Sarah & Jack’s Diary, Part 3

Wednesday, October 16th, 2013

18th September

Alison came to the yard today to give me a lesson on Doozer. He is coming along very well, and is really easy to work with because he has such a lovely attitude. We worked on improving his canter transitions by doing walk trot transitions on the three quarter line to get his hocks under him before making a canter transition just before the turn at the end. Will practice tomorrow with a small fence in the school to spice things up a little and keep his head in the game.

20th September

New iRide downloads to play with! Doozer and I have been working to Alison’s “Simple Steps to Long and Low”, which uses small circles between the quarter lines, and spiralling circles with leg yields out to supple and stretch the horse. Jack and I have Amy Stovold’s “Developing Pushing Power” download, which used trot/canter transitions on a circle and loops in counter canter. Love this one, has given us both a really good workout and some great ideas to play with.

22nd September

The liveries and I have had great fun having a go at stretching our horses and ponies using Liz Oakenfold’s “Hands On Warmup” downloads. We all stood out horses on the bottom yard with my phone on speaker and got to know our horses more intimately! Was quite revealing… Lauren’s little grey pony was definitely the most supple of all of them.

25th September

Jack and I had a lesson with Alison today, working on keeping him in front of my leg, and practicing portions of Novice 38 for the last Hickstead of the season. Jack is feeling flat at the moment could be down to a coat change and mild weather.
Priors Farm Vets are coming to do teeth and check-ups & then will clip at the weekend.

Have up’d feeds and have some fun outings planned with friends, grid work and some leisurely beach rides. Then off to Boot Camp with both horses at the end of October.

26th September

Went to visit my other four year old today, Jimmy, who is on loan to my good friend Jo for her lovely daughter Jenna, while she is between horses. He is a very well bred New Forest who was a surprise baby from a mare I bought at the Beaulieu Sales. Had a little ride and he feels so much bigger and stronger than when he left me a month ago, and is clearly very much in love with his new jockey! She is off to a show at the weekend.

27th September

OK, OK, I am currently swallowing my words and am now apologising to everyone I had a dig at for using hanging cheek snaffles… Tried one today and it really helped… Currently eating humble pie…

28th September

Got both clipped. Jack was a star. Doozer was also very good bearing in mind last year we only clipped his chest… That is until I got over ambitious and tried to turn a perfectly good chaser clip into a trace clip and the clippers got round his bum… Wow. Was a bit hair-raising. Please, no-one look at his rear end! Was done in somewhat of a hurry…

29th September

Sad times, last Hickstead till the Spring. Jack looked lovely with his go-faster clip and swanky iRide Training saddle cloth!

He went the very best he has ever gone thanks to Alison giving us a brilliant warm-up, and showed true thoroughness in his test. I let myself down through losing concentration and putting circles in the wrong place. We received plenty of compliments, and Alison and I where thrilled with the quality of work and hoped for a good score despite some mistakes. To absolutely make my day, the nice Horse & Hound correspondent saw me at the scoreboard and said “You are the lady that rides that lovely little Tamrik Horse. Isn’t he doing brilliantly?”. WOWZERS!!

A bit disappointed with a plus 62%, I clearly lost marks for poorly placed and sized circles and I deserved; we also got lots of lovely sevens for his quality trot and canter work with the odd five. However the collectives were down and this is where we lost out with the score, a bit frustrating.

With my last horse, a great big Clydesdale-cross who competed unaffiliated up to elementary, I used to find this a lot. He was my marmite horse. Judges would either love him or hate him. He could pull out high-end 70’s scores, but on the other hand, some judges would not be able to see past his type and would give 60% even if the test was truly through, supple and correct, because he didn’t have the blood. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all! Onwards and upwards…

On a brighter note, Jenna who is only 13, pulled a 64.5% when she took my little 4 year old Jimmy to his first ever test today at unaffiliated. It’s been great to spread the iRide Training knowledge I’ve gained to Jenna and what a super little rider she is becoming.

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