Three Men and a Little Lady (and a product review of Equi

 Aaaaand she does it again. Off the grid while my entire life got turned upside down!

Following on from my last post, poor Romy didn't feel right at all at the Dressage Ireland Summer Nationals. I'm not sure if it was the increase in training but my gut was telling me he wasn't 100% and I'm so upset with myself that my competitive nature took over and I decided to give nationals a go anyway. Looking back at the videos it's clear he wasn't comfortable. He was eliminated from his first test for being irregular so I decided to withdraw from the test the following day and then give the freestyle a go two days later. Looking  back I should have listened to my horse and taken him home but we went up the centre line anyway. Big lesson learnt that day. HUGE. We got around the test without being eliminated but it wasn't pretty. Poor Romy Pony.

Romy the Fresian Cow

We came back from nationals and after some investigative work by the fab team at EquiVet I decided to give Romy a proper break, a year off while I focussed on Luna. So off Romy trotted into the arms of Jane, an absolute guardian angel, who welcomed him into her field in Meath where she fed him carrots and cuddles on the daily. Romy settled into field life really well and other than looking the size of an overgrown Fresian cow he is still thriving up there (almost two years later!). I haven't retired him, I hopped up on him in the field a few weeks ago and Oh. My. God. The feeling he gives is just incredible. But as the title of this post suggests, Romy wasn't the only man in my life to have a piece of my heart so things changed pretty rapidly for me which meant Romy was living the field life for longer than I had planned!

Luna meets The Boys

2020 brought me a fabulous hooman partner / groom / all round top notch guy as well as a soon to be hooman baby / wrecking ball / chief smiler. So all the plans I had with the horses were thrown into a shredder and we went back to the drawing board. Luna was going from strength to strength but I took things slowly with her. And by slowly I mean slooooooooowwwwwww. She had lots of breaks in between backing her in January of her 4th year to me hanging up the towel in Augsut at 20 weeks pregnant. I then handed her over to Lucy and the fab team at Greenogue to do some more riding and handling with her and then at the end of September she joined Romy up in Angel Janes field to boss the boys about and grow another 22 hands. So much for not having another tall horse  :-/

Three in the field and the little one said...

2021 came, hooman baby was born in February, we moved house in March and by April I was itching to get back in the saddle. Unfortunately Greenogue was now too far from the new house so I popped her up the road to Brooke Lodge livery yard, which coincidentally is the same yard I learnt how to ride in decades (ugh, it still hurts to say that) ago. And MY GOD how the break helped Luna. I gave the brave girl pants to Lucy at Greenogue to sit back up on her for a couple of weeks before I had a go but she really didn't put a foot wrong. I bought her initially because she had Jazz on the sire line and I felt I was ready for something sharp, not realising I would be pregnant within the year and I am SO happy that she wasn't how I'd originally hoped. She really has the brain of a seasoned pro on her and listens to her rider, gets confidence from her rider and if something scares her she'll look at it and with a nudge of the leg will keep on going. Sure, I need to pony club kick her from time to time but not often and she took my post-partum bowl of jelly body and guided it around the arena without any complaints or tantrums. I felt safe. And let me tell you, if there's something that will shake your confidence as a rider it's having an entire human being waiting at home for you, needing you to be alive at the end of the day.

So the time eventually came to start competing young Luna. Our first show at the lovely Redhills had one gorgeous test and one car crash test. The first one went so well that I got cocky and didn't ride the second test properly. When she nearly left the arena I started laughing my head off and the rest of the test was a bit of a joke to me. Again, lesson learnt, take things more seriously. Each bad movement is only that movement, the next one can be perfect. But I kind of gave up after the first bad movement and came away with a rubbish score. Poor Luna deserved better but we went out to our first show with the aim of enjoying it and Luna behaving and she was a SUPER star. I was smiling from ear to ear on the way home. 

