Rachael - Petplan Equine Ambassador

We made it! After the snow, rain, and freezing temperatures finally disappeared, we could start thinking about getting the boys out, fit, and doing something! The annual competition calendar finally got drawn up and county show entries were sent off!

Sleet

As always, Sleet enjoys his life of leisure and luxury. In May it was his birthday, reaching the grand old age of 18! And at the minute he’s certainly making it known that he’s feeling well!

During the spring he goes on ‘lock down’. With Sleet the spring is always a tense time – as an EMS horse he struggles with the spring grass, so ideally he would come in either overnight or during the day and be on soaked hay. However, due to his arthritic changes and Kissing Spine, he stiffens up significantly being kept in for long periods.

My alternative is to have him in a smaller paddock area and he has soaked hay as an extra. I’ve found this is a great happy medium; he can graze a controlled amount of grass, but still get plenty of ‘sugar free’ forage from his soaked hay and also walk (or charge!) around at his own leisure, keeping him mobile.

He continues to hack out and have an occasional ‘happy canter’ down the river field when the ground is nice and soft but I must remember, if im going down there, I need to put his stronger bit back in!

Tristan

Tristan certainly has been busy lately. As the weather has improved Lexi started to spend more time on him and their bond become much better.

The first show we planned to go to was cancelled due to the miserable weather, so we aimed for the next one, which handily happened to be on a surface too!

As always it took about two hours to get the monster clean! All that hair, and the amount of white on him is not fun, combined with trying to then keep him clean overnight is enough to send anyone round the twist! He always scrubs up well though, so I can’t complain too much!

We arrived at the show ground to find we weren’t allowed to park on the hard standing and were directed to a muddy field! I wasn’t happy but there wasn’t much I could do about it and everyone was in the same situation, I suppose. Tristan came off the box calmly (this was his first time out since being cut) and was a little star all day! In the show ring, as he was lead rein, we came into the centre while they did the ‘go round’. Considering he has extremely minimal vision and could hear them all cantering round he stood like a rock and didn’t falter. We won the lead rein class, but unfortunately weren’t placed in the Coloured class.

I then took him in the Coloured in-hand, and the judge loved him, winning with impeccable manners and an obviously good trot up. As it was the end of the day we stayed for the championship. The judge obviously liked him but there was also a very nice Friesian that had done well and was competition. After the longest wait, we were pulled! Champion in hand! What a little star on his first show out! A win for his first ever ridden class, and Champion in-hand! I couldn’t have been more pleased!

Lordie

As the ground dried up I was able to start working Lordie. Entries went in for his first ROR class at Newark and Notts county show and it was looking promising. But as always, Lordie likes to be different.

As the winter was so bad, I had had wood chippings put down in all the field gateways to keep them in decent condition. It worked fab, until Lordie came in hopping lame. After a vet visit, being advised to poultice the foot and that it was an absess, we were still getting nowhere with his soundness (or lack of) after a week. I called my lovely farrier, and he came to investigate.

After cutting away a reasonable amount of foot, he discovered what can only be described as a ‘slice’ sideways into his frog. He had stood on something, we assume a piece of the woodchip and it had gone into the soft frog making him lame. Newark and Notts was now out of reach and Lordie was back to a life of leisure for a few weeks!

Blee

After his ‘break’ and gradual return to work, Blee has been fantastic! He’s been hacking out alone, moving forwards and schooling with much more balance, instead of just rushing forwards in his very extravagant trot.

I decided to take him out to his first ever ‘big boy lesson’. I wanted to see what he would be like away from home, after travelling and being on his own. So off we went, and I cannot complain one bit! He travelled well, arrived calmly, we had an absolutely fab lesson, and then trucked home without any issues either! What a star!

The actual lesson focused on some great baby basics. Balance, rhythm, and getting him to move away from the leg laterally, not just thinking leg means forwards and faster! There were lots of poles involved and by the end of it, safe to say we were both shattered!

We were then invited to a ‘mindfullness lesson’, with Andrea Beattie, for a feature with Petplan Equine. My original estimation of travel time was about an hour but, as satnavs do, we went a merry little journey and ended up being on the road about 2 hours going down windy country lanes, with the trailer! Thankfully as I’d set off to leave plenty of rest time post-travel for Blee, we were not late for our lesson!

The session was great and really made me think about my position in the saddle, and how little my aids really needed to be on Blee, as he a sensitive ride. We worked on getting him to step through and under from behind and on out transitions up and down.

In general he’s been going really well and I’ve even been doing a few little jumping sessions on him at home and I’m so pleased with his progress.

Marcus

What can I say about this ever wonderful boy!

Our first show of the season was the Equestrian Life Winter Champs. The venue, although a nice big indoor arena, is primarily a western riding venue, with a red sand surface. As the day went on the surface became more an more compact and eventually was pretty solid! Our classes were given a time of 3pm and around then the side saddlers started to appear in the lorry park and warm up, only to find the previous classes were running very late. We eventually made it into the ring at 5.30pm! So not the best start!

There were eight in the Open Equitation, including some very experienced and talented riders, along with some newbies. The surface wasn’t helping anyone but Marcus rode well, and we were pulled top in the ‘go round’. Our individual show however was another matter! As I walked away from the judge and closed my leg on, he jumped into canter. Now I’ve always been told to just go with it and that trying to correct things makes it look a mistake and therefore only hampers your show piece, so make it look like that’s what you wanted! Remembering this (as it was one of Sleet’s favourite tricks) I allowed it and rode my canters first, before showing the trot wok after. It worked and after a tense wait to see if I’d fluffed it, we remained at the top to win our first class! I was so happy!

After a break and a rehydrate, we were back in for the Classical Ladies. We had previously done well in this class, qualifying for Nationals on ‘first attempts’ for the last two years. So what would today bring… well… winner winner! The judge liked us and how he went and we managed to make 3 out 3 on qualifying tries!

As it was the last class of the side saddle section (and the last of the day by this point at nearly 8.00pm!) we stayed in for the side saddle championship. There were some great horses in (as there were three or four other classes we didn’t enter) and I was amazed and so pleased when we were pulled! Marcus was so good for me! He went so well, shone and sparkled and maybe even put his ears forwards! I was over the moon!

What a day: 1st Open Equitation, 1st Classical ladies (qualifying us for the finals 2018) and then Champion side saddle! Great start to the season!

Our next outing was the Area12 Spring show. We again entered the equitation (intermediate and open) but this day wasn’t our day.

I was shattered having done a late shift at the pub the night before, with a 2am finish and it told. I didn’t ride as positively and we didn’t have the spark or energy we previously did – totally on me. Marcus was a great boy as always and did everything I asked, when I asked.

We managed 3rd in the Intermediate, and 5th in the Open.

Now for the bad bit….

So, although everything was going so well for me for a couple of months, the horses were doing well and we were getting results, I went and had a ‘whoops’ moment!

On Bank Holiday I was jumping Blee, and came off. It was no one’s fault; it was just one of those things! Unfortunately for me, I landed clean on my left ankle, breaking it in two places.

I am now in cast, getting very bored, and the horses (apart from Marcus) are getting very fat!

Hopefully I will be back out and about soon (I’m already doing what I can on crutches at the yard) and back on board as soon as I’m allowed! Isn’t it just sods law that when the horses are lame, I’m fine and when the horses are fine I’m lame!

Please wish me a speedy recovery! Because there’s absolutely no way I’m missing Nationals!