Posts Written By Chloë

My fantastic sponsor Mountain Horse have recently sent me a pair of their gorgeous ‘Supreme’ long boots. Prior to this pair I had a pair of their classic high rider long boots. The version of High Riders that I had were plain leather, no laces, zip up with an elastic insert. They were great boots, and hard wearing but once I had tried on the ‘Supreme’ style I realised exactly why it was named that! For starters my new Supreme long boots smell GORGEOUS! I half contemplated never wearing them and just keeping them to sniff and admire! I can’t…

When I began initial ridden work with Dustry he was very light in the contact, he dropped behind the bit, and although he looked like he was in an ‘on the bit’ frame he wasn’t working through and it was very hard to get him to work forwards into the contact. The flip side of that would be that occasionally he would hollow, and invert his neck, becoming suddenly heavy in the hand. This all pointed to dental issues preventing him from being able to happily accept the contact so I booked him in to see an EDT. I prefer to…

Having re-schooled (to varying levels) a few ex-racehorses now I thought it might be an idea if I wrote a few blog posts detailing some of the issues that I have come across during the process of recycling an ex-racer. This is by no means a ‘how to guide to re-schooling ex-racers’ it’s just a catalogue of my thoughts and discoveries which I hope might be able to help other people who are in the process of, or thinking about taking on an ex-racer to re-train. So I will start at the beginning….choosing your horse. For me there is always one main factor which influences my decision,…

This bank holiday weekend I planned a little ‘boot camp’ for Dustry, Friday we went for a lesson, Saturday he did his first combined training competition, Sunday he had a lesson at home, Monday he had off, and today I took him for his 2nd combined training outing. We boxed to Downlands Equestrian as they had a little low key combined training event on, perfect for a baby horse. This time though the dressage warm up AND test was on grass. Dustry has done no tests in a grass arena and so I thought this could be interesting! He was…

Having done lots of BD dressage outings, and a few small show jumping competitions I felt it was time to take Dustry to his first combined training competition. I found a little low key competition at Wickstead Farm Equestrian Center (base for Badminton Horse Trials winner Paul Tapner!) so I entered him for Class 2 which comprised of British Eventing BE90 Test 92 and a round of 2’3” show jumps. As luck would have it I also managed to bag myself a ‘personal pap’ for the day! Katie Mortimore Photography came with me and took some stunning shots, in return…

Jumping on grass, the ultimate test of nerve? 😉 Yesterday I took Dustry to Elmwood to do some show jumping and cross country practise on grass, it was his first ever session of jumping on grass in a big wide open space, and I was hoping it wouldn’t prove too exciting for him!!!! He was surprisingly underwhelmed by the whole situation I’m pleased to report. We warmed up over a couple of rustic show jumps and then went into the ring as if in a comp and straight round the course. He had 2 very genuine stops, one at fence…

If you want to win a lovely down filled 3/4 length Mountain Horse jacket then click your self over to e-Venting.co.uk as I have donated one of the lovely jackets Mountain Horse sponsor me with as a prize in their Badminton 2013 competition! All you have to do to enter is submit your best guess for the winner and winning score of this year’s Badders! If you’re correct this gorgeous jacket and socks (don’t forget the socks!) could be yours!

Today was one of those brilliant days where you feel that your horse has learnt a big lesson and things are really starting to makes sense for them. Dustry and I have been hacking out more recently now that the weather and ground is better and it’s really beneficial for him. We’ve been cantering in 2 point position in wide open spaces (this doesn’t seem to excite him) and we’ve been walking calming out with company (this is most exciting! go figure?!) With the exception of a few ‘squeaky moments’ from him and his weird kung fu kicking of a…

One of the most frustrating things about horses is when you know something is not quiet right with them, but you can’t tell what. If only they could talk, right?… In these situations I usually reach for my thermometer. Taking your horse’s temperature is one of the fastest ways to identify if those early warning signs you think you are picking up on really are correct, or if they are simple faking 😉 You can buy an ‘equine friendly’ digital thermometer online for under £10. I have this Nettex model. This plastic digital thermometer is really useful because it stores the last temperature reading…