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Dustry’s eventing debut – Swalcliffe 80

After 3 years away from eventing I finally managed to get back out and have a bash at stringing all three phases together at Dustry’s first ever event! Mother are I drove 3hrs to Swalcliffe and back the day before to walk the course and as I was half expecting an 80cm ODE to be all roll tops and logs I was a little shocked at the complexity of the course! After the first few easy jumps fence 4ab was a white wall on a curving line to a skinny wall, fence 5 was a hedge that looked like you…

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Have you heard of #twittereventing yet?

No!!! then what are you waiting for?… In their own words they are… “An elite, hand picked group of outstanding athletes with highly talented steeds who at all times keep the horses between them and the ground….. But seriously, #twittereventing is a group of event riders – of all levels -who met via Twitter, and who were keen to share thoughts and opinions on the sport we love. We aim to meet up at events where possible, and to support each other in our endeavours. There are no rules or restrictions but we try to keep it fun and informative.…

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Well knock me down with a feather we did a clear round!

With Dustry’s first EVER one day event just under 2 weeks away we have been practising our XC and SJ as much as possible. I took him over the few little home-made XC fences we have on the farm, and after an initial ‘you expect me to jump this higgledy piggledy heap of tyres???’ moment he popped them sweetly and went on to jump the whole line of 6 up and back without hesitation. We went off to Elmwood Equestrian last Saturday for a lesson with my instructor Amanda Brewer over the SJs on grass and a few XC fences…

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More SJ and XC prep

Dustry and I have been out and about brushing up on our jumping skills for the past few weeks, and regular jumping is working wonders for both of us. He’s going from strength to strength and I’m getting to grips with just how forwards and powerful the jumping canter needs to be. We went off to Lyneham Heath Equestrian on Monday 31st, and they very kindly let us school over the XC despite it being closed as we had booked in advance, and only wanted to pop the little fences. This is Dustry’s 3rd ever time XC schooling and over…

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Show jump schooling with Amanda Brewer at Rectory Farm

Yesterday myself and two of my instructor’s other clients Mel and Briony hired Rectory Farm Arena for some show jump schooling. Rectory is a fab arena, and there is always a brilliantly bright and spooky course laid out. After warming up, we set out to jump the course from scratch. I need to work on getting D’s canter forwards and up into the bridle and collecting him after the fence in preparation for the next jump. The course included a double, triple, and water tray and by the end of the session we were flying round. Amanda is such a…

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How safe is Eventing?…

There is always lots of discussion about the safety risks that surround equestrianism, most insurance companies class riding as a ‘high risk sport’ in the same bracket as activities like bull running, free climbing, surfing, and rugby! Rotational falls, and high profile accidents inevitably receive a lot of media coverage and this coverage although at times hard to watch does do a great job of raising awareness. Riders such as Claire Lomas have become hugely influential figures in the world of rider safety and rehabilitation, and innovative new products such as air jackets have hit the market in recent years…

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Water tray? no problem!

I booked a half day off work today to take D for some XC schooling, but because the weather has been so bad everywhere was shut! So instead we boxed a few miles down the road to hire a local arena and some show jumps. All winter I have tried to keep D’s jumping ticking over, but have been pretty limited to popping the odd grid or individual fence, and haven’t jumped a round for 6 months!!! I was SO pleased with how he jumped today, he was relaxed, athletic, listened to me, and generally gave me that great feeling…

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Dressage drama! 2x 2nds and 71% personal best!

Well today was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster, let me explain… I took Dustry to Sparsholt for his first competitive outing since last October, I had entered him into 2x affiliated (open section) BD prelim tests, and was hopeful that he would perform ok given that I have been working hard over the winter, at home, and with my instructor Amanda Brewer, but also conscious that he hadn’t been out for a while so could be excitable. The warm up seemed to get very crowded, very quickly (15 horses in a 30×60) and when I asked for a canter…

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GHE gets a GoPro!

I have been lusting after a headcam or similar device for quite some time now, so when a colleague of mine upgraded, and decided to sell his GoPro HD Hero2 I snapped it up! The weather has been atrocious for the last few weeks and even though GoPros are waterproof I didn’t fancy taking it out to capture some dank, gloomy, wet footage, so in true fair weather rider fashion I booked an indoor arena to do some gridwork, and play with my new toy. Watching the footage back it seems I have a talent for filming my chin, arena…

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