Lockdown 2020

Well where do I start. What a year 2020 has been so far.

I know all of us are feeling the strain, the uncertainty, and the worry for the future. But sometimes things are taken out of our control and we have two choices of how we deal with it. Sink or swim.

we chose to swim…or paddle really quickly and just keep paddling, so I just wanted to touch base and tell you all what we have been doing and let you know that some days are tough but we are all in this together.

So lets start with the horses, the babies have absolutely loved lockdown as they have been our main focus. 5yo Bunny is coming on leeps and bounds and I am so excited about her, I am going to do a whole post about her separately as I have too much to say about her, she has however got a ‘lockdown belly’ which we are working hard on loosing so she will start jumping at the end of June. Then we have her full sister 4yo, Bea, she’s now fully broken in and her work will increase a little in the next 6-8 weeks before she goes back out on another little holiday. We have also introduced 3yo Noosa into the team, she’s got lots of growing to do before we start her work in September. Then we have the slightly older horses, Hal is back in full work after an injury last year so lockdown as been the perfect time to complete his rehab and rebuild everything slowly, leaving no stone unturned. And Rocky, he was ‘event fit’ at the start of lockdown so he had a little more down time and we’ve just kept ticking him over, his work will increase more at the end of July, and we will hopefully catch a winter of Showjumping and Dressage with him, and qualify for some ROR championships for 2021.

I have decided I will not head back out eventing in July as things seem to be opening, we made a clear plan for each horse for 2020 before the announcement of return to sport, I am happy with my plan, 2020 is a totally different year than we’ve ever faced, and although we are missing being competitive and training hard we are seeing the horses develop at a slower pace and they are benefitting a great deal from this. Nor have we had the ground to train on with very little rain and a lot of very hot days. we are looking at having a VERY busy winter if return to sport is successful, and then hit the ground running on the event circuit in 2021.

We are slowly opening back up to clients where we feel it is safe to do so. Do not hesitate to contact me for any questions on this.

So… what have we been doing, the most exciting project has been the xc course, we have been building a bank, step, water and ditch complex as well as several portable jumps from 60-90cm. Having these facilities at home are going to help our younger horses gain so much confidence before entering the big wide world. It will also mean I can offer this extra facility to my clients.

We have also had arena mirrors delivered which we will start the framing for in the next few weeks, these will be a key part of the yard for me, I ride a lot of horses on my own every day, so being able to see what’s happening in ‘real time’ will be key to the training of my horses and this will help me leaps and bounds.

The whole yard has been painted within an inch of its life, all the showjumps and poles have been refreshed an we have started building a new set of showjumps for the field. which will go next to our grass dressage arena after we’ve had more rain and the ground is softer to work the horses out on the grass.

Our arena has had a surface top up and is feeling better than ever, the horses are loving it.

We have a lot more planned for the yard with a lot of extensions in the pipe line. lockdown has given me a lot more time to focus on our facilities and put a plan in place for the continued development of our base in Somerset.

Lastly I have been spending a lot of time working on myself during lockdown, I have continued to expand my knowledge not only in our sport but in mindset, coaching, rider fitness, marketing and business.

Enjoy so Pics we’ve found over lockdown and taken.

Jo x

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