I must admit to being rather proud of my clients' recent successes!

 

Having only met one of my clients, Nicky, only July 2011, with her new horse, Willo, who she had bought only 2 weeks prior to that, Nicky was having some shall we say, issues, this new horse had not settled to his new environment and was putting in stops when Nicky was jumping, something that was not expected as he was purchased as a showjumper!

He was also showing headshaking type tendancies out hacking, and bridleways were a serious no go area.

Now 2 months later, she has been placed in every competition, including xc, and now hacks out! Well, like a proud mum, I attended a sj competition with them as for a change I had a free day, and coached them from the warm up to the coursewalking and the end result was.... a .... 1st!!! Wow, what an achievement from a pair who were almost ready to split up!

 

My other success (another of many), was Mandy, and her big horse Sisko. I know she won't be offended by me admitting that she suffers severely with nerves and hasn't managed to pluck up the courage to do a dressage test previously, although has taken hoim to local show and done a couple of sponsored rides, but during her last venture out to a riding club event, Sisko was rather naughty and Mandy ended up on the floor. Not good at all!

So, with moral support of friends and family and a lot of training and coaching from me, she attended a local dressage event and did a test ride, which is different to a normal test, you ride your test, then the judge gives you approx 10 mins of training to help in your weaker areas, then you ride the test again and hopefully have an improvement.

Well, the first test, Mandy was tight and tense which went through to Sisko, but after the little bit of help from the judge in the middle, she rode the test again and it helped a lot, the best bit was the end result, a smiling relaxed happy rider and horse! Plus a rosette for coming 4th, this was such an achievement for them both  and they are preparing for their next one now.

 

It makes you feel so proud to know that you have helped out in some way, even if only a small amount, and even better when the results are so positive.

Last year I met a lovely lady called Julie, and a lovely Welsh Cob called Ynysgerwyn Dylan, Dylan to his friends!

Dylan was a young 3yr old who had been started on the lunge and introduced to wearing his tack when we first met. After a few sessions we had just made progeress when Dylan unexpectedly had to have a fair time off work as he had been kicked in the field, purely accidental but annoying to say the least! So poor Julie had to endure a fair wait before work could commence again. Luckily Dylan made a full recovery.

During this spring Julies yard manager and groom, both very capable riders, had the task of backing Dylan and after only 3 weeks, Dylan was happily hacking out in company.

This is where I come in again, Julie had started Dylan off very well but was now in need of someone with not only a "cob" background but someone who understood the needs of a show cob, as their training differs slightly from conventional training, so as I tick both boxes, I started teaching them both, up to then, 4 weeks ago, Dylans training had just been walking and trotting with a rider, but now only a few weeks on, we are working on the canter, which from the right rein is rather good, as opposed to the left rein which Dylan still has the odd wobble on. As he is a large build horse he is still growing and his shape changed from one week to the next, so the work we do has to be planned carefully at each session.

 

I hope to give regular updates on Dylan and Julies progress and to follow them into their showing debut next season.

 

 

This is me riding Dylan 2 weeks ago, just learning to canter. (sorry about my looking down, a habit i must break!!!)