At this point I want to mention the supplement I had Luna on. We had 

won a lesson with Kate Dwyer from NutriScience in 2019, who also came to the lesson and had a chat with me about Luna. They then provided me with a goodie bag and one of the things they gave me was the Gastro Care. Luna had been treated for ulcers when she first came in for backing and when she had big moments of stress, like a yard move for example, I had noticed her getting quite ulcery, dropping weight, being a little unpredictable under saddle. So when we moved to Brooke Lodge I thought it would be a perfect time to put her on the supplement. She settled into the new yard surprisingly well and I do think the supplement helped. But the big tester came when she was coming to the end of the tub...I had to decide if it was enough for her or if we should keep on going. So we let the tub run out. Big mistake. She started to kick out in the canter. She started to look at me when I put the saddle on. And she was all in all less happy to be ridden. So I made an emergency plea to NutriScience and had a new tub delivered shortly after. Within a week of her being back on the supplement she wasn't kicking out in the canter anymore. Her floppy ears were back in action. And she was generally looking much shinier and happier. We then took her to her second show where she got a great score of 72%, winning the class, and another score of 63.3%....the test had been gorgeous up to a point but we had been changing a few things in the canter and Luna got excited so she just wanted to canter canter caaaannnttttteeeeerrr. Not great when you're trying to do a 20 meter trot circle. But she got heaps of 8s and 8.5's up to that point so I came away so happy with her. 

Yesterday was Lunas third show and we felt ready. I had my serious face on. We had nailed the canter transitions. And Luna felt more relaxed and listening to me than she had in ages. And she only went and won her first class on a whopping 76% but she also won the second test on 68.68% with a error of course thrown in and a couple of iffy movements. But I HAD learnt my lesson and rode the next movement as if we were winning. The wind was howling in Marlton yesterday and horses were on their toes and Luna took it all in her stride. I never thought I'd strike it lucky with a second horse who had as good a temperament as Romy but Luna is NEARLY reaching his good boi status. 

Little clip of the test can be found here: 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CSTm7UpD4Ha/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Horse Sport Arena

I've tried various horse supplements on all my horses over the decades, YES DECADES, that I've owned horses and there are really only two that I would strongly stand behind; NutriScience Gastro Care is one of those supplements. I have a happier horse which means she's more eager to do her work and I can't wait to get up and ride her these days. She's a wee dote! 

So. We have qualified for summer nationals. I'm not going to be cocky about it this time so I hope Luna feels up for it come the week of nationals. Instead of putting the hard work in now I'm going to give Luna some time off and then I'll slowly pick her back up before having another small break before nationals. Hopefully this little lady has lots of floppy ear moments and lots more wins in her future. 

Just a spoon full of sugar.....

OK so as promised this is a quick little update on Romy as we eagerly await the Dressage National Championships in Ireland later this month. I thought this day would never come but ROMY SMASHED THE 70% BARRIER recently and he did it at advanced medium, no less. So proud of my gorgeous big gent and I was a bit teary about it too because he’s come so far this year, in the face of adversity. 

The show was at our relatively local GORGEOUS venue, Redhills. The sun was shining, we had fabulous, encouraging, smiling judges and as always the team who work the 12 hours days at Redhills were friendly, smiley and encouraging too. It makes such a huge difference when you get a positive vibe with constructive comments from the judges, even if the score isn’t great. But this time we got good comments from both judges and they were accompanied with two good scores of 68% and 70% and first place (insert smug face). We also managed to get a training session with Judy Reynolds in and we looked at changes, which were fine, but STRAIGHT changes which leave a lot to be desired so I’m practicing them down the centre line now! A few clips of our second test are below. Clever donkey.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0fovYYCaDK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

So it’s all set us up well for nationals now. I know there will be quite a few professionals in my class because we’re now in the category 3 (or gold category if you’re BD) due to the level, which is a pity as we’re a true amateur combination, but all I can do is my best and hope that Romy is feeling up to it on the day. If we finish top 6 in the company of so many professionals I’ll be over the moon. I TRY not to let the competitive streak in me take over, I really do...I know it’s the getting there that counts, blah blah blah. But I want a jaysis frilly to take home and frame! 

