Hayley's Blog

The highlight of many a 4* rider’s season has unfortunately been cancelled.

Badminton Horse Trials made the announcement yesterday, much to my disappointment, that due to the wet weather conditions it’d been decided to cancel both the 4* and the Grassroots Championships.

Badminton are offering a refund to anyone who’d purchased tickets and have made announcements that they hope to host the event at a later time this year.

That certainly puts to bed my plans for an afternoon in front of the TV on Sunday to watch the cross country!

Read my report and see the pictures from last years event here

Hayley xoxo

just a quick stop by to show you a video from the weekend…

Prelim 7 – April 2012

to me!

It was my birthday on Tuesday, and I was incredibly lucky to be bought a new pair of boots and a show jacket (reviews coming soon).. along with a luggage set for competitions.

I’ll update you all really soon on the gifts – my boots are still on the way from Germany so will wait for them to come and take lots of lovely pictures!

I did manage to squeeze in a little hack… which Diddles found VERY exciting!

What better way to spend the day?

H xx

So, you’ll all have no doubt heard the buzz around a new movie – War Horse. I’m yet to see it, but I’m pretty keen to after hearing some really great reviews – not so keen on the public sobbing that seems to come along with it! (You’d be in good company if it did produce a few tears – the Duchess of Cambridge was seen holding a tissue to her eye at the Royal Premier!)

The film tells the story of the bond between horse and man during the First World War. and it’s based on the book by Michael Morpurgo. There was also a pretty successful stage production – Did anyone see it? I missed it, but it sounded fantastic!

There were 14 different horses to play the part of “Joey” e(the lead horse in the movie) aech had their own hair and make-up team! Something I wouldn’t say no to on a Monday morning!
I’ve read that the actors in the film had quite limited equine understanding before filming started and only had five weeks training – five weeks! I don’t think after five weekly riding lessons I’d managed a decent rising trot let alone galloping around looking fairly comfortable in front of a camera!

Petplan Equine have kindly provided a copy of the War Horse book – aimed at slightly younger audiences than the film (12A) for me to give away to one lucky reader of the blog.

If you’d like to enter for the chance to win a copy of the book answer the following question:
What is Carl Hester/Charlotte Du Jardain’s dressage superstar Valegro’s stable name?
To enter, pop a comment on the blog with your answer, and email address before 27th February. I’ll select a winner at random from the entrants and announce it shortly after!

Good Luck!

please note: I was provided with a copy of the book in exchange for writing this post which I am using as a giveaway prize.

I popped over to Sarah’s yard last weekend on Saturday for a lesson – it’d been a while since I’d seen her, and I was still feeling a bit rubbish about the Championships. (We didn’t do particularly well, I let her rush in the 1st test and the 2nd test was better but lacked consistency) so I was really looking forward to it.

It was also the 1st lesson I’d had since I’d changed my bit – from a rather chunky, and not exactly subtle french link loose ring snaffle to a rather nice Neue Schule ‘Team Up’ which I’d found much more refined and made me more able to give subtle aids that she responded to.

Sarah has a lovely 20×60 arena, and my home arena is a rather random sized almost square space so we worked really hard on accuracy and understanding the positioning of the markers and where circles and shapes should be in relation to the markers. I found it incredibly useful!

We also worked on riding circles at markers and varying the sizes to work on accuracy and being neat but also to improve her suppleness and engagement behind.  So we’d ride down the long side, and ride  a15m circle at E, then a 20m circle at c, a 10m circle at B ride a change of rein across the centre on 2x 1/2 10m circles and do similar on the other rein. We also looked at putting a circle at the end of a long diagonal and riding accurate shapes when riding a circle.

Sarah pointed out that I have a habit of putting my hands *down* to use my rein and bringing my leg *up* to use it so essentially, I twist through my whole body when applying leg or hand. We worked really hard on *lifting* the hand and flexing the wrist to use it, also using a much lighter hand and allowing her to take the contact forward from a soft wrist carrying my hand instead of a holding wrist with the rein carrying my hand. This in turn made her MUCH lighter through the front and softer in the hand. It also improved my position much more and helped me with my problem of hollowing my lower back.

