Petplan Equine
Sponsored Rider - Rachael

November and December Update

November and December are never great ‘horsey months’. The weather is miserable and the nights get dark and cold very quickly! This year has been no different! There hasn’t been much in the way of competition with the horses, as side saddle and showing is very seasonal. But there have been some entertaining days with all the boys!

The 9th of November was a great day for Sleet. We had another trip back to the vets, for assessment after his treatment and then his rehab work. He was given the go ahead to come back into ridden work! I was so happy! It was a great moment for us, and although progress would be small (20 to 30mins twice a week) it felt like a huge achievement.

The vet dealing with our case gave us four weeks to work towards a prelim level dressage test, with the goal of seeing if he would cope with the workload, and take it from there. As the month progressed we did the continued ground work, long lined, lunged, but were also able to take hacks up to the school to do some ‘proper work’! He seemed very happy to be back being challenged and doing a small amount of lateral work.

Unfortunately, when December hit it became harder and harder to get the work into him. Working for a parcel delivery company during December, means you are going to get more busy as Christmas hits, so being asked to work overtime was a given, and when it comes to horses, we all know they don’t pay for themselves at grassroots level!

In the end, his work programme became twice a week, lunge and hack out maybe, so I made the tough decision to push back our forecast dressage date to January. It would not be a true judgement of him ‘coping with the work’, if he wasn’t actually working to a reasonable level. Our new dressage date will be the end of January, and now Christmas is over we are back on the work programme! Sleets rehab diary is still active, and can be found on my blog: www.optimalequine.co.uk/about-us/sleets-rehabilitation.

Lordie began November on a good note, with a trip out to Hargate on the 8th. Performing another reasonable dressage test, we scored a normal mid 60 percentage. He’s becoming a lot more relaxed, but needs to be more consistent in his work, I am sure that will come with time and muscle. Lordie’s test can be seen here: http://bit.ly/1RhfyfA.

On the 22nd of November we went all the way to Attington, Oxfordshire, for a lesson with Lucinda Green organised by Petplan Equine! This was originally supposed to be on Sleet, but due to his condition, I took Lordie instead. It was nerve wracking to be taking a horse that had barely jumped, and only over coloured poles, to a lesson with someone of such experience. But I knew he’d hunted, and pointed in the past, so must have jumped natural fences.

After an excitable start, and a lot of going sideways (unintentionally) he settled, and actually surprised me! He barely put a foot wrong, unless I was the issue, and did everything I asked of him in the end! My fear of heights had a huge role to play in an issue we had at a drop down. It has always been something that has held me back cross country but Lucinda was great, gave me a huge kick up the backside, and made me see that actually messing about with it was only going to make it worse!

The rest of November and December have been quiet for Lordie, as again, workload and dark nights have dictated how much I can do with him. Now we are pushing forward to get him fitter and more relaxed in his work, and continue his education to become a budding riding/event horse, and side saddle stunner!

Little Tristan is still battling his Uveitis. But do not be fooled! This does not deter him from being the cutest little monster ever! His weekly visits to the vets have become a highlight for the staff there and some of the vet nurses have even offered to take him home.

On the last visit before Christmas we had to go in for our check up and Sleet needed his vaccinations so I took them together. It was the 18th December, National Christmas Jumper Day, but sadly the boys didn’t have jumpers, so ‘they said’ they wanted to dress up instead! It went down a treat at the vets, and we even made it onto their Facebook page. Other than that, the little boy has been tormenting the big lads, trying to make friends with my dad by following him around like a big puppy, and breaking out of his stable one night, to scare me when I go back in the morning; naughty pony!

The lovely Marcus, owned by Amanda Chatfield, has been very busy with numerous dressage competitions. We intended on taking part in the Christmas fancy dress dressage at Rodbaston, at the end of December, competing side saddle against astride riders. Our practice video can be seen here: http://bit.ly/1IQjalL. He was a bit grumpy, but I think that was mainly my fault as I wasn’t feeling too well. Unfortunately, I ended up in hospital on the day of the competition and had to bow out. I was obviously unhappy with not being able to compete, but my health needed looking after if we are going to continue our HOYS campaign in 2016!

Media wise over the past few months, Sleet has featured in Horse Magazine. A nice two page spread on how the smallest of external injuries can actually be a quite nasty one! This was a great article to be involved with, and although it’s a tough story to tell, as at one point it may not have had a great outcome, he came back fighting as always.

My trip to Petplan Equine in December was definitely a highlight for me of 2015! Not just because I managed to navigate myself around London, but the entire experience of meeting the rest of the sponsored riders, and being provided with media training and sponsorship planning for 2016, followed by attending Olympia was amazing and overwhelming!