January 2008

I will be brief as not a great deal exciting happened!

Work continued as normal we had seven horses in at night so lots of mucking out and muddy rug changing and two horses to work as much as the weather allows! I am not blessed with an indoor school but it does mean that when I compete my horses are used to the elements (and it does get pretty wet and wild on top of my
hill in Wales!) as well as flapping foliage and haylage plastic! 

February 2008

Regional time again with Othello in the restricted medium, Tel was uncharacteristically tense during warm up but I followed my trainer’s instructions and produced a very calm, controlled obedient test – a great and very rare moment for Tel!! Only to find that the winning test was very forward, up and dramatic – so back to the drawing board!!!

(We were placed 15^th out of about 35 so it wasn’t all bad just not what I had hoped and worked for!)

March 2008

saw the backing of our first home bred mare, Sinai Wild Dancer or Dani, now rising five. Dani has been working from the ground for many months on and off and we had previously tried to back her but although not naughty seemed very upset and stressed by the whole process. We decided we were not in any rush and chose to wait until she was ready. This period gave her time to mature mentally and physically and when we started again this time she took to the whole thing in her stride! Dani was backed and ridden away by young rider, client and friend Lauren White, she is light, very confident and a total limpet in the saddle, the perfect person to back a youngster! Dani progressed well and before long was off
the lunge rein and working confidently in an outline on her own. I am a strong believer in correct ground work when backing and training youngsters, the more confidence you build up on the ground seems to pay dividends when you are on top. Dani has also been out and about to in hand shows every year since she was a yearling and this has given her confidence in new situations and now she is confident and happy at ridden shows and in the trailer – and I am a happy trainer!

Pictures of Dani’s training can be found on her web page (Click Here)

April 2008

Dani’s ridden work progressed well, although only three times a week due to Laurens school commitments, and we decided to aim for the Badminton Young Dressage Horse class at the Welsh Festival of Dressage in June – probably pushing it but I like to have goals to work towards. (You may or may not be wondering why I am not riding Dani myself – the reason being, she is only 16hh and a little small for my long legs, so I felt it would be better for her to find her balance with a smaller rider and I will take over when she is more established)

Sinai Lucia Papagena (Lou) had also been back in work for some time after her injury last year and I decided I must get round to competing her again. Burrows Court was the chosen destination, one of my favourite venues. Lou is quite funny in the box and is a little claustrophobic so as soon as you arrive I have to put the ramp down and then she is happy. The two prelim tests went well although a bit tense at times, expected as she hasn’t been out for a year! To my amazement we won both classes overall!! I am not just saying this to be modest, but judges seem to love Lou and throw great marks at her even though I don’t think the tests are that good– don’t get me wrong I am not complaining !

Othello was not competing at this time but training at home and having lessons with our German trainer Angela Niemeyer Eastwood – Angela is quite hardcore and I am not sure Tel is a fan but no one else has got him to use his hindquarters the way she does!!!

May 2008

May is always very busy and starts the run of summer competitions.

This year there was extra excitement as my brother James got married at the end of the month. I was Bridesmaid so spare time was spent shopping for dresses and Mother of the Groom outfits!! The wedding was amazing and a fabulous time was had by all!!

Othello and I had a two day training clinic with Angela which went extremely well and for the first time Tel really used is hindquarters lifted his shoulders and truly felt like a proper dressage horse!!! All I had to do was keep it up at home – easier said than done!

Lou was also back competing at Burrows Court winning the prelim and novice non qualifier with over 71%!!! The novice qualifier, although a better test from my point only gained 64% and although we still won was not a qualifying score – oh well I can’t get greedy!

The following week Lou also had success at FODEC winning the prelim overall
but only managing 4^th in the novice but with a decent score of 66.8% so I was very pleased with her.

Othello was also back in action competing at Bromyard EC, first time since the regional’s in February. After looking at the entry list on the website I was not expecting to qualify but was prepared and happy with the progress he had made since the Angela clinic. Tel warmed up really well, was calm and did not argue, he went on to do a really lovely test, not perfect but a big improvement. I was warming up for the next test
when Mum came out with the scores – if it is low she won’t tell me until after but this time she was practically jumping of her skin – 69% our best score ever in a medium. The medium qualifier was also a good test and with a score of 67% we won both restricted classes and part qualified for the regionals – yippee!!!!!