I used the circles exercise and adjusted my hands at home-  and found it got her engaged and round much quicker than usual. So it prove the theory of riding from back to front instead of using my hands to create the outline.

Diddles Pony had her hocks done again on Tuesday – so we’re off games till the weekend, which is a bummer because the weather is slightly less wet and windy now! *huff*

I’ve got some video footage to share so I’ll edit and upload soon!

Happy Riding

H xx

I’m sure you haven’t missed the latest world ‘catastrophe’ have you?

My facebook, and twitter newsfeed was littered with comments recently and posts about how fatal to civilization the event was.

Peoples Blackberry phones stopped working. Thats right. Stopped. Working.

So, an entire nation of ‘Crackberry’ users had to ensure a number of days without access to Bblackberry Messenger, Emails or the internet.

Now, I’ll admit, I’m as obsessed as the next person by my smartphone (Obviously, I’m superior and have an iPhone) but really – I’d hazard a guess that I could live without it for a day or two. I mean, people could still ring me – heaven forbid, or even text message if they didn’t actually want to verbally communicate with me. See, there is a solution to the crisis!

So, tell me (in the comments if course – I’m not expecting a phone call!), did you suffer this catastrophe? Did your world topple with the mobile network?

Or, did you just spend a bit more time with your horse, family and friends and less time virtually socialising?

H xx

After the spills at Myerscough and a bit of disappointment, I wasn’t really looking forward to Beaver Hall. I wasn’t allowed a caller, or a whip and I just knew she’d fall off my leg and muck about in the arena.

I wasn’t wrong!

Duchess felt a bit spooky and distracted in the 1st test, Prelim 7 so I pushed her forwards and we came up with a hurried, somewhat messy test for our worst score this year 55%. I was pretty annoyed, but just let her run on in an attempt to keep her forward and overrode with my leg to compensate for the lack of a stick.

P7 again for a different section was a better test – but it was so hot – she wasn’t clipped so felt a bit flat and we ended up with a pretty average 64%. Not our best test, but still, better than before.

I’ve learned a lot this season, and really think we’ve made some progress. I do settle for 2nd best from her and just need to find the buttons in my tests and ride her like I know she can go.

I’ve been away for a week, so came back, and clipped. Honestly – marking her with poster paint is THE best tip I’ve ever had. She’s a grey, so chalk doesnt show – she’s still sporting some fluro orange lines- band on the neon trend

Duchess- Clipped Out!

The plan now: some serious training over winter and some winter dressage/jumping outings to keep her seeing things.

For the blog? Well, I’ve got so many things going on in my life at the moment, the house, Duchess, holidays etc I might expand out more into things going on outside of the yard – but who knows? Expect lots of pictures and videos now I’m back on track with the video camera (I lost the memory card and charger!) starting with my lesson on Saturday at Sarahs.

H xx

.. not a successful day out!

This wekeend, we toddled off to Myerscough for the Combined Training Championships. Fairly low key-  which was good!

Dressage was outside, and the surface on the arenas wasn’t great due to the sheer amount of rain we’d had lately. Poor Diddles pony was really struggling so we worked in indoors and popped back out just before her test. The arena, by the time 4 or 5 people had been in, wasn’t really great & I did consider retiring her as she was really finding it hard to push through from behind especially around the corners. I played it safe, didn’t really ask for too much, got some pretty dodgy responses to my aids and a fairly smart square halt at the end.

I was really disappointed, so went for a drink in the arena bar and tacked up for jumping. Went in to warm up in the indoor- and no one was there! I thought, great, I can pop round a few fences and go in to jump without hanging around.

Quick canter on each rein & came to a tiny tiny X pole. I have no idea what happened. I don’t think D got her legs organised and out of the way in time and she tripped. Landed on her nose over the pole, and twisted so her head hit the floor – I flew over the top and landed on my front on the arena surface.  Her legs were all over, and I remember her knee/chest (I’m not sure which!) being on my left leg as she tried to get up. Luckily, the stewards had herad and came over. One kindly took my pony & trotted her up and one sat checking me over.