Earlier in the month Romy was showing a little off so I got him checked and low and behold he had a small tear in his shoulder muscle which had resulted in some scar tissue forming in the area. I’ve been treating it with daily massage and he has an arc equine but we also tried something a little different this time. A lady at my yard has a cryonic neurocryostimulation device. Taken from the website (www.esms.ie), carbon dioxide at -78°C and 50 bar pressure enable a drop in cutaneous temperature from 32°C to 4°C within 30 seconds. 

Physiological effects include;

• The technique acts on the body's enzymes, vascular and lymphatic systems, and stimulates the cutaneous receptors

• Relieves pain immediately

• Stops inflammation

• Drains haematomas and oedema due to its vasomotor effect

• Triggers immediate muscular relaxation

I must admit the initial swelling reduced pretty much overnight and with a few more treatments, along with the other treatments mentioned above, Romy is feeling tip top again and ready to flick his toes in all directions! 

If anyone would like to find out more info on treatment in Ireland you can visit www.facebook.com/esms.ie/

As an added prep for nationals I’ve been considering a few energy supplements to give him a little boost. Three days of tests are a lot for my big man who wouldn’t ordinarily have two days schooling in a row so I’ve decided to give this product a go to see if it aids his energy and recovery https://www.globalmedics.be/animal-healthcare/en/product/hemachol/ . Without going into the nitty gritty of it too much, the minerals should help transport oxygen around his blood and the vitamins should help increase energy and accelerate recovery. It might help Romy find his wings ;-) 

Here’s hoping my next post heralds more good news for my overgrown chocolate Labrador of a horse! 

V & R x 

Over the Moon(a) for Luna

And then there were two! 

I've been thinking a lot about getting a second horse, partly to take the pressure of Romy slightly and partly to keep me in the saddle when he has well deserved breaks throughout the year. I had considered quite a few horses but none of them were right for some reason or another. It brought me back to the time when I was buying my first ever dressage horse (see the first posts in this blog!). There was one horse in particular who I already envisioned stabled beside Romy. I had started to slyly purchase some new matchy matchy sets before the horse even had been through the vetting. So no, you can't teach an old dog new tricks and you can't teach an old....wait....a slightly middle aged Victoria a lesson either. 

And then, just like that (with a bit of help from my friend, Glass O'Malbec) I had agreed to buy a horse, unseen and unbroken from a seller in the UK. She was a gangly ginger who trotted like she was on air. And nooooo, I don’t want people to think it was a flippant decision made off the back of a fuzzy feeling from the wine, it was something I had been thinking about for a long time and she just came along at the right time. So it all moved pretty quickly, and before I knew it I was responsible for feeding 5 mouths (two big fluffies, two small fluffies and me). My fluffy family is ever growing, and something tells me I’m not quite done. 

Luna is a ~16.2 three year old by Valdez (Houston) out of a Westpoint elite mare. Her family tree has a lot of fancy schmancy names in there, not least the world famous Jazz who I think she probably gets her looks from...the big tangerine! She bounded off the lorry to our yard just outside of Dublin and I must admit I felt like I had cartoon googly eyes popping out of my head at the sight of her skinny, immature body but I was promptly told ‘Don’t worry Victoria...you’re a feeder, she’s gonna be juuuuust fiiiiine’ so I ate myself some cake and chilled out.

Her first couple of months with me have been really lovely and developing a bond with her before she is backed has been a real pleasure. I have to admit, having people around me who had experience with starting youngsters made a huge difference because I was definitely a bit blind to a few things. In fact, I remember mumbling to myself ‘I need to buy a book about babies’ when I first held her leadrope after she came off the lorry. I don’t really have a clue but I have a support team around me, not least Sina, Lucy and Kevin at Greenogue who were really helpful and offered constructive advice such as ‘you should long rein before you lunge (who knew!)’ (after I proudly declared 'TODAY I TAUGHT LUNA HOW TO LUNGE') and ‘maybe don’t use your PS of Sweden bridle the first time you try to put a bridle on her...babies break things’.

