oldie48
Well-Known Member
Rather belated I'm afraid. Mr B and I enjoyed the two days but it had it's ups and downs. the weather was lovely, thank goodness, I camped as my 3.5 lorry doesn't have accommodation. It was fine except for my airbed malfunction which meant I slept on the ground, not so good when you are knocking on 70!
As we had had a real upset warming up at our last outing and I had let this "eat away" at me for well over a year, we had come to face my fears but in a controlled way. Riding in paired lessons (which I usually avoid) was really helpful, I also managed a quiet warm up arena and did a test in the big indoor arena. The test was OK (64%) altho I managed to go wrong and hadn't really got him properly through before we went in, but we did it.
Charlie Hutton was lovely, I'd go back to him like a shot, he really understood that I was nervous of riding with another horse. I had a couple of lessons with Andrew Gould and TBH I think he suits the more confident/competent rider better but he coped with my stressing and I did feel more confident by the end of session 2.
The vet sessions were very good and I learned a good deal about things I thought I knew. Great to have the latest advice and well worth going to.
I was a bit disappointed with Addington as a venue. We arrived to find our stables in a complete mess and the need to barrow bedding some distance and sort out the stable before I could unload Mr B was annoying, especially as it was very hot. The shower facilities are very poor and they clearly struggle with their water supply generally as filling buckets in the morning took ages. I'm sorry to say that the cafe staff were very rude and the cafe is not open in the evening, fortunately we had booked evening meals otherwise we would have had a problem. If you are thinking of going on one of these camps do feel free to pm me.
Despite a few niggles, I feel I got a lot out of the camp and feel more confident about riding around other horses which I'd put off doing.
Anyway, here is a picture of us, you can see the bags under my eyes from lack of sleep! They had a lovely lady (Eva -Marie Broomer) taking photos and I got some nice ones of my lovely boy. I can recommend her!
As we had had a real upset warming up at our last outing and I had let this "eat away" at me for well over a year, we had come to face my fears but in a controlled way. Riding in paired lessons (which I usually avoid) was really helpful, I also managed a quiet warm up arena and did a test in the big indoor arena. The test was OK (64%) altho I managed to go wrong and hadn't really got him properly through before we went in, but we did it.
Charlie Hutton was lovely, I'd go back to him like a shot, he really understood that I was nervous of riding with another horse. I had a couple of lessons with Andrew Gould and TBH I think he suits the more confident/competent rider better but he coped with my stressing and I did feel more confident by the end of session 2.
The vet sessions were very good and I learned a good deal about things I thought I knew. Great to have the latest advice and well worth going to.
I was a bit disappointed with Addington as a venue. We arrived to find our stables in a complete mess and the need to barrow bedding some distance and sort out the stable before I could unload Mr B was annoying, especially as it was very hot. The shower facilities are very poor and they clearly struggle with their water supply generally as filling buckets in the morning took ages. I'm sorry to say that the cafe staff were very rude and the cafe is not open in the evening, fortunately we had booked evening meals otherwise we would have had a problem. If you are thinking of going on one of these camps do feel free to pm me.
Despite a few niggles, I feel I got a lot out of the camp and feel more confident about riding around other horses which I'd put off doing.
Anyway, here is a picture of us, you can see the bags under my eyes from lack of sleep! They had a lovely lady (Eva -Marie Broomer) taking photos and I got some nice ones of my lovely boy. I can recommend her!
We go to Addington a lot and I'm a fan of it as a day venue, but sounds like there were some less than ideal bits for overnight stays. Shame as it is such a nice venue. Sounds like you made the most of it though, and I'm very impressed you managed to sleep on the ground!
