Grand National. What will its fate be?

Following my most recent blog post on the Grand National on Saturday I have had many responses; some good and some bad.

I am very much aware that whatever an individuals opinion might be, the next person might not agree. We are all individuals that will always have different opinions.

The feedback I received for my blog post was some what fascinating. In just 3 hours I had just over 260 views on that particular post. It is evident that so many are interested in the Grand National and finding out what its fate will be for years to come.

I do not agree that the National should be "banned". Society and the general public who know nothing about farming and the equine industry have already managed to get fox-hunting banned. I wondered how long it would be before they took an interest in another sport that could be classed as dangerous and attempt to get that banned too.

Some messaged me following my recent blog post and asked why I compared horse-racing to football, rugby or any other sport of that type. Yes, football players can make up their own mind whether or not they want to play in a game but I also believe so can horses.

I don't know how many times I have to say to any individuals that do not understand horses, but in all honesty if a horse doesn't want to do something he wont! I remember last summer I had decided to take my horse cross-country schooling, before loading him in to the lorry he was full of beans and really on his toes. Upon arriving at the cross-country course he point blank refused to jump more than a few jumps. Usually he loves jumping into water and down ditches; that particular day he was having non of it and after an hour I gave up, boxed him back up and put it all down to having an off day.

If those race horses didn't want to race or jump I don't believe they would. We need to pay attention to those jockeys that pulled their horses up due to "not feeling right". Those decisions are one of the most hardest and disappointing to make, but if your horse isn't feeling like doing something, no one will be able to make it.

It all goes back to the saying "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink!".

Anyway, moving away from the fact that horses are one of the most stubborn animals alive, I have also been questioned by a young girl about the use of whips on race horses. This is a good point that I wanted to cover within my blog and hope that by covering it I can answer some of her questions.

No jockey is allowed to be seen overusing the whip anymore and will not use it to "make the horse go faster and faster".

Jockeys can only use the whip a maximum of five times in the final furlong or after the last obstacle. Failure to comply to this rule will see them receiving both a financial penalty and ban from racing for so many days or races.

The controversial new regulations were brought in by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA).

Jockeys already use air-cushioned whips to minimise the impact on horses, but an extensive review of their use began last November.

Many riders are opposed to the automatic forfeiture of their riding fee and percentage of any winnings when incurring a whip ban of three days or more.

The general public can rest assured that jockeys wont be over-using their whip when racing but if they do so then there are penalties in place that makes sure they don't get away with it lightly.

The other point I wanted to address was broken legs in horses. Following Saturdays race I was forced to see many statuses on peoples facebook profiles about broken legs in horses and how it came down to money from race horses owners about whether or not the racehorse would be kept alive.

Sadly, horses aren't as fixable as ourselves. Although a broken leg doesn't sound too dramatic and if it happened to you or me we would be put in plaster for just over a month and then we'd be on our way. Unfortunately in horses this isn't the case and no amount of money could save a horses from a broken leg.

Horses do not just sustain injuries while racing. It can happen when they take part in any kind of sport or leisure activity, or even while they are messing around on their own in a field. However much they are loved and however much money their owner is happy to spend on them, there is no way back from the wrong kind of break.

Cynics assume that money is the issue, but regular followers of the sport know this cannot be true. Neither Barbaro, the hugely popular Kentucky Derby winner, nor Rewilding, who pipped So You Think in a thriller at Royal Ascot this summer, survived their broken legs. Both would have been worth millions if they could have been preserved for a quiet life at stud, but it could not be done

Horses bones are very strong to carry their weight, but at the same time very light for them able to go fast. Unfortunately this means that when a break does occur it usually results in the bone shattering rather than clean breaking.

There is very little tissue covering horses bones so sometimes when a break does occur the bone will penetrate the skin, causing an open fracture.

I'm not at all saying that in a rare case a horse couldn't come through a break and carry on to lead a normal life, but through the eyes of a horse, what is a normal life? Following a break or fracture the horse may not be able to go out in the paddock, it may have to be on box rest for the rest of its life. What kind of life is this for any animal?

