Rachael - Petplan Equine Ambassador

As always, life with horses is busy! Not only managing and working them, but working hard to allow me to afford them! In between work, training in new skills (saddle fitting) and general life, we’ve actually squeezed quite a lot in!

Sleet

Sleet is currently enjoying his semi-retired life! As the ground is hard and I don’t have a surface to work him on, he has done very little this last few weeks. I have found however Sleet and Lordie are a great ride and lead combo! Sleet quite happily trundles next to the ginger one! This actually works better than you’d think. Not only do I get to do something with both horses, but it means I can keep Sleet mobile and his back and joint moving without excess pressure of having to lunge, or have riders weight on him. Other than that he’s been on a few walks down to the river, and eaten lots of grass!

Tristan

June didn’t start well for the little man. I noticed that his one remaining eye was looking a bit suspicious, so we called the vet (unfortunately it would be a Saturday afternoon!). After a huge argument, as he’s been anti-vet since they removed his other eye, we finally got him sedated so they could examine properly. The boy had ulcers in his eye. This meant more time in, various medications, and lots of stress for me!

Although Tristan’s a pro when it comes to eye medications now, its always a huge concern when there is anything even slightly an issue with his eye. After a few vet visits to check the progress, they finally said it was healed and he was okay to go ‘back to normal’.

At the end of July I took Tristan out to the local show for a ‘party’. He was such a good boy. After hours of scrubbing he looked stunning as always, and came home with 1st place in the youngstock class, 1st traditional/native and 3rd coloured.

Lordie

While the weather was nice ‘Mr pink nose’ was smothered in various lotions (sun cream and sudocrem) again! At the beginning of June I took him for a jumping clinic in Leicester. Although we got off to a good start with the pole work, as soon as they turned into actual fences, his typical lack of respect for a pole appeared. He just takes pole after pole out, not caring for the consequences. We tried all sorts, and in the end just ended up jumping solid stuff, as that’s the only way he’ll pick his feet up! At least he was well behaved and mannerly!

The 15th of June was his birthday so I bought him a new fly hat. It lasted a day!!

Mid July I took Lordie to a new venue for him, Vale View. We had entered the Intro and Prelim with the hope of just getting a relaxed day out. That slightly went to pot! After an unsettled test in the big new scary arena we were untacking when we heard screams! The horse in the 3.5ton box next to us has gone straight over the chest partition (which was fixed) and got half stuck in the back of the box! As myself and a friend Charlie settled the horse and did all we could to keep him calm, someone called the emergency services and we waited. Meanwhile Lordie stood there completely unfazed by all of it! When the emergency services arrived, we returned to tack up and ride out for the second test, in which he went much better! We managed 60.87% for our intro, and 63.65% for our Prelim, qualifying him for trailblazers 2nd rounds.

Lordie also went to the local show with Tristan at the end of July and did some inhand with Charlie (as I couldn’t run both), managing 1st in the TB class, 2nd in the very large open class, and 2nd in the hunters.

Marcus (Kingsclough Masquerade)

Our first show since the Area12 Summer Show was Derby County. After the spur mark issue at the summer show I had bought a dummy spur for riding side saddle. This made me more confident in my riding, and I think it showed in the results.

Marcus was great on the slightly slippy ground and with the addition of some rear studs he went a lot better. We were pulled 2nd in the Open Equitation, won best horse/pony, and then went and took Reserve Champion! I was so pleased!

The National Side Saddle Championships was the first weekend in August and was hugely anticipated! After weeks of evening training sessions with Amanda and Marcus it had finally come round! After lots of packing, bathing and prep we set off on Thursday evening.

Friday was Dressage and ‘newcomers’. Amanda had decided to ride this year and I’m so glad she did. Although she had never competed side saddle before she decided to throw herself in at the deep end and do Novice freestyle to music, and the newcomers Equitation. After lots of prep and a nice warm up, they managed a fantastic 4th in the dressage and 5th in the newcomers! We were so pleased! Friday evening was spent tack cleaning in preparation for my Equitation on Saturday (as you are given a mark for your turnout and they are seriously picky!) and then we had an early night.

Saturday was extremely stressful for me. It’s always the day everyone worries about, as all the Equitation Championships are running. The judges are critical to the point of unbelief sometimes, but that is essentially what we are there for!

