Upwards and onwards at Upton House

Squirrel had his hock injections done in the nick of time in order for us to make it to Upton House with the drugs out of his system..I was very prepared to withdraw if he didn't feel ready but he jumped fantastically at home, felt good and nice and fit so we went.

I was also worried about the ground and the heat with mid morning to early afternoon times, but the ground was actually pretty good and there was a lovely breeze so I didn't get too hot.

Unfortunately I overcooked him a bit in the warm up, and the steward let a couple of people push infront of me which was frustrating. Squirrel isn't the type of horse you can stop and let rest as he just switches off so I had to keep working. And working.

The photos look awful but I was pleased with the test. It felt an improvement on both Nunney and Milton Keynes, although numpty did go wrong in the walk and in the first canter, Squirrel fell down a hole and broke into trot.

HOWEVER given I only realised that morning it wasn't the test I had been blissfully practising, and I havn't done counter canter or rein back with him for a while, I felt pretty pleased.

I had a 35.5, in a fairly high marking but very tightly bunched together section (think manjorty of scores were 36-33) so given obviously I went wrong (and Squirrel fell in a hole), I was pleased.

On the other hand, when I schooled him on last Sunday I realised I have been doing far too much with my hands, and I actually let go of him, and you know what? He came up off the forehand, soft, and just lovely. So yes, I feel very happy with the flatwork now as I was wondering why my marks took a bit of a nose dive, but thats why I think.





So on to the show jumping. Now I was a little nervous about this phase, obviously with having to retire hiim at Milton Keynes. Luckily it was built small with no triple so I was quite happy. I said to myself before I went in - I must NOT hold, as I was awful at MK, holding him into the bottom of everything.

So I went in and...I didn't hold! And Squirrel jumped a LOVELY clear. Yay! Our first SJ clear at Novice. It wasn't the biggest track but was still causing trouble so I was very pleased, and secretly hoping for our second BE point with a D/C.






Cross country time! Squirrel warmed up very well, and soon it was time to be off.

Please excuse my BFs not so great xc shots, either my horse jumped awful or he suddenly lost his ability to take photos.

Fence 1 - a pretty bottle fence


fence 2 was a roll top, fence 3 a rather large table for early on which he jumped beautifully. Next was the first combo, a rail with a sharp left hand turn to another jump but they were set quite far apart so jumped easily.

Then a bit of a gallop to a large straw roll top thingie which Squirrel made short work of, then a left hand turn to a trakhner. Again jumped nicely. This took us back into the field where the start was, and Squirrel was very interested in looking to the left and worrying about what was happening there, rather than looking at a rather large brush oxer infront of him, which led to a very hairy jump when I finally managed to get his concentration.



Next was a double of angled logs, and he got a smack on the shoulder on the approach as I needed his attention which he jumped lovely but banged them on this way. Then there was a little upright set into the hill, hit that with both sets of legs.

I was so busy musing on his sudden carelessness, that I bowled round the corner to a big narrow corner with no preparation whatsoever, I feebly aimed him at it and he simply said "Well if thats the best you can do...", dropped his shoulder and nipped out to the right. DOH!

I even SAID to myself when walking the course, I ought to have some more respect for corners really, as Squirrel is incredibly honest with corners usually and I just became complacent.

So I circled him, got him nice and together, rode and he jumped, but again hit it and hard, I thought we were going for a moment. I was musing about pulling up at this point as although he isn't above hitting the odd xc fence, he was hitting a lot of them and I didn't want an accident. So I promptly cantered past the next fence. I circled it and jumped it, and FINALLY it had trickled into his brain that these don't fall down and he gave it plenty of room.

Next was a relatively-but-not-so-skinny-narrow-fence going downhill which he jumped lovely. Then there were 2 relatively-but-not-skinny-narrow-fences on a curving line and they were bright blue. I thought he might have a spook but he was fine (and again picking up his feet!)

Then there wasa gallop up hill. i wasn't kicking on at this point as I was a bit concerned about fitness, but he absolutely powered me up it. First half the course I felt I was kicking and kicking with no response, then when I sat there and let him go at his pace he tows me up a massive hill??

Anyway, collected him a bit for a skinny which was easy

these dangley legs are not an accurate representation, I had a video too, bf took a bad photo


then over a log which was set on top of a hill down to the water


trotted through the water as usual (ugh horse), and had a smack on the bottom to ensure we were indeed planning on jumping the fence out, albiet with no power, and he found some power somewhere..




last combo was 2 flower boxes (I think it was a while ago now haha) on a right angle, with another, seperate number fence only 2 or 3 strides after. I promptly saw a shocking shot into the first, hauled him round the corner to jump the second, got close and lost a stirrup and held on for grim life over the third.

