blood_magik
Well-Known Member
So, after Lenny's slightly disastrous dressage outing and a further awful ride, I made the decision to send him for schooling with the end goal of putting him up for sale.
Looking back, I'm convinced that he'd hurt his back somehow as he's now back to being happy to move forwards without any tantrums. That said, I decided to go ahead with selling him and he's been at his new yard for a couple of weeks now. The difference in him is amazing - he's super chilled, in a lovely big stable that looks out onto the main yard and has made friends with the head girl's lovely black lab (I caught him nuzzling the dog over his stable door whereas before he was rather wary of them).
He was 2nd in the 1.05m at his first outing with his new rider and the plan now is to get him out at Newcomers and possibly 1.15m while his BS membership is still valid.
A wee pic from the video of his round:
With Lenny going, I sent my wish list off to my old instructor, who was heading over to Holland to source horses for a few of his clients. Basically, I wanted a younger version of Beau - 17hh plus, forward and relatively honest - and a few days later, I was sent a video of a 7yo WB gelding. Long story short, I bought him and he arrived yesterday.
Meet Enirico Blue VDL (Mr. Blue x Voltaire x Le Tot de Semilly):
I think Beau's a little jealous.
He's very sweet, if rather a lot bigger than I was expecting (bigger than Beau, who's 17.2/17.3 and built like a tank) but I'm sure that won't be an issue once I get my stepladder out of the lorry.
I haven't sat on him yet but if the way he walked around the yard yesterday is anything to go by, I think he'll take everything in his stride. Here's hoping.
And finally, I took the remaining three boys to a local WH/Showing show last weekend just to get them out.
T was in the novice novice workers class as he's just started jumping again after his recent bate of putting in a dirty stop at the last minute (we've put this down to him having his feet rebalanced). Needless to say, I sat right back coming into the first fence in the warm-up just in case but he was fine and flew it without a second thought.
The first fence was a little brush fence, which we haven't jumped before so I put my leg on but other than that, he was on form and desperate to go, and jumped what I thought was a pretty nice clear.
We were called back in for the group ride and he felt great. I'm always wary of not riding forwards enough when he's in his double but he covered the ground just fine and gave the judge a nice enough ride to be placed second. Go T!
Next up was Beau. I put him in the Novice Ridden and then the Middleweight Hunter to give him a bit more ring experience and he really tried. He's always been a bit scatty in the warm-up but he was really rideable and we didn't have any 'is he going to explode?' moments. The weekly dressage lessons appear to be paying off as he was happy to bend equally on both reins and was round and soft.
The novice class was a bit disappointing. We were placed below combinations that were incorrectly turned out (flash bridles and riders with their hair loose down their backs) and horses that wouldn't canter for the judge, and the ride judge didn't really ask anything of the big man when she got on him.
He gave her a sweet ride - his transitions were on the mark and he came back when she asked him to so I don't really know where we went wrong but hey ho, that's showing for you.
Beau's second class went a bit better. There was only two of us - me and Beau, and a combo we know from at home - so I knew what the outcome was going to be going in. Still, it was an opportunity to give the big guy some more ring time and he was brilliant - until he accidentally got a bit too close to the side of the ring and bumped my foot off it. Bless him, he got a bit of a fright and went disunited right before we were supposed to extend, but other than that, he was great. I'm so proud of how far he's come in the last year.
Finally, it was Raz's turn. Apart from a silly spook as the class was coming into the ring, he was his usual fabulous self. He gave the ride judge a fab ride to be placed second in a large Riding Horse class.
We didn't stay for the championship. Instead, we headed home and the boys got chucked out in the field for a few well-deserved hours.
So that's it really... The plan is to continue with Beau's flatwork lessons and get my jumping mojo back with him before I start with Blue and the others. I'm hoping to take Beau to do an intro dressage test before the end of the summer so I need to get my skates on if that's going to happen anytime soon.
Thanks for reading.
Looking back, I'm convinced that he'd hurt his back somehow as he's now back to being happy to move forwards without any tantrums. That said, I decided to go ahead with selling him and he's been at his new yard for a couple of weeks now. The difference in him is amazing - he's super chilled, in a lovely big stable that looks out onto the main yard and has made friends with the head girl's lovely black lab (I caught him nuzzling the dog over his stable door whereas before he was rather wary of them).
He was 2nd in the 1.05m at his first outing with his new rider and the plan now is to get him out at Newcomers and possibly 1.15m while his BS membership is still valid.
A wee pic from the video of his round:
With Lenny going, I sent my wish list off to my old instructor, who was heading over to Holland to source horses for a few of his clients. Basically, I wanted a younger version of Beau - 17hh plus, forward and relatively honest - and a few days later, I was sent a video of a 7yo WB gelding. Long story short, I bought him and he arrived yesterday.
Meet Enirico Blue VDL (Mr. Blue x Voltaire x Le Tot de Semilly):
I think Beau's a little jealous.
He's very sweet, if rather a lot bigger than I was expecting (bigger than Beau, who's 17.2/17.3 and built like a tank) but I'm sure that won't be an issue once I get my stepladder out of the lorry.
I haven't sat on him yet but if the way he walked around the yard yesterday is anything to go by, I think he'll take everything in his stride. Here's hoping.
And finally, I took the remaining three boys to a local WH/Showing show last weekend just to get them out.
T was in the novice novice workers class as he's just started jumping again after his recent bate of putting in a dirty stop at the last minute (we've put this down to him having his feet rebalanced). Needless to say, I sat right back coming into the first fence in the warm-up just in case
but he was fine and flew it without a second thought. The first fence was a little brush fence, which we haven't jumped before so I put my leg on but other than that, he was on form and desperate to go, and jumped what I thought was a pretty nice clear.
We were called back in for the group ride and he felt great. I'm always wary of not riding forwards enough when he's in his double but he covered the ground just fine and gave the judge a nice enough ride to be placed second. Go T!
Next up was Beau. I put him in the Novice Ridden and then the Middleweight Hunter to give him a bit more ring experience and he really tried. He's always been a bit scatty in the warm-up but he was really rideable and we didn't have any 'is he going to explode?' moments. The weekly dressage lessons appear to be paying off as he was happy to bend equally on both reins and was round and soft.
The novice class was a bit disappointing. We were placed below combinations that were incorrectly turned out (flash bridles and riders with their hair loose down their backs) and horses that wouldn't canter for the judge, and the ride judge didn't really ask anything of the big man when she got on him.
He gave her a sweet ride - his transitions were on the mark and he came back when she asked him to so I don't really know where we went wrong but hey ho, that's showing for you.
Beau's second class went a bit better. There was only two of us - me and Beau, and a combo we know from at home - so I knew what the outcome was going to be going in. Still, it was an opportunity to give the big guy some more ring time and he was brilliant - until he accidentally got a bit too close to the side of the ring and bumped my foot off it. Bless him, he got a bit of a fright and went disunited right before we were supposed to extend, but other than that, he was great. I'm so proud of how far he's come in the last year.
Finally, it was Raz's turn. Apart from a silly spook as the class was coming into the ring, he was his usual fabulous self. He gave the ride judge a fab ride to be placed second in a large Riding Horse class.
We didn't stay for the championship. Instead, we headed home and the boys got chucked out in the field for a few well-deserved hours.
So that's it really... The plan is to continue with Beau's flatwork lessons and get my jumping mojo back with him before I start with Blue and the others. I'm hoping to take Beau to do an intro dressage test before the end of the summer so I need to get my skates on if that's going to happen anytime soon.
Thanks for reading.
