Remember, remember, the 5th of November

Bonfire night for horse owners can be a terrifying time. Whilst many people around the country are enjoying the pretty lights in the sky, many pet owners are sat willing the evening to end.

Realistically, how ever much we protest and ask neighbours to be vigilant and think twice about letting dozens of fireworks off, they usually still go ahead thinking we're just being spoilsports. When in reality we are just thinking of our animals.

There are plenty of ways to make your horses more comfortable this bonfire night and hopefully you will find some my tips help a little.

Remember, always plan ahead. Whilst bonfire night used to be the one night of the year fireworks were let off, you can now guarantee people start letting them off at least a week before and then a few days after the 5th November!

- Do your research. Find out when and where the displays in your area are going to happen. Ask neighbours if and when they will be letting any fireworks off. Try and find out specific times, so if need be you can be with your horse during that time.

- If you find out that there is going to be display nearby then it is best to stable your horse to avoid him doing any damage to himself outside. Something simple like shutting the top door of your stable can lessen the effect of flashing lights. If your horses are stabled in barns then shut all the barn doors - although your horse will still be able to hear the fireworks, he at least wont be able to see the constant flashing of lights.

- If your horse cannot come in, or is better in a situation like this being outside then ensure your field is well secured. Check fencing is safe and their field is not close enough to a display that it could cause a fire.

- Think of what takes your mind off something you don't like. Many humans don't like thunder, so they put the radio on. Your horse is just the same; try putting the radio on when you know there is going to be a lot of noise from local fireworks. This will mask the sound of them.

- Keep him occupied; give him plenty of hay, a snack ball or even a likit to take his mind off the loud crashes and bangs.

- Do you like someone with you when you're scared? Horses are just the same! If you can, stay with them as your presence may have a calming effect. However, if your horse isn't relaxed then do not go in the stable with him unless you absolutely know he wont try to harm you. This may be accidentally or on purpose and sometimes they don't mean to but can cause you harm in stressful situations.

- If you know your horse reacts badly to fireworks, don't leave things until the last minute - plan ahead! Contact your vet and ask for some sedation, especially if you know there is going to be a particularly large display that is bound to upset him.

Additional care

- Make sure you have sand and water nearby in case of a fire around the stables. If you're on a livery yard then ensure you are familiar with fire precautions. Make sure you know where you should go with your horse just in case there is a fire.

- The morning after any night you have heard fireworks you should always check your horses field. Fireworks that have strayed my have landed there and be a risk to your horse.Walking the whole perimeter of the field will allow you to ensure you have removed all fireworks that could have strayed.

One thing to remember is that all horses are different. Some react differently to fireworks and whilst a few on your yard may not be scared, others may be petrified. Take each individual horses needs in to consideration and work out what you can do to ensure they all have the most comfortable and quiet night as possible.

Don't be afraid to send your neighbours a polite notice asking them to keep their display to a minimum. Or maybe even just ask them to have their display the furthest away from your horses as possible. If you don't ask, you have no right to complain.

Here is a handy hint to help you remember what to do on bonfire night:

Fireworks must not be set off near livestock or horses in fields or stables
It is best to keep your horse in its normal routine
Risk assess your stable yard and plan to limit disturbance
Ensure you find out if there are any displays planned nearby
Warn local organisers, councils and schools that there are horses in the area
Organise your plans in advance
Remain calm and positive yourself as horses will sense your unease
Keep your horse in a familiar environment
Safety for everyone is the key – do not put yourself in danger

If you have any other tips then please comment below or tweet me @SLEquineJourno

 

Don't forget you can now follow me on Instagram: SLEquineJournalist

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Dressage to music - October

After a recent decision to have a few weeks off from competing in any Novice test I decided to just go out and try to get my qualification finished for the Music Championships.

After trialling just doing one test at the Area Festival we realised this worked much better than doing two tests. By doing just one I could warm up properly for 40 minutes and I wasn't faced with a then grumpy pony who before the second test thought he should be finished.

