Rain, rain go away

The sun is finally shining, the nights are getting lighter and I hear it is going to be a balmy 18 degrees at the weekend. All this can only mean one thing... The event season is finally upon us! It all kicked off last weekend but only one of the scheduled events actually ran due to the ground being too wet or course designers actually unable to get the courses ready. As a result we have pushed our debut back as we haven't been able to get any of the practise in that we have needed. So we now have more time to get ready which is good and should (hopefully) mean that we can be competitive.

Hacking in the sunshine

I am still continuing with my physio treatment which I have to say has made a dramatic improvement to my riding and Buddy's way of going. I went back last Friday for a follow up and everything is getting stronger but my muscles are also getting tight on my shorter side due to all the adjustments that are being made to my way of going so our last session was focused on loosening these off which was incredibly painful - I have a high pain threshold but had to get her to stop halfway through - but felt a million times better once it was done although I had some cracking bruises to show for it! In-between now and my next session I am just focusing on increasing the strength in my glutes and my range of movement as well as ensuring that I keep straight at all times!

Our stableselfie

Buddy has also been working hard and is showing a huge improvement as well. As work has been busy and I've been jetting off out of the country and all round the UK my YO has been doing some strengthening work with him during the week and he is finally starting to 'get' what we are asking of him and his canter is rapidly improving. We also had our first jumping session in what seems like ages and the big take away was that Buddy has missed it and secondly that we are super rusty when it comes to riding a course!

Get off Rubus!

The session was really hard work for me and showed up the weakness in Buddy's canter and when I don't control his shoulders round a turn. I also struggled to control his exuberance (!) and then that turned into a vicious circle with me getting tense because I had no control and then that wound Buddy up more. When I relaxed and let him go he did chill a bit and was more rideable but I still didn't have enough and so we have decided that we will look at his bitting so I can relax knowing that I can check him when necessary and he will actually come back to me!! I hope we will be able to come back to the snaffle once the excitement of being back jumping has reduced a bit ;o)

We're off competing for the first time this year at the weekend so it will be interesting to see what impact our winters training has had on our scores. Hopefully Buddy won't be too wild!