Beach trip

 Making the most of summer (well in reality Autumn) we finally made our much awaited beach trip.

As a child I have found memories of swimming my little fat pony Frodo. I have long dreamed of reliving my childhood with Sof. 

Last year we were thwarted by sof refusing to get on the trailer. Since then we have invested in a Micheal Peace loading lesson, so armed with my new loading skills we booked a hire box.

O was hoping for a big social trip, but in the end it was just 3 of us. This turned out to be a blessing as it was a sunny October day and everyone was out enjoying the beach. The long flat out gallop I was hoping for was out. But my lovely photographer friend Ben came down and we got to spend our time possing for photos.

In hindsight it was perfect, first trip was nice and quiet and a lovely way to introduce sof to the beach. Had we all galloped about like loones Sof may have lost it and I wouldn't have had half as much fun.

In fact she was impeccably behaved, a bit blulshy and bouncy but that was just excitement. She even braces the waves with the help of Charly who is an old hand at beach rides. She loaded into the box fairly well, and other than a bit of a stress protest pouring she kept it together for the hour she had to wait for Annie to decide to join her (Micheal Peace paid off, I managed to get her in after her owner admitted defeat. I certainly couldn't have done that prior to lesson).

All in all a lovely day and got some fab pics.

Lili dressage clinic

 Since moving to South Warren we have been attending Lilli Broksby Dressage clinics that are held at the yard down the road about once a month.

Lilli is an old Clandon Park friend. As a child she was outspoken, had untamed dark hair and owned a notoriously feisty grey mare named Gemma. Despite being the same age I was quite intimidated by lili at the time. Back then I was a demure awkward and frankly quite odd little girl with minimal riding ability and a much loved geriatric ginger fat pony. So our interactions were limited but I do remember how much Lili doted on her naughty pony, and when we lost my sisters pony to grass sickness Lili was exceptionally kind, and offered my sister to ride said naughty grey as much as she liked. 

Age has only intensified Lili's best qualities. As a young woman she is witty, forthright in the best way and kind to a fault. She has moved on from naughty greys to talented if sometimes tricky black dressage horses. I have stuck with my fat ginger ponies, but gained enough self esteem to actually talk to Lili no and we have a great chat during our lessons. I love going to her clinics I enjoy the challenge of riding properly again. Its great to have someone on the ground to focus your attention and remind you how to ride. 

So far we have worked on general fitness and position, a bit of lateral work, and getting Sof to move forward. Sof at times has felt beautiful, but I still feel like most of the time I am blocking her and battling her into a outline. I know she will go much softer if I get my position bang on but we haven't quite managed it. This is something I discovered in our EE lessons, but have yet to find a way to keep that balanced seat. I thought perhaps its her saddle and as a result I have bought 3 saddles in my quest to improve my seat and her comfort but to no avail. Sofies top line is atrophying and I have been worrying that the latest saddle is still a poor fit.

Last week we focused on my lower leg. Having reviewed the quite shocking photographic evidence of my wondering lower legs I wanted to see if I could get some more stability from the knee down. Lili suggested riding without stirrups to help extend my legs. EURICA! Once my stirrups were removed it felt like everything clicked. Sof became soft and round underneath me and the trot felt effortless. Suddenly I remembered finding a similar thing with Tonto when I schooled hi years prior. Its not the saddle fit, its my inability to use my stirrups.

So this is an exciting light blub moment. Now I need to work out exactly why I struggle in stirups and how I can overcome these issues. I think its to do with tightness in my hips and ankles so perhaps a bit of stretch work and maybe some supportive tack will help. In the mean time I will do some more sans stirrups work to build up Sofies back.

Unlikely Champions

Another retrospective post. This time about the Newlands riding club championship weekend on the 13th September.

In the continuation of live for the day summer of fun I entered me and Sof into the 2ft 3 class. I almost immediately regretted it. I haven't jumped Sofie a single fence in.... well actually baring a small twig on one hack this summer I haven't actually jumped her since 2015. The class was titled 'novice jumping' which seemed to fit the bill, and I used to jump 2ft 3 without blinking an eye as a child, but as soon as I entered a wave of anxiety took hold. 

Sof had a little jumping lesson with her summer sharer a week prior, mainly to establish if they would be up for taking her to said show. However Sofies overwhelming enthusiasm made her sharer decide against it. This in hindsight I should have taken as a sign. 

Never the less I stuck to my mantra live for today and entered anyway. The day before I tried to steal myself to jump a log, but whoosed out! The lovely Vicki and Sofies current bestie Annie rode with us to the show. I was very grateful for their company as it distracted me from my nerves.

The show was very quiet as it turned out, and when I arrived it turned out I was one of only two competitors and was able to go straight away if I wanted. No time like the present, course quickly walked and then we went for a warm up jump - DEAR LORD I NEARLY FELL OFF!