I made a promise to myself that I won’t back her until her fourth year because I’ve seen too many horses have issues from being backed and pushed far too young so I’ll wait until next year and then hopefully she’ll be a little more mature and ready to start flicking her toes in all the right directions! So she spent a month with me, learning how to be groomed, how to be bridled, lead to the field, walked over poles, long reined (kinda), and get used to something going under her belly and my GOLLY was she a little dote about it all. Day 2 I thought to myself ‘what have I done’ after she nearly skinned me alive pulling away on the leadrope but that day I also learnt to NEVER lead a youngster without gloves. We’ve both been learning and by day 3 I was back believing in my little tangerine. After that month I turned her away to grow and mature and while I was actually much sadder saying goodbye to her than I expected to be(she’s literally ten minutes down the road from Romy) I was also happy for her to be part of this new herd and proud of myself for doing what I believe to be the right thing for her.

Luna, my little girl who loves a cuddle and a scratch on the head, I can’t WAIT to see what the future holds for us, even if Romy was wholly unimpressed with you (the only horse I’ve ever seen him to turn away from...it’s like he knew).

I’ll post again soon about a recent competition I did with Romy. *SPOLIER ALERT* he took home the red!

Till then

V & R & L

x

 

 

 

Some well needed R and R

And just like that, a year went by *face palm*.

I'm definitely a seasonal blogger. I blog when things are going well and we're winning red ribbons and I blog less about the bad times....I guess because I don't want to talk about it!

Hunka Chunka Muscle Man

 

Well Behaved Boy

And we haven't been having a bad time lately (quite the opposite really) but Romy didn't feel good enough to compete at last years summer nationals so I decided to give it a miss. His SI was at him and he was showing up mildly lame on and off because of it so I decided to make some changes and give him a break. He would have the winter off and because of that, as much as I loved the yard I had moved to that spring, I decided to move once again to a yard that was 17 minutes from my door (but who's counting?!). I've always travelled long distances to see Romy but when he was just getting hacked or I was only going down to groom him the distance was making the break from riding all the more difficult. So we're now at Greenogue Equestrian, just outside Dublin, which has all of the facilities and none of the mud! It's a great yard and while I miss being with Mark and Sean I still go down to them for training and I'm seeing Romy much more because of the proximity of the yard. My favourite thing about the yard is the turnout facilities and Romy is regularly out overnight which is great for his owie SI. For me, keeping condition on Romy, having as much turnout as possible, not too much schooling and giving him a really long warm up (ideally a hack first) when we do school works best for us but he also gets regular physio, chiro etc etc etc!

So. Winter off, brought him back slowly and hey presto, he was feeling great! His changes were better, his lumbar region felt the best ever, his attitude was better, he seemed happier. Now, it's not to say he still has off days and I need to keep on top of everything but we have won our last 4 tests at advanced medium with some good scores and nice comments AND we've started to do tempis so I've dared myself to start considering buying tails. I'm scared to entertain the thought though because I'm worried Romy will break the second I buy the tails (touches aaaaalll the wood). Also, this size 8 body is taking a REAL long time to show itself and that was a goal I had promised myself before buying tails...ok be realistic Victoria, size 10 would be ideal! For the moment I think my bust feels like a size 180 even though I strap it down with multiple sports bras when I ride *face palm again*.

Throughout it all Romy remains the cuddliest, friendliest overgrown teddybear I've ever met and I love him more and more. But I also recognized that horses are all SO different and top competition horses really need looking after. And if that means Romy needs regular breaks throughout the year then that's what he'll get. I have another big update which is slightly related to that but  I'll keep for another day because I wanted to keep this post about Romy's progress. So here’s a little clip below on our (attempted) tempis from last week in our lesson with Mark Ruddock. I’ve tried them again this week and we got a really straight clean line of fours so I was over the moon!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0MXoMojuiS/

Canter Half Pass

So what’s next? We have a lesson with Judy Reynolds this weekend, followed by a competition where I hope to get my qualifying score for nationals. And then I think I’ll leave things alone for a while to give him a bit of time off before picking back up again before nationals.  

 

Keep tuned for the next big announcement!

 

Love,

V & R x

 

When one (stable) door closes......

