Posy had her first lesson last night working on xc exercises indoors with Caroline Creighton. I wondered how she would take to this and all I can say is like a duck to water, we did turning exercises, angles, small corners and skinnies and she did everything asked of her. In fact the evening would have been perfect except for one turning exercise which is very tight on a green horse and a gave her a positive boot to the last part, she slightly humped on landing and then showing how quickly she could turn leaving me on the floor - whoops

The Whoops clip! A compilation of the whole session, you will see why I am pleased despite the whoops moment! Hoping currently the weather does not play havoc with competition plans but we seem to be going through an unsettled spell. Tomorrow we are due to be show jumping at Tall Trees and then hopefully all systems go for Howick a week today with Bobby.

Today is finally a breather day for me and the horses. Well I had to go to work and catch up with what had been missed the last couple of days but that is still a bit of a rest!

Monday we took Bobby XC schooling at Chyverton. Wow he has suddenly got a lot more mature and really got the hang of it all. Then on Tuesday we took both horses to meet up with Zoe at Bicton for some practice in the arena. Posy went first and we are still very much at the getting to know you stage. We worked on the quality of the canter and keeping her connected. Starting to get the hang of her now. She has a great technique and didn’t touch a pole. She is being registered to jump BS as well so they can both go show jumping.

Bobby has matured so much and is startling to get a better rhythm to his fences, he still sometimes finds it hard to sit on his hind end and take the weight behind but he is rapidly improving.

So having done some Sjing practice we popped out onto the cross country where he gave me a magic feel, bold and straight to all the turning and skinny questions.

Love this picture and thanks to Nick Perry for the great pictures.

Wow what a weekend and another 2 days off to come as using up my holiday before the end of the council year.

Yesterday we took Posy to her first show jumping show with me, we bravely entered the 80 and 90 but she is such a natural this didn’t seem a push.

The first round in the 80 she was green and we rather waggoned round but we left everything up fairly comfortably. She didn’t worry about the water tray at the last fence either. The jump off was better and we finished with another clear to finish 4th. We jumped the 90cm although even if this had been a clear I would have left it there as the courses were long enough. As it happened we were eliminated for starting before the bell despite both Mum and I hearing it (must have moved it near the mike I guess!)

This round was certainly the best, we just got a bit long and she knocked a spread out but actually that did her good as she really operated after that. Looking at the videos I definitely need to ride her a bit more between leg and hand but as a getting to know you exercise it was very successful.

So we took Posy home and swapped her for Bobby and the jumping boots for some white bandages. We then headed for a dressage lesson with Stef Eardsley. My first lesson with Stef and I liked her training style very much. We started off working on the canter and using a medium canter to really engage the hind leg. Bobby then showed off his recent issue that having learnt to sit more in the canter he has also discovered a huge trot, yet at the moment he can’t quite control the power and ends up belting off. Stef made me really ride it rather than accept he struggled actually do something about it. She then set up and exercise making a square using two dressage boards at B and E and then a cone tight to each corner so you had to really down the revs to get in and round before allowing them to power out. Well that was the idea the first time we jumped the dressage board and he never quite settled to the exercise although once we moved away from it then he did some great work on a circle and I was encouraged to introduce some power to the trot work.

We finished working on a smooth canter transition. He can sometimes jump into canter and other times run so established a good trot and then used a firm aid to pop him into canter. I had some of the best flat work we have had together and she really helped move us to the next level.

So today while Posy had a quiet day it was Bobby’s turn to jump at his first BS show as a registered horse (overgrown pony!). The British Novice was a big enough track and the first time he had started at that height. He can still be green at new venues and hadn’t jumped here before and you can see he approaches the first jump and rather cat leaps in surprise! I had to ride him a bit more forward than ideal and as the round went on he got a bit flat and we were caught out in the double. However on the whole I was delighted with how he went. So tomorrow Bobby is off cross country schooling and Tuesday both go to Bicton to use the SJ course and then Bobby can have a turn round the cross country jumps there - all go.

Amazing how much more extra time another horse takes! Never mind all the extra plus the diet and I will get back in my hacking jacket for Howick! We are definitely in and competing on the Easter Saturday.

Had a good jump with them both earlier in the week and Posy finds things very easy. We finished jumping a course of 1m without her even trying!

Had another really good lesson with Caroline this weekend. Working on indoor cross country type exercises. (Make the best of it until we can get out on the cross country). He is improving so much in this area although he doesn’t always lock on to fences yet like Sarnie always did and Pip learnt to do. Asked some decent questions though and he really started to take them on. So we have entered his first BE event with a trip to Howick (Chepstow area) in the BE90. With 3 weeks to go feeling a little unprepared XC wise as was hoping for an unaffiliated run somewhere however hoping we can get a couple more schooling sessions in.

With the greys getting all the attention Sarnie has been feeling a bit abandoned. Realistically I have had to face facts that there is something preventing her from wanting to work properly and considering she is now 16 and been my horse of a lifetime I won’t be pushing her to do anything she doesn’t want to. However I am still hoping that we can have a foal from her.

So yesterday she came in where she met the new pipsqueak (picture was snapped a second before she tried to eat her). If Posy turns out half as good as Sarnie I will be delighted.

Sarnie was scanned by the vet (Joe from Rosevean) who could tell she was cycling properly and probably mid cycle. She was swabbed and once we have a clear result next week she will be travelling to see her future husband. Fingers are firmly crossed for some success this year although realistically we know that there is a chance she won’t get in foal.