I'm an active member of the Horse & Hound forum. Forum members often get asked to contribute opinions and anecdotes for H&H's sister publication HORSE Magazine. I gave them my thoughts about collecting ring etiquette for an article they were working on, and they actually put my quote in this weeks edition! Fame at last! ha ha ha :)

To tidy up our SJing I am having lessons with SJer Rosie Moss and last night was our 3rd lesson. Bit wise we took out his Happy Mouth Pelham and tried Soap in a KK Ultra Universal, which is a very pricey bit! I had brought along a whole selection of other bits but typically Soap went best in the expensive one! Even though he is fit and well muscled for fast work and finds XC a breeze he lacks the muscle to maintain an active canter and SJ for any length of time.
To build up this muscle I am doing the following exercises...
. Canter from walk and canter to walk transitions
. Simple one stride changes on a figure of 8
. 20m circle in canter spiralling in then back out again
. 10m canter circles in each corner of the arena
. Raised canter poles
. Lengthening and collecting the canter

We started with some of the above exercises to get the canter activated then progressed to a jump on a circle, which then built up to a little course. Rosie pointed out that the first time through the double I put on loads of leg into the fence, much more than was needed, but I didn't prepare the corner well enough so Soap chipped in a trot stride before the first part.
When SJing I ride positively, but in all the wrong places! I need to get my bum back in the saddle after the fence, activate the canter and prepare my corner then stay quite into the fence. We finished over the course again putting all this into practise, and it was much better, with the exception of the last corner where I didn't get the canter back quick enough, rode a bad line to the planks and Soap took a stride out, cue a surprised squeak from me! Second time through it was perfect.
This was our 2nd lesson where Soap has 'played a tune' on a few fences but nothing has come down, so I was really pleased. From now until Mattingley BE90 I have planned 3/4 more lessons with Rosie, a lesson with Robert Stevens this Sunday and hopefully 3/4 rounds of SJ out in competition. Alongside this I will be practising the canter exercises as often as possible to build him up, and turn him into a SJer! We will get there :)

We trecked off to Bovignton BE90 today, an event I have never done before. When we arrived I collected my number and took a quick glance at my section, lots of low 30's dressage marks eeeke! I thought that's either a generous judge or some stiff competition! Turns out it was the latter as despite what I thought was a nice 35 maybe 36 mark test we got 38 :( A little harsh I think, and some rather picky comments on my sheet for an intro, but hey ho...
Sj warm up was horrid, hard and on a hill. We did a disasterous round, Soap was heavy, not listening, and not at all resembling the horse he has been in his last few lessons, and I rode like a lemon so cue 4 down!!!! Will go back to the drawing board with bits in our lesson this coming Wednesday to find something that gets him up in front not lower and heavier in the hand.
The XC was a rather short course through joining fields with a few bigger fences, 2 open ditches, a corner and a couple of very simple waters. With absolutely no chance of a ribbon I decided to just let Soap cruise round and enjoy himself, and he was fab. Great lines in the combinations, and some gorgeous strides to fences, he is a dream XC. Looked at our total and he came in within time so we ended on 54 which in our very stiff section left us 30th!
So the curse of the showjumping continues. In my mind he has 4 legs is flexible, sound, fit and willing so we must be able to go clear sj we just need more work on our technique. From now until Mattingley in May I am going to blitz it and hope that we get to that tippping point with our sj then there will be no stopping us :)

My brilliant farrier just came out and put Soap's shoe back on. No abscess was found, and he is 100% sound so we have put it down to a little soreness from treading on a flint. So we are Bovington bound with just 4 days of prep prior to the event. I have a SJ lesson that was booked with Rosie Moss for tomorrow so that can now go ahead. I hope this little 'hoof holiday' won't have done him any harm, so we are hoping for a dressage mark somewhere between our last 2 scores 37 and 31. I would like to go clear SJ (wouldn't we all) but as we have drastically changed technique and haven't tested this in comp yet, less faults than last time would be good! XC I will see what the ground is like and just go for another good clear. Above is a pic of Soap not enjoying his box rest, but having fun sniffing/biting Jack to pass the time!

Typical! I plan an exciting weekend for Soap and I and he goes lame :(
He has a suspected abscess in his near fore. My farrier investigated for an abscess, corn or a bruise but couldn't find anything except tenderness on the inside of the foot. We are treating it as an abscess and poulticing to see if that draws anything out, but there is a possibility that he is just a little sore after treading on some flints whilst out hacking. Poor old Soap now has 5 days on box rest before he can (fingers crossed) have a shoe back on. If he is better by Weds then that gives us just 3 days before Bovington BE90! a bit tight but doable.

I'm a poulticing pro now after his last abscess in Jan. He is not prone to them so I think this is just a bit of bad luck. I keep an old chocolate box filled with vet wrap, animalintex, tape, nappies, and scissors for this very situation. Nappies are fab for poulticing, they stop the foot wearing through the vet wrap and they keep the wet poultices nice and moist.

My poulticing routine goes like this...
. Clean off the hoof
. Place warm poultice over suspected area
. Put toe of hoof in the bottom of nappy and secure with side stickies
. Vet wrap round hoof
. Make a criss cross cradle of tape and mould it to the foot
. Cut a line down the front of the foot if it is tight across the coronet band
. Voila! one perfectly poulticed hoof!

Everything is crossed for a quick recovery...

