No such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing...

Girlracer

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It’s February, we’ve made it, haven’t we?

Hacking in T-shirts, fly rugs, farmers tans… they’re all just around the corner…

The winter break is over and it is finally time to venture back into the public domain. A planned full three days of outings have been motivating us through the arctic temperatures and pouring rain for the past few weeks.

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Day one consisted of a gridwork and Show Jumping clinic, kindly organised by our riding club with a local 4* event rider. A lesson with a trainer that doesn’t know either of us is always a slightly daunting prospect, and particularly one at the very top of the game that we try to play.

I’ll be honest here, you may have noticed, but King and I both have a tendency to want to get these things out the way, and we seem to be of the illusion that speed will help with that… of course I know that isn’t actually the case and we have been working very hard to improve this little fault of ours, which does seem to be coming along. Although during the next hour on this snowy, Friday afternoon I was reminded multiple times – fairly loudly – that we might like to slow down a little. All I can say is thank goodness this wasn’t 12 months ago, otherwise they may not have had much voice left. Of course I know that I am a very different rider to then, and he is a very different horse – I cannot expect a new trainer to know, and therefore make allowances for that… we have despite that taken many positives from that hour spent in the snow on the side of a hill.

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Video here -

[video]https://www.facebook.com/awannabeeventer/videos/1851165051833028/[/video]

Day two… Eventer training!

Yes, that means dressage, not just dressage but dressage in the snow… I like to think we are both starting to enjoy this phase a little more now – thanks to my fantastic trainer who has created many breakthroughs for us over the winter. But I know King well enough now to know never to hope that he might do in the dressage arena as he does at home…

So as we trotted down the centre line, I spent the next few minutes being rather pleasantly surprised. He did a slightly tense, but good for him test to score a respectable 35. Perhaps we are starting this season where we ended the last? He then jumped a, for him, sensible round to finish 5th. This is either a false sense of security or a great start to the season, I am hoping for the latter!


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Video here -

[video]https://www.facebook.com/awannabeeventer/videos/pcb.1851515465131320/1851513088464891/?type=3&theater[/video]

Day three… Arena Eventing…

Arrived in the snow, why break the habit of the past two days? Walked the course… subsequently couldn’t talk to anyone about anything, contemplated my life choices… contemplated whether I might like to now become a dressage diva, maybe even showing?

Got on to warm up in the snow… promptly fell over a 70cm warm up fence, and suddenly decided it might be an idea to come back to reality and actually ride my horse… this seemed to work, as we then cruised round for 4 faults. I was very proud of him, as historically having not seen a XC fence or been anywhere like this for several months (lack of transport makes training impossible) would have been reason to have a silly stop… but today he didn’t falter once, and gave me a great (albeit keen, again… why break the habit?) ride.

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Video here -

[video]https://www.facebook.com/awannabeeventer/videos/1852089591740574/[/video]

Roll on the start of the season!
 
Wow, epic three days!

Thank you for sharing the videos, I enjoyed watching them :) Thought you looked very professional down the curved bounce grid :)
 
Wow! Looks fantastic! Have I missed an update though?..., I thought you were having an enforced break this year due to transport?

Thank you!

No, you haven't. I had the lorry booked for the weekend at the end of January before I made that decision, then he gave himself an injury jumping out of the arena so it was postponed until now. So we made the most of it :)

March however is a month full of lessons at home!

He's looking really good, hopefully your persistence in all weathers will pay off this season!

Thank you. I hope so too.

Haha! Wouldn't that be nice!

Well done, he looks super. What's next for you guys?

No real plans at the moment, but it's looking quite likely that I'll be able to buy a little lorry in a few months time. So just sitting quiet until then, once we have wheels however then I don't think we will spend much time at home!
 
Looking great. Sounds like a really good few days. Making the most of your transport! Hope you get something permanent sorted soon.
 
Great post! Thanks for sharing. You both look fab, and I am v impressed at three outings in February and in snow! Keep us posted with your next adventures.
 
Looking great. Sounds like a really good few days. Making the most of your transport! Hope you get something permanent sorted soon.

Thank you Bernster - I hope so too!

Great post! Thanks for sharing. You both look fab, and I am v impressed at three outings in February and in snow! Keep us posted with your next adventures.

Thank you very much. We will definitely keep you updated in what we're getting up to!
 
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