Posts Written By Chloë

Today after weeks of plans getting rained off, we went for a long overdue lesson! Dustry had helpfully thrown himself into the wettest muddiest part of his field just seconds before I arrived to get him ready. With only 30 mins to spare and him looking like ‘the creature from the mud lagoon’ I resorted to hosing his legs off and brushing the worst off his head, but it definitely wasn’t our most polished turn out! For once the weather was glorious, still, bright, and not too cold. We worked on bringing his shoulders more ‘up’ in the trot so that he can load…

On Saturday I hired a local arena and jumps, put on my grippy-est pair of breeches and reached for my trusty neck strap! Now that Dustry’s flat work has come on so far he can begin his jumping education in earnest. He really needs to learn to lower his neck, asses the fence and use his back and neck to bascule  over the jump rather than hollow and leap! Previous attempts at jumping have been…..well…..interesting to say the least, at one point I was level with the top of the stands riding what resembled a giant  jumping flea!!!! Not ideal! I was half expecting…

Dressage to me is like magical voodoo. One moment I can think I am on the right track and believe that things are going well and then less than 5 minutes later one little score can totally knock the confidence you had been building in your own judgement and skill. Last Sunday I took D for another dressage outing (his 2nd competition in the BD affiliated section) 2x prelim tests again, but this time in his new nifty dressage saddle! This was the first time he had gone from stable to lorry under the cover of early morning darkness and I wasn’t sure how hyped up he would…

Well the last few days have been eventful to say the least, some good, some bad. Last Friday I booked the day off work to have Dustry’s new dressage saddle fitted and the fit of his GP checked. I absolutely love my GFS XCH jump saddle so when I said I would love to get him a dressage saddle my saddler told me to keep an eye out for the GFS ‘Eva’ dressage model. A few weeks ago whilst scouring the web I spotted one  for sale on the BD website and less than a day later it was couriered…

It was a real treat the other day to head off to a local dressage venue with an entourage in tow! A trio of very kind friends came along for the morning to help groom, call tests, and take photos. It was the equine version of a rock star with his ‘roadies’ and Dustry took full advantage by demanding treats, barging people about, and posing for his personal ‘pap’ as they snapped away. It was good to get him out to another venue, and he was more lit up than he has been of late (but that was to be…

a.k.a. ‘pimp my loose box’ began in earnest a few weeks back as I started to get Dustry’s stable ready for him to come back into his winter routine and come in at night. He has always been a ‘bit of a tricky customer’ with his stable, and doesn’t settle well. I think this is probably a hang up from his racing days where he was boxed 24/7 with the exception of coming out to exercise. Last winter he spent it flinging his head around, bobbing up and down, bashing his chest against his door and generally being an attention seeking thug! He did…

Since our rather lack lustre and disappointing performance at the Area Festivals I have been on a ‘feeding offensive’ to provide D with more energy and it seems to be working. On Saturday we went for a lesson to ‘tune up’ in time for Saturday’s tests, and Amanda as always knew exactly how to pitch the lesson. The day before I was frustrated by the disappointing schooling session we had at home, so Amanda helped me concentrate on balancing him, and prepping him before each and every movement to give him the best possible opportunity to do quality work. Feeling much more relaxed and…

Although it seems like Dustry gets all the perks around here with massages, pedicures, and frequent wardrobe updates, occasionally I get to spend some time getting pampered myself! My shoulders especially my right one (desk job related stiffness!) get very tight and stiff, and I’m sure this is not helping my desire to ride 100% straight and balanced, so I booked myself in for a massage with Sarah Curtis who is an ITEC qualified equine & human massage therapist. Sarah has a wealth of equine experience having studied equine science at Sparsholt she went on to work for Andrew Nicholson…

You know when you practise and prepare and put all your energy into getting everything ‘just so’ for a certain event, and then on the day it’s just a bit of an anti-climax?…..that was our Petplan Area Festival Debut! Dustry has been going so well at home, and with every lesson he makes huge strides forwards (no pun intended!) and so I was hopeful for respectable scores in both our tests. In prep for this he had had the saddler, physio, increased feed, electrolytes, salt lick, new shoes, and was plaited and pampered until he resembled a respectable looking ‘dressage horse’. We arrived and…