I can be honest here because I have broken both my wrists twice each. In the winter I get a harsh stabbing pain in both wrists due to the cold air following my breaks. Would a horse be able to tell its owner of the pain its experiencing in the cold weather? No. Although it seems a horrible thought to put a horse to sleep just because of a break, we need to look at its quality of life after and sometimes the kindest thing to do is let the horse be pain free.

I am a big believer in making the Grand National jumps lower. I know the feedback from this will be that the jockeys and horses will only go faster as a result, but if you take in to account the speed they are going around the course and then having to jump, do they really have time to sort their legs out before landing after a jump? I may sound a little naive here, but surely the faster the horse is going the less time it has to think about the positioning of its legs and how to land? By making the jumps a bit smaller the horse it could prevent the horse from tripping upon landing.

Following this I do feel the field needs to also be made smaller. By making the field smaller it will lessen the chance of one horse falling and bringing down another with it due to the field being less crowded. In stead of 40 runners, why not only have 20? It would be interesting to see how many of the 20 came home safe and sound as appose to the few that came back out of 40 on Saturday.

At the end of the day as I said at the beginning, different people are going to have different opinions on each individual sport. Nothing will be right and nothing will be wrong. All we can hope for now is the racing officials get it right when making the decisions about next years national.

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Wow, what a week

This week has once again been surreal. Both Frosty and Ceaser have once again proved just how fantastic they both are and with every day that passes I am more sure Frosty is going to turn into a brilliant alrounder.

We set off for Faldingworth Equestrian Centre on Sunday at 7.30am last Sunday morning. Due to taking 4 horses it was an early start and a long day.

Frosty was the first to set everything off in the Unregistered Mountain and Moorland class. I am so pleased with how he behaved; apart from being a little wary of the judge walking behind him out his sight he was 100%. He did a perfect trot round with the other horses, a perfect individual show and then a very well behaved lap of honor. I am so pleased with how Frosty coped with everything and took all the atmosphere in his stride. I don't doubt for a second he wont make a good riding school pony but his confidence in people is something that worries me.


A few days after the show I was delighted to get a card in the post to say Frosty had qualified for the MIDARC Championships in August. Unfortunately I am unsure at the moment if we can go due to it clashing with some dressage championships I have planned for Ceaser.

Once again Ceaser excelled himself and took 2nd in the Ridden Coloured. He was good to stand from half past 8 in the morning until 4 o clock for his class. In the one outing we managed to qualify for the British Skewbald and Piebald Association Championships, Equifest and the 15+ Championship which is pretty good going. I like getting my qualifications under my belt early on in the season so then I know where I am and what I'm doing towards the end of the season in terms of championships.

The following week I also had my Dressage trailblazers 2nd rounds which is a qualifier for the finals to be held at Stoneliegh in August. Just a month later it will be the Petplan Area festival so Autumn is set to be a busy period for both Ceaser and I!

I am on a three week holiday from university at the moment so I have been making the most of my time with the horses. I must say its lovely having no lectures and spending most days with the horses is lovely. Frosty is still coming on leaps and bounds and this week I have been on him whilst walking. He is a completely different pony to the one that arrived and I am looking forward to seeing even more progress in him.

It has been a busy week preparing for Dressage, organising things at the yard and looking after one of my ponies that isn't well. The riding school side of our yard is expanding quicker than I expected it to and suddenly things are becoming very busy. We have just got another horse in for the school who is lovely.

Yesterday was the day of the Trailblazers 2nd rounds which is a qualifier for Stoneliegh in August. I was booked in to do the Prelim and Elementary test and unfortunately during the week I hadn't had time to practice neither tests. Ceaser went well despite me not riding my best due to me being in some pain having pulled a muscle (or cracked a rib - I don't know what I've done!) in my side. We were 3rd in our Prelim section with 67.08% and then went on to win the Elementary class with 63%. This result meant we have now qualified for the Trailblazers finals in August.

I am so pleased with our results throughout the past week and am delighted to have now gotten four qualifications already in just a few months. I hope the rest of the season goes as well as it has begun.

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Have a little patience...

This weekend I was reminded just how rewarding time, patience, fun and love is for our equine friends.