OK um, so lets go straight into the ring before I bottle it. In my haste I ended up starting before the bell. on hearing the bell Sofie pulled up muttering - 'all we had to do was not get eliminated to get placed and you couldn't even manage that!' but I wasn't listening so pushed her on to complete the course. It was a bit frantic, Sofie charged at the fences whilst I desperately tried to slow her down/steer/stay on. We had two polls down but I was fairly happy to have got round and survived. Mission accomplished. 

But when we left the ring the nice judge pointed out my folly but offered us to enter into the championship class, same course starting almost immediately. 

Well I survived one round, and they were low on numbers. Why the hell not.

In we went for round two, boyed by surviving round one I took the hand break off a bit more, at the 5th fence Sofie was jumping so enthusiastically that we very VERY nearly parted company. I think this is the closest I have ever come to falling off sof. I landed in an unceremonious heap on her neck and understandably she did a bit of a bronk in protest. Thankfully she heard my pleas for help and stopped and allowed me to get re-seated. Hand break firmly put back on, well at least I tried to have the hand break on, but now sof knew the course and was determined to win! So we compromised, a couple of fences at speed and a couple of pauses for me to breath/get re-seated. It wasn't the performance of a Whittiker but amazingly it was good enough and we won! 

Hurray victory, first time I have won anything since I was 11. OK fair play Sofie won this one, I just clung on for dear life. 

We got a lovely red rosett and winners sash and a bottle of prosecco. I had to leave the prosecco with Clara with the promise we would catch up and drink it next time we saw each other. We did very much enjoy our ride home, soaking up the glory of championship pony. 

Sofie really is the best!

Video can be seen here

Wellington Estate ride 2nd August 2020

This one is a bit of a retrospective update but thought it would be nice to record some of our summer of fun… also its 2020 I am in self isolation so have plenty of time on my hands.

We got the opportunity to go on Wellington fun ride after a friends horse went lame. I wasn't sure I could get transport last minute but by the powers of facebook managed to get a box and driver for the day. It was admittedly pricey, but seeing as I haven't taken Sofie out since 2015 and our new mantra is 'live for the day' we decided to book anyway.

A very swanky box arrived for us on the morning, air conditioning for Sofie and everything! I was very worried she wouldn't load. Our last box loading experience was that fateful evening that we collected her from Katies. Whilst we did have an excellent loading lesson from Micheal Peace (which I must blog about if I haven't already) it was for a trailer. I was up late the night before nervously watching Micheal Peace lessons on U tube.

In the end I needn't have worried. I used the tips from our last loading lesson and with a bit of gentle encouragement Sofie walked on calmly. She was clearly very happy with her 5* travel as she merrily ate all journey and arrived without sweating up.

Once we got to the start line she started getting excited. The ride is around the beautiful open fields on the Wellington Estate. Sof clearly thought these would be excellent for zooming. However she managed to keep enough cool to still listen to me, and looked rather impressive as she pranced past slower horses in a collected but extended trot. Several marshals commented on how lovely she was.

The ride organisers had removed the jumps this year, for fear of accidents stretching the already strained NHS during the pandemic. It was a bit of a shame, but to be honest the ground was hard and we were both so blooming delighted to be out it didn't matter. We aren't meant to jump anyway.

I was so pleased with Sof, she was super excited but still let others overtake her in canter, and pulled up from a flat out gallop when my hat silk fell off (due to speed).  She let me jump off, retrieve hat silk, re mount and then back to galloping on que from me. She led past cows and other scary things calmly. I felt like I was riding a million dollar pony, in fact I knew I was riding a million dollar pony. 

I did however feel bad for poor Christina who had to listen to me wax lyrical about Sof all the way round. 

The only real hiccup was that the photo stations were not that clearly marked so we missed the best photo opps. I decided against trying to take and excitable Sof through water early in the ride as I feared I would end up swimming. I didn't know that there was a photographer at the river crossing and the pics they took were beautiful! Such a shame. We intentionally missed the photos at the main house because in order to get there we had to take the horses past the cows and low electric stock fencing. Bramble is quite quirky and afraid of cows so we decided it wasn't worth the risk.

On the box ride home Sofie was perfect again, had a little issue loading her but that was just because I was standing in her way and she was confused about where I wanted her to stand. 

When we got home I was still grinning ear to ear. How I have missed going out and enjoying ponies, and what a fantastic pony I have to enjoy!

The bucket list

Now I am getting more Sofie time again I have started getting a bit ambitious.

T's lameness issues started kicking in when he was around Sofie's age now. If I don't start taking Sofie out and doing things with her I might never get the chance. Make memories whilst you can I say.

