My older brother came back from University for Christmas this weekend, so I persuaded him to take some photos of me and Belvedere. It was absolutely FREAZING, but a gorgeous morning and he got some lovely photos!!

Here are the schooling pictures (click to enlarge)

After the schooling I sat and mooched with Belv in the sun and he got these amazing   silhouetted photos! I LOVE them! (Click to enlarge)

Well, on the weekend I did some schooling with Belvedere the day after hunting and I took my camera down with me and set it up to record. This is the first footage I have in the arena! I hope you like it!

We are hoping to get some Poly block type things aswel so that we can set up some grids etc.

So here are the video's of me and blev schooling, nothing very fabulous or difficult, but just enough to keep it ticking over and keep him supple and relaxed!

After I had finished I got off Belv in the school and took some pictures of him! Then I walked around the arena and he follwed me like a little lamb! Sooooo cute! When I stopped, he stopped, turned and faced me! Bless him!

See pictures and video below!!

Well, with Weston Park JRN Championships next weekend we have been busy preparing!

On Saturday we took belv Showjumping at Summerhouse. We just did the Discovery as we wanted to get a good round in even if it was small, rather than a big round going pear shaped. He jumped very well, but just was a bit careless at one of the last fences and so we got 4 faults, and therefore didn't get into the jump off. But he went well.

On the way home from the SJ we stopped off at the Pincus' for a lesson. I decided to use the Market Harborough so that we could have a relaxed and happy lesson where we could practise movements rather than a tense and upsetting pointless one. He went very well with the MH and did some good work.

Today we took belv for a short and light SJ lesson with Brian. We changed belv's bit to a Vulcanite Pelham to see if he went any better in it. And it seems that he likes it a lot. He was more round, more collected and happier in his mouth. We need to practise with it for a while though before we use it in competition as it is a very different feeling. Very pleased with how he went in the lesson.
Also Brian said that I rode with ''great empathy'' in the ring (RE my BSJA at Summerhouse) and he also said ''next year will be a big year for you!!''

Recently we discovered some Gallops right on our doorstep so on the way home from the SJ lesson we took him for a gallop. I walked him down the gallops and cantered back up to warm up and then trotted down and galloped up twice, and to cool off I walked him down and cantered up at his own pace. He went quite well but I found it hard to gauge his fitness as there were so many factors affecting it. E.g. fairly deep sand surface, thick fur coat, hot day, no adrenalin etc.

Finally, just an update on his cut, it is doing very well. Have a look for yourself:

(Click to enlarge)

Well last week I had my first Team Training session. It was an on foot session where we discussed the Event at Weston Park and certain topics. E.g:

• What to wear
• Studs
• FEI Rules
• Flu Jabs
• Fitness
• Trot Ups
• etc

It was a very interesting and very useful session but did leave me feeling terrified about the CCIJ* haha!

Today was the final training session, it was a ridden session where we practised our:

• Dressage Test
• Show jumping
• Trot Up

The Dressage was interesting. Belvedere started warming up fairly well, then I stopped to take my jumper off and it went downhill a bit, but was okay. I went outside to ride through the test and he lost it. Got so tense and horrible, it was a truly shocking test and I was very upset. But Richard and Sylvia were very nice about it and gave me advice and a new bit for the 2nd ride through.
In the 2nd ride through Richard talked us through it, he gave advice etc throughout the test which was useful and helpful. This test was a lot better but still had a lot of very bad transitions and some dodgy moments!

We then moved onto the Trot Up where we practised trot up etiquette (e.g. saying Good Morning to the ground jury) and trotted up our horses. I now need to practise this with Belvedere using a schooling whip so he marches on more.

Finally it was the Jumping. This was very fun because Richard is so funny and he likes to take the mick out of us! He made us all ride with our hands upside down. Instead of the reins entering between our 3rd and little finger and exiting by out thumb, the reins entered under our thumb. This meant that we had to be soft with our hands and also made sure the pressure was equal on both reins. Belvedere was very good and Richard was very complimentary. Although Belv did have a random 'spazz attack' when I came round to the double. I am not sure why!! Other than that I was very pleased, we jumped a very short course at 1m15 with one parallel at 1m25!!!!

So we had our saddler from The Horse Boutique out today to fit Belvedere for a new Dressage saddle. We had a few reasons for this:

1) His current saddle slips very badly to the right no matter who rides in it.
2) I want a good quality smart leather dressage saddle now that i'm not growing much and i'm doing some international (CIC/CCI) competitions!
3) I will *hopefully* get a decent amount of money from my parents for my GCSE's so I will put all of that towards the cost of the saddle!

So meet my Albion K2 with Genesis tree saddle:

Then onto the Show jumping which was very under height! The 2'9'' was more like 2'3'', but hey ho, it was just for Rosie to have some fun! Anyway, I spoke to soon, the little madam had a stop at the first! Bless! The Clear round ring, had suddenly wacked their jumps up so they were a good 3ft-3ft3, with a lot more fillers than the main ring! So we popped her in that and she did a very sweet round and gained another rosette! Good girl!

Video of the Clear round, and Pictures from the 2'9'' (click to enlarge)

There was a very long wait while they did the 85cm Top Score until the 3'0'' class, so we sat and got very hot eating an egg in a roll as they caterers had run out of food- humph! But eventually it came to an end and I warmed up Ross for the 3'0''. He was warming up very well, until he suddenly stopped at an upright taking me totally by surprise and leaving me clinging onto the side like a limpet! He must have spotted some monster and was clearly saving both of us from a terrible fate! haha!
However, he went in and did a super round, double clear, not stops, and definitely no touching any poles!

Next was Rosie, and this time I was not going to let her stop at the first. But she had already done two rounds and had had to wait hours for this, so was pretty switched off. This meant that she found the distance too hard to get in the double, put a little one in that really wasn’t there and had it down. Then on the final line, we came to a reasonable height spread, I could feel her backing off, took my hand off the rein and gave her two smacks of encouragement. But it was the wrong decision to make, as she then took advantage of this and ran out. Came round again, another smack, popped it very well. So eight faults. It caused lots of problems in the end, and Ross won, and Rosie was 4th. Si not so bad!

Video of Ross' Novice Dressage test and 3'0'' SJ round, and images of Ross and Rosie in the 3ft (Click to enlarge)

Finally, it was onto the 3ft3. There weren’t many in the class so I was hoping for another double clear and win on Ross. However, as we came around to the 2nd, there was a crow on the fence wing, as Ross took off, it took flight and caught Ross' attention so he froze, and forgot he had back legs, so knocked it down. He was lovely around the rest of the course though!
As it turned out, no one went clear and there were three of us on four faults, so they did the placings on the times of our first rounds which were not speed rounds, so Ross was the slowest and came 3rd. Ho hum, not so bad! (Photographer left after the 3ft unfortunately!)

All in all, a VERY VERY hot long day, but we came home with lots of Rosettes (makes a nice change!) and ponies feeling very pleased with themselves I think!

I just hope Ross can do the same at Cleobury Mortimer BE PN this Saturday!