I went to Lynham Heath cross country schooling today with Coco, Tim and Harry – it’s a good venue with a lot of variety although the ground was still on the wet side. They’ve got lots of skinnies and a range of steps down in to water and up a bank with skinnies and a little bounce in to water – some nice variety for an experienced horse. As ever there are a few other types of fence I would love to see – for example a coffin, which I can never find at any cross country schooling venue, and a steep bank that you go up and down a bit like the dew pond at Blenheim, which no schooling venues seem to have but which you almost always meet at the advanced level tracks.
Harry and Tim were both very confident, answering every question and seemingly enjoying being out and jumping solid fences. Coco also went well but was a bit too keen and took a little time to settle and get in the groove – he’s always been a boisterous fellow! All in all it was a good day and I’m looking forward to getting them out this weekend at Lincoln.
We also had a visit from Kerry at Equimagnets who has kindly agreed to support me with some product sponsorship this year. She came to explain some of the new products she is launching to us and give us a new static magnetic rug to use on the yard – we are firm believers in the power of the magnets to aid healing and aid both management of chronic issues in the horses and more acute injuries when they occur. The magnetic boots/rug seem to really help healing and ongoing management in many of our horses and hence we are big users as we’ve seen the results in the horses we have.
I’ve got a couple of young horses in to break at the moment and I enjoyed working with them today. Their owners are in town for the Cheltenham Festival so it was nice for them to be able to watch the horses work and see them begin to progress in the early stages of their training.
The final good thing that happened today is that I’m now really able to crack on with Hipp’s schooling. I was able to canter him during his schooling session today for the first time, which was a great feeling and I really enjoyed working with him – so we can now begin to progress again without the handbrake on quite so much.
All in all yet another day with lots of variety.
Cheers,
Bill
Posted 14th March
