Recent content by HelenBack

Thanks, that's reassuring. I have found them somewhere for about £170 so I wonder if that's the same place. I'll message you to check as I was going to order a couple of other things at the same time so would be good to know to avoid if possible. Thanks, yes very helpful :)

I was thinking about this and I do get the pro rider's point of view, and have actually wondered to myself whether I will go back to a more traditional stirrup (this is the first pair of safety stirrups I've owned). I suppose it's difficult though isn't it? Yes, the mechanism can fail but then...

Has anybody used Rid'Up stirrups and do you recommend them if so? Obviously I'm especially interested in how they perform in the event of a fall. I'm currently using the Acavallo Alupro stirrups and I've had a couple of incidents where I've nearly come off and my foot stayed in the stirrup. One...

No. I wouldn't want to ride around a dead pony and can imagine it might be unsettling for my horse. If I was the owner of the pony I would be devastated at the thought of somebody being so inconsiderate and just continuing like that. Sounds like the instructor was only thinking about their time...

Thanks for all your comments, you've all given me a lot of food for thought. The reality is that round here I'm not going to find 24/7 turnout on masses of well draining land with a lovely field shelter and some nice hard standing or mud mats etc. It just ain't going to happen. I did look at...

So it seems that mostly stabling is not seen as being so bad then! This is actually a very easy going horse who doesn't mind being stabled, although since living out he does seem to get bored quite quickly when he does come in and will push the door open to go out again! He does seem to really...

I'm just considering my options really. I have a retired horse who has arthritis as well as a few other issues. He's exceptionally happy in himself but is quite stiff behind. I'm lucky where he is now that he can live out and he does seem to enjoy that, even with this rubbish winter we've had...

Thanks for this advice, I've certainly had quite a few rage attacks in the last few days, some of which I've managed to supress better than others! Are there any particular brands of vitamin D you recommend? I'm usually a bit of a cheapskate and get Tesco's own brand vitamins but it sounds like...

I have a question for everybody who's had enough, do you think you'd still be fed up with the non-stop bad weather if you didn't have horses or is having horses making it worse? I'm another one who's completely fed up of it now, we've been lucky to have ongoing turnout on my livery yard but the...

It's because the BE ACE qualifiers have to over knock down fences. That's like their entry level competition and then they have the next step up which is over solids. It must have been a hell of a job to change the course overnight though!

It does sound good and my horse doesn't have feathers so hopefully he wouldn't bring back any extra friends with him! Good tip on the bedding though, I'm pretty sure I would have room and that could help on the hygiene front too. It does sound a bit yukky to deep litter when there's multiple...

That sounds great, thanks for sharing your experience with me :)

Thanks everyone, this is all really helpful information. I'll get the qualification registered asap this week and then I can have a look at the timetable to see what other classes could be suitable to aim for. I'll probably just sleep in the lorry. The Premier Inn sounds great but I think I'd...

Yes I was thinking it might be worth trying to qualify for another class. Quite a few places round here seem to run qualifiers so I can at least give that a good go! How did you find the stabling there?

Horsey and I went out to an arena eventing competition at the weekend. We came third and have now qualified for the Sunshine Tour. I'm completely out of the loop on this sort of thing and know nothing about it apart from the fact that it's at Hickstead! Part of me is quite excited at the idea...