2016 Review

Reviewing 2016 already?! I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone! It’s been a funny one for me personally as I’ve had a lot going on and I’ve finished the year in a much better place than I thought possible. I didn’t think I’d achieved that much with Buddy this year but now I’ve sat down and thought about it I realise we’ve moved forward leaps and bounds.

I started 2016 with the intention of having some time off from eventing and focusing on my flatwork and training. This hiatus ended up with me deciding that Buddy just wasn’t a natural eventer and to make him one I would need to do far more jumping and xc training than I have time for. I like to achieve things and the fact I wasn’t able to meet these aims meant I was no longer enjoying it so I decided that competitively our focus was changing to dressage. This took a lot of pressure off as I was only training for one discipline which meant hacking and jumping became fun stuff rather than another training exercise.

After deciding (or Jane telling me!) that I needed to leave Prelim behind and just do Novice level tests we focused on nailing our training and then made our BD debut in June which B ended up winning! Three outings and three sheets got our AF qualifications nailed and then I decided to focus on getting the AF test just right. I was delighted with Buddy on the day and even though I feel like we deserved a placing it was awesome to come 12^th out of 22 great combinations and I am using this as my motivation for 2017!

A random Facebook pop up led to another addition to the team – NS Sundancer or Dancer to her friends. A beautiful buckskin (we think she’ll end up chocolate buckskin) filly by Legrande who will hopefully be my next eventer or dressage diva – she’s bred for both so we will take life as it comes. She’ll be staying at stud for the foreseeable so she can just be a horse and grow up in a herd environment with other youngsters.

We’ve had some great training opportunities this year too – we continued training with Jane and ended up moving to her yard in September, I’ve seen Giles far less than I would like but will try and sort this next year, Central Dressage camp led to us doing the demo with Andrew Gould and Spencer Wilton plus we had sessions with Matt Hicks and Charlie Hutton which led to me starting having lessons with Charlie. Buddy has stepped up his game too and is now training at medium level at home which has also meant I need to step up my game having only ever ridden at Novice level before!

We’ve also welcomed Zecora Photography into the team for the year and they have given me some beautiful memories that I will cherish forever. Natures Way Natural Hoofcare have continued their support and Buddy and I are so grateful that Steve comes all the way from oop North to keep an eye on us and he is an incredible friend as well as sponsor. Thank you so much for supporting us during what has been a relatively quiet 2016.

Looking forward to 2017 I am incredibly excited! We have already started our 2017 Petplan campaign and already have our sheets for one round. I will another set (or two) to maximise our chances of getting into the top 10 and to a second round. We are doing Team Quest again so BUBDs are back together with another addition to the team – a lovely pair from my yard, Laura and TinTin – so we are full steam ahead for our first outing in February. I have also just finished creating my floorplan for our elementary freestyle and am hoping to debut this in Jan/Feb and get our qualifications for regionals. Then, as a non-competitive aim we are doing the Rockley Rehab Reunion Ridgeway Ridge and will be doing 43 miles in three days over the first May bank holiday which should be awesome fun!

Then, for some light hearted relief (and for our adrenaline fix), we are also going to do some of the BD combined training competitions. B has been incredible to jump recently and I’ve had a huge grin on my face every time. Eventing has crossed my mind as he has felt great over SJ’s and XC fences and I miss it dreadfully so we may do a couple of unaffiliated events purely for some fun with zero expectations!

Plans for 2017:

• Qualify for Petplans at Novice
• Qualify for Petplan second rounds at Novice
• Qualify for Team Quest and My Quest regionals
• Qualify for Elementary freestyle regionals
• Rehab Reunion Ridgeway Ride (5R’s)

Thank you again for all of your support. I am going into my fifth year of rehab with a sound and very happy horse. I am really excited about competing next year and seeing what our training brings!  

The learning never stops....

If you follow us on Facebook then you'll know we've been keeping pretty busy with lots of outings - if you don't then a quick summary is in order!