Dani is also progressing well we have taken her to a local outdoor arena several
times to get her ready for the Badminton class at the Welsh festival. At first she was very nervous and distracted but by the third outing she was working confidently and we had designed our freestyle test.

June 2008

The Welsh Festival of dressage is generally on the first weekend in June and is
a great show and always well attended. I try to support the show by competing
but I have also judged the unaffiliated classes a few times.

Lou was competing on the first day, she warmed in well but was a little
tense and distracted by the large number of horses, people, tents and flags
around, the prelim was an uncharacteristic disaster she was tense and spooky and gained her lowest score of the season. Lou redeemed herself in the novice qualifier winning the open section this time with a qualifying score!

Dani was competing in her first ever competition on the second day. We were all
very nervous as we had no idea how she would react. We arrived early so that we could find some quiet space to ride her before all the young horses arrived.
To all our amazements Dani was so well behaved I couldn’t believe it! There
was no trauma or worrying moments just a little spooking at the banners,
she didn’t even react when another baby horse decided to leap for the
skies right in front of her!  The test its self was not as spectacular as she
spooked a bit at the boards and advertising banners but all in all we were very
pleased with her and it was a great outing for the future. This joy was short lived
though as she then proceeded to take almost two hours to load back into the
trailer and by the time we got home we had almost lost the will to live!!!!

At Sinai we also have two dogs, Taran, a six year old flat coat retriever, her nick
name is disney dog as she pulls the funniest faces, she is extremely loving and a
great companion although grumbles if you make her get out of bed too early in the morning! Skye is a five year old golden retriever, nick named piggle, since she
was little whenever she was frightened or in trouble she curves her ears out so they
look like pig ears – hence the name, she will also eat anything!! Both dogs are out with
me and the horses most of the time and are regular mascots at competitions.

The reason I am telling you this now is that we had some very bad news regarding Taran, when she was only a few months old she had two operations to correct a slipping stifle, it healed well and she has been very active but never quite used it fully. Recently she had been getting stiffer and less mobile and the vet diagnosed
arthritis which was to be expected. Taran responded well to the rymadil tablets but after a couple of months was showing stiffness again. We visited the vet again expecting to increase the tablets only to be told Taran had a nasty and aggressive form of cancer and possibly only had a few months to live. As you can imagine this was
devastating news and totally unexpected, the dogs are part of the family and the prospect of losing one so young was difficult to comprehend.

The day after we got this news Tel was entered into two medium classes at Burrows Court, normally I would have cancelled but we have only part qualified and time is running out!

Tel warmed up well at the competition but the first test was a disaster, he reared
three times for no apparent reason and threw all his toys out of the pram. You could say that on this occasion I may have had something to do with this as my mind
was on Taran and not totally focused on the competition. We managed to pull ourselves together for the qualifier and produced a decent rear free test to win the restricted and be second overall – regional’s here we come!!!!

The following weekend Grace, Sinai Whetu, attended Midland In Hand show at Malvern attempting to match the success from last year’s Usk Show – Sports
Horse Champion!! Grace, like most youngsters has the attention span of a goldfish
and was very fidgety whilst I spent an hour sewing in her plaits (fidgeting drives me mad at the best of times but at 5am is even worse!) She loaded and travelled
well and for once we arrived in plenty of time. Grace had been very well behaved
in the ring last year so I had not done too much running practice – this in hind sight
was a big mistake and one I will not repeat! She did not run very well so it was
difficult to show off her paces properly, we collected a few rosettes from the
sports horse and warmblood classes but not with the success of last year – note to self, try harder and practice more!

So far this year Lucia has been very successful, particularly at prelim level. We
have half qualified novice open but she is for sale and I don’t want to increase
her points while trying to complete the qualification. This leads me to a mad idea,
with less than two weeks to go can Julie (Lees - friend and long term client she has ridden Lou a few times before) qualify her for the prelim regionals? Julie agrees
to try and two competitions are booked, she has 3 tests and must win one and
be at least second in another – tall order by anyone’s standards! Two practices
later and we are at FODEC, they produced a lovely test with only one small
mistake she is second with 68% - and it dawns on us this might be possible but
she still has to win! Three days later we are at Burrows Court again and two
beautiful tests later – for which I am so nervous, it’s far worse being on the
ground than riding!! – Julie and Lou win both classes, the second with 72%
more than 5% clear!!! They have done it and I am so proud of both
Julie and Lou, regionals here we come!! Julie has also qualified her own horse
Langarth Ruby for the prelim so she will have two rides at the regionals.

