jack seems to have put on noticeably more condition in the 3 short weeks he has been on it so I'm chuffed to bits! Thanks Equine Premium :)

I came over all Blue Peter this weekend and decided to make a SJ training paddock. I scrounged some fences, that were lying about unloved in the back car park, and cobbled together this little lot! Skinny with guide rails that doubles up as a corner, and the skinny can be made even trickier by taking the rails away and/or bringing it down to just one barrel! Double upright to spread, gate spread fence, and an upright planks. I also paced out a dressage arena and marked that out, it's a little on the small side which should be an advantage when we go to competitions. Going to jump them tonight can't wait!

Here's one I jumped earlier!...

After hours wrestling with my PC I have managed to upload my Tdown videos kindly taken for me by Angela aka "camera 1". The snippets of dialogue are hilarious, listen out for lots of "good boy" from me.
On the SJ you can hear "that's the one she was worried about" as I head towards the planks, and then "oh I'm having palpitations"
On the XC listen carefully for the commentator mentioning my sponsor Mountain Horse, and there's some great growling from me when Soap isn't sure about getting his feet wet "ggggggrr go on, get on in...good boy" the jump judge reports this back as "1173 strong riding gets them clear through the water" what a lovely man :)

Mr Jack Fry is now ready to rock and roll he has had his shoes done, physio checked, and is now about to start his re-schooling. Yesterday I hacked him out for the first time, and he was a poppet. We walked out round the farm, and had a short trot on the way back and he felt great really bold and keen to be doing something again. I plan to take him to do a prelim dressage test in a few weeks to see how he adjusts to less exciting outings! Soap was given his 6 monthly once over by my physio on Thursday so is getting a few days of lighter work. The sunny weather we are having is lovely but.....I have some very muddy, and sleepy horses on my hands! My boyfriend saw the good weather as an opportunity to take some lovely pics of the horses in the sun. Here are a few of the best...

Mr Jack Fry - Sunbathing, and looking like a scruff bag!

The Flying Flump aka Rex - Kiss kiss, and having a snooze

Playing Dirty aka Soap - Brushing off his muddy make over!

I came accross Equine Premium on my BE CDT day as they are one of the CDT sponsors. Jonathan from Equine Premium saw my blog, got in touch, and kindly offered to drop in some product when he was in the area.
Soap is not on any additional suppliments and with his planned increased work/competition load this year I thought it sounded like a good idea. Jonathan popped round with a pot of "gut balancer" and a syringe of "quick fix". Equine Premium products are probiotics designed to help horses get the most out of their feed, and keep their gut healthy. Times of stress or illness such as traveling, competing, taking antibiotics etc can upset the balance of the gut so feeding these suppliments should guard against that.
Soap is on his 5th day of his "quick fix" syringe, and he is now having "gut balancer" in his feed, he hasn't exploded or turned green so it must be working :) I will let you know how he gets on with the product, and if it makes a difference to his performance...

If you want to know more about Equine Premium products click here.

After all my extensive preparation we set off for Tdown. The ground had recovered really well from Thursday, and was almost perfect going. I picked up my numbers, got my new hats tagged, and walked the XC before my dressage. A few questions on the XC a downhill double of fat bull finches which I walked at 10 paces, so to Soap a short 2. I watched a few go through it with many having a run out if they tried for a long 1 stride, so made a mental note. The only fast option was a corner on top of a hill, with a plant pot in the middle and some awkwardly placed gorse bushes meaning you only had about 3 or 4 straight strides to it. Lots of people were taking the option so I decided not to walk it and go for the corner to make up on time. Pretty straight forward after that, 2 skinny logs on a curve up a hill, steps, picnic table, water, log to drop, few more fences then home. Nothing looked to be particularily intimidating but the whole course did seem to be up to height for an early Intro/BE90.

Dresage he warmed up ok, he was more tense and stiff on the left rein than usual but I quietly worked him through it as I didn't want to get him wound up. We managed a 37 which was ok, and he did do a fab square halt to finish (physio coming out on Thurs to give him the once over)

I managed to get to the SJ course walk and went round dutifully pacing out all my distances, and picking marker points at which I would collect or change leg. Warmed up ok a couple of duff strides which did nothing for my confidence! Went in and really tried to think my way round. Great strides to 1,2,3,4 and 5 then lost my focus as I twigged I was clear so far, I let him run on too fast and we had the next pole down! Re-collected for the double, but then lost it again on the last related distance resulting in 12 faults. I was pleased with him, but angry with myself for losing focus halfway through.

XC the best bit!  Couldn't wait to get out on course and neither could Soap. For the 1st time he started to get all bouncey in the start box which is great to know he now recognises his job. Stormed off round the course over the 1st few fences, steadied up and held for 2 at the bull finches and he hit it spot on, lined up and locked on for the corner, and he jumped it straight as an arrow. Brilliant bold and brave round the rest of the track. Optimum time was 4.33secs and we came in on 4.36secs so only 1.2 time penalties to add.

I was over the moon with him. He finished up on his best ever total score of 50.2 which put us 19th out of 40. I compared his score to last season's last event and he improved on his Dressage by 2 marks, the SJ by 11, and has another clear XC under his belt.

We will be show jumping, show jumping, and more showjumping now until Larkhill BE90/Intro on April 11th....can't wait :)

P.S. Big thank you to the xc commentator who read out a name check for my sponsors Mountain Horse and Charles Owen as I thundered round

...or so the saying goes, so with our first Intro of the season at Tweseldown fast approaching this Sunday I have been preparing like mad!