Looking smart in the Autumn sunshine

After Wellington we decided to chase another set of sheets which started well at East Soley where we achieved 65% and then we went to Merrist Wood to do two tests. Unfortunately the surface in the indoor was terrible, Buddy hated it and we ended up on 61.7 and 61.9 which is rather frustrating as it was fractionally away from being good enough but it wasn't so Area Festivals v2 was off the cards. We had been based at Springwood Grange (Jane's yard) for bootcamp prior to AFs but I made the decision to move there full time as it made such a positive difference to be based with Jane and be around people who all have the same ambitions. I was very sad to leave Jules, she built back my faith in yard owners again and Buddy loved being there. We both have some fabulous memories of our time and I made some wonderful friends.

I was then kicked down by my asthma and had a bad attack which knocked me out for a few weeks  and then I had a car accident which has injured my shoulder so Jane started riding Buddy again. She had sat on him a few times over the summer to teach him half pass and the more advanced movements. It was a decision I made as Buddy is a very quick learner and I've hit the limit of my dressage training so instead of getting both of us confused and upset when it goes wrong during the learning process (which it will however good you are), I decided that it would be in Buddy's best interest for me to hand over the reins. Since then, this has stepped up a notch and Jane has been riding him a couple of times a week which was to cover until I'm fit but they have such a brilliant partnership that it will continue for the foreseeable future and hopefully will start competing at Medium in the new year.

All of the BD rules changed (again!) this year and Area Festivals are in a different format for 2017 with first rounds starting in May and then a second round in October. Due to this the qualification dates started on 1st October so we have started our collection of sheets already. My plan is to get at least one set before Christmas (we have one more sheet to go) as I want to get to two or three first rounds to give us a good shot of getting to second rounds. 

That leads us to this weekend and there was a test riding clinic organised with one of the judges from Area Festivals - Alison Duck - and I was really looking forward to it. As I've written about on here plenty of times, I really struggle to get the scores at competitions that we are capable of. There are no particular movements where we lose marks consistently or accuracy areas I need to improve so I've been really working on getting Buddy going as best as I can but even though he has improved so much my scores have only been going up a fraction. The first test wasn't great as B was lazy and so behind the leg and I was absolutely gutted. We still managed 64.something so it wasn't too bad but I needed to do something to wake him up! So I terrified everyone by going for a hoon around the arena - it got him jazzed up enough to get through another run through and we got 67.4% so a decent improvement and more like what I would like to be getting out.

Love this one!

The feedback was very interesting - horse is more than capable of getting regionals score and I'm more than capable but our problem is me - well my brain! I give up before I've started and its clear I don't believe in myself so we do the test but there's no ringcraft or showmanship or positivity which impacts on the overall picture. I need to do some tweaks on my position (which I'm working hard on already) and get some thinner reins (I have the smallest hands in the world and have always struggled through regardless) but the biggest change I need to make is my self belief. I've got a couple of options and Jane is going to help me but I am going to beat this and make 2017 our best year yet!

Wellington Area Festivals

The focus for the last month or so has been completely on Area Festivals and getting me to a point where I am totally comfortable with the test and what I need to do and when! As usual Buddy has been throwing in some curveballs to keep me on my toes and I have been working so hard to try and get my position as good as it can be (there is still a long way to go!) and work out exactly what Buddy needs from me to support him.

Papped on the way to the warmup!

The test riding sessions were going really well and I was feeling confident that we were as well prepared as we could be. The week prior to AFs I felt a bit under pressure, I had a lesson on the Monday and B was being a little devil and I finished feeling totally awful as he was being a pickle and I felt like I was doing everything right. He is so tricky sometimes and although there is zero malice in it I get incredibly frustrated when he wants to just take over but I can’t get cross as he is just having so much fun with it so I just have to find the right way to manage him to keep the enthusiasm but also make sure he works in the right way!

We had a final test riding session booked at Wellington two days prior to AFs and after Monday I wasn’t feeling that great about where we were at but Buddy pulled it out the bag and although we had changes in the left canter after the medium I felt much happier and knew what I needed to get things sorted. Thursday we hacked out and then had a quick run through of the canter work and I was feeling ready for the next day.

