So the other night I was all settled in bed with my book rather relaxed and ready to go to bed. Then I get the message asking if anyone can fill in for the A BUCS team competition the next day! I was the only one available to do it and I was really nervous about saying yes as the A team is all of the best riders from the universities, and I know I am not quite up to that standard. So I then spent the remainder of my evening getting ready and running around my living room trying to learn the test, it was a little more complicated to the one I did last week for C team but thankfully I worked it out and decided to have it read to cover my own back just in case. I couldn’t bare the thought of forgetting a part of the test like last week!

The following morning I got up and ready and headed to meet the rest of the team. We then drove to Nottingham to Trent Valley Equestrian Centre, I have ridden there multiple times before and its used to be my local riding school before I had a horse of my own. We arrived around 9 am and then did the horse draw and rider draw. I was the first on my horse which was a cute little chestnut. I didn’t know his name sadly, but within the demo he looked as though he ran away a little in the trot, so my team mates gave me some tips to half-halt to stop him running away. When I got on I was pleasantly surprised. The horse moved nicely and I gave him a light rein which he seemed happy with. We went into the arena for the test and it went really smoothly and I was pretty calm. There weren’t any major hiccups but he could have been a little more forward and I didn’t get much difference in normal trot compared to the medium trot! It was a movement I had never done before.

At lunch I had a score of 61.25% in dressage which I was a little gutted about, the comments were about the smallest details so I didn’t know if it was a particularly harsh judge but I tried my best. By the time we came around to the jumping I was freezing! So it was certainly nice to get moving and to warm up. I was on a little coloured for the jumping and he popped the fences nicely but he had a tendency to refuse the fences. When I got on he was the strongest pony I had ever ridden and he had no brakes whatsoever! It made me a little nervous as I did not have much control at all and his jump was a little strange and I found that we just didn’t flow together like I did with Tess last week.

I made it round the course however and I had to push him before every fence as it felt as though he was going to refuse for all of them but we managed it! Teammate Laura filmed my round for me and the commentary was full of her telling me to kick on! The round itself felt pretty messy but looking at it it seems as though his canter felt very fast but he was moving at a normal pace, so it was definitely a strange ride.

Results time! So with it being against the best of the best teams across the universities #teamderby didn’t do that great. We got team 4th overall and Laura placed 2nd which was amazing. I was 15th! I tried not to let myself be too disappointed as the same kind of scores would have got me an individual placing at a C or B team competition, but it was still fun to do and we got some cute pictures, plus another ribbon for the collection even if it was just the one for today!

Today was competition day! Seeing as I joined the club late this year I was lucky enough to get a place onto C team. This morning we all got up early and headed to the yard as the competition was at home today. We got the horses ready pretty quickly as thankfully there was no need to plait!

The other teams arrived at around 9am to do a rider and horse draw. Thankfully I was placed on a 17hh grey called Jasper, he was really sweet looking although he was quite spooky! We warmed up indoors and then did the test outside, I was a little worried as Jasper changed a little by being outside. The test went okay however he threw a few tantrums going into canter which lost me quite a few marks, but in the other sections I made sure to get his head carried nicely and to try to make up for it! Looking at the scores I managed to get 63% which wasn’t my best but I was still pretty happy with it given Jasper’s head tossing.

Then we moved onto the jumping and I was pretty happy as it was super cold standing around all the time. Before jumping I had to demo a different horse to the one I was riding. His name was Rupert and I was a little worried about riding him as a couple of girls had told me they had fallen off of him when jumping! He was pretty slow and hard to get going so it was pretty hard work! We managed to get around the course nicely although he did refuse a fence, however that was my own fault as a rider and not being confident with him. We also had one of our team members Amelia fall off – very slowly – in the demo from a horse called Dinky, she was okay in the end but had to go to A&E and turned out to have a fractured rib! (She’s healing up nicely now though!)

Then when it came to the jumping round I was on a lovely chestnut called Tess who I had ridden in training a week ago. It was great as I knew to ride her with a light rein as some other girls I saw were yanking on her mouth. We went around the course beautifully with no fences down so I was pretty happy with that, although I was pretty tired by the end of it!

When it came to results I knew that my dressage score would have brought me down a little, however I managed to get individual 6th and team 2nd which I was really happy with! Looking at the scores it was clear that the rest of the team were really close to placing too however I was the only one who managed it, but I am still super happy with #teamderby can’t wait for the next one!

