Winter training and 2016 plans

I thought it was time I did a quarterly update, and since I have the Flu its allowed me to sit down and catch up with some well needed office hours.

This winter has been the best one yet, we have been working with some fantastic horses that are all feeling incredible.

I have been lucky enough to have the yard full of horses to school for the season ahead. We have welcomed some ex racehorses in to start there retraining with us which is an area I love in the industry. I like having to unravel a horses brain and start the retraining process. It’s an extremely important stage in a young race horses life and it is paramount it is done properly. For horse gallop construction services, you can check out https://horsemenageconstruction.co.uk/horse-gallop-construction/.

We have also had some very fresh youngsters in the break which have gone home to start there careers. And I wish them the best of luck and will be keeping track of there progress.

My brood mare LOULOU is back in foal to Cevin Z and has Wintered incredibly, we are very much looking forward to meeting our next foal in May. The yard is all set up and ready for action.

Our 2015 foal Bunny is now weened and taking part in the every day running of the yard. She is a HUGE character and already has everyone wrapped round her finger.

Canto boy is getting used to his new life as a pure dressage horse. We are entered up for BD all over the uk and I am managing to slowly get into this horses head. It’s no secret he has been my trickiest horse to date. However I love him to death and it is my mission to prove how incredible this horse really is. I finally feel he is settled into our routine on the yard and he loves being in his stable full time over the winter. Being a foreign horse it’s what he is used to and it’s his comfort zone, and really he is just a lazy git who loves his bed….typical man I guess.

And now to the special two. The eventers.

This winter we have been making some fantastic trips around the uk to train the Joe Macdonald, Joe has a brilliant calm approach, everyone that knows me, knows how much I analyse mine and my horses  performance on a daily basis. However I can tend to over analyse. Joe’s approach to teaching has given me a massive push to know that actually, we are working with horses here, it’s not always perfect, and not to be afraid to make mistakes, that’s how we learn. And these two horses are still very young, and at the moment it’s so important to make them feel super confident and just get them out and about jumping.

Scarborough Rock (Rocky) has outshone every expectation and is jumping better than anyone.  He tackles everything I ask with a fantastic attitude and tries his hardest to keep all those polls in there cups. Rocky finds the flat work extremely hard, and currently he is loving the jumping so much I’m not pressuring him too much into becoming the next Valegro. Our plans with Rocky will be to get him out early in the season and basically just find out what we have on our hands. And he will finish the season early and have a long time to work on the flatwork so we can hopefully one day become a very competitive team.

Wilderness Halcyon as ever has been a complete dude. He is now becoming a typical teenager and thinks he knows exactly what we want from him on a daily basis. His confidence is incredible we just need to keep on top of his arrogance. He still remains he nicest horse on the ground and everybody still falls in love with him the second they meet him. Hals dressage is at a stage we are happy with for his age, he has an incredible jump, however we are working on his respect for a fence and making him more careful, I’m not sure he is going to be as bold as Rocky on the Xc course but until we put it to the test we do not know. Again the plan with him this season is get him out and see what we have.

We will then reassess the situation in June and see who stays and who goes. Having 6 horses and a full time job is a huge challenge and going forward isn’t realistic, and with more horses coming in for schooling, we are going to have to say goodbye to one or two of our special boys. I still can’t make a decision who so for the time being we are pushing forward with their careers and seeing what we really have.

2016 is looking to be an incredible year, I love having the horses in to break, school and re school, it keeps me sharp and the more horses I can work with the better. We also have a few more plans with the yard and hopefully 2016 we will welcome some arena mirrors, a horse walker and a solarium. This is all going to be a huge help to each horse and my training.

I am as always extremely thankful to the whole team involved. The vets,the physios, Farrier. The trainers, who manage my competitivness and drive and turn it into performance so well. And my parents have gone above and beyond, this is my passion and career, it’s the life I have chose which I have to make sacrafises every day for, but to have two parents so supportive and sacrifice there life’s to work with me for hours and hours a day, travel the country with me 2/3 days a week and get up at crazy hours so help me make me dream Come true, well I couldn’t do it without you all.

Lets make 2016 one to remember. I am seriously excited.

Please see below some pictures of our winter outings.