Twiglet
Well-Known Member
Buzz The Fuzz (the 16.1hh I bought 18 months ago who's now approaching 17.2hh 
) is hopefully going to start BE this year, so with that in mind we had a weekend of unaff dressage and a cross country clinic at Littleton with Lucy Thompson.
Dressage was....meh....neither of us get particularly excited about it, but it needs doing. Have schooled on the flat twice in 3 weeks (bad Twiglet) so wasn't expecting big things. Yard owner/trainer wandered past the warm up and shouted at me, which galvanised us a bit. Anyway, got 2nd in both classes with 65% and 62%....
I did good!
On to the fun bit
Thanks to the wonderful Tarrsteps, Buzz is now loading beautifully...which didn't seem a possibility a few weeks ago. He's probably the worst loader I've ever known (thanks to a bad travelling experience as a youngster), so we needed some input from a pro. Anyone in the Surrey/SE area who's struggling - get her in. Has changed our whole approach, and although he's not the finished article, I now have a horse who's strolling on the lorry like it's the most natural thing in his world 
Have wanted a lesson with Lucy for ages, so signed up with two others from yard. Littleton's facilities are perfect for clinics as there's so much to do in a small space. It's only his 3rd time XC schooling, so lots of things are still new, and this was very much about getting him experiencing things. After a quick run through of what we were hoping to achieve, Lucy had us warming up, over a couple of tinies, then on to what I thought was a pretty decent size roll top (probably biggest solid he's seen). The two more experienced horses chipped in extra strides and napped to the pheasant feeder....Mr Cool pops in his trademark rhythm and floats over to the next jump like it's all a piece of cake
I would have been quite happy to finish there
Did some work on jumping into and out of water which led to me nearly going over his head, but second time around was slightly prettier.
Lucy was brilliant at seeing what was going on straight away and not letting up until it was done right. I was very grateful for my new jumping saddle which I'm pretty sure kept me in the plate when I deserved to be on the floor a couple of times!
We came quite unstuck at his first experience of a decent ditch....cue typical baby reaction - grind to a halt/catleap, leaving me planting my face in his mane. This then progressed from taking off from about half a mile away and jumping me out of the saddle (beautifully captured by our photographer!).
Finished with banks, steps and a brush, all of which he questioned but gave a very good shot at....I spent the entire hour with an enormous grin on my face. It's reinforced the fact that although he's rising 7 he's still such a baby, and there's no point rushing him, but he's proving at least to be the bold honest horse I had a feeling was hiding under the lazy exterior.
Thelwell shot
My Andrew Nicholson impression
) is hopefully going to start BE this year, so with that in mind we had a weekend of unaff dressage and a cross country clinic at Littleton with Lucy Thompson. Dressage was....meh....neither of us get particularly excited about it, but it needs doing. Have schooled on the flat twice in 3 weeks (bad Twiglet) so wasn't expecting big things. Yard owner/trainer wandered past the warm up and shouted at me, which galvanised us a bit. Anyway, got 2nd in both classes with 65% and 62%....
I did good!
On to the fun bit
Thanks to the wonderful Tarrsteps, Buzz is now loading beautifully...which didn't seem a possibility a few weeks ago. He's probably the worst loader I've ever known (thanks to a bad travelling experience as a youngster), so we needed some input from a pro. Anyone in the Surrey/SE area who's struggling - get her in. Has changed our whole approach, and although he's not the finished article, I now have a horse who's strolling on the lorry like it's the most natural thing in his world Have wanted a lesson with Lucy for ages, so signed up with two others from yard. Littleton's facilities are perfect for clinics as there's so much to do in a small space. It's only his 3rd time XC schooling, so lots of things are still new, and this was very much about getting him experiencing things. After a quick run through of what we were hoping to achieve, Lucy had us warming up, over a couple of tinies, then on to what I thought was a pretty decent size roll top (probably biggest solid he's seen). The two more experienced horses chipped in extra strides and napped to the pheasant feeder....Mr Cool pops in his trademark rhythm and floats over to the next jump like it's all a piece of cake
I would have been quite happy to finish there Did some work on jumping into and out of water which led to me nearly going over his head, but second time around was slightly prettier.
Lucy was brilliant at seeing what was going on straight away and not letting up until it was done right. I was very grateful for my new jumping saddle which I'm pretty sure kept me in the plate when I deserved to be on the floor a couple of times!
We came quite unstuck at his first experience of a decent ditch....cue typical baby reaction - grind to a halt/catleap, leaving me planting my face in his mane. This then progressed from taking off from about half a mile away and jumping me out of the saddle (beautifully captured by our photographer!).
Finished with banks, steps and a brush, all of which he questioned but gave a very good shot at....I spent the entire hour with an enormous grin on my face. It's reinforced the fact that although he's rising 7 he's still such a baby, and there's no point rushing him, but he's proving at least to be the bold honest horse I had a feeling was hiding under the lazy exterior.
Thelwell shot
My Andrew Nicholson impression