July 2008

Party time again and the month starts with another wedding this time my cousin Katie, the wedding was beautiful and even the sun managed an appearance so all was wonderful.

From a very happy start July soon took a turn for the worst, Taran became very poorly all too quickly and we had to make the right but horrible decision to call the vet and send her to doggy heaven. Taz is now buried next the arena near to where she liked to lie and watch me ride. Taran was a wonderful dog and we still miss her.

(Pic of Taz)

Shortly after this I received a call from Carin Jones at Simple System South
Wales offering to sponsor me and the Sinai competition horses. This was a
very unexpected but exciting development. I have used Simple System horse
feed for over five years and I am a strong believer in the natural approach. The
feed is based around Lucerne grass nuts and unmollassed beet pellets and
contains no cereals, no molasses (which can be very heating to sensitive horses
and fattening) and no additives or preservatives. The system is suitable for all
types of horses from hard working competition horses to retired and also young
stock so I only have to alter the amounts of feed depending on the individual horse
and not have hundreds of different bags of mixes cluttering up the feed room. I also believe that Simple System has a place in feeding the dressage horse especially as
you need controlled power and too much sugar and uncontrolled starch levels can cause explosive behaviour – I have found this out to my cost!! Othello is very
sensitive to feed energy levels but at the same time very difficult to keep weight on
and without simple system I am not sure what I would be feeding him on!!

July is still firmly in the middle of the competition season although the race for
summer qualification has ended. Othello was moving up a gear to compete at the Hartpury Premier League Dressage Festival. Bathed, plaited and polished we arrived
in plenty of time, at big shows I like to have a stable so that Tel can relax during the
day and allow enough time so that I can warm him up twice for the first test, this
may sound strange but I like to do a short first session of lots of stretching to loosen and relax him before getting changed and ready to compete. The first session went
very well Tel felt loose and relaxed we also did a small amount of collected work so that he knew what he was there for. The second warm up session was much busier,
Tel gets quite nervous when working with lots of other horses so I did my best
not too stress him too much but at the same time pushed him enough to prepare him for the test. Feeling fairly confident we went down to the amazing new indoor school
as we went through the tunnel under the seating I felt Tel grow underneath me, with
his eyes on stalks he looked around the arena, I patted him and energised him
forward to try and make him concentrate, this worked until we had to walk
past the judges table on a raised platform – very scary! Fortunately the judges
were feeling kind and gave us a few minutes to acclimatize. The test started well but
Tel was very spooky and backward – very odd for him as he is normally so hot
– and it was difficult to ride to my best but we got through it trying to pat him as
much as possible to reassure him the funny grey flowers were not going to eat him!
We had quite a long wait between tests so it was great to have the stable so we c
ould go and watch the high level dressage going on outside. The second test
started better Tel was less nervous so I was able to ride through the movements and use the spooking energy to my advantage. Unfortunately I was concentrating so
hard on riding a good 10m circle in the scary corner that I forgot to halt at C
– blond moment! – real pity though as it felt quite good till then.
The walk is always weak especially when Tel is tense but the canter was good
until we got into the right half pass, he slammed on his anchors and refused to go forward, it is always tricky in this situation did I kick him forward or pat him?
– usually both seems to work and we carried on but after this happens the work is never as strong as it can be. Anyway we made it through and Tel did settle to the
arena more in the second test so hopefully it was a good experience for future scary arenas!

In between all the competitions Lauren has been schooling Dani and they attended
two pony club dressage rallies, training and team selection for the Pony Club Area finals in august, she was very well behaved as it was the first time she has been
ridden in company, Dani and Lauren are selected for the 2nd novice area team which
is good as she is inexperienced. Further preparation included a competition at Bromyard EC and a very early start. Dani was extremely well behaved in the warm up which we shared with one other horse which was lovely and she settled really well.
The first test Intro A was reasonable once she got over the shock of going indoors, seeing scary posh white boards and sunshine in patches on the surface! Lauren
did a great job and managed to get Dani through the test and they picked up there
first red rosette!! (They were the only ones in the class!!) The two prelims also went well but not without spooking and breaking in the canter but w know she is not that established and as with all young horses once the attention is not focused on the
rider things tend to fall apart a bit. All in all though, it was a very positive experience
for Lauren and Dani so a great start for the future.

