Behind the scenes with Mountain Horse! Spring/Summer 2014 shoot

by on ·General, Tried & Tested, Work with me!

During a recent glamorous motorway services based pow wow with my sponsor Mountain Horse we came up with a list of ideas for some collaborative activities, and last weekend we ticked the first item off the list. I tagged along to Mountain Horse’s video shoot for their 2015 Spring/Summer collection and embarked on some covert filming of the team in action as the day panned out. You can see the video I made of the day below. To look through the full behind the scenes album of images I took click here (they are all on Mountain Horse’s Facebook page)…

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Show jump schooling, just can’t get enough!

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I popped to a local arena and dragged Mummy Groom with me to be chief pole-putter-upper and camera man whilst I schooled D over a little course of jumps. It was SCORCHING and we were under attack from flying ants by the end of the session, but all in all it was a very productive outing. I get a bit ‘rabbit in the headlights’ when competing at SJ so I’m trying to get in more independent schooling sessions so that I can build up my experience and learn to think for myself, rather than freeze and kick! Pretty chuffed with…

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Enjoying the benefits of aloe vera thanks to new sponsor Aloeride!

by on ·General, Stable & Horse Mangement, Work with me!

I’ve dabbled with aloe vera products for myself (excellent as an after sun product, I found that out the painful way!) and my horses from time to time, but I’ve never used them consistently as part of my horse’s care or nutrition that is until now… I recently decided to trial a month’s supply of Aloeride supplement for Dustry because he had come out of the winter looking much leaner than I wanted and despite giving him 3 feeds a day, ad lib hay, and always making sure he wasn’t losing any condition by being appropriately rugged he wasn’t putting…

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Ascot-under-Wychwood Dustry’s 2nd ODE

by on ·Competition Reports & Training, General

5am alarm, plaiting in the lorry, 2x sets of tack and my favourite green and white xc gear it’s eventing time again! We set off to the BE80 at Crown Farm, Ascot under Wychwood for D’s 2nd ODE and what a mega day we had. Things didn’t start too well though we got there nice and early so we could walk the course and on my portaloo pit stop before setting off round the xc I managed to drop my apple (breakfast!) down the portaloo, I flushed it goodbye and off we set round the course. The course seemed very…

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Intense show jumping hit & no hanging about!

by on ·Competition Reports & Training, General

Love show jumping but hate hanging about for hours on end for your class to start? me too! We needed to get some show jumping practice in before our 2nd event on Sunday so instead of looking for a local competition and entering a few classes, I boxed off to Rectory Farm Arena for some fun and efficient show jump schooling instead. No hanging about for the class to start, no crowded warm up to contend with, no silly jacket required that would boil me to death, and no bank loan necessary to cover multiple entry fees, perfect! After initially…

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XC shooling and ‘GHE cam’

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I booked some time off work to go and do some more winter regional point hunting at BD, but sadly missed the entry date so quick change of plan and off XC schooling we went instead. XC instead of dressage? I’m not complaining! I charged up my hat cam and strapped it on to my hat to see what I could capture, unfortunately I didn’t screw it in position quite tight enough and so it dropped down a little too low with all the jumping up and down. The gopro lens thankfully has a huge range of field so even…

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Adjustable gullets – the flexible and affordable solution for horses that change shape

by on ·General, Tried & Tested

For anyone retraining an ex-racer or bringing on a youngster one of my top tips would be buy a saddle that fits that has adjustable gullets, they will save you so much hassle and a small fortune. When I first bought Dustry I rode him in my Exselle Debut close contact saddle. I pretty much rode everything in this saddle! The front points on it were so short that it never impinged on shoulder movement and as a result it also had a massive potential range of width fittings. With a good numnah, half sheepskin or riser pad it would…

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3 is the magic number

by on ·Competition Reports & Training, General

Today we went in search of points! This year my dressage aim is to qualify for the British Dressage Winter Regional Finals, and for that at Prelim level we need to gain 19 ‘prelim points’ in winter qualifier classes. We arrived at the venue, tacked up and started to warm up in the indoor and IT WAS HOT!!! Thankfully we were allowed to compete without jackets which made it much more comfortable. The first test was a bit lack luster, Dustry sort of dried up on me in the arena which resulted in a trip into the walk as he…

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XC schooling at Rabson Manor

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We boxed off to Rabson Manor today for a little XC schooling, the weather was glorious and both Dustry and his cobby companion were fab. The going was just perfect and as I hadn’t been to Rabson for quite a while I was pleasantly surprised by all the new jumps they had added. The XC now spans 3 large fields has 2x water complexes and lots of fences from beginners up to Pre Novice.   We warmed up and popped a few simple fences then went for a play in the water. Dustry wasn’t keen at first to go in…

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Combined training on grass at Elmwood – 11th!

by on ·Competition Reports & Training, General

Today after having our competition plans last weekend scuppered by Dustry’s love sickness we set off to Elmwood for some combined training on grass. This is a great venue and we’ve been here several times before for sj and xc schooling. You could choose between 2x tests a BD Prelim or a BE test so we plumped for BE90 test 95 with a round of SJ at 80cms. He was super to warm up, and did some of his best work to date. Having last been out eventing he kept locking on to the xc fences dotted about near the…

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