Managed to regain my composure to jump the last lovely


so perhaps not the greatesrt day on paper with a stop and 22 time penalties (as I casually rode past a fence and had to come back ha) but I was very pleased. Very much feel he only had a stop as I just didn't ride it properly, and he jumped the trickier part of the course afterwards beautifully. Dressage wasn't bad (around 33 without the error of course and the falling in the hole incident) and a clear SJ So feel we're getting there, especially after my break through on the flat.


Also a sneaky few piccies of Lexi! I've started tidying her up - she seems to like having her mane pulled??? and she has done a few long reining sessions which she is taking to beautifully. Even had a change of direction in trot today hehe

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Crazy busy busy busy!

And Lexi isn't even being ridden yet!

I will post loads of photos after I write up tomorrow about Upton Manor BE, although I'm seriously doubting I'll do more than a combined training at best as the ground = concrete. But who knows, the last two BE events I went to I was concerned about the ground and both turned out to be great.

What have we been up to? Its been baking hot and I'm seriously unadapted to coping with it.

On Saturday I schooled in the evening and Squirrel was gorgeous, and I jumped him on Sunday. He was great to begin with but it went a bit wrong. He felt a hundred times better, really taking me into the fences. However I was struggling to get a good canter when the jumps went up and struggling to put him in a good spot, having not jumped for ages. Also the treble was set up a bit short so we kept having it down, and he was getting strong and so sweaty with the weather that the reins were slipping through my fingers ect ect. He never stopped though so thats good given he had every oppertunity! I'm going to school him later to run through my test and pop him over a few fences including a treble. I won't put it too big though, just want to make sure we're on the same page.

I also took him out for a lovely hack at 5.30am yesterday when it was lovely and cool, and no flies! The horseflies have been munching on me like mad, my legs are really swollen and sore with bites, yuck.

Lexi is doing really well. She's settled in great and it feels like I've had her forever. When we turned her out on Sunday she spent about an hour trotting around, exploring every inch of a pretty small field! We've been doing lots of work with her back legs. She's good for me to touch them now and far better for pickingt them up - which is good given she has her first trim this morning.

I've also put a fly sheet on her - no bother, and yesterday I put a fly mask on her which she was just like "Sure. Cool." about, which given she's never worn one is lovely!

She's a bit worried about flyspray and kicks out when you try and spray her hind legs. Its not aggression, more fear about something she doesn't know touching her back legs. I'm sure this will get better with tonnes of desensitisation.

I also gave her a mini bath - I REALLY want to scrub her as she's filthy and her tail is orange. When I first started I wasn't sure it was going to happen as she was very worried about the water even on her front legs, but we ended up managing to hose almost her whole body. Again she was kicking out to the water on her legs, but to be fair, she was also getting plagued by flies. So I didn't shampoo or wash her tail in the end. Baby steps.

I've also put some boots on her front legs, a saddle cloth on, and a surcingale and bridle. This all isn't completly new to her but she does need proper "desensitisation". She was perfectly happy about all of this, even when I was flapping the saddle cloth a bit. This afternoon I'll pop the bridle and surcingale on again, and maybe hose off her legs whilst she's wearing a fly sheet.

Tomorrow she will literially just come in during the day then go back out with some fussing as I'm eventing and then she can think about everything I've done to her this week. She also had her first jab yesterday and she didn't even blink!

Towards the end of the week and over the weekend I'm hoping to do some traffic desensisation and perhaps start some long reining and lunging. We'll spend a couple of weeks getting her really listening and understanding me with the long reins and lunging before we think about backing her.

She's very sweet, loves cuddles and brushing, she goes all gooey and wobbles her lips when you scratch her.

Lexi is here!!

So excited and so busy!

She arrived at 3pm today :D Loaded like an angel, and travelled very quietly. She's settled in pretty well, she was a bit shy at first but already coming out of her shell.

She wasn't too keen on being wormed initially, so I bribed her with a carrot, then shoved the wormer in when she wasn't looking. She now refuses to eat carrots. Oops :S But it had to be done and I didn't want an arguement within 5 minutes.

I don't think she's ever been fed hay from a net before, as she didn't really understand it, so I had to give her a net with HUGE holes in before she ate from it. I gave her a little brush and picked her feet out. That needs practise. Front feet okay, but fidgety. She kicked out when I tried the back ones. She did do it after a bit of trying but definately needs work. It wasn't nastiness, more alarm I think? Needs lots of practise though as her feet need trimming next week...

