Monthly diary — March 2013

Following an operation, it’s now slow recuperation. As for Daisy and Raffa, they’ve really grown up. Both returned from Tweseldown Intro, their first event of the season, with 5th place rosettes. It’s amazing how exciting watching our baby horses at a relatively small event can be. They’ll now go up to BE100.

Meanwhile Cry Freedon (CF) has been hardening up with the help of Ali, so that when I arrived back from Australia I could start canter work. He’s 17 now so an Intermediate will be our first outing. At 3* the showjumps are huge and it’s our weakest phase.

Lissa and I have also been testing a new girth – it’s leather with no elastic but cut to avoid putting pressure on the sensitive muscles behind the elbow. It’s very interesting how some of the horses are moving much more freely in it - and we are really enjoying experimenting.

The day I returned from a sizzling Australia I spent at the British Equestrian Trade Show. Then it was off to snowy Vienna to indoor XC coach the Austrian team. Their improvement is impressive but - as with most of us - more work is needed on their dressage. Back home, my 2013 Petplan clinics kicked off.

Only one fell victim to the weather which happened to coincide with Cheltenham, so that worked out rather well…