#heelfirst

I got into the warm up at Wellington and B felt great and was listening. I have my warm up nailed at the moment and it fills me with confidence that I have a plan as soon as I get in and I know things I can add in if there are issues showing themselves. The canter was full of changes on the left so I wasn’t feeling confident as I was called into the ring but I said to myself that it is just one or two movements so don’t stop riding the rest. The bell rang and we started our test. The centre line was straight and confident, we lost a bit of power coming round the corner but I didn’t want to over ride as he has a habit of cantering! The medium trot across the diagonal wasn’t as good as it could be and the 15 m circles were a bit big which threw away stupid marks which you just can’t do. However, the canter was ACE. I wasn’t as giving on my give and retake of reins on the circle as it encourages him to get long and change so I lost marks there but not as many as I would have lost had we made a mistake. I rode the mediums forward and struggled to get as good a transition to medium as I would have liked but again, it was a sacrifice I had planned to keep him moving forward and not breaking or changing. As soon as the canter finished I had a massive grin on my face for the final movements. We’d nailed it and as soon as I halted I had tears in my eyes as we’d delivered the best performance to date exactly when it counted.

The high continued with my amazing friends who all came to support us who said that the test was great and I was hoping for a decent score as it felt like a solid 66/67 test to me. However when the results came out it would appear two judges agreed (67/65) but one did not and had us on 60%. I was devastated as it pulled my score right down to 64.something and although we were in the top 10 right to the end we got knocked out and finished in 13^th place out of 22. All the scores were incredibly close and just a single percentage more would have had me in the top 10 but hey ho, that dressage and whilst I was really upset on Friday I’ve had the weekend to rant and think about it and however much I don’t feel like we deserved our final placing I just need to accept it and move on.

So in light of that, we had a conflab back at the yard and we reviewed the videos and decided that I would try and give it another go.. The only issue being that I don’t have enough qualifying sheets to do another AF. So, what do you do on a wet and crappy Saturday afternoon? You call up your local venue and beg for a spot the next day to do N23 (handily the AF test!). I was so lucky that East Soley could squeeze me in and so off we trucked to see if we could start AF.v2 #JusticeForBuddy ;o)

I like East Soley and it holds good memories for me as it was B’s first ever test as a 4yo and it was where I took him for his re-debut post Rockley. It can be a bit spooky though and we were outside where he has never done a test before so I wasn’t sure what I’d get. I needn’t have worried as he was excellent. His warm up was perfect and he felt totally on side, canter was perfect and there was no hint that he would change. The test itself was good, with moments that were better than Friday (mediums and 15m circles) but the little pickle spooked going into left canter and it took 3 attempts to correct it so we got a 4 for that and then he changed (perfectly) right at the end of his medium canter which gave us another 4! After Friday I wasn’t sure, with the mistakes, that I’d done enough to get a qualifying score but luckily the judge liked the good bits and so we ended up on just over 65% so well within a QS. Phew.

So operation AF.v2 continues this week with an evening outing to Merrist Wood which is a new venue for us so fingers crossed we get the sheets we need before closing date on Friday. No pressure at all!

Charging towards Area Festivals

Firstly I must apologise as I’m slightly behind in my blogging – if you miss me don’t forget that we are on Facebook and I do a much better job of keeping that up to date! It’s been a busy time recently, I went back to work (boo) but have also been focused on training and getting our Area Festival sheets at Novice so I will start with that…

Jane riding - teaching B half pass (not in this pic!)

Sheet collection had started at Checkendon and so I went there for my second outing and entered both the Novice tests hoping I’d hit my qualifying scores. It was very hot and muggy and the horse flies were out in force which Buddy really hates. As a result, it wasn’t the warm up I had planned and I just nursed him through but it was pretty bad and I nearly left before doing my test but thought I’d paid my entry and so might as well give it a go! Both tests were full of tension (Buddy and me) but I was quite pleased with how I’d ridden him as he didn’t feel his normal self and I was proud of him that he kept a lid on it when we went into the tests. We were placed 4^th in both with one qualifying score and one just underneath (I went wrong and so was kicking myself as without that we would have done it).

Test practise

I then did a late entry into Fairoak to try and get that final score. I was really pleased with him and it felt like the best test at this level to date as it was more consistent and even though he spooked at the lights on the floor of the school we picked up canter again immediately and I was pleased with the rest of the test. The judge didn’t agree though and all the comments showed that she felt that spook had ‘ruined the picture’ which is so frustrating as I could see in the mirrors that he was working well. I took B home and checked the online results and they showed we’d just missed out… Again. I was so annoyed! I went back for my sheet and saw a fellow Rockley Rehabber who congratulated me on my result.. It turned out I had got the QS completely wrong as so I had qualified! That’ll teach me for not looking at the rules properly! As it was we finished 2^nd on our score so the judge obviously wasn’t feeling that generous on the day.