Later I took her to the roundpen to let her stretch her legs. God I forgot just how nicely she moves. Her trot is INSANE! She took a bit of time to sort her legs out in canter but there's so much bounce! I was very impressed how calm she was, no bucking or sillyness. We had a pick of grass which she inhaled and then I settled her for the night. She's so pretty too!

I also took Squirrel cantering. I made a mistake going at 5pm. I need to ride LATE (as in 7pm+) or early for hacking at the moment as the flies were wretched. He felt very fit but I had to do a lot more cantering than I would of liked on the hard ground as he was just going ballistic with the flies, poor sod.

I'm going to give him a jump tomorrow. Lexi has to stay in for 48 hours as she's new and been wormed. I don't want to do too much with her this week, just need to let her get to know me and settle in.

I expect I'll let her loose in the round pen a couple of times a day, partly so I can drool over her action and partly to let her stretch her legs. I might take her for a walk up the track too. Lots of grooming and cuddles too.

Towards the end of next week I'll perhaps give her a little lunge, and start putting surcingales and things on her. It won't be completly new to her as she has been sat on but she does need the foundations put in place. I'm not setting a time limit on it, it'll happen as it happens.

I'll leave you with a picture of the pretty girl!

Tomorrow it is!

She arrives tomorrow!!! Last few days have been manic. Manically trying to get Squirrel to lose his holiday pounds (he retaliated by letting himself out of his field and into the very long, very lush grass next door), sorting out the field and new stable.

I have done loads but not getting very far!

I need to get them onto the long grass slowly so I can start killing weeds but its actually very lush and green underneath...and Squirrel seriously does not need more grass but I seriously need to get rid of these weeds! I will upload some photos tomorrow...

I have been manically poo picking (well 2 wheelbarrows a day but I need to double that over the weekend if I want to make any progress...) and its still a CESSPIT!!! Its disgusting. I have also rearranged the fencing, have fenced off the boggy bit (any ideas of any horse friendly plants that I could plant there that would soak up the moisture? Does such a thing exist?), double fenced the bit which joins to another field as some liveries are concerned that Lexi came from abroad a month ago...And also rigged up some fencing to keep them seperate for a few days as not sure what Squirrel thinks of mares and what Lexi thinks of geldings...

She'll spend a couple of days in first to be wormed as per yard rules before she goes out though.

I have reached a fail on the stable front. We didn't want to buy more rubber matting as Willow, bless her soul, is on borrowed time and we definately won't be buying another horse when she does go, so we were going to borrow some from my yard owner. Unfortunately, I found today that her rubber is very light and doesn't fit in the stable properly, so I need to go buy some tomorrow as I think it'll move. I'm not happy to stable her without as I use straw which seems to move a lot, and I also don't want to put her on a gigantic bed. I mean, my beds are huge (I'll take a photo ;) ) but not big enough in my opinion if there's no rubber underneath. Her legs are too pretty to spoil.

So tomorrow, I need to buy rubber matting, fit it, lay her bed and do her net and water. I also need to take Squirrel cantering which is a good 2 hour ride..I need to test his fitness as we're entered for Upton next Wednesday and I'm a bit worried. But then again, I'm always worried. I'm just working him pretty hard right now...yesterday and today he had a good schooling session then went for a hack afterwards. He's been very good schooling but a bit lazy as I havn't been wearing spurs so need to do that again I think. He just needs so much motivation to actually get going on the flat lol.


This morning I was greeted with a lovely sight. Lacey was sleeping in her field, with both Willow and Squirrel (although he's over the fence from them) standing guard. I thought this might of softened their relationship, but unfortunately when I let Lacey sniff him, she squealed her head off, and when I let Willow sniff him, he tried to bite her head off. For gods sake.

Willow appears to be the only horse Squirrel doesn't like. I'm not sure why. I hope its not a grey mare thing!

War of the Weeds and Ferdie

I first met Ferdie at the end of October 2012. He was a twelve year old who had steeplechased a long time. Somewhere along the way he had badly damaged his pelvis, and his owner, Zoey, nursed him back to health. When I met him, he was so wonky he moved in three tracks, and could literially barely canter a circuit of the school.

I worked with him up until Friday 28th June 2013. We managed to get him cantering 20m circles, on the bit and balanced. Although still wonkey, he moved straighter and was infact lovely to ride. He had a fabulous jump, even if he always spooked the first time he went over a pole. When Ferdie spooked, he had the most gormless, goofy expression which was hilarious.

