TheSylv007
Well-Known Member
Thought I'd do a little report as there has been a lack of them recently and I thought I would try and contribute!
Me and Rose had a pretty disastrous year in 2014 which started with a broken finger, followed by a DDFT tear for Rose which resulted in surgery at Newmarket and a winter and spring spent doing walking rehab. Unfortunately halfway through her rehab, I slipped a disc which resulted in being unable to walk properly and lots and lots of excruciating pain! Thankfully we seem to be very much on the mend and we've been building up during 2014 and did an intro back in May to give us something to aim for.
Last weekend we toddled off to Brooksby College to have a go at prelim again following a successful lesson. It was incredibly hot but she was really behaved. She surpassed all my expectations by behaving like a little star (apart from goggling at everything in the first test and we came 3rd in our first class with a score of 70% (which is our highest ever). In the second test, she scored 67% which is still definitely one of our highest scores ever. So happy with her. Got loads to work on but it looks like our lessons are definitely working! She's normally a spooky, tense nightmare but this time, although she was dying to spook, she kept listening and concentrating and managed to keep a lid on it.
She didn't really put a foot wrong. I've now got her barefoot all round (you get interested in your own horse's injuries and the overwhelming evidence seems to be that horses with injuries like Rose are much more likely to come back completely if they have no shoes on). She's coped really well and we've even been hacking our lots with our friends who live up the road. She's improved a lot and the fact that she has no shoes on means that she has much more grip so even when she does spook it doesn't feel like much at all as she doesn't slip. In fact, the other day I hacked her all the way down the road all by myself and she was good as gold! I never thought I'd ever be able to do that as previously I didn't dare hack alone as she was so spooky. I don't know whether its the time of year, the calmer or just being worked which has helped but I'm loving it at the moment.
I was a bit naughty the other week and popped her over a cross pole in the school - she was extremely enthusiastic to say the least - hopefully we'll be able to start again with the jumping and get back to it for winter. I really hope so.
I've succumbed to the blingy dressage trend, she now has a diamante browband. I never thought I'd see the day but look how pretty she looks!!
Hope the pics aren't too massive and please excuse my hands, my gloves are too big and make me look like Mickey Mouse. I have permission to post the pro photo as well.
Me and Rose had a pretty disastrous year in 2014 which started with a broken finger, followed by a DDFT tear for Rose which resulted in surgery at Newmarket and a winter and spring spent doing walking rehab. Unfortunately halfway through her rehab, I slipped a disc which resulted in being unable to walk properly and lots and lots of excruciating pain! Thankfully we seem to be very much on the mend and we've been building up during 2014 and did an intro back in May to give us something to aim for.
Last weekend we toddled off to Brooksby College to have a go at prelim again following a successful lesson. It was incredibly hot but she was really behaved. She surpassed all my expectations by behaving like a little star (apart from goggling at everything in the first test and we came 3rd in our first class with a score of 70% (which is our highest ever). In the second test, she scored 67% which is still definitely one of our highest scores ever. So happy with her. Got loads to work on but it looks like our lessons are definitely working! She's normally a spooky, tense nightmare but this time, although she was dying to spook, she kept listening and concentrating and managed to keep a lid on it.
She didn't really put a foot wrong. I've now got her barefoot all round (you get interested in your own horse's injuries and the overwhelming evidence seems to be that horses with injuries like Rose are much more likely to come back completely if they have no shoes on). She's coped really well and we've even been hacking our lots with our friends who live up the road. She's improved a lot and the fact that she has no shoes on means that she has much more grip so even when she does spook it doesn't feel like much at all as she doesn't slip. In fact, the other day I hacked her all the way down the road all by myself and she was good as gold! I never thought I'd ever be able to do that as previously I didn't dare hack alone as she was so spooky. I don't know whether its the time of year, the calmer or just being worked which has helped but I'm loving it at the moment.
I was a bit naughty the other week and popped her over a cross pole in the school - she was extremely enthusiastic to say the least - hopefully we'll be able to start again with the jumping and get back to it for winter. I really hope so.
I've succumbed to the blingy dressage trend, she now has a diamante browband. I never thought I'd see the day but look how pretty she looks!!
Hope the pics aren't too massive and please excuse my hands, my gloves are too big and make me look like Mickey Mouse. I have permission to post the pro photo as well.
