Mid sept weekend plans :p

I've just spent a bit of next months pay on a new pair of Acavallo Arena safety stirrups :) :) Hope I love them when they arrive.

My son has the venice tech safety stirrups, but the adult versions are well over £200....

Reason being that I love my Sprenger stirrups, but one of them has started to regularly click/move under the rubber section on the side, and I am terrified that its suddenly going to break, depositing me on the ground :(

Fiona
 
New “pony” has arrived but he is green as grass so no outings just yet but there’s a hunter trial at our yard this weekend so I’ll ride him into the car park to watch a bit, all part of the education. I’m trying to decide if itd be a bit weird/stalkerish to time it to watch a hhoer do their round, I’ve seem their name on the start sheet...
 
@abbijay why don't you drop them a message to check it's them as an icebreaker? They might be pleased for some support.

I was supposed to be hiring the school at my old yard tonight, but YO has just cancelled which is annoying as it's not the first time. I wouldn't bother trying again, it's just so convenient as it's so close.

Tomorrow we have a lesson at my instructors in the morning. Her school is glorious.

Sunday both horses are having haircuts. Smudge is part polar bear already! Then we are off to watch the BD nationals and check out the shopping. I've finally managed to sell my trailer so have a little money in my pocket😁.

Good luck everyone who is competing!
 
New “pony” has arrived but he is green as grass so no outings just yet but there’s a hunter trial at our yard this weekend so I’ll ride him into the car park to watch a bit, all part of the education. I’m trying to decide if itd be a bit weird/stalkerish to time it to watch a hhoer do their round, I’ve seem their name on the start sheet...


Ooo I'm doing a hunter trails on Saturday in Cheshire *wonders if I've finally made it for HHO fame*!

Though I was keeping it stum as last time I was at Smallwood they cancelled the XC and I didn't want to jinx it!
 
BD's new rules say it has to be 6 months, so it looks like it's becoming the norm.....

BD have clairfied that a horse must have had a vaccination within 6 months of competing, so a little leeway in that you could just compete 6 months of the year if you're canny about when the horse is injected and when the comps you want to do are...

Luckily mine don't react, and it does make sense to be 6 monthly for horses who will be out interacting with lots of other horses where the risk is higher.
 
Ooo I'm doing a hunter trails on Saturday in Cheshire *wonders if I've finally made it for HHO fame*!

Though I was keeping it stum as last time I was at Smallwood they cancelled the XC and I didn't want to jinx it!
Hello famous 👋 would you mind if we come to cheer you on? Or I might come on foot if he’s struggling to cope with it all! Fingers Xed it all goes ahead this time!
 
Well the farm ride plan didn’t work out as share horse’s owner couldn’t get childcare for long enough but looking on the positive side, it was a gorgeous day, we had a really nice hack and then sorted the strip grazing out in the field whilst gossiping 😄

Feel ever so lucky to be allowed to have this lovely boy in my life

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Hello famous 👋 would you mind if we come to cheer you on? Or I might come on foot if he’s struggling to cope with it all! Fingers Xed it all goes ahead this time!

Of course the more the merrier! I shall be on a whizzy grey blur in purple XC colours (I got new ones for my birthday I do not change colours for each event lol). Very excited that I've been recognised :cool::cool::cool: I'll tell Skylla she has to be on her bestest behaviour now!
 
BD have clairfied that a horse must have had a vaccination within 6 months of competing, so a little leeway in that you could just compete 6 months of the year if you're canny about when the horse is injected and when the comps you want to do are...

Luckily mine don't react, and it does make sense to be 6 monthly for horses who will be out interacting with lots of other horses where the risk is higher.
The other thing that does make sense on this is so many venues demand 6 month jabs now so to have them requesting something more stringent than bd was always going to be awkward.

I'm also fortunate that only one of my non ridden ones has a minor reaction to the flu jab.
 
I'm just keeping Arty on a 6 month regime, and the other two on annual, and she has teeth done every 6 months atm anyway so it works out fairly straightforward. If I want to take Dabs out I will just have to pick and choose timings.

I'm not up to much, doing some diy tomorrow and then going to BD nationals for a look about on Sunday 😁
 
I'm currently sticking to roughly 6 months for all of mine, although only two have done much this year!
I'm off to West Wilts on Sunday. I nearly had heart failure when I saw my original dressage time of 8:06, thankfully they managed to change it to just after 9. I live an hour away from my horses, so although the venue is fairly local for them, it isn't straight forward for me! We ran through the dressage today, I'm planning a lengthy warm up!! Thankfully he much prefers the jumping, we are doing the 80 and he schooled around the 90 very sweetly, so I'm going to enjoy that. I think we haven't seen a showjump since about June though!
Hope everyone has a fab weekend!
 
I finally have my saddle back for L, so chuffed I didn't have to buy a new jump saddle for her! My spontaneous purchase from Germany fits her super and was just off to be reflocked the last two weeks. Time for jumping! Also have a new dressage saddle on order for her, still have 4 weeks to wait though, boooo... But for now we have some non-schooling fun :D

Have a great weekend all!
 
