Hallo2012
Well-Known Member
Essay time!
Due to most friends and fam being busy, micro orange and i took ourselves off for a weekend away on our own but he’s been a total pleasure, so easy to deal with and hasn’t been phased by anything at all bless him
If I had a penny for every person who stopped to compliment his Afro and squishy nose and general total adorable looks I would be a millionaire! The Raf fan club has LOADS of new members and we even got a round of applause after our test which made me well up a bit, what a little dude!
Clearly very happy to be at a big boys show he was very jolly on Sat PM so we went for a bit of a hack down the lane which always chills him out and then took ourselves off to the rather bleak exercise arenas for a 30 min work out with nothing for company but gale force wind and drizzle by that time however at least we missed the worst of the weather and the rather erratic horses caused by that!
Had a surprisingly good nights sleep in the car (!)and was up early for the arena walk... As I suspected hedges, flags, gnome huts and flowers don’t hold much fear when you are a bad ass 17.2hh (in his head!) stallion and he mooched round without a care in the world (much to the jealousy of a few white faced riders being led round on fit to explode dragon WB's!)
By the time we went back out for the test Raf declared it all old hat and stretched on the buckle in w/t/c like a pro despite quite a few other (much bigger!) horses freaking at the tannoy and jumping around a bit. He had his halo wedged firmly on
I couldn’t have asked for more from him in the arena... We were in the notorious Keysoe Arena 3(with the horse eating hedge!) but he didn’t seem to notice !
No, he isn’t a huge elastic mover but he bobs round like a metronome, the suppleness and frame never vary and the rideability ups the marks.
He also did really well to totally ignore the other pony in with us who was rather overwhelmed bless her and spent a lot of time stopping and starting and spooking (don’t worry, it will come !!!)
Over the moon that not only did we win but we won outright (only one over 7) and by a good margin with 7.7 so that’s us off to the final at Hartpury Premier League and something I’ve always wanted to do ticked off the list!
I owe so much to this generous, easy little soul who gives everything 100%, every single time......I've just realised his championship test is the day after i'm at the Festival of Speed so he wont get ridden and it will be a 4/5am start to make the arena walk but no doubt he wont care, wont play up and will give it his all as usual.
I had an interview with H&H afterwards so hopefully there will be a little Raf write up next week!
Due to most friends and fam being busy, micro orange and i took ourselves off for a weekend away on our own but he’s been a total pleasure, so easy to deal with and hasn’t been phased by anything at all bless him
If I had a penny for every person who stopped to compliment his Afro and squishy nose and general total adorable looks I would be a millionaire! The Raf fan club has LOADS of new members and we even got a round of applause after our test which made me well up a bit, what a little dude!
Clearly very happy to be at a big boys show he was very jolly on Sat PM so we went for a bit of a hack down the lane which always chills him out and then took ourselves off to the rather bleak exercise arenas for a 30 min work out with nothing for company but gale force wind and drizzle by that time however at least we missed the worst of the weather and the rather erratic horses caused by that!
Had a surprisingly good nights sleep in the car (!)and was up early for the arena walk... As I suspected hedges, flags, gnome huts and flowers don’t hold much fear when you are a bad ass 17.2hh (in his head!) stallion and he mooched round without a care in the world (much to the jealousy of a few white faced riders being led round on fit to explode dragon WB's!)
By the time we went back out for the test Raf declared it all old hat and stretched on the buckle in w/t/c like a pro despite quite a few other (much bigger!) horses freaking at the tannoy and jumping around a bit. He had his halo wedged firmly on
I couldn’t have asked for more from him in the arena... We were in the notorious Keysoe Arena 3(with the horse eating hedge!) but he didn’t seem to notice !
No, he isn’t a huge elastic mover but he bobs round like a metronome, the suppleness and frame never vary and the rideability ups the marks.
He also did really well to totally ignore the other pony in with us who was rather overwhelmed bless her and spent a lot of time stopping and starting and spooking (don’t worry, it will come !!!)
Over the moon that not only did we win but we won outright (only one over 7) and by a good margin with 7.7 so that’s us off to the final at Hartpury Premier League and something I’ve always wanted to do ticked off the list!
I owe so much to this generous, easy little soul who gives everything 100%, every single time......I've just realised his championship test is the day after i'm at the Festival of Speed so he wont get ridden and it will be a 4/5am start to make the arena walk but no doubt he wont care, wont play up and will give it his all as usual.
I had an interview with H&H afterwards so hopefully there will be a little Raf write up next week!
still covered in blisters!