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It’s taken several months of right clicking, scanning, saving, typing, photo-shopping, uploading, downloading, and chewing on pens but it’s here! I really hope you like the new site, and would love to hear your feed back. A MASSIVE thank you has to go out to Steve and Hannah my sponsors from Equine Adverts who also run SJK Designs and helped design and produce the mega new GHE 2010! There are more exciting developments coming soon to GHE so watch this space, but for now I am off for a lie down in a darkened room, and don’t want to see…

It seems like a decade since we cantered through the finishing flags at MK3DE my last event of last season so I was excited, nervous, and just keen to get going again as we set off for Moreton BE90. I’m not sure why (I think because I have terrible geography skills, and thought it was miles away till I looked at a map!) but I have never entered Moreton before so was looking forward to competing at a new event. We arrived with time to walk the XC and as I picked up my number they informed me that times were running…

I was contacted a little while back by a reporter for HORSE Magazine to see if I would take part in an article they were doing on horses who had come back into work after breaking a leg. I agreed to do it and after the phone interview a freelance photographer turned up to take some accompanying shots. Jack thought he would make himself look nice for the pictures by getting absolutely covered in mud from top to toe! When the photographer arrived he was still drying off, but thankfully there was a bit of a breeze and he soon fluffed…

It seems like ages since I last went XC and recently we have really been cracking on with our dressage so it was a little treat for Soap and I to get out and about over some rustic fences for a change. I think he must have been having the same XC withdrawal feelings as me because he was brimming with enthusiasm and couldn’t wait to get started. This was supposed to be Jack’s first structured introduction to XC but because he is still getting used to his gel pads and I hadn’t been able to do as much prep as I wanted I took Soap…

Seeing as I’m in the process of giving the GHE website a facelift (watch this space it’s launching soon!) I thought it was only right that I extended the makeover to my kit. I have some very helpful friends who work for an embroidery company who have kindly taken my old tat and emblazoned it with the GHE logo, instantly making it very desirable! Soap looks hot to trot in his new GHE branded travel fleece, and when out and about if you spy this little logo scoot past on a saddle cloth, say ‘Hi’ because it’s me! If you have sponsors…

Last season to try and improve my performance I went down the route of having discipline specific lessons with instructors who specialised in that field. This did help in some areas and Soap’s short stay at ‘SJ Boot Camp’ really made a noticeable difference, but having separate lessons from 3 different people (so in affect 3 different points of view) I found it really hard to decipher the common themes between them all, and not get tangled up in knots when they were telling me conflicting instructions! So….this year I knew I needed to try a different method and started…

I have been trying to plan out my season this year and to kick off I have entered Soap for Moreton BE90/Intro on the 7th of March so we are gearing up for that, and I can’t wait to be out competing again! He had studs holes put in today because next weekend we have a XC clinic at Boomerang with Robert Stevens. I’m really looking forward to doing some XC again and meeting up with Rob to see how his winter has been. Jack has been making slow but steady progress so last weekend I booked to take him…

I think Soap must win the award for the ‘horse most dedicated to the pursuit of mess’ he comes in every day PLASTERED in mud, sometimes despite being in a full neck, deep length rug he even manages to get mud on his withers! how he does it only he knows. So I guess it shouldn’t have come as much surprise to me when I walked off to get my hat from the car and return to find this…

Last season I ordered myself a new hat silk from Treehouse, and spent all year scouring online shops and the high street trying to find a long sleeved green top that matched. Nothing I found was quite right so for Christmas I splashed out and ordered myself the matching event shirt from Treehouse, and today it arrived! It’s fab and I love it, and I think it looks really nifty with my new Kan Teq who are one of my new sponsors for 2010! Of course because it is new I will have to ride out in it before I…

As the season is fast approaching and I’m already trying to plan where I can take Jack for his first unaffiliated ODE I thought it might be a good idea if I got round to some XC schooling! I am very lucky because on the farm where our yard is based there is a small XC course. It’s only up to 2’9” but it has quite a variety of fences, and is ideal for initial XC jump training of young horses and reformed delinquents! This was quite a provocative location for Jack as along side the jumps is a long…