Ferdie and I also had a very scary accident, where a very dangerous tractor driver sped past us, and Ferdie span and bolted, and splipped on the road landing on top of me. We were very lucky, I had a broken nose and a fractured foot, but given half a tonne of horse landed on me on the road, I was grateful. Ferdie was sore and had cuts and grazes, but we were lucky.

Unfortunately, on Saturday 29th Jun, Ferdie had an accident in the field and badly damaged his back, and had to be put to sleep.

I had grown very fond of him, and very proud of what we had achieved. It was very hard going up there yesterday and purely mucking out his companion, seeing just one horse in the paddock. It was too quiet. RIP Ferdie, you will be missed.


In other news....with the hugely anticipated arrival of Lexi, (end of this week, now maybe early next week??? Oh come on!!), I have been given my own field for Lexi and Squirrel.

Now I love my yard, my yard owner is great and I have been there 8 years. However the fields have gone downhill a bit, due to overegrazing and lack of care. I am done waiting around, and I am going to tackle my fields and turn them into a paradise! Its not a huge area, but with careful maintenance I hope to turn it into something great!

Currently its split in 2. One half is part buttercup, part thistle and part grazed down grass. The other part is a jungle.

First things first I need to clean it up as its had 4 horses on it for a while with no poo picking. Eeeck. Squirrel is in there on his own at the moment (neighbours over the fence) and so I'm going to poo pick a wheelbarrow every morning and every evening to clean it up.

Over the weekend I am going to take a strimmer to the nettles, thistles and buttercups. I'm going to lime the soil to get rid of buttercups in future (thats safe to do with the horses in there) and fence off the buttercups I am going to strim down for a few days, as safe to eat dry but not wet. 

Then I am going to spray the roots of the thistles and nettles in the parts which will be sectioned off. At one point I'm also going to fertlise it and lay down grass seeds. Not sure when its the right time of year to do that though.

Strimming will happen this weekend, and hopefully liming and weedkilling where I can. I am really excited about this project, it's my first time attempting anything like this and very curious to see how hard it is and whether I can get a decent grazing by the end.

Major update...Mournful Milton Keynes, hock injections and horses horses horses!

I'm so sorry about lack of posting lately, I have been crazy busy. So first up, I took Squirel to Milton Keynes on Saturday 22nd. We stayed over again as we had

Rather early times, with dressage at 8.06am and no time to course walk in between.

He was a different horse this time! He had company and was as relaxed and chilled as could be. I was quite excited walking the course – it was far more technical than anything else we've tried. For example, fence 4 was a big upright rail to a step down, 2 strides to an angled log. Later on was a huge step up with a ditch infront, right hand turn to a skinny triple brush, and the water was a hefty skinny box fence, through the water then a massive corner coming out!

I felt it would really test us as a combination but I felt ready.

Saturday dawned rather miserable despite going to sleep with bright blue skies, but hey ho. Squirrel warmed up lovely for the dressage although I was struggling to maintain his straightness. I felt he did a nice test, took a while to get going in the first medium canter, and both my transitions to and from walk were shocking. However I felt the extended walk and canter transitions on the centre line were far better.

I was gutted to have a score of 38, in a fairly averagely marked section, but hey ho thats life! The comments on the sheet were very fair, although I felt calling all his mediums “Modest” was a little harsh.

On to the show jumping! Squirrel warmed up okay...but he wasn't really taking me into the fences. As I was third in I didn't have masses of time. Rode round to the first, and he wasn't taking me forwards so I did the worst thing and buried him. He stopped. I thought okay, fair enough, I keep doing that so had that coming.

I turned round and started really riding and he rewarded me by jumping very nicely round to number 6 which was the treble. He jumped in, went to put 2 strides in then stopped. At this point I retired.

I was very worried. His hock injections were up for renewal fairly soon, so I called the vet as soon as he was untacked. However being over paranoid, I was very concerned for whatever reason, he would need to be retired.

Thankfully, the vet came on Monday. Flexion tests showed he was sore behind, particularly on the right hock which was the worst orginally. So we decided to reinject with steroids and also Tildren this time to try and prevent needing the injections repeated every 3 months. This was done on Wednesday, so he is currently having a few days off, then a few days walking, but we'll be all set to go to our next event at Upton on the 10^th!

So hopefully that's sorted.

Tuesday was the morning of Alfie's revetting. I had convinced myself he would fail, so although I was nervous, I wasn't particularly upset when the vet called and told me he failed again. This time he was lame after both front flexions.