The Pony club Area competition is always on grass we felt it was important to have a grass practice session. We took Dani to a client’s field where she has an arena laid out. We had no idea how Dani was going to react to the wide open space but I have to say she was brilliant, totally calm and she worked beautifully going through all the movements in the tests. At the end of the session Lauren took Dani for a walk around the field – very brave – but Dani took it all in her stride!

August 2008

Pony Club area finals time Lauren and Dani are as ready as they will ever be! Dani looked beautiful, loaded reasonably and travelled well, When we arrived she seemed calm and stood quietly while we located the warm up and relevant arenas. Lauren was unusually nervous but Dani is calm and ready to work. Dani was a
star during the warm up, she has never worked with 30 other horses in a small space before but behaved impeccably. Their first test, the warm up class was quite spooky and could have been more forward but it was a good try from both of them. Unfortunately during the break the heavens opened and the grass became slick.
Dani managed well during the warm up and actually produced a beautiful test in the practice area! The actual test started really well and the only problems were a break in the canter, Lauren very sensibly though did not try and regain the canter to go across the diagonal line for fear of Dani slipping and losing confidence. I was extremely proud of both of them and especially of Lauren as she made a very
mature decision not to push the canter; these decisions can play a huge part in the future career of young horses. After the competition Dani had a couple of weeks rest as she had worked quite hard to prepare for the competitions. On returning to work I had my first ride and was struck how small she felt compared to Lou and Tel and I was also reminded how wobbly young horses are!!

For the last few weeks Lucia has been liveried with Julie so that she can ride and school her regularly in preparation for the regional finals mid august, I went over regularly to train and keep an eye on their progress.

We also took Lou to a practice competition at Bromyard EC, this was again very successful Lou and Julie won both their classes but with slightly disappointing score of 66.25% in both tests – this was a good outing at this point though as it proved the need to intensify the training and pay attention to really correct work.

The regionals are looming so it is all systems go training, practicing but also some fittening work and hacking out to keep Tel fresh. Tel is going well not totally consistently but we had a much better understanding of the movements and how to polish them, I had also started work on his working pirouettes and flying changes – the idea being that if you make the work harder than required in the test and the horse finds the test easier and is more likely to relax – or that’s the theory anyway!! A practice
competition was attended at Summerhouse but Tel was not very relaxed in the warm up, it is small and other horses come quite close, the first test was ok but not what I was hoping for, Tel continued the tension from the warm up into the test so he was difficult to really ride properly, but we were second with 64%.
I decided to really ride him in the second test regardless of the tension and we produced a more solid test although it was way behind what I know we are capable of, this time 3^rd with 64.24%. Feeling rather despondent I knew what we needed to work on in the week prior to the regionals.

Regionals!!!

With Lou, Tel and Ruby (Julies horse) attending the logistics of getting them all there was interesting. I decided to take Lou the night before to allow her time to settle and see the arenas; Julie could not get the day off work so had to bring Ruby the morning of the competition, a 4am start!! I planned to drive Lou back home that evening and bring Tel down the following morning, another 4am start and it is more than 3 hours to Addington!!

After spending hours packing, organising, washing and cleaning tack we were packed and ready to go. We fetched Lou from Julies and made our way to Addington. Lou had a beautiful new stable in the very smart new block and she settled really well. I rode her in the equally beautiful massive outdoor arena and she went fabulously I was really pleased and slightly jealous Julie was competing her the following day.

Fortunately Julie and Ruby arrived without a problem about 7am the following morning,
Lou was already fed and plaited as her time was just after 9am. Lou’s test was lovely, not quite perfect, but relaxed obedient and accurate, I had really high hopes but you never quite know at the regionals especially when you have three judges to consider. They both did really well 66.25% and finished 11th out of a huge class of 39 a great result – but disappointing to be just out of the rosettes!

Ruby also did well but Julie made one mistake and forgot to walk – she was enjoying Ruby’s lovely trot work so much!!

We all had a good day and now a long journey home to fetch Tel and repeat it all the next day.

When we arrived home the horses were out so I put Lou in the corral for a roll and a stretch after the long journey, it soon became obvious that Tel wasn’t moving very well, I went to fetch him and he was hobbling on a fore leg! OMG total panic, he was so lame I thought he had damaged a tendon. I managed to get him back to his stable, nothing in the foot, no swelling in the leg just a little heat, what had he done!! I hosed and iced his leg and although he became less sore it was obvious he was
not going to be competing at the regionals – gutted! I rang the farrier and managed to get the shoe removed, Tel had a nasty abscess in his hoof wall so we spent the next week poulticing and tubbing the foot.