My preparation includes...
- Pacing out 1 stride doubles until I know the "feel" for 7yds
- Practising tricky sections of the dressage test, working on straightness, rythm, collection, and nice square halts.
- Sorting/testing out my XC/SJ bit and being happy with it
- Jumping on grass with studs and new bit
- Organising my boots, bandages, drink containers, and general gubbins for the day
- Ironing shirts and stocks
- Making sure I jump in new XC hat silk before the event (more of a superstition than anything!)
- Timing my dressage warm up so I know how long to allow
- Visualising my dressage test, and crucially remembering it!
- Pulling Soap's mane in prep for plaits on Sunday
- Cantering in a bouncey SJ canter for 3 mins with 1 stride trot changes to teach Soap to keep in a consistent SJ canter
- Washing, tack cleaning and plaiting etc still to do the night before

Soap's preparation includes...
- Eating
- Drinking
- Farting
- Staring into the middle distance

I'll let you know how we get on...

As a late Christmas present to myself in January I entered a BE CDT DAY @ West Wilts. The day was hosted by BE accredited trainer Clare Turner, and started with course/line walks, then a mounted lesson where we put what we had walked on the flat into practise. After lunch we discussed fitness, balance, safety, planning our events for the season ahead, and how to overcome any pitfalls that may arise. The whole day was hugely informative, and some of the stuff discussed was a real eye opener. Clare Turner was fantastic she has a really infectious enthusiasm, and massive wealth of equestrian knowledge. I would recommend one of these days to any competitor who wants to event either unaffiliated or 4* you will get so much out of it.
Here are the videos of the exercises we did, and below those a few of the tips and tactics I learnt from the day.

Tips and tactics...

1) Work out exactly how long each d/sj/xc warm up will take you, and a check list for that warm up. This will help you stay calm and in control

2) Time yourself doing a xc canter and see how long it takes before the horse begins to tire, and your legs start to ache. Note this time, and work on making it longer

3) Peg out a set distance, canter it, and time yourself to get the "feel" for the correct speed xc. Intro should be aiming at 500mpm

4) A 20m canter circle has 20 strides in it. place 4 poles north, east, south, and west on the circle and count 4 strides between each pole, with one stride for the pole. Learn to "count your dressage tests" for better acuracy.

5) Don't over ride "bogey fences" as this is more likely to result in faults. Remember both seat bones, both legs, and both reins in contact, sit quiet, and create the space for the horse to jump.

6) What you do uphill you should also be able to do downhill eg trot/canter up and down hills.

7) Don't just "school" your horse "train" it. If there is a puddle go through it, if there are noisey builders ride past them so that your horse learns to be bold and obedient. Don't be overprotective of it, experience is an advantge.

8) XC ride the 1st 3 fences like the last 3, and the last 3 fences like the 1st 3.

9) SJ ride straight lines not curves

10) Write down 3 good things each week you have achieved this will help you reference back to how far you have progressed

11) Get into a habit of taking yours and your horse's temp, pulse, and resp' rates. This is a good early indicator of illness or injury.

12) Make sure you eat and drink well at events. Eat fruit such as bananas, and keep well hydrated as this drastically improves concentration and decision making.

13) Set yourself aims for the season, here are mine...

MY AIMS FOR 2009
Dressage - to gain a score(s) in the low 30's
SJ - to get a clear(s) round (with or without time faults)
XC - to get a clear(s) round inside the time

Overall - to be placed at Intro and move up to PN by the end of the season if all is going well.

...and most important of all try to ride like Mary King!

In response to my sponsorship request the nice people at Charles Owen have sent me 2 new hats! (these will help in protecting my few remaining brain cells!!!) They have given me the new this spring PRO II skull in silver, and the Hampton black velvet. I tested out the PRO II xc schooling the other day. It was a hot sunny day and before my 45min xc lesson I had already been hacking in it for 1.5 hours. It is really light, and the ventilation helps to avoid sweaty "hat head", and when I took it off because of its built in antibacterial qualities it smelt nice! which is a real novelty in my experience.

I gave the Hampton a whirl on Sunday over 2 sj courses, and it didn't budge. I can't stand hats that fall down when you land, then you spend the rest of the round sticking your nose in the air to try and see! I have always liked and ridden in Charles Owen hats so I guess I'm a little biased, but if you are looking for a high quality low profile hat that allows good vision and protection then check out Charles Owen.

We went to Sparsholt to do 1 or 2 clear rounds and a class of unaff SJ so that we could put our new brakes, and past lessons into practise. The Pelham was a little too strong on Saturday, so I loosened the curb chain and put it in a little sheepskin tube, and this seemed to work nicely. I am still adjusting to the new contact, and think that I need to work on carrying my hands further forward with a shorter rein, but we are getting there. Soap warmed up really nicely so we went to do a clear round, and guess what?....It was clear!!! Our first clear away from home, so pleased with him, and we won a lovely orange rosette (it's the little things that count!)

After clear round I had entered him into the 1m class, but seeing how tight the indoor school was I moved him to the 90cm as I wanted to cement our clear round with another good round. Soap has never jumped indoors, especially not in such a small busy space, and I didn't want height to be an added factor. He had 2 down - fence 4 because I pushed him for a long stride (*slaps wrist* Chloe, it's NOT xc!!!!) and fence 7 planks which I should have established a bouncier canter for earlier. All in all it was a good trip he is so much more focused now and consistent with his SJ, we just need to tidy up his toes!!!

Big thanks to Karen for her camera man skills :)