Posts Written By Chloë

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of making eventers out of ex-race horses, and currently I have 2. I’m an even bigger fan of the Racing Post website because you can look up horses’ breeding, and race history for free. Having a little dig about to find some more info on Mr Jack Fry I discovered his grand sire is non other than Mill Reef! I found this lovely picture of Mill Reef being ridden by Geoff Lewis in 1971. So it turns out the scruffy little grey thing that I’m begining to reschool has quite a pedigree! Jack…

Thanks to my sponsors Equestrian Vision for providing the prize, and Equine Adverts for hosting the competition you can win Badminton 2008 on DVD. All you have to do is click here to enter and answer the competition question… Who has won Badminton 6 times, on 6 different horses?… Good luck!

He may not look much at the moment, but he’s going to be fab! Jack Fry is a 12 year old tb ex-Point to Pointer who we aquired after he fractured his leg. He had a very fine spiral hairline fracture which meant the poor chap had to spend several months boxed in a huge splint. He recovered well, and is now starting to come back into work. He is now doing his 1st months lunging, and long reining in preparation for ridden work. Depending on how he recovers willl determin his new career. I am hoping that we will…

In an atttempt to keep costs down I asked my instructor Steven Way if there was a way I could have a XC schooling lesson for less. So…………. 6 mucked out boxes, and 2 hacked out eventers later I had earned myself a XC schooling lesson with him at Boomerang for just £10! I took Soap in a Cambridge Pelham XC schooling for the first time, and I think it’s going to prove a good choice. The whole lesson was really a case of him and me getting used to having brakes, he had a few temper tantrums, and I…

I had a great SJ lesson today with Liz Peerless. She set up an exercise (see image below) Intially it was just 3 trot poles between each jump stand, which then built to canter poles, and eventually 2 uprights each with a canter pole in front. The aim is to (on the left rein) come round to the first fence, land and circle 10m to the  left, then jump the 2nd fence. This is repeated on the right rein. It really made Soap work from his hocks on the circle and it stopped him from becoming stronger and faster after…

As a result of a well suppoted post on H&H I have knocked up a directory of small private and large professional venues at which you can stable your horse when competing away from home. Its success is dependant on people’s submisisons so if you have a spare box or bed to rent then get in touch join the boxandbed facebook group here

We set off for another lesson with Liz today. Practise since our last lesson 2 weeks ago had been rudely interuppted by all the poxy snow we had, so I had only managed to exercise Soap 4/12 days, but he was on good form. We started with trot/canter poles on a circle, moving them to raise one end. This is to get him to think about where he is putting his legs not just blunder on through, as he needs to start thinking more about his job. We moved on to a x pole bounce, the video below shows how…

The nice folks at Youngs Animal Feeds couldn’t offer me any sponsorship, but they did send me some vouchers for their product “Stamina Mix” It’s designed for horses who are in medium to hard work so should be ideal for Soap this eventing season. He gets rather heated by sugar beet so is on a very fibre heavy diet. Stamina Mix is a combination of chopped fibre and cooked flakes so fingers crossed it will provide the right balance to give him energy but still remain sane, I will let you know if it brings any exciting results!!! Thank You…

There was a knock at the door and a delivery driver holding a big brown box covered in Mountain Horse tape! With snow on the ground and presents being delivered it must be Christmas! The box was packed full of lovely products, breeches, socks, hat, gloves, scarf, and a great red jacket. I dressed myself up to the nines in all my new clobber, and headed up the yard. Below is one of the only pictures where Soap has his ears forward, he is a very difficult subject! It took some persuading to convince him that I had no treats…

I just read my friends facebook status which said that she was watching “The Whitaker Family Master Class” which made me think I’d like to watch that, the more sj tips the better! I Googled it and saw it was on Horse & Country TV on Sky. I had forgotten that Sky had this channel because we have freeview, but guess what?….you can watch it for free online! This is a fantastic resource for expert advice, and inspiration I can’t believe my luck. Thank you Sky!