Warming up went well for the music class. It was the first time in about 3 months I was going to ride to my music, let alone the test - so I was a little apprehensive about things, but a nice positive warm up set us in good steed.

To start I walked for 15 minutes, ensuring to stretch and flex on both reins, to both the left and right. Towards the end of the walk whilst still on a loose rein I asked for some small leg-yield and half pass steps to gently encourage the hind legs to come underneath and start working properly.

After this I picked him up a little and asked for a more forward walk in the contact and then picked up trot. My new instructor - whilst old one is on maternity leave - suggested I do lots of transitions to stop Ceaser getting bored and anticipating what was about to happen, but ensuring with each transitions he stayed in the contact - something we sometimes struggle with. If he didn't then I quickly flex left and right and ask for it all over again.

We had also been working on the dropping of the poll during the canter transitions which is often our biggest mark looser, so whilst warming up I do some work in sitting trot, then rising, then sitting and so on, eventually leading up to the sitting trot and then canter transitions immediately. I don't know but this works and it's really helped with the loss of balance and contact through the trot to canter transition. My instructor thinks Ceaser may get a little 'upset' when I put my leg on to ask for canter when not warmed up enough, but whatever his reason, this new way of working seems to work perfectly and the tantrums when first asking for canter have completely gone.

So, in the trot I do lots of shoulder-in along the long sides, gently encouraging the hind legs to come underneath a little more. When I get the feeling I've got it, change from shoulder-in down the long side, to leg yield across the diagonal and so on, thus giving him some variation in what we're doing and keeping his mind active.

One I've got this we then ask for canter, but more like a medium than working. My new instructor also thinks I don't push on enough in the canter and every canter is more of a collected than anything, so lots of work lately to push open the frame, encouraging his knees to come up. Once I've got this the medium canter looks and feels much better and like he's taking me somewhere.

After this I gave him a five minutes rest and then picked him back up, this time slowing everything down and encouraging him to open his frame a little more and stretch into the contact rather than hollow into it. The plan with only doing one test is to keep him warming up right until it is time to go into my test as when I allow him a few minutes to walk it takes another few minutes to pick him back up.

The test started well, however I wasn't given chance to put my hand up properly for my music to start, so the beginning was a little rushed, but we managed to catch up and slow down again. Everything seemed to go well and I was pleased with the effort compared to the few previous tests we've done. Ceaser really seems to perk up when it comes to the music classes and both of us appear to enjoy them far more than anything else.

After watching the last couple of tests and with 6 in it, I expected to be pulled in roughly 3rd - the middle of the field, however I was gobsmacked to find out we had won the restricted section with just shy of 67%! I was absolutely thrilled to bits with the comments about the test we produced and especially pleased with getting 7's for all transitions - something we had spent a lot of focus on in the previous lesson with my instructor. Had it not been for the judge not really liking our music then it would have been a 70+ test, but sadly you can't please them all and those who know me and the reason my music is what it is, will know there's no chance of me changing it anytime soon.

Not so long ago things were getting difficult with Ceaser and he was becoming more and more reluctant to go forwards. After extensive chats with my vets and back lady we couldn't find anything on the outside wrong and we weren't overly worried about anything on the inside being wrong. So it was suggested I spend more time hacking and jumping to see if he was simply bored, as he would behave when we went elsewhere for a lesson, but not at home. Now his routine has completely changed; we hack at least twice a week, jump twice a week and school as and when I get time. I have a lesson elsewhere once a week, so if that's our only schooling session then so be it. I've finally got my happy-go-lucky pony back that is enjoying work much more. But more on that another time, just please make sure you vary your ponies work - it's so important to keep their mind stimulated and stops them getting bored and stuffy, just like Ceaser was beginning to.

 To conclude, I couldn't have been more pleased. One test and one red rosette with a decent score to accompany it. Overall a fabulous day out which left beaming!

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Jodi Picoult - The Pact

It's very rare for me to read a book that I almost feel the need to review or simply write about, but The Pact was a real page turner for me, and enough to want to tell the world about.