My big fella is doing his first CCI2* this weekend 🤢

Dressage yesterday and jumping tomorrow. He has been full of his own importance for the last fortnight, fit as a fiddle and loving the job ... this continued into the dressage 🤣

He has done 2 x 25’s back to back prior but he was quite lit up and a bit of excited tension meant the walk was pretty dire and the fluency in a couple of transitions could be better, but overall we are super proud of him and he’s in the top 10 overnight.

🤞 he jumps well. I just ❤️ Him anyway
 

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So steady marathon for the orange boys as they're only 7 and 9, then an unfortunate 10 penalties for having the groom down! Thought they needed to do a harness repair after the final obstacle.
So cones tomorrow, fingers crossed for a reasonable round!
 
Well, our first ever BD regional finals (my quest) was bloomin' fabulous!!

I still don't really know what to say!!!

Rocky was absolutely foot perfect all day, we didn't make it in time for the arena walk but he was totally cool about it and the prize giving going on in the arena next door. He gave me a superb test :D:D

Not only that but we qualified for the NATIONAL CHAMPS!!
Totally was not expecting that I was just so thrilled that he was an absolute dream all day - what a super star!







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We were at the RAF Champs this weekend. Nearly fell off in the baby 65cm as Rosie went very green on me again but I stayed on and we ended up going clear and coming 5th! She flew round the 75cm but I withdrew from the 85cm as I wasn’t feeling well.

Just hoping the more she goes out the less green over fences she will become and start jumping like she does at home. Absolutely shattered now so good job I only have a week of 14 hour working days to do!
 
So our day has been mixed. Tamba was a bit tense in the dressage, but not too terrible. He did an accurate test and I wasn't too unhappy with it until I saw the not overly generous score of 38.3. (more on that later!) We then moved on to the SJ, where as usual he was a star jumping a beautiful clear in a lovely rythm.
Then the best bit, the xc! He set off beautifully and pinged around. He is one of the most fun ponies to ride xc, and we had a cracking time, having thought I was going to fast, I slowed down possibly a bit too much to be just under 2 seconds off the optimum time. I was really pleased with him and he was such a happy and genuine pony to deal with.
Then on to the debacle of the dressage. On going back to get my sheet they had changed it to 48!! I couldn't quite believe the sheet when I read it, and frankly I'm more than a little bit unhappy that my happy forward pony was basically dismissed completely. He was a bit tense in places, but was entirely accurate. I do feel the fact he has little legs went against us quite a bit!
Still onwards and upwards! Off to a new venue in two weeks so will put a lot of work in in the meantime and see how we go.
 

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My TB mare was built v downhill zaminda, and regularly had 10+ marks in between her scores with judges who got her, and judges who marked every movement on the forehand.

I feel your pain x x

At least the rest of your day went well....

Fiona
 
Fionn and I were out yesterday doing a SJ/XC competition.

He warmed up brilliantly for SJ, but once in the ring I couldn't see a forward shot for love nor money, so we rolled two poles in front.

It must have been our canter, as our derby round a fortnight ago was fab with a forward stride at every jump ..

On to the XC and I was determined to ace it, and we sped round just a few sec over the optimum time (only one inside)..

Need to move up really, but 85cm SJ seems huge 🤔🤔

Sophie was colicky last night when we got home, hence out of hours visit from vet but thankfully she is fine today...

Elderly grey horses are a worry 😭😭😭

Fiona
 
Both my ponies remain broken.

the big lad had his back checked by an excellent chiropractor who said he was sore, had a reset and needed 3 days off (although he's off anyway because he's not right!) He is not at all improved now the 3 days have passed, so I think I'm going to go back to the vets next week.

The little one has been adjusting to his fancy new shoes/insoles. Today he finally looked alright so I had a sit on and he felt pretty good. He's managed to balloon despite being restricted in his grazing and being on a low cal balancer for his meals (just to get supplements in). So he's back in fat camp as soon as he's completely sound.

I've had a lovely weekend playing with the school horses. I took a young rider and my friend to a ODE at Bold yesterday and they both did very well. The kid came 2nd with one of the riding school horses so we were really pleased. Today I took a hack on a lovely big ID then had a flat lesson on a little connie...bit of a contrast.
 
Well the hunter trials went ahead and didn't get cancelled!!!

Had an amazing day, clear round across country and got given free cheesecake!
We managed to only be 9. something secs too slow even with lots of trotting and walking through the water (though she did jump out lol), amazingly we came 5th and got a passed down qualifier (first two had already Q'd) for Eland Lodge Hunter Trials Championship! Only her third time competing XC and only her second hunter trial!

Got to grab these days with everything you have. Horses are so hard, take all you time, effort and strength to keep going and when it all comes together it makes it 100% worth it!

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Brilliant day at the Team ODE at Eland. I was meant too be riding the 90 in one team with Katie doing the 80 in another but with Amber out of action, my spot went to a friend and I had a chilled day cheering everyone on. When I realised the broken bridge was back in the 90, I was quite pleased I was not having to jump it :eek:

Baby Pony was great - best dressage yet and clear just a few seconds over the time XC. Sack the jockey run out in the SJ and a careless pole but regardless of that we are thrilled with her. She is just amazing.

 
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