Well, after my GCSE's I went to Matt Ryan’s for two weeks to get some experience working on a competition yard and to get some training in. It was FANTASTIC! Everyone was really nice and I made some good friends. I celebrated my 16th birthday there and we went out to dinner which was nice. Matt and Marie were fantastic at giving advice to you when you rode while they were riding their own horses and I learnt a lot.

It was very hard work and there were some long days when you had to wait for the lorry to arrive back from a competition at 11pm and unload it all and reload it for the next day! But it was well worth it. All helped by the weather being super most of the time and getting a bit of a tan (and some sunburn!)

The Average day:

7:20 - Wake up
7:30 - Muck out and Hay all horses
8:30 - Breakfast
9:30 - Yard
1:30 ish - Lunch
2:10 ish - Yard
5:30 - Feed, Hay and tidy up
5:45 ish - Finished!

Some days it would be your turn to do Paddocks and so you would get up at 6:45 and from 7:00 ish you would go round all the fields feeding all the horses that are turned out at night. Also when it was the day before a competition you would finish considerably later as you would have to plait all the horses, get all the tack ready and pack the lorry etc.

All in all I had a really super time and I am hoping to go back for another 2-3weeks in August and maybe return full time in my gap year- who knows!!

Photos of the Caravan I stayed in, Belvedere and a photo I took off Matt at Badminton (Click to enlarge)

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Well I had a big decision to make whether or not to even do Purston as recently we have been having problems with our show jumping. But in the end I decided to go for it.

Well the Dressage was mixed. He warmed up really well, much better than he has been going and he went down the centre line really well, but then it all went downhill he became very tense in his body and we had some mistakes (wrong canter strike offs) so in the end we got a very bad mark- 45. Although the test wasn’t as bad as last week’s 45. But this was an intermediate test! Oh well, improvements because he was better warming up!


The Show jumping I was terrified! Not helped by the fact that I stopped in the warm up. Went in, jumped 1 well, a little deep to number 2, flew 3, and then the double at 4 is where it went wrong. No stride, went to stop like we have been doing, I booted him and we scrambled through sideways having both parts down. Flew 5, 6, 7, 8, good stride to 9, but it came down which was just belvedere being careless and bad luck, and then brilliant through the triple to finish. So although it looks rubbish on paper- 16 faults!! WE DIDN'T STOP! Which is a breakthrough and in reality it should have only been the 8.
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The Cross Country was a good course with quite a few technical places. He was incredibly strong warming up so I knew I would waste time setting him up for things. Flew 1 and 2, galloped down to three and had to set him up from miles away as he was pulling. Popped the rail, down the step and three strides popped over the skinny. Flew 4 and the angled double at 5. Came to a big drop parallel and he LAUNCHED into space from miles away. I lent right back and slipped the reins. WOW! He is so scopey! I then had a manic collecting of reins for the water, he popped over the crab and the first step and then leapt into the water down the 2nd step and popped over the log coming out. I spent ages getting him back for the steeplechase fence to corner  as I needed control for the three strides to the corner. Popped over the brush, and took a tight line to the corner which meant the three strides were incredibly tight so scrambled the corner slightly, but no major dramas. There was then a gallop and very tight turn over a narrow bridge, so wasted loads of time here. Then flew 10, was foot perfect through the sunken road to skinny. Really collected and neat. Flew 12 and 13. And then realised that even with all the time wasting I was incredibly up on the clock. So we pootled up the hill with a very steady canter and popped through the double at 14, steady over 15 and 16 the last and pottered through the finish. We were still 7 seconds inside! He is well ready for intermediate XC and speed, just not SJ!
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So rubbish day on paper and a very bad 28th, but I had a good day and for the first event since Chatsworth IN we didn’t stop in the SJ!!
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Longleat JRN 03/07/2009
 

Well, another very bad day!

The Dressage was awful; he started off warming up well. I was doing the exercises that Matt Ryan suggested and they worked well. But when we went to canter it all went downhill. He became very tense and it got worse from there on. The test was SHOCKING! We got 45 and deservedly so, it was very very bad. Needless to say I was pretty devastated by that. I am not sure what has happened to our dressage, it has gone DRASTICALLY downhill.

The Show jumping was causing lots of problems, there were poles flying everywhere so I was quite nervous. We went in, jumped 1, 2, 3, 4ab, 5, 6, 7 very well and clear. I came around to the triple and was thinking about the fact that I was clear so far and not the jump that I was wrong and did nothing, I didn’t even kick, and therefore for the third time in a row we stopped. Came round and had it down then jumped the rest clear. So 8 faults + 1 time. Once again I screwed up the SJ, and therefore we got 9 faults when we should have been clear/4 faults.

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He flew round the Cross Country in excellent form and finished well up on the clock very strongly, I slowed right down at the end too. He is definitely ready for intermediate speed. It was nice because when I finished the XC I got off and walked belv back and Lucinda Green came over to me and said that she was very impressed that I was walking back and that not enough people do it anymore!!
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In the end we came 11th as the SJ and XC caused carnage, but even more annoying that I screwed up so much because we could have been well placed! I am so annoyed with myself and I don't know what has happened to our dressage and SJ.
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