Love this from Zecora Photography

I very often get frustrated with my scores when I’m competing as they range from 5-8 and I’ve not managed to be consistent across the board, I never get the same comment twice and seem to fluff up across the board so it’s not like I only have to work on one thing to increase my scores. The main challenge seems to be that I am just not very good at riding tests and lose my ability to ride so I’ve decided to focus totally on the Area Festivals test which is Novice 23. My training is going to be focused on nailing the movements (and the specific movements at the right place in the school) and so I have enlisted Jane from Springwood Grange who trains me anyway but also Debbie Poynter who is a livery at SG and is a listed judge. We started ‘Mission AF’ on Saturday and I warmed up with Jane and then rode through the test twice. As soon as I was in test mode I went stiff and tense, forgot to keep B together and just rode badly! The first test was representative of what I get when I’ve been out competing.. excellent bits and bad bits which evened out to 62.59% which is ok but not where I want to be. So Debbie and Jane walked me through the bits where I was throwing marks away and gave me some handy hints to help improve things. We rode through it again and even though there were still mistakes I managed to increase my overall score by maximising the good work B does and not panicking when it goes wrong. I was delighted to score 67.4% and even got two 9’s!

More test practise..

As we are competing on Saturday (Novice 23 ;o) ) I had a lesson with Jane last night to practise the bits that need tweaking. The biggest challenge I have is my medium canters as B has such a huge stride I have to be careful to not let him get long and on the forehand because when I ask him to come back to working canter he will break if he’s unbalanced. We ran through the test again and it was much more consistent throughout although he did break early in his canter (coming back from medium – doh) but overall I felt like it was an improvement. Jane totted up the scores and it was 68.3%. Blimey. We then practised the medium a couple of times as I need to make sure I keep him up and together but don’t hang on and kill it and he was ace so I know the feel I need now. I’m actually looking forward to Saturday and putting it all into practise, we have a very tough judge so it will be great practise and as long as I ride well and consistently I will be pleased. Plus we’ve got 4 weeks until AFs so plenty of time to practise!!

Central Dressage Camp

We've just got back from Central Dressage camp which was held at Wellington Riding. It was set to be a busy weekend with plenty of lessons, talks as well as the Gala evening on Saturday night which Buddy and I were featuring as the guinea pig riders. We arrived on Friday evening and, as usual, B wandered straight into his stable and was a total star. He had a very cute mare next door who was flirting outrageously with him and B was very happy to give her snuffles.

Making new friends

We got given our itinerary and we had two sessions with Matt Hicks and one with Charlie Hutton as well as our evening session with Andrew Gould and Spencer Wilton. I took B for a hack around the estate and B was wired! I was hoping that it would chill him out a bit before our lesson but that wasn't quite the case! He was rather forward and a bit tense and so after talking to Matt about what we were doing he got us warming up and focused on the suppleness so there were lots of transitions, 10m circles and on and back within the paces. When B gets tense he completely blocks me through his body and I tend to back off a bit and lose control of the shoulder and quarters. Matt wanted me to focus on shoulder in and leg yield to try and get B to give and he was super on the right rein but the left rein was a bit trickier. It's both of our 'bad' reins and so when things go wrong it's always highlighted there. It didn't feel great but luckily my lovely fellow BUBD Lucy came to video for me and the work looks mainly good despite the tension showing in canter (breaking early and picking up the wrong lead) and shorter choppy strides in the trot. I know I do not help the situation by becoming tense when I can't 'fix' the tension  so I also need to be aware of that and work on chilling out!

