We've had another busy week!
Physiotherapy
Guinness had a couple of days off after the eventer trial and Anna (www.annajohnson.co.uk) came to give Guinness his 2nd session of Physio. She was very pleased with how well Guinness was following his treatment and although he was a bit grumpy about being touched and poked at first, he relaxed in to it by the end.
Lesson with Sue Edwards
We had our first lesson with Sue Edwards since before Christmas and needless to say, I’ve got some catching up to do! I’ve slipped back in to several bad habits and Sue quickly corrected me for being too soft on Guinness and not taking a strong enough contact and being inconsistent. It was all too ‘woolly’ and Sue was pretty tough on me but I obviously needed it!
More Affiliated Dressage at Windmill
The next day we had more Affiliated Dressage at Windmill Farm, as I chase another 1st placing in a Prelim to qualify for the Regionals. It was all a bit of a rush for the first class and Guinness practically came straight off the lorry and into his first test, which was unsurprisingly, lacking in energy. We scraped 62.9% and 3rd place. In the next class Guinness was more energetic and I was feeling braver with my contact. We improved our score to 65.08% which was good enough for 2nd out of 9 starters…
Looking back at the video, I can see much more clearly where I’m going wrong. It’s amazing how different it looks to how it feels. From the video I can see that Guinness could be much more forward and how long my reins are! This was a surprise as they don’t ever feel long, but it’s clear on the video that I need to start asking for more so that he develops the muscles to take more weight behind so that, especially in canter, he falls less on to the forehand.
Cross Country Practice at Rosehill
On Sunday I‘d organized to go back to Rosehill. I was keen to get Guinness down the steps we had trouble at previously and try some of the bigger fences. It was great fun going with other people from my yard – Joules took Dawn’s horse ‘Big’ and James came on his horse ‘Kudys’ with another of the liveries, Anne on Finlay. Although, we are all at different levels we jumped a variety of fences. I was super pleased with Guinness who jumped several of the open fences including the coffin, the sunken road and some decent ditches.
He even jumped straight in to the water! The steps did take a while to negotiate, as Guinness was very skeptical about where all his legs would go on the way down. After a couple of times we were bouncing down them like pros!!!
Flatwork and Hacking
This week we’ve continued to work on our flatwork which has improved remarkably since I’ve started asking Guinness for more in all aspects and he feels absolutely amazing! The hacking has taken a bit of a backwards step though as we had a particularly difficult hack past the pigs this week in which, after Guinness practically sat down on the road after all his usual antics failed to unseat me (bucking/ rearing/ broncing/ spinning/ reversing at high speed and a move I like to call the ‘star jump’) I had to resort to getting off and leading him past the scary monsters and even then I had to drag him!! We walked past them several times, on foot and backwards which I think probably only made him more upset and tense so the next day we took Chloe and my first pony (a 13.1h welsh pony called Taffy) for moral support. Guinness used Taffy as an equine shield the first time we went past, literally trying to hide behind a pony half his size! This is something we need to go over again it seems……. But hey – that’s horses for you!
The weather has been lovely this week and the horses went out naked for the first time this year! Cue cute pictures of horses grooming each other and playing!
Another lesson with Sue
I was very lucky that Sue was back only a week later to teach so I made sure I booked another lesson. Sue was very pleased with how much I’d taken on from the previous lesson and described my trot at one point as ‘stunning’! We worked on transitions mostly. My upward transitions are pretty good, but downwards needs some improvement as, especially trot to walk is not forward enough. We did a bit of work in sitting trot as well, as Guinness was preempting a transition whenever I sat so this was the first step. Once he was settled in the sitting trot we worked on keeping him rounder in the transition and thinking of ‘forwards’ to walk. By the end, these were much improved and I was very pleased with myself.
Next…..
We are aiming to go back to windmill for more dressage and I’m entered for an Intro at Aston in early April which will be my main focus over the next few weeks! Fingers crossed, we can pull it all together when it counts!!!
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