WIN A FREE COPY OF COURSEWALK APP

The very kind people at CourseWalkApp.com have given me 2 copies of their nifty xc course walk app, 1 for me, and 1 to give away to a lucky GHE fan!

If you have a smart phone this could be a real life saver, you can record your course as you walk it, take pics, of the jumps, then watch it back to jog your memory/learn the course, and it even gives you km markers so you can gauge your speed and location.

You can then share your course, and download new ones that have been shared by other users. For images of how the courses are recorded and more info click here to visit their site

It also has all the BE dressage tests (and more!) from intro to advanced, and live score updates from BDWP and BE

This is what it looks like on on my iPhone 3GS – click images to enlarge

It really is a nifty little app, and at just £6.99 I would buy it for the BE dressage tests alone, as I constantly lose print outs so having them all on my phone is ideal!

If you would like to win a FREE copy of the app simply leave a comment below and I will pull a winner from the hat at the end of March! Winner will be announced on the blog - Good luck!

P.S. please check that you have a compatible phone before entering, for details about this click here

Well finally the weather has beaten us

The arena is under snow and the hill leading to and from the yard to the main road is too slippy to drive the lorry up and down atm so we are confined to barracks. I’m hoping it will be thawed by midday tomorrow as I have found a local indoor to hire and want to take Dustry for a schooling session. In the mean time I thought I would test out my new camera, and get some shots of his Lordship in the snowy wilderness that is his field atm. So here are the best shots… click to enlarge

and he won’t thank me for this one but I think it’s so funny! hahahahah what a goof ball!

Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrr! It’s baltic! but even the threat of snow and -10 temps wasn’t enough to deter me from our lesson today. It takes approx 50min to box to my instructor and the last thing I wanted to do was get stranded by the snow somewhere en route, but with my lesson being around midday and the snow not forecast to come down until later in the evening I decided it was worth the risk. This week the weather has been so cold that Thursday and Friday after work it has been too cold to ride in the arena as the surface has been frozen solid, so it was a very fresh and lively Dustry I got on today!

After a few ‘exciting moments’ he started to settle and as always once he gets focussed he’s 100% ‘in the zone’. We worked on ‘transitions within the pace’ on a 20m circle and across the long diagonal. I need now to bring him on to the next level of his training, which includes more collection and extension within the pace , more ‘sit’, and more ‘lift’ to his shoulders. Initially asking for more in the trot he just said ‘canter?…’ but after a little while he caught on that I was asking for more trot, and started to extend into a bigger trot. Once he has managed a few strides (approx half to all of a 20m circle) of bigger trot, I then needed to bring him back for approx 5 really short bouncy strides (almost walk) then on again to the working trot then from that another clear transition to medium. We did the same for the canter, and all the time trying hard to hit our circle points and be accurate (harder than it sounds!)

This movement within the pace really helps to get him off the leg, and also is having a good knock on effect with his trot to canter transitions which are really very nice now, even if I do say so on his behalf!

We JUST managed to get home and up the hill to the yard as the white stuff was covering the road, so it was a slow creep back down the steep hill from the stables to avoid slipping (well, just about!)

Sorry no video today, far too chilly for candid camera antics!

Tomorrow looks like it’s going to be a white out!

…until the clocks change and the nights draw out, not that I’m counting or anything!
Thought I would quickly share this snap because although it’s minus temps and I feel like I’m a nocturnal rider these days, having this little face greet you when you get to the yard makes it ALL worthwhile

I’m very excited and pleased to report that GHE has an additional sponsor for 2012, the lovely rug brand Konabo. Kate from Konabo has very generously provided me (well Dustry) with a Konabo Total PRO turnout rug. The unique feature of Konabo rugs is that they have an internal liner which you can zip in and out in order to wash. This means that you can keep the inside of the rug which is in contact with the horse’s coat clean without having to send the whole rug away to be professionally cleaned. This is a genius idea!

The clever design features don’t stop there though and putting the rug on Dustry it became apparent to me that a lot of thought and equestrian insight has gone into the design of Konabo rugs. The front chest clips are HUGE, really heavy duty, horse proof clips which is ideal if you own a serial rug wrecker like me!

 The clips also niftily open towards you so that at no point whilst wearing the rug can the horse push the clips by accident and undo them (this is the case for ALL my other rugs except T-bar fastening ones) These clever clips are also on the back leg cross straps. The belly surcingles also have a built in elastic back up strap attachment to allow for stretch and movement.

I often have issues with how rugs fit round the neck on Dustry as he has a bit of a long slim neck (topline as always is a work in progress) but this rug comes up nice and high round the shoulders and doesn’t gape or slip back at the neck.

If you get a chance to look at a Konabo rug first hand I think it will be clear to you too then that they really are a cut above lots of other mainstream brands on the market today. Dustry is very lucky!

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