So over the past couple of months since going back to university for my third year it has been HETIC! I have had very little time to relax and sadly even less to ride! I have only hacked Jack out once since going back to uni which is pretty disappointing as I did so much work over the summer. However, here is the update:

1. So although I was planning to do my BHS exams and even had some training towards them I decided not to go ahead with it. It was way too much money (around £600) just for Stage 1 which is all the basics, plus I have been learning how to drive this year and so I needed to prioritise money towards that. I really disappointed Katie when I had to tell her but I hoped she would understand, alas I don’t think she did as we don’t talk anymore.
2. Since moving back I haven’t really been able to budget putting away some money for lessons at Ingestre. It is truly an amazing yard and I do want to ride there more often as they are the perfect step up for me from riding schools, however it is again a matter of time and money as I would have to find someone to drive me there and back as well which is a big favour! So in the meantime I have decided to hold back on going there but definitely plan to in the future!
3. At the start of the year I decided not to join the university’s equestrian club as the plan was that Katie and I were to regularly ride at Ingestre together. However seeing as this plan quickly revealed itself not to be happening I decided a couple of weeks ago to rejoin the club. I was really really lucky with this as even though I had not done team trials there was a free space on the C team which I could join. This was really fortunate as I am able to compete again which I love and have missed so much, so I’m glad that it was able to happen!

So last year I was on the B team – which is one below the BUCS (A) team – so this year by being on the C team it is again a step down, however I am hoping to bring confidence to my team and hopefully boost everyone’s scores! They have already had their first competition of the year which was sadly too late for me to join where they all came team fourth and one girl was one point off 6th place individually. We have our next competition next week (4th Dec) so I am really excited to get those scores up and for us as a team to do really well.

In the training session I was placed on a chestnut mare called Tess. She was around 16hh and was a nice ride. She was forward going however she did have the riding school trait of expecting to stop and go back to walk after she completed one fence, however this was simple to fix. She also tried to tug at the reins when you rested for a while and then never really seemed to want to leave to group and go, she would throw a little buck in protest but it was nothing compared to what Jack does! We practiced doing distances over some fences and I found that Tess jumps really high! From this I became a little unbalanced when approaching the second fence which means we didn’t get the correct stride, but with time I was able to work on that which was great.

Overall the team session went really well and it was also the first time I wore my new hat! I got the Charles Owen Pro II in gold – because gold is for winners!! I also treated myself to a silk from Foxy Equestrian: https://www.foxyequestrian.com/ and you actually get to chose the colour pom pom you want on the top so I was able to match it nicely with the gold. But yes overall I was super happy to be back in the saddle and to be doing something a little more exciting than hacking or dressage – although I do have to learn a new test by next week – and I am also so excited for next week’s competition as it is at home and therefore we can play to our strengths. I am going to be riding Tess in the jumping round like I did in the training and I am also being put on a 17hh horse called Jasper I think for the dressage, who is also nice and forward going.

So I better get to cleaning my boots, can’t wait for next week!

Keeping with the new plan of just having fun with Jack and hacking him out, today was a lovely day to do so. I got him tacked up and ready and ready on time for my friend Amy to pop round and get her pony Tilly ready too. Of course Jack didn’t seem impressed at being ridden however he was a lot easier to mount today which was an improvement, although my mount was pretty rocky!

When we were on and ready to go we headed out to the woods, it was a simple hack enough where we mostly walked but it gave Jack a chance to relax and to warm up his muscles. He mostly spent the time not listening to me as he would want to walk in the way of Tilly and Amy by going from one side of the track to the other. He also wasn’t very forward until we entered the wood itself, I was a little cautious of him being irritated by flies as they were often pretty bad in there but today he just had a march on as he knew which way was home.

We had a nice safe little trot in one field, however as soon as we got to the next Jack was desperate to canter and it felt as though he was doing these small half-canter strides underneath me as he was so desperate to go. I thought to be nice and let him have a small canter however this was a pretty bad idea, Jack bucked with every canter stride we did and it took a while for me to get him back under control and to a fast trot. I felt so silly by letting something like this get the best of me, but I knew that if I had let him go to canter he would have bucked even higher and probably had me off. I felt pretty bad for Amy as I knew she did want to canter, but given Jack I just knew it wasn’t safe for us and didn’t want anything major happening, as frankly I have never fallen off on a hack before and I don’t want to be doing anything to deliberately cause that.