I was in a bit of a state, but got cleaned up, calmed down and got back on to jump – we’d both lost a lot of confidence, so had 3 stops at a fence I just didnt ride positively to as I felt her uncertainty. But, we got round them all eventually and came out feeling a bit better.

Disappointed we were eliminated, but from how people have said I was, I think I was in shock and not really able to ride particularly well!

Popped Diddles out to walk off any stiffness – I imagine she’ll be feeling quite sore today, I know I am! I’ve got a bruised leg, eye and a grazed cheek – feeling quite tender!

Thank you to the two lovely stewards who came to see I was okay.

Any recommendations for a new hat?!

H xx

10 months ago, I was pretty new to dressage – I’d had a horrible 6 months being taught by a trainer who made me believe I was rubbish and couldn’t ride. Oh and my pony.. she’s useless.

I’d played around at Intro/Prelim and considered 55% a good score.  & if the judge wrote something nice at the bottom – I was happy. There were tears, tantrums and it generally wasn’t a great experience.

I started to take lessons with Fiona Lace, and more recently, after Fiona’s  accident, Sarah Probin. I can honestly say I owe my sucesses this year to them. No, I’ve not been selected for London 2012. Nor qualified for the national championships.

What I have done, is transformed my scores into solid 60-65% scores every time we go out at Prelim. I no longer panic and freeze. I can ride round my test, and use the tools I’ve been taught. Every now and then, I’ll hear a word of wisdom from my lesson reenter my mind.. ‘just hold your reins’.. ‘more left’.. ‘legs down more on your saddle’ and guide me through whatever I’m struggling with.

I’ve taken myself, and Diddles Pony from bring up the end of the scores and making up the numbers to winning sections and classes, being placed at the top half of the score sheet and our last 6 outings have all had us in the top 10 at the end of the class.

We’ve qualified for the Beaver Hall Championships, and Myerscough’s Combined Training Championships. Which finishes our season perfectly. Its more that I expected, and thought we could achieve – so thank you to everyone who’s supported me along the way, called a test, stood in the rain whilst I’ve ridden, offered advice, critisim and help. I couldn’t have done it without you.

The Combined Training champs are this Sunday, and Beaver Halls in October. I’m not expecting a placing, to be there this year is enough.

So, don’t be disheartened, and think its not possible. With the right guidance, anythings possible!

H xxx

Hello!

Last time I posted on the blog, I was talking about my plans for the next week or so – remind me never to share my plans again because it all went horribly wrong!

I was due to go to Beaver Hall, Staffordshire to chase the 2 sheets I needed to qualify for the Unaff Dressage Champs. My time swere fab, mid morning/lunch time leaving me loads of time, so I headed out of work at 4:30 to be met by what looks like a monsoon season.

I ended up bathing poor Diddles in the rain and thunder – bless her, she was so chilled about the whole thing. I plaited the next morning at 6:30 and packed and got loaded up ready to leave for 9.. we didn’t even get one junction along the M6 before the gearbox in the Discovery we tow with started to make really nasty noises and we had to turn back. I was pretty disappointed, and Diddles was really confused when we unloaded back at the yard, unplaited and turned her out.

The gearbox issues also put paid to my plan to go to Barton EC, Lancashire last weekend for the Trailblazers qualifiers. So a second blow really.

I had a really good lesson with Sarah prior to the issues, and a lesson with Fiona last week – We’ve started to work on asking for a little bit of medium trot work ready to think about stepping up to Novice. Fiona & Sarah have both pointed out I need to ride my canter more and be less ‘afraid’ and tense!

So.. there’s got to be some good news in all of this!!

We have qualified for the Unaff Combined Training Championships at Myerscough on 18th September – and we are out this weekend to try & finish the Beaver Hall Qaulification.

I’m so proud of our achievements this year – and fully expect we won’t be causing much trouble at the Champs, but this year being there is the icing on the cake for me!

Wish me luck!

H xx

PS: Are you following me on Twitter yet? @HayleysBlog