I did rather different to the norm activities this weekend! Having seen the results from a friends photo shoot with Pierre Lemond I was desperate to have a go. So when they rang up asking if I was interested I jumped at the chance. I took my friend along as part of her 18th birthday treat and we had a great time. Bar all the waiting around...! Although MacDonald's on the way home made everything seem okay! 
Below are the photos, I hope you like them - it will probably be the last time you see me looking like that and not covered in bits of straw and muck! (Click to enlarge)

I realise I haven't made a blog entry for a while so I thought I would do a quick post and update you on what's happening. 
George is having his end of season holiday and so has joined Jack in the field! In a few weeks he will have some physio and then come back into work with the aim of re-building his muscles more correctly and thus making his back end stronger. Currently I am just starting out at Cardiff Uni where I am reading Medical Engineering. So far, so good, bar our first lab session which we had yesterday - It was stressful to say the least...!

I have joined the Cardiff Mountaineering (CUMC) and Sub-Aqua (Diving) societies, so I will be having lots of fun! The other weekend we (CUMC) went down to climb on the Gower. I haven't done any pure climbing in years and really enjoyed it. (See photos below).
I also did a 'test dive' yesterday with the Sub-Aqua society to see if I wanted to sign up to the course, it was really cool so come next week I will be starting by BSAC course and by the end of the year I will have my Ocean/Open water diving qualification.

Today was just one of those days where nothing really went as planned! My last run at Somerford had gone really well and so I was hoping to do a repeat performance in the Dressage and XC and hopefully improve the SJ. Both times I have been BSJA with George we have had just 4 faults in the Foxhunter. So I know a clear is within our reach!

Unfortunately George was very tense in the Dressage. A combination of a long time since his last outing and some strong wind meant that although he went sweetly enough, there were lots of errors. Trot instead of walk, canter instead of trot...you get the idea! We finished up with 41 which was fair.

The Show Jumping was causing quite a lot of problems but I wasn't feeling particularly nervous. We went in and actually did probably our best round in competition yet. There was minimal running into fences by George and we hit most things on a good stride. I was therefore absolutely gutted to have three fences down....George has a very good jumping record but is very quirky and tricky to ride. I think I just need to spend the winter getting used to him, stopping his bad manners that I've let him learn and just generally learning to push the right buttons. I have no doubt that the clears will come, but it will take time.

Finally the best bit! When I walked the course I wasn't worried and thought it was fairly straight forwards. However when I arrived at the start box, the starter asked me if my horse was good XC. I said yes normally, he then replied saying ''so are you going to get through the finish''. I was like yes I hope so, are not many people completing?! He was like...No....not many! This obviously filled me with confidence just before my round! George didn't give me as good a ride as at Somerford but we went clear with just 10 time faults so that's what counts! Although unfortunately I had to do a long route (my first EVER long route on a XC course...literally EVER!) At the second water you did a big drop in, then a 90 degree left turn, up a slope and out over a corner. As I landed in the water I went to collect up my reins and completely lost my left rein and was clearly totally unable to turn him left to the corner so had to think very quickly and go long!

So all in all not our finest day! But on a good note, the SJ and XC caused lots of problems so I managed to come 6th and gain 2 points!
Oh and I also found out that I have got into Gatcombe 2*! So I will be doing my Dressage first thing on Friday morning!

To earn some money before I head off to Uni I have started working back at Venetia Williams Racing. I thoroughly enjoy riding out for her as the lads & lasses are such good fun! I am desperate to have a proper go at pointing and riding out again is making me crave it even more! So I have decided to turn into a racing bean......check out my hat below!

First things first, sorry for the rather length delay in writing this report. I have been very busy with work and seeing to George who is based with Tor at the moment on DIY livery and I haven't been getting home till quite late.

I have never been to Somerford before but will definitely go again. It was a lovely event with a very big show jumping arena (on a surface), and a fantastic long, big and tricky XC course!

The week up to Somerford George had been based with my trainers on DIY livery so that I could get some lessons and he had been going brilliantly, both jumping & on the flat. So I was really hoping to see some of this improvement coming through at the event. And by god it did! George did his best test to date with me and got a brilliant 35.9! By far our best mark!

I wasn't sure how the Show Jumping would go. I know we are both capable of a clear and we jumped a Foxhunter well a few weeks ago with just 4 faults but we are both a lot more tense in competition. True to form we warmed up brilliantly, but had a disappointing two down in the ring. I just let him run on down a related distance and we then had the following fence down as well. The course did cause a lot of problems so 8 faults did not look out of place, but ideally I want no worse than 4 faults at the moment.

Finally was the Cross country! I was a bit concerned as it was a tough track and only our 3rd course together. However I needn't have worried, he gave me an absolutely foot perfect round. He was absolutely flying, didn't touch a fence and was as straight as an arrow! Consequently, even though I very nearly jumped the wrong 2nd last fence and went on a bit of a detour, we still had one of the quickest times of the day!

