It was another early start this morning as I took Thea and Darian to West Wilts today and they were both on at 9am for dressage, swiftly followed by their show jumping and cross country. So there were courses to walk before the action began.
I like to try and organise the competition schedule so that, for a large number of the working pupil outings, I’m able to focus on them exclusively and not be riding myself. 
This works better for me and for them on the whole as I can focus on helping them.
Thea and Darian on Dollar and Keedy respectively are improving all the time. They are both still relatively new to eventing and so there is a lot to take on and absorb. The satisfying thing for me is that I can see improvements every outing, for example Darian’s dressage and Thea’s cross country today.
West Wilts is an educational course with a good variety of permanent cross country fences including a trakener and water plus a few other interesting things. The whole event is quite compact which means everything is easy to access; the course is on the twisty side but it’s still a nice outing. The ground wasn’t great this year which was disappointing: it was a bit rutted and on the firm side – they clearly haven’t been as lucky with the rain as we have over the last week or so.
We were able to head back from West Wilts to be home by lunchtime which enabled me to school my horses this afternoon. Hipp and Tim are back in schooling work along with Coco and Harry which is great. So lots to keep me busy, focussed and out of trouble! You have to enjoy the process of schooling and producing horses to stick at this game and for me this is luckily a big and very satisfying part of my job.
Another couple of days at home for the rest of this week along with some teaching and then I’m off to Catton Park on Saturday and Sunday.
Cheers,
Bill
Posted 16th June