Marcus was readied and warmed up, and then I got dressed; everything has to be perfect, not a hair out of place, stock pin level and tied immaculately, and every part of you and your horse has to be dirt free!

After snapping at a few people for distracting me while I was trying to run through my test in my head, it was suddenly our time. I went in hoping to do better than last year, and we certainly did! Marcus went wonderfully, and although I felt it wasn’t the best we’ve ever gone, the judges disagreed! I suppose it always feel worse to the rider when your concentrating so much and not really paying attention to the ‘outside world’! After a long wait, the results came out and we were in 2nd place! I was absolutely over the moon!!

Our jumping was going towards our Championship place, so although I wanted to have some fun and enjoy it, I also knew my position and riding would count and be marked. Marcus loves his jumping, and from the pictures taken, the 76cm limit for our class clearly wasn’t big enough for him! He jumped his heart out and with a great clear round we managed 6th place. Over all, this left us in 4th place in the Novice rider of the year Championship! A huge step up from last year and all I could have wished for!

Sunday was the Classical Ladies Final. After qualifying earlier in the year we knew what was expected. The breakdown works as 25% turnout, 25% conformation, 25% manners and way of going, and 25% rider. It was always a tough class, with huge entries. Out of 25 entrants, 16 showed, two left during the ‘go round’, and although I thought Marcus went well, we were pulled last! I was to say the least, rather upset!

After waiting nearly two hours for everyone above me to do their individual show, my groom came in to help me back on (in long waiting classes you are allowed to dismount). What did I have to lose; nothing, there had been some errors in some shows and some crookedness in both horses and riders, so I went out with determination and the knowledge Marcus is a dressage horse and a ‘hunter’.

After standing for the judge I started my show piece starting with a relaxed working trot. As I came to the second long diagonal, I sat deep, pushed and asked for more and Marcus understood me, throwing out a fantastic medium trot with ease! After collecting back up for the corner, we showed canter on both reins and then I asked for a hunters extension up the long side. Marcus did not let me down, everything we worked on last year for the HOYS classes came forward and he lowered and went. I couldn’t have asked for more, I just hoped it had been worth it.

After a tense few minutes of ‘judge chat’, they started to call from 10th place, we weren’t there, or 9th, or 8th, and I started to switch off, but suddenly we were called, and it was 6th! I couldn’t believe it! From 14th to 6th in class of that calibre was amazing!! Obviously we did something right!

It took three grooms, a show stopping show piece (which was commented on by many in and outside the ring afterwards) and a lot of emotion! Nationals 2017 was a great weekend, and after all the cleaning, preening and exhaustion, we are already planning next year!

Daisy (Lindhurst Limited Edition)

In late June I was offered a ride on a friend’s Irish Draft Sports Horse mare. I was asked if I would take her to Ashby and do the workers. I don’t do much jumping these days (as Sleets ‘retired’ and Lordie is clueless!), so I ‘jumped’ at the chance to get in the air!

After a couple of rides out and about to practice, we ventured to Ashby on a very early start! The warm up was great; she was a very good girl, on what I deemed to be reasonably hard ground. After walking the course, myself and the owner both agreed the fences seemed over height (supposedly 1m), and after a discussion, we decided that considering the ground too, if Daisy struggled, I would pull up.

Well, we struggled, and in no way could I blame her. The mare tried her heart out at every fence, but after taking four out of five fences down and refusing at the next, I withdrew. In my honest opinion the horse and her confidence are worth far more. We popped a smaller fence back in the warm up just to make sure she was okay, and then called it a day. Not one person in our class went clear, and every competitor agreed, the fences were over height, such a shame.

Future plans

As the weather starts to change and the side saddle season finishes for another year, I’ve already started planning for the future. In the past two weeks Tristan has begun the backing process, although this won’t be rushed due to his ‘disability’. And I’m hoping to get him cut in the winter (to avoid flies and risk of infection), so he can start his ridden show career in 2018.

Lordie will be asked to do more in the dressage world, and will be aimed at some higher level showing classes (hopefully ROR) if we can get a suitable saddle to his shark fin withers.

Sleet will hopefully return to doing some walk and trot tests over winter on a surface, and get his grass belly gone! In all honesty, I just want to keep him mobile and happy and make sure we head the right direction to soundness before summer 2018 when the hard ground returns.

Marcus has lots to do over the next few months, having various dressage outings with his mum Amanda!