So the search was back on! I was feeling really very fed up by now. I just wanted a damn horse! I contacted Dawn from Sports Horses Continental, who told me she had just had a load of 4 year olds imported. They were pretty much unbacked, had been sat on a couple of times but still needed all the groundwork put in place really.

So it was time to set off on another hench 400 mile round journey! We arrived in the pouring rain, and she took us out to the fields. She suggested I picked the ones I liked the best, to see jump and move. I was like a kid in a sweetshop! They were all stunning, extremely high quality animals.

I picked a grey mare by Cachus and a bay mare. The grey came over as soon as she saw me and followed me around, and the bay just looked like a really nice stamp of a horse, and stood out to me.

I watched them move and it was soon all too clear who it would be. The grey mare just floated above the ground with serious power and extention. Jumping was incredible, so neat, scopey and tidy, both infront and behind. Just in a league of her own. Although she still seems a little shell-shocked from the massive change in her life and the 36 hour journey it took to bring her here, she was very inquistive and curious about me. Everytime I went to look at another horse she huffed and glared, clearly very offended!

So I am very excited to announce she passed the vet with flying colours and will be being delivered late on next week! She doesn't have a name yet – neither stable nor passported so thats up to me! At the moment I'm thinking Spellbound Lexicon, Lexi as the stable name, although I am open to suggestions.

I am very excited about her, she has absolutely all the talent I will ever need, and I really hope I can produce her well enough to do her justice.

Jumping lesson 19/06/2013

Yesterday I took Squirrel for a jumping lesson at Warren's. I was a little undecided what to do as neither my dressage or SJ went entirely to plan on Saturday, but decided to jump as I worked him hard on the flat on Tuesday and he was lovely. Besides, it was far to hot for me to be carting jumps around at home, and i really wanted to jump a treble to ensure all confidence was intact.
It proved to be incredibly interesting and a lot of puzzle pieces have clicked into place. Whilst warming up, Squirrel was typically behind my leg, so Warren had me doing trot, 1 stride of walk then canter transitions. BUT the trick was, I had to over emphasise having my shoulders back,to the point I was almost lying in his rump.
The point was that I like to do too much to get Squirrel forwards, which results in me tipping my shoulders forwards, and then he drops off behind me, whereas by keeping my shoulders back, he stays in front of me. The point of the over emphasise comes in in that Squirrel sets me up to do this by collapsing, which tips me forwards anyway. However by over emphasising this, he has no choice but to stay in front of me. Once he learns to do so, i can sit up more as he is less likely to drop me, therefore tipping me forwards. It also means if I get used to sitting like this, when I sit up more in balance, I will be in the correct position.
It really explains a lot to me - the reason that after 2 years, I still struggle to get him in front of my leg is me collapsing, not him being thick as I had privately concluded. Anyway, this progressed to me jumping a course like this. I also had to think about just standing right up in the stirrups instead of folding. We were only jumping 80-90cm and I tend to throw myself forwards - which fits into the above as I put far too much weight over his shoulders, making Squirrel's life far more difficult.
When I jumped the treble, it was very lackluster and pathetic, so Warren had me go through again and flick him with my schooling whip on landing to send him forwards to the next fence. The first time Squirrel was very unimpressed, basically crapper himself and went through the last part. But then when I jumped it again, he landed and took my forwards to the next fence.
I hope i did a decent job of explaining the point of me leaning back, it made a lot of sense to me but quite hard to explain! We finished and had a nice chat about him. I pointed out this explains why when i took a check xc i think had to work so hard to get over the fence, as he just dropped me. I said i had put this down to him not being the boldest horse, and Warren just looked at me in disbelief and sad "that horse is as bold as they come, it's an amazing experience learning to ride a horse like him as it sets you up for life. When it all comes together, there's nothing better than riding a horse like this" :D Then my mother waded in and asked him how far he thinks Squirrel will go. He said it really depends on the rider, then confirmed hew as 15. He reckons we should easily do a few intermediates at least, in the time we have.
He also added, if Squirrel were younger, and he was looking for an advanced horse, he's have no problem putting him on his truck :D he said he's got technique, plenty of scope, trainability and self preservation, and he can gallop, and if he were looking for a badminton horse, this is exactly the kind of horse he would pick! I commented that when i got him, he would never ever stop, would literally jump off any awful stride even if it were dangerous, but now he will stop if it's that bad; and he said he thinks he was scared. That someone took a stick to him and beat him when he stopped. This explains why he used to rush so much too! Horrible to think, that anyone would take such a genuine, kind horse and beat him. Its not like he often stops, only when he really really has to.
Anyway, all set for Milton Keynes on Saturday, then Alfie is being revetted on Tuesday eek!!