So all in all a very good day. I was especially pleased with the Dressage & XC. I know the show jumping will come, it will just take some time before we are fully in sync in the arena. Overall we finished 5th which I was thrilled with! Although my 2 fences down did prove very costly!!
Our next stop will be Pontispool OIU21 and then Gatcombe CIC**.

I am currently on holiday in the Alps on a downhill biking/mountaineering holiday and since we have had a few days of very wet weather I decided to put the free time into making a video for Jack.

I just wanted to say a little thank you to my superstar horse who took me from Novice to Advanced in one year including double clears & placings at Intermediate/2* level along the way!

Jack is now fully retired and mooching around in the field at home! He has no shoes and looks very feral...! He also enjoys the company of George in the day time! I'm not going to lie...I really really really miss riding and competing him and I think he misses it too! So I plan to jump on and have a play in the field with him at some point.....shhh don't tell anyone though!

On Wednesday we took George to Dauntsey for our second run together, the outcome of this event was going to be the deciding factor on which class to enter at Somerford in August.

Our Dressage wasn't brilliant, the trot work was mostly okay with his mediums and rein back being very nice, but unfortunately I still haven't clicked with his canter in the Dressage arena and we lost some marks here. His test at Purston was much better but thankfully this judge didn't seem to despise us and we got a fair mark of 43. I am sure the 30's will come but it will undoubtedly take time.

George warmed up brilliantly for the Show Jumping - I was relaxed in my arms and consequently he was coming round to fences in a lovely rhythm, without fighting me and making beautiful shapes. In the ring I tensed up a bit in my arms so he was fighting me in the round and it was a bit rushed at times, but we met everything on a good stride and jumped a good clear round which is what we like!

The Cross Country was fairly up to height and had some interesting questions that would test our control and accuracy, the main fence that concerned me was 13 & 14ab. You had to do a very big step up then turn 90 degrees left and jump down another step, do one stride, then turn right on a six pence and then 2/3 strides depending on the horse and over a very large skinny tripple brush. 

However George stormed around the XC jumping everything very easily but because it was quite a twisty course we never really got going and ended up with 9.2 time faults. 

All in all very pleased, we did a good double clear and so I have decided to crack on and enter the OIU21 at Somerford....watch this space!

Purston was my first proper event with George and having owned him for only a week I wasn't expecting any miracles but just wanted a good day. It didn't go quite to plan but it's all there I just haven't quite learnt how to harness it just yet.

His trot work in the dressage was very nice, a couple of resisting moments but they were very minor. His leg yields were both good as was his medium trot. The canter work wasn't so good as I haven't quite grasped the knack of containing him in this pace in the arena. I had been aiming for a mark in the 30's but thought we would probably get a 40/low 40's. I was very shocked to find out we got a 47...! We all felt this was unduly harsh and that the marking had a lot to be desired, it was all very strange. 

Onwards and upwards to the Show Jumping , the course was causing a fair amount of problems and I was feeling very nervous for some reason. He warmed up well and in we went. Jumped one, two and three really well. Then came round to four and we saw a very positive stride in and then he tanked off with my rather and we jumped the following double and upright at break neck speed. Consequently he had the second part of the upright down behind. I reorganised the canter and came round to the big plank parallel, we met this in a good rhythm and on a good stride but unfortunately George hit that behind as well and then tanked off again and had the next upright down behind too. We then jumped through the treble combination and last upright clear. So a disappointing three down, however it was a very fluid round and much improved on Salperton. I just need to find a happy medium between too much and too little canter. I think I will try Show Jumping him in the Neue Schule universal gag.

Finally the XC! I was a little bit concerned about my brakes after the SJ and considered putting the gag in for XC but then realised I didn't bring it so that wasn't an option! I was again quite nervous seeing as this was my first proper XC on him but needn't have been. He gave me a fab ride and the brakes weren't too bad. I don't think we had any dodgy moments and he jumped through all the combinations in foot perfect style to finish four seconds inside the time!

So all in all a bit disappointing but we are still getting to know each other and he really is a very talented little horse and I know we can do it! Practise makes perfect and all that! I am going to go Show Jumping at Summerhouse on Sunday to do the 1m10 and 1m15 and play around with bits etc.

Primarily I was going to Associates camp to use it as my Residential section for my Gold Duke of Edinburgh but it actually came at a very useful time to cement my partnership with George!

On the first day we had lessons with either Jonty Evans or Sophie Martindale. I had Sophie and we did grid work in the school. This was incredibly fun - NINE bounces in a row! George was, as Hannah described him, like a Ballet dancer on acid! He is such an athletic little horse!

Next up was a Show Jumping session with Kenneth Clawson. This was very interesting and highlighted how little attention most of us paid to what we were doing. He told us to ride a square in canter and then proceeded to ask us how many strides we got on each side and none of us had a clue. Once this had been highlighted we all rode accurate squares with 9-11 strides on each side depending on the horse in question. Kenneth then said that immediately our riding and the horses way of going improved dramatically because we were riding determinedly and accurately. When we started jumping we worked on control and so had to get five strides in  a four stride distance. This highlighted how I was being very fixed in my elbow which was causing George to run against my hand into the base of the fence, once I softened my arms this was much improved.