Okay okay okaaaaaaaaaaaayyy...I’m sorry. I’ve been a bad blogger! My last blog was written in early February and Romy was suffering from mud rash...nasty little bugger, that stuff. It eventually cleared up and we headed out to try qualify for the Winter National Championships. We qualified (just about) at medium level with some nice tests and some really not so nice tests. I must admit, there is a specific judge who I know doesn’t like Romy and I. We got an absolutely shocking score of 53.97% at one show. Yes, I admit...I went wrong...twice (numpty). But still, 53.97 seemed incredibly harsh and looking across the entire class, the winner was on 58%. So I’ve etched the judge down as being a particularly tricky judge to impress and if I’m completely honest, I will withdraw from shows if I know that judge will be judging in the future. And I know that seems incredibly unsportsmanlike of me but it’s less to do with the score and more to do with what it does to my confidence as a rider. I KNOW Romy and I are better than that. And I know the other people in that class were better than that too. Does anyone else have judges they try to avoid?

 

Anyway, I digress. Winter Nationals came around in April and I wasn’t feeling overly confident, given Romy’s mudrash which hadn’t totally cleared up. The mudrash had meant he didn’t have the turnout which he so desperately needs. Thankfully we had a walker at the yard so he got the movement but it’s not quite the same as Dr. Green, in my opinion. He had been quite sore on the hooves effected by the mudrash and I’m not sure if it was that or if something else was going on but looking back on my video at nationals he wasn’t totally sound in front. Refreshing, given Romy’s issues have always been behind, but he actually felt good to ride so I’m annoyed at myself for not picking up on it. And guess what...I went wrong. AGAIN! I’ve actually been considering having some sports psychology sessions again to try figure out what the hell is going on in the little Barbie brain of mine during tests. So the first test on the Saturday I felt went quite well although he was tense in some spots. He was quite forward and I enjoyed riding the test. A couple of little blips and lack of concentration (or perhaps TOO much concentration) on my part landed us in third place, which I was delighted for. One judge had us in second place so I went into day 2 feeling confident. Maybe TOO confident. And then went wrong. And Romy wasn't totally sound. And the surface of the arena was AWFUL so I spent the time looking at places to avoid. So we got a measly score of 61.397, however our score from the day before was good enough to end up on an overall placing of fourth in the medium. I was really happy with Romy...his attitude as always was the best. He’s just the nicest horse to be around and it really felt like I was having a weekend away with my bestie (insert heart emoji). 

After that we had some changes in our lives. We found out the lovely yard we were stabled at with Sandra Blake-Farrell (Dollanstown) was for sale and all liveries had to find a new yard. Coincidentally, I was tagged in a post by the owner of my old ride, Woody (horses name...humans name is Amy), who was letting me know that UK trainer and list 1 judge, Mark Ruddock, was opening up a yard with his partner in crime Sean Burgess in Kildare...IRELAND! Yes, a bit more of a drive but after speaking to Mark and Sean and going for a little trip to visit the yard it was a no-brainer. Yes, the journey is long but less than the journey I drove for Woody when I lived in London. The surface is great, the facilities are / will be great and having two trainers plus a list 1 judge live on site has so far been an incredible help. And the yard itself backs on to the Curragh, a gorgeous part of Kildare with rolling hills which has been great for Romy’s fitness. We’re also close to the Equine Aqua Centre so easier to get to the water walker in future.

Very shortly after arriving at the new yard, Brownstown, I decided to give advanced medium a shot. Most people are fond of getting really high scores, some accused of ‘pot hunting’...staying at the same level for as long as they can in order to bag a first place and red rosette. Not me. If I thought I could enter a grand prix tomorrow, I would! Ready to wear tails...HELL YEAH! So probably a little too unprepared, we went into our first ever advanced medium test together. And guess who was judging us? See paragraph 1 above (rolls eyes). So expecting to get in the 50’s I wasn’t too surprised to see our score of 58.5%...but it was better than our last medium test and we didn’t come last so while I was disheartened with the score I wasn’t completely disheartened by the performance. I'd also like to point out that EIGHT riders either withdrew or went HC when they saw judgewhoshallnotbenamed was judging.