For me The Pact is one of those books which leaves you reeling for days and without realising my attention often turned back to it for quite a few days after I had finished. Page after page I wanted to read more and I struggled to put it down. During lunch breaks at work I'd run out of the office, sit down with my lunch in the car and pull the book out. Half an hour went far too quickly and I'd find myself running back into work realising I had been reading for longer that I had anticipated. No one can say it's not one of those books that's impossible to put down and leaves you literally spellbound. It's thought-provoking and emotional, which to me gives a good read.

I've read various Jodie Picoult books, from My Sisters Keeper to Handle with Care, which all explore various tough and emotional topics which many authors would shy away from.

Through The Pact, Picoult paints an indelible portrait of families in anguish which unfolds as an astonishingly suspenseful drama.

For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other and shared everything from Chinese food to chicken pox. They've always been so close that it's hard to imagine a life without one another, which results in no surprise that children Chris and Emily's relationship soon blossoms into something more during high school.

As readers we are introduced to Chris and Emily at the age of 17. Something in their love story goes horribly wrong and within the first few pages of the novel a midnight call from the hospital reveals Emily is dead from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet - a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described. Before long we learn it was Emily's emotional turmoil, compounded by pregnancy, which she keeps secret, leads to depression, despair and a desire for suicide, and she insists that Chris prove his love by pulling the trigger.

Picoults ability to intertwine reminiscent memories with the bitter circumstances of reality allows us to learn the real reason why Emily wound up dead that night and what really happened on the Carousel in her final moments. Aside from this, portions of the novel are set in the past giving us a feel of Chris and Emily's journey through adolescence, beginning with colourful childhood memories and ending in a passionate romance.

If you're against reading books with a little bit of sex in then I wouldn't recommend this. By no means is it the next fifty shades, but it introduces first-time sex and awkward encounters between both sets of parents in the aftermath following the shooting. Picoult even goes as far as a parent manipulating another through the use of sex, but I won't ruin that bit for you as I find it an important part in the book which only shows what lengths a parent would go to, to get justice for their child.

Throughout we are given both sets of parents views and take on what happened that dreadful night and watch as they question just how well they know their children. It's only a few short days after Emily's funeral that her parents learn the results of the autopsy. It turns out Emily was pregnant, something neither Emily's parents, Michael nor Melanie knew. The Police detective states that Chris killed Emily to keep the baby from interfering with his future and a few days later on his eighteenth birthday, Chris is arrested.

Fast forward some time and throughout the novel we learn that as a child Emily was sexually abused in Mc Donalds toilets; a secret she has never told anyone, not even Chris, who never knew the exact reason Emily wanted to die.

Jordan McAfee, Chris's lawyer does not want Chris to tell him what happened the night Emily died, he wants to prepare the defense that has as little to do with the truth as possible. Jordan plans to say that the night Emily died, Chris and Emily had intended to die together in a suicide pact.  The fact that Chris now claims he was never suicidal keeps Jordan from allowing Chris to testify. However, the longer Chris is in jail, the more he wants to tell the truth. When his cellmate is convicted of killing his infant son and commits suicide in federal prison, Chris becomes desperate to tell the truth to someone. Finally Chris blurts the truth to his mother. Despite this he's given the verdict of not guilty and returns home to set about life without his one true love, Emily.

I wanted to recommend this to some younger friends to read as Picoult carefully addresses the worries of a young teenager growing up and I am sure their thoughts and feelings are mirrored in Emily's own words. However, add in the seduction, the first-time sex and I decided against it.

In my opinion, Picoult has once again written a book that openly discusses the intensity of adolescent angst and the power and failure of parent and child bonds.

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Area Festival Houghton Hall

Sometimes when you've had a few bad rides it really does only take one to get you beaming like a cheshire cat again. On Sunday, at the Area Festival I had that ride. That ride where you literally beam from start to finish and it leaves you speechless.