By the time we got home Jack had worked himself up into a sweat to say we were mostly walking. We did manage a little trot on the way home and he was a lot calmer which was a relief, it might have been the excitement of the big open fields which got him so excited to canter, at least we were both safe and sound. I think what we learned today was maybe not to go out with company or canter anywhere whilst hacking, and hopefully we can still stay on!

Going to Burghley had been long awaited by myself and Katie and we were super exited when the day finally came! We got dressed up in tweed jackets and nice shirts ready for the occasion and got in for around 10am. The place was so huge I had trouble navigating it all, but once parked we found ourselves headed towards the shopping and so followed the crowd!

The shopping halls were jam packed with people it was really hard to move, it reminded me of the big warehouses of Your Horse Live with all their shopping halls, however here it was tailored to a higher price bracket. There were many fancy clothing brands and everyone seemed to be wearing the fancy hats with all the feathers, so our tweed jackets and shirts didn’t make us look overdressed.

I managed to get myself a pair of earmuffs that velcro onto your hat straps from Foxy Equestrian, they had lots of designs to choose from so it was pretty difficult to choose! We then walked around all the other shops taking note of what we might buy later and then walked around the XC course. We didn’t really know where it started or where it ended so we found the nearest fence we could and then walked in the same direction as we saw the horses. The fences of course were huge and it was amazing to see the riders go around. It made me all the more excited to get a horse of my own although I think I’m quite a lot of training away from Burghley level!

We even managed to get a glimpse of Ben Hobday riding around the course merely by chance! We heard his name on the tannoy and then had to jog up a big hill to the next fence to see him, it was great to see him in action and looked as though he was concentrating very hard as he went over, although this fence looked 3 metres wide, it was crazy to think the horses were capable of jumping that! But I was still happy that we got to see him again, I hope he does another clinic soon in the winter months.

After walking the course we headed back to the shopping again where I managed to get a couple more items for my grooming kit including a water brush and a mane and tail brush. I did want some sponges of different colours for the eyes, nose and dock however there weren’t any which was a shame. I managed to get a general sponge so it was progress. Although buying so little did mean I saved money so that’s a plus! I was looking out for the Charles Owen 4 star skull cap however no where was selling it for under £150, and some were selling it for as high as £189! My local tack store does it for £130 so I decided to wait until another day for me to get one as I’m certainly in the student frame of mind with saving money!

After our little purchases we headed home as we were super tired and it had been a long day. But it means that we are definitely going to see Badminton next year and I am also hoping to go to Your Horse Live this year as it’s actually on my birthday and is a lot better for horsey shopping!

Today Katie was visiting and I managed to get Jack to ride as well as another horse called Carling owned by Sarah on my yard. Carling is a 16hh coloured gelding and is looks like a sports horse although I’m not too sure what breed he is. Katie and I were excited to ride him as we had shared the school with him before and he was moving beautifully, so hopefully he was going to be something a little different from Jack, as Jack is sweet but he’s also an arse when he wants to be!

So we got Jack and Carling up from the paddocks and got them ready. We weren’t able to do a full groom completely as the owners didn’t have complete grooming kits however we did try our best to get the loose hair and grease out of their coats. We then tacked up and got in the school, I got on Carling first and Katie was on Jack. It was actually rather nice to get on a horse that would stand still, as Jack always moves around and tries to stop you from getting on, and I’ve gradually become used to it which has now put me in the bad habit of becoming nervous whenever I get on a horse, but I am hoping lessons at Ingestre shall sort that out.

Carling at first was rather slow to get going. I wanted to be able to achieve something together in our session and so began warming him in with lots of turns and transitions. The problem then arose that Carling is not all that flexible naturally, as he would turn his head but then wouldn’t follow through with the rest of his body and was not that responsive to the lower leg when you wrapped it around him to turn. I then began some trot work in order to get him more active which worked nicely, however all the energy gained in the trot we would then completely lose again in the walk which was hard work! Meanwhile Katie and Jack were also working on transitions and warming him up nicely doing lots of bend to get him loose as he has been rather stiff lately from all the galloping around stubble fields!

