It seems only a few weeks ago since we had the last dusting of snow, and now it has come back with avengence! Just as I was getting excited about being able to use my 4x4 to navigate the snowy roads my 4 wheel drive went kaput! I have been parking near by, and walking up to the yard when the hill is impassable which is a little chilly, but I'm telling myself it's all good exercise, and will help me to walk off all the chocolate log I munched last month! Ooooops!

So as nothing can really be done with the horses I have made a little video of my winter wonderland, enjoy!

Last night I was looking back through some old photos from my polo days and it reminded me about how I used to ride and lead the polo ponies. One day whilst exercising a string I ended up riding one pony and leading two more on each side! 5 ponies may sound like a handful, but they were so used to being worked like this that they were very well behaved, and it was great fun to take them out and canter round the pitches. So........(can you see where this is going?) today I hacked out Soap and took Jack as a tag along. After a few initial teething problems where Jack wanted to tuck in behind, and when I lent back to pull on his rope Soap sped up we had it cracked. We hacked around the farm in walk as the ground was still frozen, but they were both very well behaved so hopefully we can progress to trotting, and I can use this method to exercise them both when time is tight.

It's good fun riding and leading and as we walked towards home across the hill, with the sun starting to go down, and a cool winter breeze blowing I thought to myself......'It might be quite nice to be a cowboy!'... click images to enlarge

Several people I have asked recently to recommend a good equestrian book have suggested one called Celebrity Jumping Exercises compiled by Caroline Orme It is filled with SJ and XC jumping exercises submitted by professionals such as Pat Burgess, Matt Ryan, and Leslie Law. With the help of a few well timed hints I ended up unwraping this on Christmas day! (How on earth did Santa guess!?!) Today we attempted an exercise submitted by Yogi Breisner. To begin with you place 5 poles at bounce distances (10-12ft between each pole) in a straight line, and trot through them. These are not paced for trot so trotting through them is aimed at getting your horse thinking about where to put his feet to not hit the poles. Soap trotted through cleanly on both reins, and tried hard to work out how to get to the opposite end without touching the poles. Next you start to canter through them, and this really makes them stretch for the stride in order to make the distance. I did this on both reins a few times and he quickly got the hang of it, grunting as he made the effort to stretch. The next phase is to build each pole into a x-pole one by one, making sure you jump the exercise equally on both reins. Finally you will have a line of 5 bounces (I could only comfortably fit 4 bounces in our 20x40 arena). I finished here as Soap had really made an effort to understand the exercise and do his best, but if you want to progress further you can remove fence 2 and 4 and turn fence 3 into an upright. This book looks to have some really constructive exercises in it and I plan to try most of them, and will be blogging as and when on how they go. click images to enlarge, video of exercise below

Having missed out on our latest dressage competition due to the snow and ice on the steep hill from our yard making it too dangerous to drive on I was determined that it wasn't going to stop me schooling at home aswell! I arrived at the yard on Thursday to find the menage full of even more lovely fluffy snow! The ground underneath wasn't frozen so if I could clear the snow enough it would be fit to ride on. I car jacked my mother's 4x4, attached the rake, attached a pallet to that for extra weight and got driving. After 20mins of some very promising flat work from the Nissan the menage was cleared, and ready to ride in later that day...

...but later that day the weather had other plans, and the heavens opened so all my effort had been in vain. The next day twice as determined not to have my plans foiled by the weather AGAIN and expecting to be able to use a freshly raked menage I arrived to find ICE! All the festive white stuff had been rained on, walked on, compacted and frozen turning the whole yard into a huge ice rink! All the horses had to stay in, and everyone was tentatively mucking out shuffling back and forth to the muck heap trying not to fall over! Soap and Jack's stables are just feet from the menage gate so I set about chopping at the ice with a shovel to clear them a little path so that I could get them into the school to work them. Once cleared and gritted they could safely get to the menage to stretch their legs, and I could finally ride!

Riding Jack over the past few weeks has been both uplifting and disappointing in equal measures, but yesterday we had a small breakthrough. Soap is very quick to react to light aids but Jack is the polar opposite. At present because he is not established in self carriage it takes A LOT of leg to get him to work properly. Despite going to the gym in an effort to get stronger and fitter I find that after 30mins schooling him I am pooped!...but then I found my spurs! I had totally forgotten I had a pair of spurs as wearing them on Soap would send him sky high, but with Jack they are just the little extra help I need to get him moving without looking like Penelope riding Kipper! He managed some really lovely, light, on the bit work, starting to push through from behind and use himself and he felt like a milllion dollars. Sadly as he is still building up all the right muscles to work effectively he can only manage about 15mins of this work, but those 15mins were fab, and a total transformation compared to how he was working 2 months ago. Pleased with his progress I was looking forward to taking him to a low key dressage competition today for a couple of walk and trot tests, but when I looked out of my window.....SNOW! The yard is at the top of a steep hill, and many liveries couldn't make it up the hill in their cars because the road had become very slippy so there was no chance we could make it down the hill with the trailer. To cheer myself up at the loss of my entry fees, and missed outing I have been wrapping xmas presents and watching the puissance at Olympia on BBC iplayer, amazing!

I couldn't resist! It is Christmas after all!...

