Just a quick update of what is going at the moment! Belvedere is continuing to come on well and will be coming home soon. This coming week I am going to take Jack with me and work at Tor's so that I can get used to riding Belvedere more and have some help from Tor. At the end of the week I am going to head up to Cumbria to celebrate a friends 18th and Jack will come home with my mum. Depending on how things have gone, Belvedere will either come home with Jack or we will collect him the following week. Therefore I will (hopefully) be able to get out and do some eventing on Belv shortly and have planned for our first event to be an unaffiliated Pre-Novice at Stockland Lovell.

Jack is doing very well and I have enjoyed playing with him on the flat. He is very good at counter canter and simple changes so that has been very fun. I have also toyed with a few strides of half pass etc which has been enlightening! We took him and Rosie to the gallops today for a bit of a fitness run which was great fun. Jack looked distinctly racehorse like and was fitter than I expected which is good! Fingers crossed for Weston in a few weeks!

And finally, we had a hunt ball in honour of our retiring Huntsman (Harley) on Friday night, it was a very good evening. My brother and his friend were there taking photos and they got some lovely shots.
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Well just a quick updates on Belvedere's re-training with Tor. It has been going extremely well! I went and rode him on the last week (on the 7th) and Tor said it was the best he had gone! Here are some videos from last week (including some hissy fits!!)
Then today (after show jumping on Jack) I went for another session and I was THRILLED with the way he went! Although it probably doesn't look much different from the session last week it felt so much better to me. I felt much more in control and I felt his outline was much more consistent! Although my arms need to strengthen up a bit as we now have quite a strong contact!!! Excuse the jumping kit - Tor popped him over a few jumps afterwards! I am going to jump him with Tor on Thursday and then I think she wants to take Belv to a Dressage/SJ competition at some point!
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We took Jack to Hartpury for some show jumping today!! Seeing as our first outing at Allen’s Hill was such a success we decided to enter the 1m05 and the newcomers. Last time I competed him he was very strong in the snaffle, so for the 1m05 we put his new jump bit in (neue schule universal) and took off my spurs. However this had the complete opposite effect. Jack was really behind the leg and didn't have enough 'oomph' - I think this was because I now had too much breaking power and not enough leg power. This meant that we had a disagreement on our take off stride at an upright which led to 4 faults and then he spooked at the last fence (a water tray) which we also had down. So a very disappointing 8 faults.
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Jack 1m05
Onto the Newcomers, due to our lack of power in the 1m05 we put his snaffle back in and I put my spurs back on! Wow, what a difference that made, he was much more forwards and energetic! However he was then a lot stronger and I think my round ended up a bit too collected! However it was much improved on the first one and Jack did a lovely little clear!! There were a few places that he struggled to make the striding - I think due to him being a bit too collected. But my first clear at newcomers so I won't complain (and there were only six clears in the class).
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Newcomers - Clear
Finally was the jump off, I was desperate to get a double clear however it clearly wasn't meant to be. Jack jumped the first jump off fence beautifully and then I kicked on and cut the corner to the triple bar, unfortunately I didn't see a stride and we crashed into the bottom of the fence. Jumped it fine the second time around and popped the next very large spread very cleanly. It was then round to a double off the wall which we got very close to and just took the first rail out. The next very big upright and spread he popped absolutely foot perfect and then clear over the last. So a very annoying and disappointing 8 faults. However I am still getting to know him and he was clear in the newcomers which is the main thing!!
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Yesterday I went to ride Belvedere again. It has been two weeks since I last rode him and wow he has completely changed once again! Last time he was very soft and relaxed but everything felt very fragile. Like at any moment it could all fall apart. We were also not asking much from him, but over the last two weeks Tor has been continuing on with him and it has all become much more established and she has been asking him to work properly. This does mean that he sometimes resists it because he finds it hard, but it is clearly on the right track. It was very different to what he was two weeks ago, but in a good way. It didn't feel like it was about to fall apart and I could actually ride him from leg to hand with a strong contact like a normal horse! He is clearly much more uphill and collected than he ever has been before so I am hoping that with time he will get used to using these new muscles and will find it easier and therefore will have a more consistent and relaxed outline. However I think it all bodes well for the future!
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