I booked a lesson with local SJer Rosie Moss on Tuesday. I really wanted a pure SJer to give us their point of view on Soap, my competition warm-up and how I ride a course. We started off doing our normal warm up as we would at an event, and she watched. After a total of about about 25mins warm up I said that we would then usually jump the 3 warm up fences a max of twice each, and then that was it, she looked a bit surprised! She said it was all too relaxed and that I needed to activate his canter and get him pinging and ready to jump. So we worked on lengthening and shortening the canter, 10m circles in each corner, and raised trot and canter poles. Soap found this tiring but he really tried. She explained that Soap is not very active behind and so it's up to me to create a good quality canter from him. A good canter produces a good jump. She then put up a xpole, then to an upright, and then to a spread. I really concentrated on riding all the way to the fence with this big active canter and then a few strides out softening to allow Soap to produce a nice jump. We ended on a fab jump really big and round and soft and I was stoked.
She thinks it will take about a month for him to build up the correct muscle for this more active canter, so I am going to be doing the ground work exercises as often as possible. I must remember to 'activate his undercarriage' in order to get this powerful canter. SJ has long been my weak phase, so this season I am really pouring all my efforts into cracking it!
I also managed to arrange a few bits of online PR this week with my sponsor Mountain Horse and the fab sporting colours company who I bought my colours from Treehouse
see below...

On Friday I dressage stewarded for Larkhill ODE. I thought it would be nice to give something back, and it was. I watched 30 or more BE90 tests so well and truely knew the test for my section on Sat and chatted to other lovely stewards, event organisers, and competitors, and was treated to an Easter egg for my troubles. After last weekends stilted and disappointing dressage I really focused on letting Soap go forwards and produce bigger bolder paces, and it worked despite him trying to stare at the XC start all the way through his test we got 31! Our best mark yet, which put us 5th after dressage. click images to see them bigger

I changed bits and booted up for the SJ and he warmed up like a dream, the best he has ever warmed up so I was actually looking forward to the SJ for once, big mistake! Went in the ring and it was a figure of 8 course on a wonky slope. Soap managed to knock 4 fences down! It was a glitchy course with only 7 clears in our section, but 4 fences down was still ghastly! We have Bovington Intro in 2 weeks so I have booked some lessons with a local SJ-er to help us crack the SJ once and for all, and at Bovington it's on a surface so it will be interesting to see if that makes a difference. Anyhow now my fab dressage of 31 had 16 to add, and we set out on the XC on 47.

The course was nice and gallopy with a few questions, a corner, a downhill short 1 stride double of off set bullfinches (see 1st one of those in pic above) and an open ditch to a skinny roll top. Soap flew them all as straight as an arrow, and pretty quick too! Optimum time was 5.11 and we came in at 4.31. With no more faults to add we finished 15th out of 43 and beaming with pride. Without our SJ faults we would have been 4th, and even with 2 SJ down we would have scraped 9th! I am determined to crack the SJ and fingers crossed for a much improved round at Bovington. Great result for our 2nd Intro of the season and an improvement of 4 placings on our 1st. He really knows his job now, and we are both loving it. Big thanks to my 7 people strong entourage who took numerous pics and video which I will upload later, and to another fab XC commentator who mentioned my blog and my sponsors thanks to you whoever you were.

I took Soap to a little prelim test on Sunday I had intended it as Jack's 1st outing but I think he needs a few more weeks schooling until he will be ready. We got placed 5th which was nice, but the test was really under par for Soap and I. I think I got too anxious in the warm up about being accurate at the detriment of his paces. I came away with a rosette but feeling disappointed in my riding.
So not exactly brimming with self confidence on Monday I went to Catherston Stud to be a guinea pig for a BSJA coaches' training day. We had 45mins coaching split between 2 coaches, Sebastian and Michael. They had some great exercises which really pin pointed and resolved all the issues we had on Sunday. It was just what the doctor ordered!
Sebastian started with a rising exercise to improve balance. He described the horse as a ball - sit with your weight too far forward and ball shoots out backwards underneath you, sit with too much backwards weight and the ball shoots out in front of you. We trotted a figure of 8 and instead of sitting twice to change leg we rose for 2. This then progressed to trotting around rising for 2 and sitting for 1 stride. This was great, and a really constructive exercise to establish your balance, and make your hands independent.

Michael then moved onto improving the paces and getting Soap to work more through from behind, without worrying too much about being on the bit. I had to concentrate on keeping my shoulders open, hands upright, and leg on in the transition back from trot to walk. Soap was fab and really beginning to swing. We then opened the canter up down the long side and it was fab, I could really feel him coming through with more power. My recurring problem is that I lighten my seat, which then loads and rounds my shoulders.

I think the exercises given will really help to eradicate my niggling little faults once and for all. I really hope Sebastian and Michael pass their training as they were great coaches. I have never had an experience of the BSJA and was very impressed with how polite, and efficient they were, so I have volunteered my guinea pig services for future clinics!

Sologroom has kindly sponsored me with a sologroom 4 piece grooming kit, in return for pictures of the results. Soap's rug has eaten a big hole in his mane so he wasn't a contender, but Jack was certainly in need of a tidy up. The kit has a nifty clip on pouch so you can wear it all on your belt which cuts out all the getting on and off of buckets to pick up the right grooming tool. I used the rake to pull Jack's tail, and the brush and comb to do his mane. It was my first attempt but I think he looks quite dapper now for an 'ugly bug'