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