Jack is back in regular work now that the issues he had with his feet (which were a result of the long time he spent on box rest) have finally been sorted, so work has begun in ernest to turn him into an event horse! In prep for a dressage competition we have next week I hired the indoor school at the same venue and took him there for some schooling. The last time he went out was May and he came out the trailer at that show in a muck sweat and quivering like a leaf! It took about 20mins of walking him in hand to calm him down enough to tack up and ride, but he remained highly strung and tense for the whole time at the show. This time he was still very hot and sweaty when we arrived, but he calmed down much quicker, and behaved very well (with just one exciting bucking moment!) and produced some really nice work for him. He was not convinced about getting back in my friend's lorry to go home, but after a while he changed his mind. I am really pleased with how he is progressing, and think that his traveling hang ups will resolve the more he goes out and realises he's not going to be hitting the point 2 point track as soon as he comes out the box!

Now that Jack is in work I have begun concentrating on building him up and improving his muscles so that he works from his quarters to his shoulders, rather than pulling himself along with his shoulders. Above the first pic is him back in Feb and the next two were from yesterday. I think he looks much better, and you can see his 'two engines' (shoulders and bottom) are now much more balanced. Hopefully in another 9 months he will look even bigger and stronger. click images to enlarge

In a bid to ride in the daylight and not get drenched, frozen or blown clean out of the saddle by gale force winds my friend and I decided it was time to hire a local indoor arena for an hour of uninterrupted schooling. We both felt very smug as we entered the indoor and the heavens opened, and 1 hour later still dry and having had a productive session we agreed it was an ingenious plan of ours, so we booked in for another session! Soap did some lovely flatwork he's really got the hang of working more over his back now, and to finish as a reward I popped him over a few fences which he did very nicely, leaving them all standing, which always makes me smile! Whilst my friend finished riding I 'parked' Soap in the middle of the arena, tidied away the fences and picked up droppings. He stood like a rock doing a very good impression of one of those life size plastic display model horses you see in tack shops! See if you can spot the difference! click images to enlarge

Over the winter I try to do as much dressage as possible in preparation for next seasons BE tests, and Sparsholt Agricultural College is one of my favourite venues. The arenas are fab, and even though it has a relaxed atmosphere the organisation is always very slick. I entered Soap for 2 long arena tests Prelim 15, and Novice 38 and today was his first attempt at a Novice test in competition. Unfortunately due to crazy 40+mph winds and rain all week I didn't manage to get much practise in before the day (nothing like being well prepared!) so was not quite sure how he would take to being asked for medium trot and counter canter after so little prep, and I was getting very baffled by all the extra letters to remember! He warmed up well for his first test but a little sluggish, and my nerves were not exactly helped by realising I was warming up next to Louisa Lockwood! Eeeke! I did my best 'I know what I'm doing I'm a pro don't you know?' impression when I entered the arena and despite an initial gawp to the right up the centre line from Soap, because he could see out of the side door he did a sweet test, but there is potential for so much more from him... click images to enlarge

When the scores went up we had managed 68.7% (knocking on the door of that illusive 70%!) and equal 6th place, and best of all because our score was over 63% we gained a qualification for the Sparsholt Dressage Championships in June 2010! Very chuffed with our results and hoping for a good first time Novice performance we entered our 2nd test. It all went pretty smoothly but Soap threw in a flying change in his first counter canter (I haven't taught him flying changes yet so he's taking the rap for that one!) and on his 2nd counter canter he tried to change leg but I corrected him and got the nice comment 'well recovered and maintained' for that movement. Both judges commented that he needs more 'jump' in his right lead canter so that is something to try and improve on from today. We finished Novice 38 with a very respectable 62.58% just 0.5% off qualification score, and a really pleasing Novice debut score. Polos, and pats administered we managed to whizz off home just as the heavens opened, all in all a pretty mega day!

Christmas has come early in the GHE household because I have just received a parcel from my sponsor Mountain Horse full of fantastic winter clothes to keep me warm and dry in the coming months. I am testing out the goodies one by one starting with a base layer set - thermal long johns cut to be worn under full seat breeches, and a thermal top. I wear these under tracky bums and a hoody in the mornings when I get up early to muck out before work, and they keep me toasty warm. Yesterday I put on the Arctica breeches, Angela fleece, and Ranger chaps to do some gridwork with Soap, he was a very good boy, keen and enthusiastic to be back jumping after his little holiday. The breeches are waterproof and thermal and have a nice thick waist band which makes them very comfortable, and the fleece looks very smart with them. I am a total Mountain Horse 'super fan' when it comes to footwear I love the long boots, and brown short boots they sent me earlier in the year and the Ranger chaps to go with the short boots are fab. Like the long boots they have a strip of elastic next to the zip so they fit snugly, and the profiile is cut high so they never look too short. When the weather gets really bad (fingers crossed no snow like last year, otherwise I think I might hibernate!) I also have a pair of padded full chaps, andsome fleece gloves, so come on winter do your worst! click images to enlarge

If you are a 'winter woose' like me then I really recommend investing in some Mountain Horse products, the company is Swedish so they really know how to make great fitting warm gear for 'proper weather'. Click here to see more Mountain Horse products.