Gave both horses a jump yesterday, first time travelling them together and separating them although they don’t know each other well enough for this to be a problem yet! Not sure that Posy thinks much of Bobby anyway.

Posy was first up and still keeping things quite light. Worked a little to warm up at moving her off my right leg into the left hand as currently she has a tendency to sit on the right hand. This is something that will take time. Jumped a small course with her and she made it feel very easy, she is straightforward, athletic and jumps from any stride. She’s now having a few well deserved quiet days which is also tying in with her first flu jab. Mind you her most stressful activity at the moment seems being turned out so hope she soon settles to this. We turn out individually as she was in Ireland but being a smaller yard she is not always in sight of others and then gets stressed. I am sure she will settle soon.

So onto Bobby, we carried on working on the quality of the canter and getting him to sit on his hocks and therefore jump better. He is continuing to improve at a rate of knots and he jumped really well. As you will also hear with Zoe’s shouts it is important with Bobby that I keep sat up to help him. So some really good sessions. However with Bobby’s first BE at Howick fast approaching I am starting to worry regarding the lack of cross country schooling or competition opportunities.

Took the opportunity today to pop Posy over to our local venue Colraine and do a dressage test. Always a nice starting point as dressage days are usually quite laid back yet still gives the opportunity to see what they are like in a slightly busier environment.

She was great, walked her round in hand and let her settle before warming up and then doing the test indoors. Although the test itself showed we have some getting to know each other to do she was well behaved. Just struggling at the moment with a bit of an uneven contact, she has an old crack in her mouth and I don’t think this is helping much. Means she is not as straight as I would like but this just needs a bit of time.

So here's the test which I was delighted with for a first attempt. She scored 64% which considering the mistakes was fabulous and came 4th :) Sadly rosettes only went to 3rd.

All go at the moment and today was Posy’s first outing. It was just a low key lesson with Robert Pickles an ideal way to get her out and about without putting too much pressure on her. I was really pleased with her she loaded well, travelled well and although bright on arrival and a real wriggle to tack up she came out the lorry and was easy to mount, walked up to the school and was good as gold.

At the moment she tires quite quickly so we had a short session doing some basic work such as leg yielding out off a circle, some basic serpentines and just sharpening up her canter transitions. At the moment she is a little one sided and leans on the right rein but this has already improved.

Robert loved her which was very encouraging. A video of some of the work we did today. A really good outing and very pleased with her attitude today.

Following a successful trip jumping on Sunday we looked to consolidate today in a bigger arena and outdoors at Bicton. They had an eventers Sjing with similar heights to BE. We had hoped when we originally planned to come we could do some XC training too but sadly it was too wet. The show jumping however was great and he jumped his best rounds to date. The 85cm suddenly felt small and certainly in this size arena it will be the last time we jump a class this small. He jumped a good clear leaving him in 4th

The 95cm was an even better round although we made one mistake for 4 faults.

Suddenly making big strides forward with him and can’t wait for the eventing and outdoor season generally to start. Disappointingly our first hunter trial at Pontispool next weekend has already fallen victim to the weather.

With Posy settling into life as part of the Shoestring string Bobby had a chance to make sure he kept ahead of the competition. We headed off to get some rounds under our belt at the Threewaters Riding Club Open Show Jumping at Resparveth. The forecast was mixed but we thought we had got away with it as we arrived in lovely sunshine. An hour later as I warmed up (outside) for our first class the wind suddenly seemed to reach gale force and the hail and rain sheeted down. The other 5 horses in the warm up disappeared leaving Bobby who continued to warm up despite the weather. Whilst it may have seemed a bit mad it was in the back of my mind that it may do this at an event one day and at least we would be prepared. Now I know he is good in future I will be running for shelter too!

The first class was an 85cm accumulator. He jumped a clear round still green in places but improving all the time. We certainly were not up to jumping the joker but the clear round left us in 5th place. The next class was a 90cm and a decent track in what was a tight school for a green horse. There were also tricky turns with a tight line to the double and a tight line to the last. The round started well, we had a green jump into the double but he managed, at times he just lost the bounce in the canter so before the final line I brought him back to walk and regrouped, typically it was next fence we then had down and with a tough line to the last decided to circle and get a nice line rather than wagon it as I would've done if we were still clear. So improvements made still quite a way to go.

Yesterday we collected Posy from Exeter after her journey over from Ireland. She was last off the lorry having been on the lorry which had dropped others off in Warwickshire and Dorset. I don’t think she was that impressed to find having got off one lorry she had to get on the next one, saying that she loaded willingly enough.

Once home she seemed to appreciate the deep shavings bed which resulted in much rolling followed by admiration of the beautiful grey face! However by today she had fallen out with the grey face and was positive it was out to get her. There was much swearing and bearing of teeth resulting in poor Bobby being ousted from his stable so they could do a swap as the mirror was clearly upsetting her. Bobby anyway appreciated the big shavings bed and didn’t care as long as the food followed him. She seems a real people person loving some affection.

She wasn’t totally convinced about being turned out and spent most of the time by the gate asking to come in again. Very ungrateful when that field and a meagre ration of grass has been saved for her!

I have had two shortish rides and both times she was great. A short session in the school (see video) and a hack. In the school she was fab very balanced for her age and looked and felt great. Hacking she is still v green and coming from a very quiet part of Ireland there was quite a few new sights and sounds to get used to. We went through the village and eyes were out on stalks particularly at all the gardens (If you have been to Ireland you may notice they don’t generally go in for gardens!). So will carry on introducing her to life with us and keep everyone updated but so far definitely so good.