Back in October, life as I knew it fell apart within a week. Firstly learning of Squirrel's ligament issue, and a week later, my fiancée left me. Heart broken and devastated doesn't cover it. I was broken. It took me a very long time to pull myself together. I've come back better for it, and life is looking very good for me now.
The other reason it's taken me so long to update is that I've had some serious trouble playing videos on my laptop but I think I've managed to fix that now.
So we'll start with the new faces.
I have a fantastic new client who is hopefully going to be a key part in the progression of my career as an event rider and producer. I've backed two horses for him and am currently riding them away. One may shortly be coming home with me to compete and sell on, the other is staying with him for now as a potential eventer.
So I'd firstly like to introduce Poppet.
Sorry for the shocking photo of what is actually a very pretty pony! Apparently I don't have any decent photos of her yet.
Poppet is a 14hh New Forest x Thoroughbred. She was home bred by my client but unfortunately popped out far too small for him. Throughout the backing process she has been utterly fantastic. She hasn't put a foot wrong and very quickly progressed to walk/trot/canter and hacking out alone/in company. She's very plucky and forward going but most importantly, very safe.
We're currently working on her accepting the contact better as she's a bit fidgety in it, and also just slowing her down as she has a tendency to rush. She's improving day by day though, and hopefully she'll be coming home with me in the next week or so for me to continue her education, get her out competing and then sell on.
Secondly, we have Flash.
Flash is a 15.2hh sports horse by Spirit Freedom who is by Jumbo, out of an eventing mare. Despite being a lovely, sweet boy, the backing process with him wasn't quite so easy. He was fantastic during ground work/long reining/introducing tack and me initially sitting on him. However the first time I sat on him and was led round, he panicked, reared and threw himself over backwards!
Luckily I leapt out the way in time, but we had to spend a good few weeks just being led around in walk as he was very tense and worried. Eventually he started to relax and now we're making strides. He's schooling nicely in walk, trot and canter and has lovely paces. He took a little longer to get his confidence hacking out alone but has never shown any inclination to rear again and is bombproof in traffic.
He has beautiful movement and is built like a little compact power house so it will be exciting to start jumping him! Dean, his owner, also bred him and is going to hold on to him for now to see whether he will event.
I'm feeling extremely fortunate to have this opportunity as Dean is a keen event horse owner - used to own a 3 star horse but sold it to fund building a house - and wants to get back into owning, but keeping the horses at home. He doesn't like to jump and once he has built some more equestrian facilities, is keen to buy some young horses to produce through the rankings BE and sell on. I'm sitting tight and hoping I'll be offered the rides!