Vowing to prepare more, ride the test more, get more lessons ahead of the next competition I decided to try again last weekend. The sun was beaming, I was excited to be out and DELIGHTED that judge ala paragraph 1 was not judging us and rode two advanced medium tests...one not so great and one way better. I was super happy with Romy, as always...he’s my little darling. Any issues we had were because of my poor riding rather than his effort. We got 64.67% in the advanced medium 85, ending up fourth in a class of nine and in the advanced medium 91 we got a score of 64.74% and came second from six. I was over the moon. So much to learn and as a rider I learnt so much that day. I know I, for some reason, don’t ride well in tests but Sean was there to help me warm up and he kept telling me to ride...it was like my body froze and I stopped really riding once I went into the warm up arena and the first test. I don’t know why or what makes my mind go but I need to figure it out...stat! He spoke to me after my first test and put a fire under my arse so I went into the second test and rode like I would at home...willing to make mistakes for the sake of trying to get Romy going correctly. In fact I think that’s it, I’m so scared of making mistakes in a test I kind of sit there and baby Romy around the arena instead of putting my leg on and really riding him.

Romy is still very green in the changes but the scores varied from a 4 because it wasn’t on my aid to a 7 (most of them were 6.5 or 7 so I was happy with that!). So I think I’ll stick at this level now until we are getting comfortably in the high 60’s before donning the tails and galloping head first down the centre line!

We have one qualifying score under our belt and I need another score from a qualifying test before we can start thinking about summer nationals. Romy, as always, tests me at every show and the last show we went to I withdrew from because he just wasn't feeling it. But I just keep reminding myself that it's the nature of the game and they're entitled to off days, just like us. I'm putting less pressure on summer nationals now and will try to just see what happens......pretty tough for a planner like me!

Till next time,

V&R

Our brush with fame (kinda!)

So it’s taken me a while to write this post, partly because it took me that long to come back down to earth and partly because of seasonal festivities and trips to South Africa! Let me take you back to the super exciting message I got from Irish Olympian Judy Reynolds shortly after our lesson, which I wrote about in my last post.


I was chilling at home browsing documentaries (definitely NOT watching videos on the funny noises squirrels make when they sleep) when Judy messaged me to ask if I had been approached by Leinster Dressage. I knew Leinster Dressage had a super secret night of dressage planned so I had the evening in my diary but I wasn’t sure what it was about. The night would involve a dressage masterclass in which Judy would talk spectators through a variety of horse and rider combinations and look at the common mistakes and training methods that they come up against at their particular level. And it turned out one of those rider combinations would be ROMY AND I!!! In front of hundreds of people. So exciting and scary, all in one. But mainly exciting.

 

There would be 5 combinations throughout the evening working on varying levels and as we spruced up the horses back stage, the tractors touched down at JAG Equestrian in Kildare and the spectactors and media (the Irish Field did a piece on the evening) settled down with blankets and hot drinks. Not without it’s drama, the evening started with me getting a flat tyre so I got to the event slightly flustered and thanked the world, once again, for my cool headed horse who helps me keep calm.


First in was Joanne Logue and Cashmir’s Hadena while I warmed up around the outside. I was at a slight disadvantage that night as Judy had only ever taught us once but the other riders were regular students of hers, not least Joanne and the gorgeous ‘Hattie’. Judy spoke about the importance of taking it slowly with a young horse and overall leaving them with an impression that they enjoyed themselves so they are always eager to work. She worked on the basics of teaching them to stop and go and encourage the correct reactions when asked by doing lots of (correct and accurate) transitions throughout the session.