Hacking at Wellington

It was then time for a quick rest and then to start getting ready for the gala evening which meant that we needed to plait and look smart! I was starting to feel really nervous as I've never ridden in front of lots of people and I have had huge issues with people watching me in the past so this was a big test. Plus as Buddy wasn't really totally on side I knew it would be a tough evening but was looking forward to having Spencer and Andrew help me find some ways to help in those situations. I was happy that B was very well turned out, we had our new pad from Zecora Photography and I'd been scrubbing my bandages so that they were gleaming too! There were 115 people sitting in the Dukes Hall and the butterflies were in full flight. I wasn't allowed to speak to Andrew or Spencer before the session as the plan was to treat it like a genuine 'first time' coaching session so the first time they knew anything about B was the moment we stepped in front of everyone. We walked in, B saw the huge crowd and just carried on regardless. Love him! We walked around to get him used to the atmosphere and he was tense but still on side and wasn't freaked out completely. We then shared a bit about ourselves and I debated whether to tell them B's story but I decided not to so carried on like normal. A & S asked me to warm up and there was a bit of debate as to whether that was as I would at home or at a competition - S agreed with me that a competition warm up is very different than one at home due to that added pressure. They went on to have a bit of a debate and I felt a bit silly so just kept wandering and then one of the audience had a question and as there were no mics we couldn't be heard so I had no idea what they were talking about.

Looking smart before the demo 

B had started to switch off and was getting a bit more tense and so S got me to work around him on a circle and we did lots of transitions trying to get him to relax a bit which was great. Then we worked on the canter. I told them at the start that B had a big canter which I sometimes find hard to control and it gets long and flat, especially when he's tense. Right canter was good and then we moved to left and B was just not listening to my left leg and was blocking me and striking off on the wrong lead. He was also swinging his quarters and not stepping through correctly which made him look short behind which the audience immediately picked up on. A explained that he was swinging his hind leg rather than placing it straight and in the same line as the foreleg and it was tension not soundness that was the issue. I was finding it really hard to manage him on the left as he completely blocked me and I didn't feel like I was given any new tools to manage the situation. A then wanted to highlight how switched off B is to my leg and got me to leg yield to the right and left and it was clear that B blocked me completely on the left as I couldn't even get him to react. It was embarrassing and I did finish the session feeling pretty rubbish.

During the gala session with Spencer and Andrew 

People were also asking questions during the session which I couldn't hear (which ended up being a good thing) but right at the end someone said that all my problems with suppleness would be sorted with shoeing. A rubbished that statement and so I then ended up saying why he's not shod and what happened. Spencer seemed interested and just as I was leaving he asked if he could have a word with me. I completed my story and then S told me that I should put shoes on B behind to help 'support' him. I asked why he thought that and he said that a shoe (with lateral extension) would increase the surface area and make him use his hindquarters immediately. I asked how he thought a U shaped piece of metal would give a larger surface area than the frog and sole but he missed the point a bit and we started going round in circles! As I was already a bit frustrated and upset the last thing I wanted was a conversation on shoeing and so said I appreciated his opinion but I would not be putting shoes on Buddy. He looked shocked so I jumped off, picked up B's front foot to show exactly why shoes will not work for him and both S & A agreed that it wouldn't be right for him and that he had the freakiest feet they'd ever seen which made me chuckle as I'm pretty confident B's feet wouldn't even grace Nic's top 10 freaky feet chart!!

June 2016 vs August 2015 B is looking hench!!

I left feeling incredibly disappointed and frustrated which was not the end objective I'd hoped for. There were some really mean people in the audience who thought I was too fat for my horse, too unfit and couldn't ride. I was so upset about it at first and nearly put B in the lorry and went home but I guess if you put yourself out there then you have to expect there will be people who have an opinion and that might not be positive. I decided to stick my fingers up at them, I'm definitely not perfect but I'm on a journey and this is all part of the process to getting better and at least I'm trying!!

Sunday dawned and we had an awesome lesson with Charlie Hutton working on our medium trot and controlling the quarters when he goes a bit tense. He gave me lots of things to try to help me in those moments which was a huge boost and I got lots and lots from the session with him. B worked really hard and I was delighted with him at the end. Then our final session was with Matt again. Matt is a really lovely guy and gave me a real boost which made me feel much better again which I really appreciated. We didn't want to work them too hard so we focused on the suppleness again and I noticed that B was working more uphill faster so the weekend definitely helped me with that process. Then we started walk pirouettes which B actually found quite easy! We were only doing very baby steps to start the process as neither horse (or rider) had done them before so that was another great tool to have.