Lately I have found my self being so wrapped up in my competing I forget to take time out and have a bit of fun time with Ceaser. I try to hack him out at least once a week and jump every other week to keep his mind fresh from schooling and going through dressage moves several times.

Although, just lately I have let it slip and just focused on perfecting Ceasers leg-yield, shoulder in or collected canter. When I was younger on our old livery yard I remember watching the yard owners daughter flying over a jump that got bigger and bigger every time she cleared it. She used to be my idol and one day I told myself I would be like her. Everyone asked her ride their naughty ponies and everyone loved her. She was brave and had a huge dedication for getting to the very top of her sport.

Sadly, a few years after we left I went back to the yard to find work had gotten in the way and left her unable to compete. Its such a shame as she was a fantastic rider. I remember being at that yard and just riding all day having fun with my friends. We didn't care we had a local riding club competition coming up the following weekend and our ponies weren't the neatest on the yard but that didn't bother us.

It seems such a million years ago I was once a rider that rode just for "fun" and my pony rarely saw the end of a hose ready for bath time. Now I'm usually found wanting to perfect my collected canter or shoulder in dressage move and my horses are all pristine. Don't get me wrong, I'm the first at the yard to be up for a hack to the pub for fun or join in with the pony games the children on the yard are playing but I also want to get to the top in my sport and I believe I have the drive and dedication to get there.

As I said though, lately I feel I've forgotten how to have fun and I shouldn't.

My reminder of time, patience, fun and love came in the form of Frosty. If you saw my blog post last week I introduced Frosty as our latest addition. He's a 14.1hh 5 year old New Forest cross Cob. He was described as backed but never done anything further. Frosty came to me a nervous little soul. You can tell he's friendly, means well and doesn't have a vicious bone in his body but for some reason he's nervous and every time I have gone to lean over his back he has tensed up and I've lost several hours of sleep wondering why.

I've spent the past two weeks working with Frosty on the ground. I've left him tied up for an hour with a haynet in the barn so he has had to watch people coming and going past him. Weekends are relatively busy at the yard and a lot goes on so I thought it would be good for Frosty just to stand and take it in.

So far he has been nothing but a perfect gentleman on the ground and his manners are excellent. Somewhere down the line he has been started off well and it is evident someone has spent a lot of time with him.

When we got Frosty I had a summer project in mind and Dad told me he wanted him for the riding school. I thought it would be my perfect opportunity to prove to Dad I was capable and bring this pony on myself but as with everything I began to have my doubts after last weekend we seemed to be going backwards rather than forwards. A lot of the liveries were watching me work Frosty in the arena and he became very tense. Eventually I had to ask them to leave as he suddenly developed a problem of trotting past the gate where every body was lined up. I wondered then if I was even capable of doing this and whether or not just to tell Dad I didn't have time.

This weekend I thought about taking a completely different approach with both Ceaser and Frosty. I have been told I am a busy rider and make life difficult for myself so when I rode Ceaser this weekend I stayed quiet, didn't rush myself and didn't get wound up if Ceaser wouldn't work correctly. After 10 minutes it all came together and both rides I had over Saturday and Sunday I believe are the best I have had in a long time. Ceaser worked perfectly and produced some fantastic moves.

With Frosty I reminded myself I had been given six weeks to re-break and school him ready for the riding school so I didn't need to rush like I had initially wanted to. Saturday I took him in the arena, popped some trotting poles up and eventually made them in to a cross pole which he jumped like he had been a show jumper all his life. I noticed he has became very attached to me and everywhere I move his head follows. He is constantly looking for me and when I am lunging him he almost seeks acceptance from me to go forward and then he will. My Partner, Mark commented that he seems too watch my every move.

Conscious of the fact Frosty is not mine to keep but in fact for the riding school I asked Mark to take him for his first walk up the road. I walked next to him on the other side but didn't hold him so he had to seek reassurance from someone else. As soon as I stopped, Frosty stopped and when I walked slower to hold back a little he looked round for me. I have only spent a total of 6 days with this pony so far due to being at university but it is already evident he is attached to me and each day I find myself growing more attached to him.