Carling and I then tried for a canter, which was difficult as we didn’t get it perfect the first time which then makes me wonder what I am doing as a rider to block the canter transition. Katie then told me to not let Carling just trot faster, and to use the whip as a backup to my aids. I did this and after a few goes we had a nice canter transition which was nice to sit to, although Carling did need some encouragement to keep going! It was also nice to know that I could use the whip without the risk of being bucked as I would normally on Jack, as not even Katie wanted to canter him as she could sense when he was about to buck.

After 30 mins we then swapped horses so Katie was on Carling and myself on Jack. I had a tricky time getting on as Jack wouldn’t stand still at all but after a battle we were okay. Then I just practiced a little more no-stirrup work to continue to work on myself as Katie had warmed him up nicely. I too decided not to try and canter as I could feel it in Jack’s trot a little the thought of him bucking, as I just have a feeling the next one will have me off. I know that falling off is not the worst thing in the world, however I would still like to try and avoid it, the only thing is that I am now putting Jack into bad habits as he now knows as soon as he bucks I won’t make him canter. But he is 22 now so I guess its not the worst thing in the world when it is only myself and Katie that school him.

Katie then found that Carling wasn’t going forward as he was too preoccupied with his bit. He was in a pelham and he was fighting against it instead of focusing on the work he was being asked to do. Katie then took off the chain from the pelham which improved him immensely as he was more relaxed and focusing on what he was doing, however it was clear it was hard to get him going as nicely as we saw him a few weeks ago.

As a result I have come to the conclusion that in the future I am just going to hack Jack now instead of schooling him. It has certainly been a blast doing all my dressage competitions on him last summer and using him to help with my position, but now I feel as though his habits and nature is only going to compromise my riding and put me into more bad habits as riding him has gradually made me more nervous. Carling’s owner said I could ride him whenever I liked so I might try him in a snaffle next time as that is what he is hacked in and see if there is a difference. But I am going back to university in just over a week so I won’t have as many chances to ride Jack once I’m back, so just hacking out and enjoying the countryside will be good to do with the time I have left here.

So as crazy as this sounds I have decided to finally take my BHS Stage one exams at the end of October this year. As daunting it is with everything I need to learn, I am also pretty excited for the exams in being confident and being able to show off my skills to the examiner.

This decision was of course a joint one with Katie. She was very generous in getting me the BHS gold membership for my birthday this year, meaning I could book myself into the exams. I also went to go and stay with her last week so we could have some exclusive training at her yard as well as to buckle down on the beginning of revision!

The day before I was pretty nervous as I didn’t know what would be expected of us and what we would have to learn, I managed to write up notes on the grooming and rug chapters beforehand, hoping that was enough to get me a good start.

On the day we woke up nice and early at 7am, I didn’t sleep well the night before as my mind was spinning with footfall sequences and how to put a rug on correctly. When we got there it was this tiny little yard but all the horses were so beautiful – it was clear there were no traditional riding school horses here!

The owner of the place was Lisa, and she was a confident and stern woman, taking no nonsense and not faffing around wasting time which I liked. As we walked onto the yard I was given this beautiful 17.2hh chestnut gelding called Steady Eddie. I then had to mount him myself (which was strange as I have come to get used to supervision at riding schools, but my confidence in getting on has also been knocked recently by Jack as he always tries to run off from the mounting block) which was a little rocky. Then we went into the arena and warmed up.

I found that Steady Eddie was so-called because without a whip he didn’t seem to want to do much, however as soon as I had a schooling whip he was fully of energy and eager to please. It was so nice riding a horse that I actually fitted as I didn’t have to lift my legs up to give the aids. Katie was on a smaller and fiery 15hh mare, she was very bouncy and lively when she got on but Katie got her walking around and calmed her down. She was very much like another horse there called Lara, who never wants to do any work in the school and would much rather go out hunting!

After warming up in walk we began some trot work, I was so impressed by Eddie as the transitions were easy and his rhythm was like a rocking horse. Lisa then has us both trotting in a 20m circle around her at C, where she then asked us questions about the footfalls of the different gaits of the horse, I happily was able to answer all these correctly, and even managed to remember that there is a moment of suspension between the diagonal pairs in the trot, I will admit I was pleased with myself when Lisa said I could come back again!

