I'm not 100% convinced its Sunday the 27th today as our day has had a slight Friday the 13th feeling to it!

Started off fetching the pony in from the field to discover a new love bite aka take a chunk out of him! This was off his supposed GF mare! 

To top it off He also had a missing shoe! Spent over an hour searching for it only to find it had been dunked into the water trough!!

Went in to get ready & managed to get sun cream in my eye, stub my toe & gain a splinter in a matter of minutes.

Set off to Breckenbrough & got shoe back on there then went for number. My mystery withdrawal caused a bit if problem as I wasn't on the list & then my number couldn't be found luckily super helpful people at Breckenbrough  so got sorted eventually.

Thought dressage was going well with an ok test (not best but not worst either just a tad keen) only for judge to get out of car after hault. 1st thought... "OMG is he lame & I didn't realise?!?" 

Nope we'd only gone & forgot to take off the over reach boots! Thank The Lord the BE rule has changed from Elimination to just a 6 point penalty so I could continue to knew it was just going to be a training day.

SJ is SJ especially in a sloping arena so 3 down. Actually felt like we achieved a better rhythm & I didn't hook! At least he wacks them on a day where it wasn't a good test before hand!

So went in to XC only myself and Nicola Wilson in warm up so had a lovely natter & she remembered my naughty pony (not sure if that's good/bad!).

The positive of the weird day was knowing I could just enjoy the round pressure free. It was only our 2nd 100 this year so I could experiment over direct routes/ speed. 

And isn't it amazing what you can do when you don't place a mountain on your shoulders?!? 

We only went direct everywhere & flew to be 1 of only 13 who made the time in a section of 40! Yes that's us who can get time faults at a BE80!

So a finish of 48, still not great but a 5 penalty improvement so if we can keep doing that we'll eventually get there! Its also the first time I've seen my dressage errors/penalties been shown on results so that's quite good & shows that our dressage hasn't all of a sudden got rubbish for no reason.

So I thought our luck had changed only to have the fact I was donning the egg-head look pointed out! I'd only gone & lost my silk before we reached a photographers fence !

But Nick Gill & team always get good photos so I've still ended up with a photo even with my unorthodox look (& got a Fab preview of our Skipton montage which is kindly getting made!).

We then got home & took H off the ramp only for him to jump on my bad foot... Good job I've got my removable cast, painkillers & crutches to use! For now though I think its time to head to bed and hope this weird luck is over!

Firsty appologies about this blog, if it makes absolutely no sense, has a
starnge layout or is just all together slightly odd... No I'm not on the whisky
(yet!) but I do finally have a new laptop. But can I work this half touch
screen, half traditional laptop; NOPE! In fact it took me 20minutes to work out
how to turn it off last night so god only knows how this blog is going to turn
out!

Any way on to the good stuff, well
the bag of all sorts that the Riding Club Dressage Area Qualifier resulted
in! 

We had a mixed run up after H having
gravel the weeks but ourselves and the farrier were happy to re-shoe him and
bring him back to work. Here I must say how amazing my boy was, previously I
used to dred him having just 2 days off and I'd be getting the neck strap out!
But thanks to EquiFeast's Winning Edge he's become such a happy chap, yes he
still has his energy but he can now contain it in a safe manor!


The qualifier was held at Hunwick an old BE
fixture. Thanks to the lovely weather we've been having the ground was firm but
I must admit I thought nothing really of it as H normally is a fan of firm
ground. My main concern going in was that could I remember 2 tests as I was
doing the team dressage and the riding team test?!?!?! Believe me it was a
challenge especially since I often go wrong in a BE test let alone a BD
one!

First up was the Dressage Team test.
Over all I was happy enough with him, we're working on him becoming much more
supple behind and I did feel an improvement but there's certainly more to come.
The only issue was that on the last half 10m circle he appeared to peck,
however, as it was at the end of the test he was finished before I could tell if
he was ok or not.

We then literally only had a
few minutes before heading straight in for the Riding Test. We entered the arena
in walk where we were to trot at X. We got to X and I asked for an upward
transition and he appeared lame. I held my hand up and the judge let us leave
the arena to have his feet checked. Tried to trot again but it was obvious he
wasn't right so retired.

Obviously I was a tad
worried but luckily no heat/ swelling in the leg and he was happy enough stood
on all feet. But just to make sure he had his Ice Vibe Boots put on. Just before
setting off we went over to check the scores and to my surprise we had scored a
personal best of 72.8%. I was absolutely thrilled as our hard work is obviously
working and our comments were  very complementary (another judge telling us
to affiliate in dressage!).

So basically we
went from a personal best in one test to not event getting past the
centre line in the second! Who said horses don't throw curve
balls!

H then spent a few days having his foot tubbed only
for some bruising to come out on the heel (which he probably caught when doing
that half 10m circle in the 1st test!). Luckily he's in great form now and
read

Don't worry I haven't forgot about my blog. However, Frustratingly I'm currently being let down by humans, technology and equines all at the same time!

Sadly regarding the equine side H developed gravel less than 12hrs before he was due to compete at the riding club area showjumping qualifiers. Luckily it was just gravel (as the way he reacted it initially appeared much more serious!), but it has made for a rather frustrating/ quiet time tubbing & poulticing rather than having fun!

In relation to technology my laptop has died and is refusing to charge, this has meant that I have been unable to upload my videos from Skipton, so unfortunately that blog will be late (but hopefully it will be worth it!). But to give you a hint the at ended in lots of smiles!

Thanks to Weebly Though I can update using my phone, so at least not everything is letting me down!

And finally in regards to humans I guess its a case of learning lessons as you go on. Sadly some lessons hurt more than others but these lessons hopefully make you stronger (once again I stress the hopefulness!).

So to finish this blog heres a picture of my handsome invalid (who went from 3 legged donkey to Frankel impersonator 30minutes after the farrier visit!).