WANADOO TOO

Having one of the most talented horses on the yard is great but him stopping in the middle of xc courses for picnics is not. Simon Hall (Wally's owner) and I have decided to try and help him. We have sent him to Gary Witheford's yard in Burbage to try and get inside his head a little more and see if they can cure him of his issue.

Gary Witheford

Gary has developed a unique insight into the psychology of the horse, he is passionate about his work with all types of horses and has created his own unique techniques to deal with equine traits and behavioural issues in a shorter period of time than it usually takes using more traditional methods.
His training methods are based on the observation of horses in the wild and the firm belief of everyone who works with Gary is that no matter what problem the horse brings with it, there is always a possibility of change and the chance of a better life for both horse and owner.He does not resort to beating, shouting or abuse, but uses calmer, straightforward methods that allow the horse to quickly learn and respond in the light of their own natural behavioural patterns. In this way they learn to accept human control as quickly as possible and are ready to begin their work in a much shorter space of time.
Wally has been there for 5 days now and progress is being made. First he needs to be less scared of humans so he has been playing with shakers, umbrellas and plastic to he knows we will never put him in a dangerous situation and learn to trust us a little more.

Gary is positive he can help us and hopefully we will have an amazing talent in all phases on his return.

The big catch up!!

Sorry for being completely useless keeping you up to speed on my news...
February seems a long time ago when I last wrote on here.

MARCH
Sadly Tasha has had to take some time off so the beginning of March was rather hectic with no help and 8 horses in work with the event season looming, luckily I have some awesome friends and some forgiving parents who stepped into help until I found a new groom. thankfully this didn't take too long and Claudia Smith started with us. She is a great asset to the team, it's lovely to see her with the horses and she has yet to moan when asked to do the worst jobs!

Tweseldown
ERRIGAL HILL BOY (Dougal) and KINGTON (Stan) headed to Tweseldown to blow the cobwebs away. Dougal was a little excited to be at a party thinking he was back on the hunting field so dressage involed bucking and showing exuberance which I found funny-the judge didn't. Anyway he jumped well for a pole down and clear xc. Stan did a better dressage but wasn't quite right before SJ so sadly he was withdrawn.

Howick
ERRIGAL HILL BOY and WANADOO TOO (Wally) headed to the second event of the year. Dougal was a lot more settled on the flat knocking 7 marks off our previous test but still lots to come from him. He was cheeky showjumping this time and had a silly pole then jumped clear xc-he loves this part!

Photo Courtsey Photo Synergy

Wally did a fab dressage which was harshly marked for a 28, clear sj and went beautifully xc picking up a silly green stop in the latter part of the course but hugely improved from last year. Without this he would have been very well placed.

Photo Courtesy Photo Synergy

Larkhill
Next Stop was Larkhill with WANADOO TOO and PENCARDER SILVER STORM (Rosie) contesting the novice and ERRIGAL HILL BOY in the pn. Dougal again improved on the flat, jumped to have 2 unlucky poles and had a green look at the log before the water.

Photo Courtsey Ultimate Images

Photo Courtsey Steve Bell

Wally's test was sadly destroyed by a scramble bike zooming upto the arena threatening to eat him on entry so he lost a lot of marks from tension still he was lying 4th after this phase on a 32, he had an annoying pole and was clear sj but blotted his score with a huge amount of time penalties from hanging to the lorries between the first few fences...grrrr.

Photo Courtesy Ultimate Images

Rosie was very pleased to be out so dressage was not as good as she can be, sj she had a pole and flew xc as per usual.

Photo Courtesy Catherine Jones

Photo Courtesy Ultimate Images

Portman

KINGTON went for a jolly round the OPN at Portman. He did a rather excitable dressage to score 36. He showjumped fantastically for a clear and flew xc finishing on his dressage score which left us 12th. He is now heading for dressage school to learn to behave himself!!

Photo Courtesy Mud Sports 

Photo Courtesy Mud Sports

Larkhill Hunter Trial
So having had a naughty experience at Larkhill the week before we decided to head back to the RA Pony Club Hunter Trial round pretty much the same courses. We took ERRIGAL HILL BOY, WANADOO TOO and NASEBY (Jerry). Jerry was doing his first xc round having only schooled once at Boomerang. He did the 2ft 6 and took it all in his stride, I am very positive about this horses' future as he seems to have a very straight forward attitude and loves his work.

Photo Courtesy Mud Sports

Dougal had obviously learned from his mistake and flew round without batting an eyelid at anything so I was very pleased with him.
Wally was not in the mood to play and although he went round clear he had a few pauses on the way-so frustrating as he is one of the most talented horses I have been lucky enough to have so we are now thinking of plan of attack two with him...watch this space.

Hambleden
Next stop was to the beautiful Hambleden estate sadly too early for the bluebells to be in full swing. ERRIGAL HILL BOY and KINGTON were both in the pn/opn.
Stanley produced one of his better tests this year to score 32, sadly with a huge amount of rain the venue was soon looking like a mud pit and Stan didn't enjoy showjumping slipping into the first fence before jumping clear. Having a fair amount of experience I decided he could run xc but steady in order for him to regain some confidence. He popped round without issue collecting a handfull of time but he is now ready to head back up to Novice level.

Photo Courtesy Ultimate Images

Photo Courtesy Digital Equine

Dougal was performing his best test to date until some horses popped out of nowhere scaring him and ruining the end of the test, even the judge got out to say what a shame!! Showjumping was interesting as we got caught in the most horrendous hailstorm with hail the size of peas!! Dougal was not sure about this stinging his entire body so I threw him back in the lorry until the worst had passed. WE then warmed up again and decided, although the conditions were worsening, that we would run him. He jumped brilliantly loving the mud!! His first clear. Sadly I decided he isn't experienced enough yet to jump out of the deepest mud I've seen in a long time so I withdrew him before xc.

Very sadly for Hambleden they had to cancel the next 2 days of competition due to the ground conditions. I was secretly relieved as I didn't fancy jumping Rosie around her first intermediate in those conditions and I'm not sure Wally would have liked it much either!!