Horses have a tendency to do these things especially when you have put in lots of effort but on the other hand there is always another day!

September 2008

 September began fairly quietly Lou is having a few weeks off after the regionals, she deserved a rest after being so well behaved and to put some weight back on. Tel has finally recovered from his foot abscess and back in work, lots of stretching and hacking ready to start competing again. He has also had a couple of treatments as he always seems to be quite stiff after an abscess, putting less weight on that foot and being unlevel from the padding makes him use his muscles differently and he becomes sore. He is also a bit of a wuss on the quiet!!

Thursday September the 11^th was a very exciting day, we bought our new puppy home!!!! After losing Taran in July, Skye was very upset for several weeks, she had never really been without a companion and in light of this we decided to have another flat coat retriever as Taran had been so wonderful. The veterinary
nurse at our surgery breeds Flat Coats and shortly after Taz was diagnosed we found out her bitch was pregnant. Once the puppies were two weeks old Karen very kindly
let us visit them, we always wanted another bitch and decided on the largest of the
litter, we thought this was sensible as the puppy has to contend with all my big horses from an early age. At two weeks old the puppies look like wriggly sausages but
were so cute!

Karen was brilliant and as we live so close we were able to see the puppies every week which was a fabulous opportunity. We chose the largest black bitch and named her Freya. As the puppies got bigger we played with them outside in a big pen and with their sharp needle teeth I have scars all over my hands! As you can imagine I have hundreds of cute puppy pictures. Freya came home just before she was
eight weeks old, we were all very excited, but when Skye saw her for the first time she was terrified!! Not the reaction we were expecting although in hindsight she had never seen a tiny puppy before!! Every time Freya was in the room Skye left rapidly, she eventually started to accept Freya but it took ten days and we were really worried they would never be friends. We made sure we gave Skye lots of extra fuss and took her for long walks so she didn’t feel left out. After that initial period though they quickly became good friends – thank goodness!!!!

Lucia had also qualified for the open novice Pet plan Area Finals with me which
was at Pencoed college, south Wales. It had been difficult to school Lou prior to this competition as the cows are next to the arena and she is still traumatised by
them. I managed to have one reasonable session at home and also found time to
hire an arena close by to practice the test, fortunately Lou had not forgotten anything and managed all the components of the test without too much trouble – she is
pretty reliable like this! The competition went well although she was quite tense
warming up, there are golfers hidden behind the hedge by the school and she got it in her head they might be cows!! The test went well and I was pretty pleased with her, especially considering the lack of preparation, we only had one mistake, a break in the counter canter, the score was a bit disappointing but we managed to be 10th and pick up a lovely rosette so well done Lou!

Great excitement followed I had a call from Welsh RDO Sue Harrison who said both Tel and myself and Lou and Julie had been chosen to represent Wales at the Home International at Hand in a few weeks time! Totally thrilled and slightly over excited it was great to have two Sinai horses selected out of only twelve.

In light of this news Sue had organised team training with Jennie Loriston Clarke, totally amazing dressage rider, trainer and breeder, very exciting. My lesson with Tel went very well, Jennie was very encouraging and was pleased with our level of work, she said I am probably trying to get it too perfect all the time and getting
caught up in the details instead of riding forward – there is probably a lot of truth in this I am a virgo and a bit of a perfectionist and I tend to beat myself up if things are not as good as I know they should be. The lesson left me feeling very positive and with some useful exercises to work on before the competition.

October 2008

October is usually fairly quiet, this year though it was all systems go in preparation for the Welsh Team at the Home International. Lou was back in work and Julie came over several times to ride and practice the prelim tests. Tel was fully recovered from his abscess and we worked on stretching and consistency and exercises from our lesson with Jennie Loriston Clarke in readiness for our mediums.

Feeling fairly confident and largely over excited we organised, washed, cleaned and packed all the equipment we might possibly need for 3 days and two nights away. Julie and I decided to sleep in our trailers (possibly risky as it was October!) so that we could be on hand for the horses and all the socialising.