For the last couple of weeks Ceaser and I have been having the battle of going forward. If he's hacking he's fantastic. If he's jumping he's flying, but I really get the impression he's had enough of schooling and I tried to find new ways to get him interested again. Lots of pole and lateral work seemed to do the trick however I was debating whether or not to withdraw as surely we couldn't have a good day after a few bad could we?

My fantastic back lady popped in on her way home to check he was feeling fine and gave me the 'pep-talk' I needed to get my bum into gear and admit I was going the next day, despite feeling rather sorry for myself!

The venue was roughly 2.5 hours away with my time of 9.57 I worked out that if we left the yard at 5am I would have plenty of time upon arrival to do as I liked - without rushing. However, as always Mark and I didn't get up at the right time so we ended up leaving at 5:30, which thankfully I had accounted for!

I was very impressed with the venue once we arrived. Immediately we were shown to our parking space, asked if we had enough room either side and whether we needed any help. I have to say, the whole experience was fantastic - but more on that later.

Once we had gotten parked I went off to check where the arenas were and fill in my competition record sheet which would be read out as I entered the arena. As I was given my Area Festival plaque I was handed a pack of polos "for the pony". It definitely is the little touches that make an experience all the more brilliant.

When I got back to the lorry it was time for the massage pad to go on Ceaser and for me to get changed. Stupid me realised I hadn't charged the massage pad up - whoops! But thankfully lorry next door had a spare equilibrium battery so saved the day and Ceaser got his 30 minute warm up before it was time to get on!

Once tacked up and ready I did all the stretches to Ceasers legs and back that Amy my instructor and Amy my back lady (yes, confusing!) had recommended doing to help him warm up. Then it was time to get on!


Ceaser felt nice and forward which was a bonus. We spent lots of time walking and trotting on a long rein, just nice and long and low. I also took this chance to do lots of flexing left and right whilst asking for a bit of lateral work to get him stepping underneath more. He felt great and was working off my leg nicely. When it was time to canter I allowed him to stay on a longish rein, whilst adding some counter canter and then adding some short transitions in to trot-canter-trot. After about 35 minutes it was time to take our boots off, head indoors and pick him up for the second part of the warm up.

This included basically what we had done in the first part of the warm up, but this time with the expectation of working more through his back and in an uphill frame. I wasn't allowed a whip or caller in the test so I went through my test without both, putting the main focus on him being off my leg and going forward without rushing.

All too soon it was my turn to go and after a quick "I feel sick, I can't remember my test, where do I go after I've been down the centre line?" Mark almost shoved us in the ring and it was down to us! Lots of horses had been caught out by the indoor arena as they had dressed it up a little, however he isn't generally spooky when away from home so I had this on my side! He trotted in and past the judges tables fine and when the bell rang did a lovely centre line to start on a 7, which was promising!

It was a big class with some good competition in so I was just hoping to not come last and have a good time after our miserable lesson the previous day. Ceaser felt fantastic, I couldn't have asked for much more than he gave in the test, but I do feel he could have been a little more off my leg in one canter transitions. His medium trots came out of nowhere and we even got 7's for them AND from both judges - something we haven't done in a long time, possibly ever!

I remember thinking half way through my test "for goodness sake smile". I find it all too easy to go through the whole test with my head in a blur, but I wanted to enjoy it and make a point of telling myself to smile and ensure I smiled at the judges every time I went past.

Coming down the centreline I couldn't believe I had just remembered a Novice test. My memory is awful at the best of times, but we had done it! Lots of big pats for Ceaser and a couple of hugs and we walked out the arena - with me struggling to hold back the tears and unable to talk. Always a good sign!

Top 10 were required for a formal prize giving. I wasn't counting on a placing, but Mark ran off to see  "just incase", whilst I untacked Ceaser and gave him some fuss - he sure as hell deserved it. Really could not believe it when Mark came running back saying I was 6th and needed for the prize giving in 5 minutes! Oh my life. Proud, emotional... they were just half of what I was feeling. My little wonder pony really doesn't fail to amaze me every time. The photographer got some lovely photos, which I can't help but share!

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