When a BD rider decides to change the D to an E!

Way back when I used to love jumping, I'd often be found in the workers ring on my little 12.2h Welsh Section B Sara (who should get more mentions than she does), flying round the course. She was - and still is - a machine. We'd always go clear as she never knocked a fence, and always jumped what was in front of her if she felt you were with her enough.

We were workers champions three consecutive years, rode at Moorgreen County Show where we did a nice clear round in the 75cm class and were always coming home with red ribbons.

Then, one odd day in July, some 14 years ago now (oh my life I'm officially old!!), when jumping in the field at home I cantered towards a rather huge jacobs ladder, with my friend cheering me on and BAM. Sara refused, realising her small size would struggle to get over and instead I was safely deposited over the jump alone. Only for her then to realise it's okay, mum's done it and jump it swiftly after me, crashing into my face.

I can't honestly remember much else, apart from limping down the field, onto the yard and absolutely sobbing with a very funny looking arm, bruised face and cut lip. Someone shouted for my dad, who was off walking the dog somewhere and all I remember is breaking my arm.

Fast forward 6 weeks, having begged my parents to an inch of their life to get back on, my cast was taken off, I was given the all clear and my friend and I stupidly thought I should attempt the jump AGAIN, at the SAME height. My twenty-something-self is currently cursing my teenage self at her stupidity, but hey. I'm sure you know whats coming....

We cantered as fast as we could into the jump, and once again I was deposited the other side and this time Sara thought better of joining me and stayed where she was.

Anyway, another trip to hospital occurred, non-horsey mum was livid, shouted at dad that she was taking me on holiday in 2 weeks and now i'd have to go with an arm in a sling. Thankfully not broken, but badly sprained and ordered to be in a sling for 3 weeks. Not sure I took much notice of that though.

So, since that day my confidence jumping took a bit of a knock. We returned to workers, but didn't really attempt bigger than 80cm from that day on and I always avoided any kind of spread in any form. The sight of jacobs ladders made me want to throw up a tiny bit and you'd be surprised how many times I heaved my way around a show jumping, finished and almost threw up afterwards. Dad called it an embarrassment, I said I could'nt help it.

Anyway, not long after my love for dressage began and all things show jumping was put on a back burner. I outgrew Sara and never found a pony I really enjoyed jumping again.

During university I joined the equestrian team, and jumped for them. It was during th
ese three years that I found my love for jumping once more, but still lacked the pony that had the courage to take me round bigger and more challenging tracks. I was keen to get back into it, but just didn't have the horse!

....and then, as if by magic. Some say we were meant for one another and just waiting for each other to come along. Ziggy arrived! When he arrived we had no idea what he jumped like, but soon enough after we managed to get him going it was evident he jumped like a stag! Then the rest they say is history.

We're here. Ziggy is bold, brave - everything I'd hoped. Aside from being a little spooky, he'll jump anything I put him at. and me? I sit there and hope to God we get over safely, and slowly I'm trying to put my big girl pants on and go Eventing. My hopes of making him a dressage pony are far dashed as people have told me he's too talented to prance about all day.


So, here it is! Our challenge is a BE80. We've accomplished various One Day Events and all sorts, that Eventing is really what I want to do with him now.

However, I just need to cross a tiny bridge. And that tiny bridge seems to be the fact I now throw up when I'm competing over a course of jumps and several people are watching....

Anyway, follow our journey - it might be an interesting one!

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Hectic few weeks...

Sorry I haven't updated much about Ceaser lately - apart from there not being much to tell, I have been busy with university, riding and blogging about lots of other things that I just haven't had the time.

We've got our first dressage competition of the new season coming up soon which I am really looking forward to. He's had some time off from competing for about 4 weeks now as after the hectic summer spending most weekends out showing I like to give him some 'him' time and I've just been riding as usual, but not competing. However, we are back in the full swing of things now and ready to hit the dressage circuit once more.

These last few weeks have been spent on trying to get him to work from behind a bit more as last year, in the higher level tests such as Elementary level he was beginning to get a bit deep and hollow whereas he needed to use his back-end more, carry his head higher and push from behind. He's working really nicely now and I am finding the canter a lot more collected than before. I can now feel him sitting back on his hocks and using himself correctly, whereas before the canter tended to go a little flat and were at risk of loosing marks.

We are starting off with an unaffiliated Prelim and Novice test to ease us both back into the swing of dressage nicely and then will go straight back to working with the big boys in an affiliated competition before the end of October at Elementary level. Well, that is my plan anyway!

I am absolutely loving being able to come home from university and be able to still ride. As I said in my previous posts about university, I found it very difficult to leave him every weekend during my undergraduate degree. Whilst it was the right thing to do for both me and him I still found it hard, so you can imagine now I am loving going to uni, coming back and being able to ride!

Unfortunately I chose not to apply for this universities equestrian team as I decided that I had made it to the top of De Montfort universities team by being A team captain and chairperson, so there was no further I could go. Whilst it would have been fun I am now throwing myself into competing, running our livery yard and riding school, our local riding club and my masters - yes I like to keep busy!

My masters is such good fun, albeit a little hard! We are covering much more broadcast parts of journalism and I am learning interview techniques and so much more! In fact tomorrow, I am interviewing Oliver Townsend for my blog so am very excited.

The whole yard had a fantastic day away at Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) on Friday, which was lovely. The majority of us went and it was nice to spend some time together away from the yard but still surrounded by equines! We all spent a lot of money, screamed just a little too much for John Whitaker and spent most of the day in fits of laughter.

A little while ago I was recommended to buy some stable boots for Ceaser that wicker water away to help the prevention of mud fever. Whether they work or not is a different matter, but I decided to spend the money and see if they do! So, now if he comes in from the field with wet legs because I have washed the mud off, or because of the rain, I can now just put these boots on and they dry his legs rather quickly. I am also using them as a stable boot in general though, which they are also very good for. They are manufactured and sold by Premier Equine which is a fantastic company for anything equine - I have a few of their products now and really rate all of them. I'll let you know how I get on using them, as if they work then I am sure other owners which have horses with mud fever would love to know about them!

I also want to mention the most pointless but fantastic little product I purchased. Tub Trugs have bought out some mini water buckets that  are quite cute. I can actually think of plenty of uses for them, such as a money pot for my car, dog treat pot, hair bobble pot, plaiting band pot, and so much more! My mum has also taken one of the ones off me that I got from HOYS. They may be tiny, but they do have so many uses!

As well as this, Love Likits very kindly sent me a Snak-a-Ball for Ceaser and some treats. He isn't the easiest pony to deal with when the weather is wet and he has to stay in as he gets very bored. The Snak-a-Ball is fantastic for keeping him quiet in the stable when I need to and he spends absolutely hours playing with it!

With the wet weather making more appearances lately I am also finding my Golly Galoshes to be very useful. The lady who owns the company very kindly sent me a set of four back in March because I had been dealing with Ceasers mud fever and trying to find boots to prevent it. The Golly Galoshes stop his boots that he wears in the field from getting covered in mud and are also great for putting over his exercise boots to keep them clean when its a particularly wet day! As well as this they are also fantastic for using when hacking out on wet or dark days as they are fluorescent. I would recommend the Golly Galoshes to anyone as they have so many uses and are well worth their money!

I also don't know if you have noticed me posting on twitter about how many views by blog is getting lately. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be on 12,000 views in only 9 months of setting the blog up! So, because of that I will be making some HUGE changes in the next few weeks. I promise they will be exciting for those that follow my blog and enjoy reading it.

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