I arrived first with Lou to find the car park almost bursting, it was at this point we realised just how big this competition was, 24 teams from England, Wales,
Scotland and Ireland plus individuals, over 100 competing horses plus all the riders, grooms, helpers and supporters the atmosphere was fantastic. The new owners at Hand had also done a fantastic job and the new facilities were fabulous. The Welsh
teams were stabled all down one side of the new L shaped indoor barn around the outside of the huge new outdoor arena big enough for 2 long dressage arenas. The stables were bright and airy with windows opening onto the arena. I stabled
Lou and went back to find Julie and Tel. Both horses settled very well, especially Lou who is not used to staying away from home. We spent time unloading all our
equipment and plaiting up ready for the vets inspection and trot up. This is mainly a formality, in place for the horses travelling long distances but I was very nervous running Tel up and waiting for Lou to get the all clear, I also felt very proud to be wearing my new red Wales team jacket. Formalities over we rode both horses
working on stretching and relaxation to get them acclimatised. In the evening we
met the other team members and had our team talk from Sue Harrison and Scott Gregory. The hosts, the South west England teams, laid on dinner which was lovely. We settled the horses and set about having an early night
as the arena walk was from 6.30 to 7.30am!

After a reasonable night’s sleep I woke up at 5.30am to feed and sort the horses ready for Julie to ride at the beginning of the arena walk with enough time for Tel to come out at the end. We were purposely not working the horses together and they were stabled apart so they did not fret when they were separated.

Julie was competing first in the prelim warm up, Lou warmed up beautifully, the key with Lou is to ask her to work in a more advanced elementary style so that she relaxes and comes down during the easier movements in the test. This plan seemed to work the test was lovely, calm and relaxed and what’s more the judge liked it as well, with a score of 71.3% they finished fifth, an excellent start.

Tel was not quite so relaxed in the warm up, he did some lovely work and felt quite supple but he was also up to his usual antics, I am sure this has something to do with me although I did not feel tense it was a big occasion, and he is never totally happy working with lots of other horses. Tel’s test started well until he had a small argument the bell rang and although I was positive I hadn’t gone wrong I stopped
– Julie was at the side of the arena and shouted it was the other arena just as the judge called the same – oops!! So I restarted and Tel calmed down, the rest of the test was reasonable and at least he hadn’t worried about the arena, it was not our strongest test but you don’t want to peak too soon!!!!!
We finished 7th.

After settling the horses we found ourselves some lunch and prepared ourselves for the team tests that afternoon.

Again Julie was on first, Lou warmed up well although she looked a little tired and not quite so relaxed (Lou tends to run on adrenaline when she is tired or stressed this makes her less likely to relax and a little more reactive). The test was pleasing but did not have the quality of the warm up test – I think it was a case of being a little too relaxed in light of the great score they had in the morning – this is easy to do and I am sure Julie would be the first to admit that she relaxed just a little too much,
it was a clean test though and I was quite disappointed with the score of 63.96% finishing about half way down a very strong class.

I was not about to make the same mistake with Tel’s test, we had not got a very good score for our warm up test and I was out to prove what we could really do. Tel warmed up well and fortunately we pulled off a reasonable test, not mistakes or arguments and he was fairly rideable – not our finest test but a solid
effort for the team and I could at least hold my head up wearing my Welsh jacket! I was a little disappointed with our score but we finished a credible 10th and collected a lovely rosette.

Time for some socialising we had a lovely meal in the canteen and the host teams had laid on some great entertainment and Becky Whitcomb did a lovely music display. We also took part in a horsey quiz which we didn’t win but knew some of the answers! After putting the horses to bed we tucked ourselves in as it had been a very long day!!!

6am came all too soon and I fed Lou and got her ready for a short arena walk in the beautiful indoor school, the tests were ridden in reverse competitor order so Lou was on quite early. Julie and Lou were on fine form warming up very well and not making the mistake of being too relaxed! I was very pleased with their test
which was very beautiful in many places, unfortunately the score did not match the improvement gaining 64.09% but they did finish higher up the class. Lou sometimes looses marks as she is quite up in front and some prelim judges are looking for a much flatter lower outline, on the other hand some love her and you can’t please all the people all of the time!!

