And we're back up and running...

Grace has responded well to her physio treatment over the past couple of months and is now back in full work under saddle and starting to regain full competition fitness levels again.
We had our first canter session under saddle today and she felt so beautifully soft and loose, I didn’t want to get off! Some niggling ‘back to work’ problems we need to work through but these are pretty minor, time to get back into weekly Ginny lessons again I think.
Unfortunately I don’t have transport to get to the dressage competition this weekend, so next date to be out is 15 July with the Riding Club gang, followed by a BD on 17 July.

 Grace loves looking at herself in the arena mirror... I think that quite possibly I have the most vain pony in the world!

Made me laugh!

A friend of mine emailed me this picture, really made me chuckle, and is actually true (even though this is a donkey)!

The grass is always greener...

Grace got the ‘grass is always greener’ bug in March and jumped out of her field three times in three days! She gave herself a soft tissue muscle strain in the process (probably landed oddly or twisted her back somehow) which stopped our training and saw us spend weeks walking and stretching, with physio support from the fantastic Di Messum at Towcester Vets.

We are only just starting to reintroduce trot work. This has however, given me some time to reconsider our goals for the summer, and I’ve been pondering freestyle dressage as our next step! Not entirely sure where to start though!

Snow snow... and yet more snow... forecast? More snow!

A quick update just to let you know that January and February have been most unsuccessful with Grace, as we have had snow or ice on the ground most weeks and been unable to do any work in the arena since before Christmas.

The odd gentle hack has kept us ticking over but I’m getting frustrated about the lack of training... roll on spring!

Dan Greenwood clinic

Another great clinic with Dan, just a shame that it was held outside as I would like to expose Grace to that ‘spooky indoor arena’ a little more. Dan helped me teach Grace to listen to my leg better, and not overreact when I ask for bend or any upward transition for that matter. Another successful lesson.

MOT time!

Grace has spent the last week having her annual health checks and MOTs! She had her teeth done, annual injections, saddle checks and a full MOT by the lovely Mark at Towcester Vets.

We also spent time with Grant Bazin, so that Grace could learn to be clipped without sedation! It's going to take some time and a lot of patience, but I definitely think it is worthwhile.

British Dressage debut!!!!!

Really beautiful autumn day for both mine and Grace’s BD debut, and I was most excited that I got to wear a stock for the first time in my life! Grace looked super smart and I spent most of the day grinning for no apparent reason. First test reminded me how spooky Grace can find the indoor arena’s at Bury Farm, but this wasn’t helped by a lorry loading up the other side of the back wall as we performed our canter transition. The judge wrote ‘well sat’ on my test sheet, which said it all really.

Still beaming though, I rode the second test even better and Grace was much more relaxed. I was absolutely thrilled to learn that we scored 68% and came second overall – my first real prize money was spent on treats for Grace, and a bottle of wine for me!