Sunday I decided to test his trust and asked a girl at the yard to place some cones in the arena dotted around and a banner on the floor with a cone either side that he could walk over. Frosty also has a fear of mounting blocks so we put a plastic mounting block in the arena with a cone either side. After just ten minutes I had him trotting over every obstacle in there and trotting past a group of people at the gate.

Frosty's trust in an individual person is so evident. It is clear he is a one-to-one pony that seeks reassurance from his leader before accepting he has to do it.

Monday the yard was quiet as every one was either at work or school so I tacked Ceaser up and decided we would hack out. Usually I cannot hack Ceaser out alone as he is scared or gets so far up our lane then refuses to move forward. I just went for it, trotted him up the lane and repetitively told him what a "good boy" he was and patting him. The reassurance from me seemed to work as we got as far as the bridle path and managed to go for a good gallop. The feeling of just being there, you and your horse is amazing. I had honestly forgotten what it was like and promise myself I will do it more often. Ceaser was brilliant and had his ears pricked the whole way after our gallop.

With the yard still being quiet when I got back I decided to put a saddle on Frosty and just see what happened. I lunged him as usual but with the stirrups down so they flapped around on him. This was a fantastic achievement as he has never even been lunged in a saddle and eventually dropped his head in to a lovely outline almost as if he was finally accepting what was happening. I then took the lunge line off, let him go and stood staring at him. As I walked forward, he did. As I turned, he did. Just then I saw a livery coming down the hill towards us so I asked her to hold him for me.

The day before when I had tried just to lean over him he had tensed and suddenly moved away from me, however quiet I was. Today I slowly put my foot in the stirrup and just pulled my self up to sit on him. I honestly couldn't believe it and could have cried as he turned his head to look at me.

That's when it hit me. I spent too much time worrying about looking perfect for other people, worrying about what others were whispering about me when I was riding and worrying how long I have before my next competition that I stress too much. Here I was just a week later after telling myself I couldn't do it, sat on a pony that was just last week too nervous to let me lean over him.

Frosty had put all his patience and trust in me to look after him that when it came to wanting something back he just gave it me. From what I have heard about Frosty's past, the last time someone got on him he had them off so I feel so happy that he allowed me to get on.

For non-horse owners the feeling of achieving something like this is something they cannot even begin to think about experiencing but I am sure every equine owner reading this is reliving that moment they sat upon their horse for the first time.

I am sure so many of us spend too much time worrying what we look like or what we have to prove to others.

From now on I will be taking a step back after realising that time, patience, love and trust are things that really make a good equine relationship. How many trophies or rosettes you've won doesn't account to anything once you've gained the trust from a horse once wary of you.

Just have a little patience......

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"Hunting and Dressage in one weekend? You must be mad!"

I must be mad and the next time I tell someone I want to do something extreme with Ceaser, the day before I intend to do an affiliated dressage event I want them to remind me of this very moment where I am laid in absolute agony.

Yesterday was fantastic. For a few weeks now I had been planning on going to the local hunts closing meet with Ceaser and seeing what he was like to hunt. I've never taken him before and was worried he would spend most of the time on two legs as that is usually what he does when excited.

Friday evening, not only did I need to bath and plait Ceaser but also had a massage at 5pm. Somehow, I managed to fit it all in and finally sat down for dinner late Friday night after going through my "to do" list for the weekend just once more in my head just to ensure I hadn't forgotten something.

Saturday morning arrived and I was quite excited. I haven't hunted for a few years now and was eager to get back out in the field and join in. I enjoy hunting and think its a fantastic way to keep your horses fit, healthy and rearing to go. As I mainly do dressage and showing on Ceaser I thought it would be a brilliant change for him and enable him to have a good stretch of his legs. Rarely when we are out hacking do I allow him to have a good canter, let alone gallop so I was sure he would enjoy it.

Standing around before the hunt set off I was relatively surprised at how relaxed he was, especially when the dogs were let out as usually he hates dogs! It was only when we were signaled to set off that I realised just what was in store for me and did I find exactly how strong my pony really is!