We then focused on our position and it turns out my legs move hell of a lot and sit way too far forward. I noticed this before when I was riding Jack however Katie and I couldn’t work out whether that was my fault or his or his saddle’s, however now we definitely know it is me! So I thought of putting my legs directly underneath me and to hug Eddie with them as I rode, this was easy enough in walk but began to become a little more difficult in trot.

I also then had to work on my canter transitions as riding Jack hasn’t been the best practice for them with all the bucking! Eddie was a little difficult to get into canter and I was hesitant to use the whip at first as I am now used to preparing for a massive buck from Jack. After a couple of times however I made a big improvement to the transition and had it going smoothly instead of sitting there bouncing around waiting for the transition to happen to put me out of my misery! My leg position still wasn’t perfect however I do have time to practice so I have faith.

We then did some fun stuff which was the light seat and sitting trot. Turns out as steady as Steady Eddie was in the trot, it was extremely bouncy when I took the stirrups away! Thank goodness I have been building up my thigh muscles over these past few weeks or I don’t think I would have survived it! I managed to sit there and stay on and Lisa had no complaints so I was happy with that. Then in terms of the light seat I then practiced the balancing of my toe, as by having all the weight coming through the heel your leg then has a chance of slipping forward. To counter this, I had a little weight in my toes and then slightly more in the heel, with the knee being used as balance. Interestingly Eddie began to fall into canter whilst I was in the light seat, meaning that somehow my body was blocking him from doing so before, however we didn’t really cover how I to do this, so for the time being I’m just going to focus on keeping my legs still and wrapped around the horse as well as my chest up and out so I’m not leaning forward.

After the riding session, we then untacked the horses and tried practicing how we would have to do it on exam day. This was an incredibly weird experience as I have untacked horses loads of times but then when you know you’re being watched it suddenly leaves your mind completely of how you should do it. I managed to take the saddle off fine, however when it came to the bridle I was unsure of how to do it without the horse being able to wander off freely in the stable. Lisa then came and showed us how she would do it, first untying the headcollar and placing the leadrope over the horse’s neck. Then she slid off the bridle but had her right arm wrapped around the horse’s head to keep him in control whilst she then slid on the head collar. It was simple enough really, it’s just remembering how to do it in the safest way possible.

We then went over washing off a horse after work, we both had to skip out our stables and then wash the sweat off the horses and explain why we were doing so. Thankfully having gone over the grooming chapter yesterday it was easy enough for me to remember, however I still felt a lack of confidence from being watched, so I know I have to get over that before the exam.

Then we went over the grooming kit and all the brushes and how we would use them, thankfully we both knew all this quite well, however it was a little difficult to recognise some of the brushes as some were a little worse for wear! I also had difficulty in telling the difference between a dandy brush and a water brush, as the water brush is only slightly softer than the dandy brush, it is something that I want to add to my own grooming kit soon.

After this we left the horses and went into the office where we covered all of the first assessment points in the exam. Now this was Katie’s time to shine as we discussed data protection, reporting, safeguarding, equality and diversity and animal welfare. I had no idea about any of these things as annoyingly they weren’t included within the BHS textbook. Katie knew from having studied a law module at university, and so I was making frantic notes trying to get it all down so I could learn it for the exam, I’m just glad we found out about this now rather than a week before! But I guess that is also why BHS strongly recommends the training so you are prepared for what the exam is going to be like on the day.

Before we left Lisa then gave us the most useful piece of information I have come across, and that is to study the BHS syllabus as this is exactly what they will mark us on in the exam. It also means you can get rid of a lit of the information provided in the textbook, as my lecturers’ would say, is very woolly and the point is embedded in there somewhere, you just have to find it. After this we went to the Range to buy ourselves some more revision supplies, had a well needed shower and a big chillout on the sofa! It was a lot for the brain to take in in one day, however it was worth every penny, and we shall be going back there soon enough before the exam to have another training session and to go over the care side of the exam more again which I am really looking forward to.

So in the next coming months, please be prepared for everything on here to discuss the BHS exams! I might event try writing up on here about certain methods to do things as a way of revision, as I can only write out so many prompt cards!

