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…
…..Cala Russell! Congratulations Cala the random number generator picked you as the 12th comment number from the 31 entries and so you are the winner! If you email me the address you want your prize sent to I’ll package the jacket up and pop it in the post asap! Congratulations and enjoy!
In preparation for the Area Festivals on Sunday 26th August my mega instructor Amanda Brewer recommended that I book Dustry an appointment with Becky Dean. Becky is an equine Shiatsu practitioner and has a very enviable client list comprising top level racing, showing, eventing, and hunting yards. I am always a little sceptical about things like this because I am aware there are a lot of quacks out there selling ‘snake oil’ but given that Amanda uses and recommended her I knew she must be good! What I didn’t realise was how good she was until I schooled Dustry last night! He has never…
I am excited to announce that I have a lovely new sponsor! NAF (Natural Animal Feeds) are sponsoring me with their lovely products in return for first hand product reviews. This is fab news for me because there are so many ‘lotions and potions’ on the market sometimes it is hard to pick between what actually works and what is just packaged/priced more attractively than the next product on the shelf! 😉 Trialling NAF’s range of supplements and products will allow me to see for myself first hand what works well for me and my horse. I have used numerous…
Well today I took Dustry for his 3rd ever dressage outing, back to Sparsholt again for their unaffiliated dressage. Yesterday we had an EPIC lesson and it was serious hard work, but he produced some of his best work to date, and so I think he was feeling the impact of this effort today as he was unusually a bit inconsistent in the contact. His first test (Prelim 19) contained some lovely trot work, and a really good ‘stretch on a 20m circle in working trot’ scoring him an 8! but it was miles off the quality of work we get at…