So I have come up with a Sofie bucket list - not that I am expecting her to kick the proverbial bucket anytime soon of course. List is as follows:

•  sponsored ride

  

  
  

•  dressage clinics
•  regular lessons
  
•  dressage test
•  2ft 3 jumping
•  pairs hunter trials (60cm)
•  beach ride
•  photo shoot
•  adventure hacks
•  haflinger breed show
•  join haflinger society
•  join riding club
  

Its not so much a one off list but things I would like to do with her, and hopefully continue to do with her for as long as possible

changes changes changes

OK its been a long time since my last update and a lot has changed.

Baby has arrived, and completely taken over everything (hence lack of update).

At first this was really tough, I could not see Sofie with Rachael in tow, and I could not be away from Rachael. The few attempts to do both went disastrously wrong with Rachael screaming, Sofie stressing and me being utterly flustered and having to ask for help to put Sofie back in the field. Luckily we had the lovely Lillie looking after Sof so she was not neglected though I felt awful for not being able to see her properly.

But as Rachael got older I was able to sneak a bit more time away and started to ride once a week. Lillie was doing a lot of jumping with Sofie which they both enjoyed but it became clear that Sof wasn't quite up to the job. She started going more uneven, causing her saddle to slip and running out of fences. Fearing that we could be damaging her I had to ask Lillie to stop jumping and understandably she looked for another horse to progress her riding. As it happens Samba (Sofie's besty) needed a jockey as her owner was pregnant with a second child so that worked out well.

But I had a new problem, the yard was a reasonable drive and all the good hacking took 40 mins of road work to get to. My visits had to be within feeding breaks which generally gave me 3 hours tops, which just wasn't enough to ride to the heath. In addition the yard was struggling to be financially viable and I feared for its long term future.

A chance encounter at a straightness training clinic got me in touch with South Warren Farm. I used to ride Tonto past it and always thought it is such a fantastic location. As it happened they had just built a new stable block and had spaces. I was super nervous about moving Sof, but it was nearer, cheaper, on the doorstep to some amazing hacking and too good to miss. In the end we took some friends with us as other liveries were fearing the long term prospects of the current yard. So in April 2019 Sof arrived at south warren, best friend Samba in tow. This made the whole thing far less stressful for Sofie.

And it turns out the move was just what we needed. Its a new start for both of us. Time to recoup from loosing T and gaining Racheal. It is so relaxed and peaceful and I love being able to enjoy the hacking on our doorstep. The field is a short walk form the yard and no need to walk past other horses which Sofie hates. She is so much more relaxed and happy now. We have some lovely sharers. Polly, who I want to keep forever, and my friend Helen who rides occasionally.

There has also been a global pandemic (in true equestrian style this is simply a side note to the more important stuff of horses). But it has come with a huge silver lining, far more horse time for me as Nick is home and able to watch Rachael whilst I ride. Life is pretty much perfect :)

End of summer update

Sweet Sofie has returned thank goodness! The field dynamics have settle down and the grass is no longer as lush and thankfully Sofie is back to being her sweet self. Given the days are getting shorter and more overcast I have plastered Sofies tack in Barbie pink reflective gear. Sorry sharers! Still better to be seen then to be sorry. She is also fluffing up and will need to be clipped at the end of the month.

Things are going really well with her little girl Lillie who rides at the weekends. They are doing a bit of jumping – which does sort of worry me because of her feet – but Sofie seems to be loving it. I guess she wouldn’t love it if it hurt her, plus they are only jumping little fences. I can’t wrap her up in cotton wool for the rest of her life so I have decided to let them crack on. They have parted company once or twice but all honest accidents and Lillie doesn’t seem phased. They went out to a local arena with some of the other kids for a lesson and Sofie showed everyone what a pro she was, jumping all the scary fillers without a moment of hesitation.

Week day sharers have been less consistent. Poor Mollie’s mum had an accident so Mollie had to take a few days off to help and Liv’s hectic lifestyle isn’t allowing her to see Sofie as much as she would like. I am a bit worried we will loose Liv as a sharer, which would be a real shame as she is so lovely. Still Mollie seems to be riding at least once a week now and really enjoying Sof.

I am getting to see Sofie about once a week. I am still managing to waddle down and bring her in for a groom. She is very patient with my slow walk. I think Sofie might be a god send when I go on mat leave. I am worried about not being occupied until baby turns up, so it will be great to get to go down and see her more.

On Tuesday I popped down for a groom, and enjoyed chatting to people and having horsey hugs. My friend Sarah was there with her baby and her friend. I offered to baby sit, whilst she rode Sofie out with her friend on Samba (who is Sofies bbf). As soon as baby was handed over I started to regret my decision – I was way out of my depth! Luckily Karen and Cress, experienced mums were on hand to step in :s. I still prefer horse to babies, which does make me worry about the imminent arrival. Hopefully come spring I will be able to escape for at least one day a week to ride Sof. Fingers crossed at least.