Overall I got a lot out of the weekend, both good and bad! I found the demo to be really hard on me mentally but actually I have realised that I'm far stronger than I was as although it hit me hard to hear the horrible things people said and I had a hard time on the Saturday night by Sunday morning I realised what they said says far more about them than me and there is no point in letting them drag me down. I want to improve and get better and can only do that if I keep pushing myself harder and working on pushing those boundaries.

Zecora Photography doing what they do best!

I was up with the larks to get Buddy in from the field, groomed and plaited ready for our first photoshoot with our awesome new sponsors Zecora Photography. I was nervously excited as the photo's they've taken are all beautiful and I was hoping B and I would live up to the expectations.

I'd spoken to Lisa about something I wanted to do on the shoot and the prospect of that was also making me feel a bit nervous but we decided we would try it at the end.. Just in case anything went wrong! Lisa and Natalie turned up ready for action and B was looking smart so it was just time for me to put on my first outfit and channel my inner Gigi Hadid (where's the crying laughing emjoi when you need it?!). During the shoot there are a few outfit changes so you can alter the look you are going for. I had no idea what to wear so bought a smart casual outfit and my competition gear with a couple of other options in case that wasn't right.

We took a wander around the yard before getting Buddy to find some locations that would work well and there were plenty for us to be getting on with. We grabbed B and started work! I was probably not the best model in the world but Lisa and Natalie were excellent and helped me relax and find some poses that really make the pictures look great. I'd not realised how hard it is to do an equine/owner photoshoot. Not only did they have to synchronise making sure I had my eyes open, wasn't talking (sorry Lisa I wasn't very good at that bit) or pulling an odd face but they also had to capture Buddy with his ears forward and not trying to grab some grass, kill a horsefly.. It was a tough job!

We ended up doing 3 outfit changes with the last one being a rather special one for me. I got married 5 years ago and have always wanted to do a shoot with Buddy in my dress but for whatever reason life got in the way and I just hadn't got round to it. I had no idea how Buddy would react to my dress as it was rather large and rustly but he was a super star. Yes he trod on it and slobbered over it but I am delighted with the results and he was an absolute star when I got on which was the opposite of what I was expecting! 

I am over the moon with the sneaky peak of pictures Lisa has sent through already and they've done a brilliant job of turning us into respectable models which was not easy!! If you're thinking about doing something like this, seize the day and book Zecora Photography. Check out their website - http://www.zecoraphotography.co.uk - for more amazing pictures and go and give them a look on Facebook too. I promise, you'll have loads of fun and will have some stunning pictures that you will treasure forever. 

First step to Area Festivals

Buddy has been working so well recently I needed to get out and test that I could do it outside of my comfort zone and without someone reminding me of what I need to do. So, I put my brave pants on and entered my first Novice BD test. My single objective was to get over 62% which is an area festivals qualifying score.

We had a lesson the day before and we focused on keeping the hindlegs sharp, practised our counter canter and ran through the test. B tried so hard, especially as the conditions were incredibly warm so I was very pleased with him. I felt very confident going in to the competition.

Posing!

We arrived and it was very, very warm but reasonably quiet which really helped as I could ficus on my warm up. As it was so hot I spent the majority of my time in walk, making sure he was working over the back and that I had control of his shoulders. Lots of 10m circles, walk to halt, on and back in the walk. He was working so sweetly and I had him as much as I do at home. I was looking forward to getting down the centre line which is unheard of!

I know I get tense when going into the arena so I need to do some extra work on this and this time was no exception, although not as bad as it is usually. As a result B got a bit tense and I lost him a bit but managed to get him back before the first centre line. On the whole I was pleased with the test - I was delighted with Buddy but I made a few silly mistakes which cost us marks. I didn't push for the medium work as I was conscious the heat was having an effect and B's response would be to go down and I wanted to keep him up which meant we got 5's across the board and I made some accuracy mistakes in the 15m and 1/2 10m circles. 

Not looking that impressed with his first frilly of 2016 

I was confident it was a 62%+ test and so was delighted when I collected my sheet to see that we had got 1st place and 65%. Those silly mistakes cost us a serious score but as I'm only in Bronze I don't really want 66%+ scores as those are regional qualifying scores and I'm in the wrong section! I'll see what happens over our next few outings but if things go well I may try to aim for winter regionals but who knows.