 

 

Romy and I were in next and Judy emphasised the importance of a horse of his age and level learning to take the weight on his hind leg. She worked on getting his hind leg quicker and then we moved into the lateral movements in trot. I don’t think I had ever done so much sitting trot on Romy so I could feel he was starting to get a little grumpy by the end of it and as always I was focussing too much on his attitude rather than be practical so I gave allowances for it and didn’t ride a very clean half pass. When I threw all that out the window and just rode a half pass like I should do, he was perfect. But after so much trot work I was thankful when Judy said ‘lets look at the canter’. We gave Romy lots of breaks throughout the session and Judy rapped my wrists slightly when I used the walk to throw everything away and sit like a baked potato (holding your stomach in for that long is tough work y’all). We finished with the flying changes which Romy, as always, did perfectly one way and took a little more persuading on the other rein but he got it eventually...much to the delight of the crowd! Little clip below.
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcQj_mnAkEq/?taken-by=victoriaocarroll

 

 

 

 

Next in was event organiser (how she rode AND organised I’ll never know) Sarah Mellor and her fab horse Hotshot. The mare is really my type so I’m raging I didn’t get to see much of them because I was too busy giving carrots to Romy backstage but I believe they focussed on how to channel tension into something positive by encouraging her to lower her frame and listen to Sarah’s leg by using some leg yielding exercises. They did lots of circle work and finished off the session by looking at the beginnings of the canter pirouettes.


Following Sarah and Holly came Irish Draught gelding Duke and his owner Simone Hessian who were training at Prix St. George level. I always loving seeing non-warmblood types doing dressage and this horse was no exception. The chunky monkey was already established in his collection, however Judy reminded Simone to ride forward too in order to help engage the hind end further. They worked on the tempi changes with an emphasis on short, correct changes which Judy pointed out can be easier for a less expressive horse and so a possible opening for some good marks in a test.

 

 

Kate Dwyer closed the night on her gorgeous Welsh D x Warmblood Grand Prix horse, Snowdon Faberge (Fabio). After competing on the international circuit last year they had taken some time out after Kate had an unfortunate fall on one of her younger horses. So the night eased them back in to the higher level movements, with lots of breaks and breathers in between. Judy mainly looked at the passage and piaffe and reminded Kate to really ride the piaffe to encourage more expression.

 

If you want to read the full article produced by The Irish Field you can click here.

 

 

After the masterclass Christmas came around quickly, followed by a near 3 week holiday for me in South Africa where Romy got lots of field time. Unfortunately this meant he got a nasty bout of mud rash so we haven’t had a chance to do much lately and I am ITCHING to get out. I’m hoping the mudrash will clear up in the next week and we’ll get a chance to compete before the end of February. Qualification dates are running low so I desperately need to try get a few marks under our belt as we hope to compete elementary and medium at winter nationals before moving on to advanced medium for summer nationals.

Christmas Kisses

 

 

Till next time y’all!

A clinic with......Judy Reynolds

As everyone knows, I'm a big fan of training with different trainers. Not only is it great to have another perspective on things, it's fun to do something away from the yard without having the pressures of competition. Having a good understanding of your goals with your core trainer is absolutely vital and I am reminded every week how luck I am to have Sandra Blake-Farrell as my regular trainer. There is always something I take away from every single lesson and having trained with a lot of different trainers across Europe I can say that it isn't always the case so to keep learning from my regular weekly lesson is fantastic. Often with Sandra I will spend quite some time walking around her in circles while she explains something to me and that's when I get the light bulb moments. It's all well and good riding around trying the competition movements but personally I want to really understand the reasoning behind each movement and learn not only the concept but the purpose behind them. To find out more on the objectives of each movement and the general rules of dressage, I found this link really helpful: https://inside.fei.org/sites/default/files/DRE-Rules_2017_GA_approved_clean.pdf

I started really teaching the changes a few weeks ago. Romy had done them before but they hadn't really been focussed on and I hadn't done much with them since buying him. In my first 'changes' lesson with Sandra, she quickly realised that we needed to change up our way of going so rather than collect him into the change, I had to ride forward into a counter canter with my seat, ask for the new bend and then stop asking for counter canter, rather than ask for the new canter lead. Romy is VERY sensitive to my leg behind the girth (and yes, he showed negative to test for both front and hind gut ulcers!) and while sensitivity is a fab thing to have in a dressage horse, my overactive right leg, coupled with Romys overactive sensitivity can result in a few teenage strops from time to time. Romy understands what I'm asking of him now and other than the odd aforementioned strops (usually my fault for asking too much with the new outside leg) he is really starting to get them. HUZZAH AND HALLELUJA!