We then went on a little trip to Talland to ride some schoolmaster horses. I ended up with a little grey pony that I had to literally drag out from the yard....everyone was in hysterics! However he turned out to be the best one in our group and a very cool little dude! He was an FEI team pony and trained up to Grand Prix level! Our lesson was with Charlie Hutton and unlike the other groups we didn't play around with the advanced level movements but Charlie took our stirrups away and worked on our positions. This was fairly useful I guess but not hugely fun or beneficial to the others in my group who wanted to ride some changes and half pass etc. I wasn't overly fussed as have been lucky enough to have had a schoolmaster of my own (Jack!!).

On Wednesday we had a session riding in the morning and in the afternoon.
In the morning we ran through a dressage test of our choice which was marked by Islay Auty. We then went through the test with Islay to try and improve on various aspects. George did a reasonably calm test, it was much improved on Salperton but still lots to work on - especially in the canter. Islay gave us all 6's and 7's for a mark of 35.5 (64.5%). We then worked on getting him to accept the contact more readily and relax into it in canter. He was better on the left rein than the right because on the right rein he is more stiff and I find it hard to keep him bent around my inside leg. So Islay had me on a circle bending his neck to the right until he softened and then when he did I then patted his neck and gave him the rein. This encouraged him to loosen his neck, bend to the inside and have a softer more relaxed frame.

In the afternoon we had a simulated XC session with Yogi Breisner. This was the first time I jumped George over XC style fences and I really enjoyed it! To start with Yogi just had us cantering around the field to assess our position and the main point he made from that was that we all needed to make sure that our lower leg remained forwards on the girth and didn't creep back as we started kicking our horses! After a few warm up fences we jumped some turning combinations to assess control and also a set of open kick on fences. We then came back to the technical fences and Yogi had us jumping a very tricky combination of three skinny brushes. We had to jump one skinny brush then do a 90 degree turn on 4/5 strides to another skinny brush, then a 90 degree turn in the another direction again on 4/5 strides to a third skinny brush! We jumped this up and down hill and the message Yogi got across was that XC riding isn't about looking pretty, it's about getting the horse clear! All in all it was very successful and Yogi also said that my position was excellent and that I had a very secure lower leg. So now I am really looking forward to doing proper XC with George at Purston on Sunday!

Finally on the last day we had either Jonty or Sophie again. This time I had Jonty and like with Islay the day before, we ran through a dressage test and then worked on what we could improve. We then jumped a course of Show Jumps. George improved yet again on his dressage which was very consistent in trot and much improved in the canter. We then worked on my presentation of the test and my setting up of (or lack of) the movements to ensure that we remained as balanced as possible.

The course of Show Jumps was pretty difficult considering it was the last day and the horses were all pretty tired! It was a very long course of 14 jumps with 17 jumping efforts on terrain that was very up and down and with very light plastic poles! I jumped a 1m10 track on George and we had two down which although not brilliant wasn't too bad and all the other 15  fences we hit on near perfect strides!!

George is now having a well earned day off in the field with my old retired bean that is Supplejack! Jack was SO excited to gain a playmate that he didn't know what to do with himself and just leapt around waving his legs and squealing!

George was entered for Salperton with his previous rider who was also riding another in the AI. So instead of withdrawing & us having to drive all the way over to Lincolnshire to pick him up, she brought him to Salperton and we did a change of rider so that I could compete him! However because I had only ridden him once I decided only to do the Dressage and Show Jumping!

Overall I was very pleased with his dressage! He doesn't have a good track record in this phase and is very hot headed. He was warming up very well but then got spooked by something and unfortunately blew up just before I went in. Considering this I was very pleased as nothing went horrifically wrong in the test and we came out with a score of 40. The marks ranged from 4-7 with both George and I picking up a 7 each. Him for his paces and me for my riding. At the end of the test the judge very sweetly got out the car to say well managed, very quietly ridden and what a shame that he hadn't been more relaxed. I am confident that as I get to know him more we will get some scores in the 30's.

Next up was the show jumping. The course at Salperton is always big and cleverly designed and causes lots of problems. True to form poles were flying down left right and centre. However even though I had only ridden him once I wasn't worried as he is awesome to jump and we successfully negotiated a 1m20 track when I tried him! He warmed up brilliantly but unfortunately our round didn't go quite to plan because I focused too much on not letting him run and take out strides, that I did the polar opposite and we had no canter and he couldn't make the distances and got buried at the base of a number of fences. Thus resulting in a bit of a cricket score. But I am not concerned as it is a mistake I won't make again and everyone needs a bit of a kick up the backside sometimes! It was a big ask considering we don't know each other from adam, and he jumped the triple bar to treble combination to upright absolutely foot perfectly! Next time out I am confident that we will perform in a way that reflects our true ability!

So onwards & upwards! I have one exam left on Monday and then I am at Associates camp with him for four days where we will receive training from Kenneth Clawson and Yogi Breisner before heading to Purston for the ON.