Tel’s turn now and I was ready to really ride and show our best work. I had
already ridden him this morning for half an hour, he was beautifully relaxed and supple and happy with his more collected work. Feeling confident we were ready in plenty of time and the warm up arena was not too busy. To cut a long warm up session short
Tel worked beautifully we worked through all the movements and combinations
without a hitch. I don’t think I could have been happier with his warm up and feeling excited it was our time to compete. I kept his concentration outside as we had
arrived at the arena a little early; Mum suddenly came round asking did I know the entry was in canter!!!! OMG I must have blanked out that part of the test but we had a
quick practice outside and guess what we could do it fine! Time to go in feeling confident Tel felt great and did the best collected canter round the outside I could
have wished for, so deep breath, relax those shoulders and down the centre line
we go! Cantered in, pretty good halt and off into trot, turn right, shoulder in, circle, travers – so far so good – right half pass, nice, medium trot, bit tense carefully
ask for collection and disaster strikes, for some reason his mind was elsewhere I
took him by surprise and he slams on the anchors and rears, To cut a long and disastrous test short we did some nice movements even gaining an 8 for our halt
and rein back, but the third stopping, rearing and reversing argument was too
much for the judge and she put me out of my misery – eliminated in front of a
hundred people!!!! As you can imagine I was devastated, angry, upset and
humiliated all rolled into one, I have never felt so dreadful in all my life. I threw
him in the stable and burst into tears – I am not one for crying but that was all I could do. Julie was great and looked after Tel for me while I pulled myself together, easier said than done, and from that point on I decided that was the end of Tel’s dressage career, I just couldn’t do it any more – Tel is so talented but to warm up so
beautifully and then do that in the arena is not worth all the hours of hard work.

After a while I felt better and everyone was so kind, I hope they knew I tried my
best even when Tel was being so naughty. Many of the Welsh team members did extremely well and one of the teams was placed 8th which was a tremendous achievement out of 24 teams. Apart from Tel’s terrible behaviour the whole
competition was a fabulous success with a fantastic atmosphere and I would love to be part of it all again.

A couple of weeks passed and I started to reflect on Tel’s behaviour and began looking for reasons for it, I was not ready to fully give up on his dressage career – I had worked so long and hard on him and he is so talented and feels wonderfully
when he is working well. I remembered an email from Sue about a thermographer who uses an infrared camera to find heat areas on the horse; these can be possible pain
areas leading to problems. I booked a session and Claire Ellam arrived the scan
showed heat at the front of his saddle area, suggesting a saddle check was in order,
and heat in his mouth and jaw. I decided Tel might just have a reason – clutching at straws springs to mind!! – I arranged a saddle fitter to look at new saddles and my dentist to re visit. Our dentist, Andrew Gardner, came out although he had only
rasped Tel three months before. Tel’s teeth were in good order with only a few tiny sharp areas but what he did find was a small lump about half an inch in front of his back teeth on his lower jaw, it seemed hard maybe a bony spur which had definitely
not been there 3 months previously. Andrew suggested we had it checked out
by a vet and with several x-rays later it was diagnosed as a small bone spur, quite rare on the inside and the vet did not recommend removing it as it would take at least 12 months to heal properly and may cause more of a problem anyway. So we had a reason why contact with the bit and especially turning left may be a problem but
what do we do now? We finally decided that Tel goes extremely well in a hackamore and rarely misbehaves so most of his problems are down to the bit, so with a heavy heart Tel is retired from dressage and will try his hoof at show jumping!  

Dani has continued to make good progress with me doing the flat work and Lauren coming over to jump her when she can. We decided to take advantage of the reasonable weather and booked a cross country training session for Dani and Lauren’s sister’s new pony Phoenix. Dani started very well she was excellent in the wide open space and not at all nappy to phoenix, she was a little nervous of the different
ground conditions and took some encouraging to walk over a small dip! As we started jumping it became clear Dani really didn’t know what to do with the logs and natural fences, it took a lot of encouragement from Lauren and me leading her over the smallest logs possible before she got the idea. Eventually with lots of encouragement and a lead from Phoenix – who incidentally was excellent as it was her first time too!
– Dani managed to jump all the mini fences and as her confidence grew so did her style and she followed Phoenix over all the larger fences too. Dani and Lauren where both exhausted but they had done extremely well.

November 2008

Tel is working extremely well in his hackamore and is a pleasure to ride – I had finally forgiven him! Lauren has done some provisional jumping work with him and he seems to love it although gets rather fast and strong at the moment. He is progressing well and seems to have excellent scope and shape over a fence he just doesn’t always get there on the right stride at the moment!