On the 26th of November last year I was kindly offered a slot to train with the Irish Olympic dressage rider, Judy Reynolds. Judy was really hitting the headlines as she was doing so much for the Irish dressage scene and she and her horse JP were smashing world records for Ireland across the globe. So I was excited to train with her. And of course, sods law, Romy started to get poorly. I had to pull out of that lesson so when I was offered another lesson with Judy this November and Romy was feeling great, it seemed somewhat fitting to see in the anniversary of his injury with a lesson from an Olympian! The lesson was at her family home in Kildare and the weather couldn't have been better. Blue skies and a crispness to the air, perfect weather for horse riding if you ask me.

I decided to ride without a stick and in a snaffle for the lesson and I didn't miss the stick once so I'm not going to carry one in future. I'll always bring one to my training sessions just in case but Romy really doesn't need any added aids at this stage, which I'm thankful for. Romy has been going really nicely in the Micklem bridle lately, which was good as we have just ordered new double bridle bits and they haven't yet arrived so don't have much choice!

After warming up and going through all of Romy's history, current training plan and areas to work on, Judy asked us to pick up trot and watched Romys way of going. The main thing I took from the entire lesson was the first thing she said to us and reminded me of throughout the lesson 'make him quicker behind'. Quicker, but not faster. Romy is a good learner and is always looking for the next challenge so he was willing to try this new quickness....I on the other hand was puffing after a while. After a little break she looked at the canter and did some canter trot canter transitions, something I had been working on with Sandra. I think I mentioned before that Romy often thinks passage when I half halt so Judy wanted to maintain the quickness into the walk. If I half halted and Romy started to slow down and think passage, I would ride him forward out of it and keep doing that until he kept the quickness and activity into the downward transition.

We then went to look at some shoulder in in trot. I had worked on the shoulder in with Sandra the day before so I was confident enough riding them and was happy when Judy seemed content with both reins. Her main comment in that movement was for me to be aware of the flexion at the poll rather than angle at the neck, which Sandra had also spoken to me about. I really do find shoulder ins quite tough if I'm honest....I think they're my nemesis!

On to the half passes in trot, Romy had no issues with the half pass right but in the half pass left I almost forgot who I was riding and rode it as I would ride a typical half pass, asking the horse to bend around my inside leg and controlling the quarters with the outside leg (cue aforementioned teenage strop in the form of a buck into canter and 'I REFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSE TO TROT YOU WITCH HOOMAN'. Romythemostsensitivehorseintheworld doesn't like me reminding him, particularly with my right leg, so I have always had to ride his half pass left with more shoulder steering than leg control. Judy reminded me that he has to allow me to put his leg on him so that's something I will have to work with a little more at home.

We then went on to the canter and Judy asked me to ride the flying change as I would at home......right...this is the moment Victoria, what were you told....ride forward with your seat, check. Counter canter, check. New bend, check. Don't ask for the counter canter anymore.....he did it! He did come a little croup high which meant I couldn't feel if it was clean or not (it was) but for our first attempt Judy was complimentary. Yay! The other way (left to right) was slightly more....exhuberant shall we say so Judy got us to change the canter a bit. She wanted him to be quicker behind, and when I asked for that I felt like I was sitting on a bouncy ball, it was a great feeling! We did a few changes either way in a straight line 5 meters in from the wall and Romy did a super job so we left it there.

I was a little nervous to see how Romy coped the day after the lesson as I had two training sessions one with Sandra on the Saturday and the other with Judy on the Sunday but I stretched his legs on the Monday and he felt super! His hindquarters are looking stronger and his coat has definitely changed for the better since putting him on Baileys Racehorse mix and spirulina.

I feel like I have a good training plan in place now and hope to continue with my lessons every Saturday with Sandra and also train with Judy when she's back over. I think so many riders feel a certain loyalty to a trainer, which I understand, but I think like every service you need to shop around until you find the product that's right for you and your horse. Good trainers are hard to come by and I feel like this is a pretty good team I've got going on now. I don't want to jinx things but I'm feeling excited again about Romy's future! *touches all the wood around her in the hope that her horses legs don't fall off*

Until next time
V & R x