As soon as everyone else set off I could feel him wanting to go. I was told previously to position myself at the front if he is the type to not like being left behind and so off we went closely following the hunt master. A friend had given me some typical hunting advice and said "If he tries to misbehave sit up, hold on and kick on!" so I did just that and I can honestly say I had the best 2 hours out I have had in a long time.

Usually whenever I take Ceaser places I'm usually wiping endless stable stains off, or restitching plaits in that have fallen out or wiping my boots off. It was nice to be able to relax a little and although we had to be turned out correctly I didn't feel the usual pressures of the show ring.

Ceaser seemed to thoroughly enjoy the morning and only popped in a few bronks as we set off but apart from that he was relatively well behaved. We even popped a few fences which felt amazing. The adrenaline you get from doing something like hunting is so different to that of showing and dressage and I really felt it was important for both Ceaser and I to go out and do something different for a change.

Don't get me wrong, he was strong and I didn't feel like I had much control most of the way but I enjoyed it and as we set off at a gallop across one field I could feel he was enjoying it just as much as me so I did what I was told; sat up and kicked on!

Everyone I told that I was planning on doing two dressage tests after a mornings hunting looked at me like I had suddenly grown two heads and told me I was absolutely bonkers. "Expect to enter A in working canter and bronk" were some comments and inside I was just thinking "Please don't let me down Ceaser".

I honestly do not think he is the type to go out and do something and then come home very tense and fizzed up. I wouldn't have expected him to do both in the same weekend if I thought much different.

On Sunday as my alarm started buzzing at exactly 7:50 I did think to myself what am I doing? I could barely move for aching and a few extra hours in bed would have been welcome. No pain, no gain though right? So I shot up and in record time was dressed, ready to go and down the yard with travel boots on the pony.

In the warm up he felt amazing. Maybe a little slugish but that was to be expected. I haven't mentioned before but Ceaser has a very sensitive pink nose and when it is sunny he sometimes nods his head a little. Sometimes I do wonder if its more of a habit than anything though as when he is really concentrating he "forgets" to do it. Today was a particularly bright and sunny day though and I was struggling with his head shaking and my sore arms.

This I think showed in my marks and reflected on our percentage. I was deeply mortified by a 4 in one test for my give and retake and the comment of "hardly showed give and retake, ponies head stayed in same place" yet in my next test I got a 7! I did the exact same thing. Apparently that particular judge is a very harsh marker and I suppose in the dressage world you will always get one of those judges who likes to be that extra bit picky. I was a little annoyed though as I cannot help that Ceaser keeps his head in a lovely outline even if I let go of the reins a little! Surely that shows a well mannered pony? Who knows?

Anyway, I felt both tests had gone reasonably well despite only being out hunting just 24 hours before. I ached in places I didn't know existed and if Ceaser felt even as half as achy as I did then we'd both done very well considering. Our final percentages came to 60.83% in Prelim 14 and 63% in Prelim 13. Admittedly not as good as last time but to be fair it was only our second attempt at affiliated level dressage. Sadly as I mentioned in a post just this week Ceaser is a pony that likes to be kept busy and prelims just aren't busy enough for him. He works wonderful in a Novice or Elementary so I think now I need to aim at moving up.

I think what I will work towards now is becoming affiliated so I can do more than prelims and move on to tests he excels in rather than just walks through with his eyes shut! Saying that, it is always brilliant to get judged by different people, if you weren't, competing would become boring.

I am so pleased to be able to say that Ceaser and I have qualified for the British Dressage Petplan Equine Area Festivals as well. To qualify for this you need to gain two percentages over 62% in Prelim or Novice at affiliated level. I cannot believe that my once little green pony who couldn't do much has now qualified for a prestigious event like this one. I am so excited and cannot wait to get booked in.

It is only March and already I have qualified for a championship I had in mind. That is one "to achieve before the end of the year" crossed off my list!

Overall I have had a fantastic weekend and would like to take this opportunity for all at the South Wold Hunt for making me feel very welcome and especially to Kate for looking after both Ceaser and me. The advice of "Sit up and kick on" certainly worked and I had the most enjoyable weekend I have had in a while.

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