So no exciting cross country schooling sessions to report on with the young horses!

Cheers,

Bill

Posted 2nd February

Peter says: “I’m not a born rider – I ride occasionally, sometimes not for months, sometimes once or twice a week. This year I started riding Ron without a saddle at home, and soon tried a small jump… which is probably when I suggested that it couldn’t be too difficult to do a day’s hunting bareback. And now there’s no going back! Those of you that ride will hopefully realise just what I’m letting myself in for, and I ask that you dig appropriately deep. Those that don’t ride, I hope you can still appreciate the enormity of the challenge. Every donation will make me more determined not to just do it, but to do it as well as I possibly can.”

You can support Peter at: www.justgiving.com/teams/withoutasaddle

Yesterday I took some of the young horses out show jumping. I was expecting some rather wild behaviour and was pleasantly surprised at how well they all behaved given how green some of them are, as they’ve not done that much – JJ jumped particularly well, as did Sooty but none of them disgraced themselves. Timmy and Robbie tried hard and Minty got back in to the groove by the end of the session. Mary and Darian were out on Clover which was good to see and they both got on well. Although it was a bitterly cold day it was good to get out and about and it definitely brings the horses on, taking them away from home to jump and experience different things.

This week, weather permitting, we start cross country schooling with the young horses at our local venue, Swaycliffe. I will update you shortly and I hope there won’t be too much excitement to report.

Cheers,

Bill

Posted 31st January

On Sunday night we found him tangled up in the water filter ‘thing’ he has in his tank (apparently you have to have one nowadays for health and safety or some such thing – or at least I fell for it when told in the shop!) So dear Bubble had to be prodded and poked to extricate him while the tears fell. All was not OK as Bubble proceeded to swim with a wonky fin/tail and so more tears from Urssie…. And worse still, Jenny thought she had seen some of its fin still in the filter.

Anyway after rather a lot of stress Ursula finally went to sleep and this morning I wondered what I would find. Miracles do happen – Bubble was no longer swimming in circles and the ‘fin’ in the filter was in fact a piece of coral ‘thing’ so drama over.

And I thought a goldfish would be hassle free!

Cheers,

Bill

Posted 23rd January

On the horse front all is going well at home. The horses are all progressing well with their schooling, with many of them having a jump this week for the first time post Christmas. They were all very pleased to be jumping and I hope to have many more weeks like this one as I think out of a dozen horses only one pole had to be picked up throughout all the jumps we did!

This coming week we have three new faces joining the team which will be great, Emily, Hannah and Bethany. Dotty comes back at the end of this week and Sunny shortly thereafter. The horses programmes are all planned out and unbelievably Jenny will start doing entries this week so before long the season will be upon us.

Last week was a busy one in terms of visitors to the yard as we had the horses saddles all checked and adjusted as needed, which involved two saddlers coming to the yard –which was interesting. Indeed we were lucky enough to have Frederic Butet himself come and check a few of the horses! We also had their teeth done and many of them had their backs done so there are no excuses; the horses have had the horse equivalent of a ‘make over’ in the last few weeks with both their manes/tails and hair trimmed and polished, and their teeth and backs checked and saddlers to top it all off!

More updates later this week on the horses progress.

Cheers,

Bill

Posted 23rd January

We also received more good news today in that Prolite Boots have agreed to give us some product support which is great. I’ve used the boots for more than 10 years and completely believe in them to keep the horses well protected, giving me peace of mind cross country.

So all in all a good day at the office – all still to do but as they say, ‘you have to be in it to win it’ and we are certainly still very much in contention.

Exciting times!

Cheers,

Bill

Posted 16th January

With Cocoa we worked on changes and he did the best ones he has done which was pleasing. With Hipp we worked on the quality of canter; it is great to have the old boy back, we’ve done a lot together and it is always enjoyable to train a horse as genuine as him.

Ricky has come on a lot and his holiday has been great for him – it is often true that just having a break improves the horse and this is what has happened with Ricky. Both Tommy and Alfie need more time just to establish themselves at their levels but it has been very benificial to get back focussed so soon with them all.

Cheers,

Bill

Posted 15th January

It is amusing to watch all of the different reactions of the horses to the hunt being around – it is easy to tell the difference between those that have been out and get it and those that are ignorant to what it’s all about. All were safe and sound in their boxes so all was well, despite the hounds deciding in was interesting to explore the stable barns and our garden at one point!!

We and a few friends watched from our garden as the hounds and fox and field played a game of ‘cat and mouse’ across the fields and countryside around us; the fox won out and got away which I was secretly pleased to see. It’s amazing how much ground the hounds appear to cover in a short period of time from what I can observe.

Anyway it was an interesting distraction from mending field drinkers……. I get all of the glamorous jobs. Tomorrow I’m off to dressage lessons with Bettina which I’m looking forward to.

Cheers,

Bill

Posted 14th January

Today was slightly different as it was all about exercises I can do on a horse to help me manage my physical ‘wellbeing’. Jon gave me some really helpful and easy to implement tips which I never would have thought of in terms of stretches I can do on a horse and other little tips about how I get on and how I position my shoulders etc. Really interesting stuff and again helpful and practical.

Cheers,

Bill

Posed 13th January

Jenny’s strong suit is my ‘development need’ as I find the whole thing exhausting, especially as I’ve been left with strict instructions to write everything down – a good idea so I know who I’ve spoken to and what I’ve done/agreed etc but again challenging. So suffice to say anyone who’s spoken to a slightly frazzled Aussie will now know why!

Cheers,

Bill

Posted 12th January