(Horse) News At Ten

Bong!

I’ve been remiss.

Bong!

Much has occurred.

Bong!
 

Horse stuff:
Two days of fence-judging at last week’s British Riding Club Horse Trials Championships had many things worth reporting on.

But I won’t bore.

I’ll just say that the first day was excellent with many things going on.

And the second day was even more excellent (due largely to having The Lovely S with me).

Meanwhile my own horse news:
I’m schooling Big Vin each evening; concentrating on transitions and changes.

I know this is esoteric flatwork stuff, but if we’re to continue to improve our jumping we need to elevate our dressage considerably.

There’s a Hunter Trial competition at Allenshill on Saturday which we’re going to enter.

I think we’ll school around though, rather than ride in full-on competitive mode.

I’d like to use the Hunter Trial as a valuable training opportunity because…

Next weekend we’re competing in a Mercian Teams Two-Phase Horse Trials at Deer Park in Gloucestershire.

So schooling Vin around Allenshill’s Hunter Trial course would go a long way in our preparation programme.

Other horse news:
I’m walking Beech out morning and evening.

I’m giving him half an hour of grazing on the end of a long lead.

He’s had his shoes removed and feet trimmed; sounds as though he’s got his carpet slippers on when he walks on concrete.

Beech’s mental state has improved dramatically since I started walking him out to graze.

He looks perky and has adopted an alert, interested expression rather than looking permanently morose.

His final set of x-rays are due in a couple of weeks.

Once they’ve been developed and analysed we’ll know where we go next in the Beech Healthcare Plan.

So all in all the horse-world has been busy lately.

B.