Recently we have had some new additions at the yard being two grey horses called Splash (the smaller cob) and Ernie (taller flea-bitten grey). Jack hasn’t been too impressed at their arrival as he is usually rather territorial with other horses being next to him. On the first day they arrived he had trampled all of the grass up the long side of the paddock where he had clearly been pacing up and down the field trying to say hello to them. This made my job a little harder as he trampled all his poop into the ground as well! Then yesterday I found him and Splash trying to share the water trough together however Jack kept squealing at Splash and clearly warning him off, so he hasn’t been too impressed with his new neighbours so far! Then this morning when I went to go check on them there clearly had been some sort of fight over the water trough as it was overflowing so I had to call the farmer to come and fix it!

Jack’s owner Toni has been away again this week so I took the opportunity to ride again today as I want to try at least once a week until I go back to uni so I can make some steady progress as well as keep my confidence. I have been reading over the riding section in my BHS Stage One textbook today and decided to correctly ride some corners and transitions the BHS way. This meant instead of the usual pony-club kicking I simply applied pressure with my legs until the desired result was achieved. I also tried using the short whip behind my inside leg as a reinforcement of the leg aid if Jack didn’t get it after a few tries. This actually worked as I thought using the whip like that would get me an instant bucking, however it wasn’t until about 20 minutes into our session that he did – so I’m taking that as a plus.

So after some changes of rein we I took my stirrups out and began working on transitions as well as keeping my own position straight and working on my hands and elbows. I’m not sure what really happened but suddenly there was a spark within Jack and he was suddenly really forward and ended up trotting a little faster than I was ready for! He then began to anticipate canter in every corner which too was amazing, so of course I took advantage of this and we managed a much easier canter transition and I wasn’t bouncing on his back like I was last week which was a great improvement.

Also I don’t know whether its been because I’ve been working on a lot of no stirrup work lately but today I managed to feel a proper thigh muscle! It was amazing as I could just flex it and turn it on and off just like a switch, this helped me out when Jack was moving more forward in his trot as I was able to keep my deep seat and to hold on instead of being unsettled, however I was a little conscious of putting extra pressure throughout the rest of my leg and encouraging him forward hence his speediness, however this might be something that I have to look into at a later date.

Either way it was still amazing to feel the progress as well as the fact that there wasn’t any pain from riding today, so I’ve either made myself some new muscles or I didn’t work hard enough today! We finished off by lengthening Jack’s neck and making him stretch over his back which he looked rather pretty doing, although he knocked my phone off the fence so I had a five minute film of the sky as we were cooling off!

This past week Jack’s owner Toni has been away, providing a perfect chance for me to ride more often. Of course this happened to be the same week the lovely UK got a heatwave, reaching a high of 36 degrees last Thursday with some major thunderstorms. So not the most ideal riding weather. The increase in temperatures and this increasingly drastic weather had me more primarily concerned about the environment. I try to do my little bit by reducing any single use plastics, using bamboo toothbrushes and straws, and when I go back to uni I am planning on doing my food shopping at the local farmers market, it means you have to bring your own carrier bags and it’s not delivered to your door, but its often much cheaper in the long run. And as a horsey way of helping the environment, Black Heart Equestrian are working on making all their products eco friendly with less damage to the environment which is of course fantastic, and their leggings are amazing too and are the best fitting I have ever owned compared to Aztec Diamond and Bella Rose Equestrian, so its a no brainer really.

With this I decided it was better not riding Jack in the extreme heat after how he behaved last Monday, it would have been unfair and it was so warm I barely managed to get around my daily dog walk, but the cold shower afterwards was refreshing! Thankfully the weekend saw a turn of the weather as things began to cool down a little, Toni also came back from holiday but she was happy for me to ride Jack today whilst she rode his fieldmate Diamond.

Jack as usual was not impressed at the prospect of riding, and told me that he would have much preferred going on a walk with Diamond instead of having me bouncing around on his back. He was super tough to get going even into an active walk today, I knew some of it was partial laziness, but he must have been suffering from the weather slightly too as it was rather warm despite the breeze. But thankfully it was nothing compared to last week. I used the old pony club trick of using the excess of my reins as a temporary whip to try to get him going, this did work in places however I was then a little jostled around as he shot forward and that is hard to stick to without stirrups! It got me thinking that perhaps a Jumping Bat would be ideal for him. I saw Ben Hobday have one at his clinic way back in February, its super short compared to a schooling whip or a general purpose whip and is simply there for the sake of being there. This way if I manage to get one I can use that on Jack hopefully without him bucking, as he hates the schooling whip and the general purpose whip, and he gets a little difficult to sit to after a while. I know that if I asked for some more professional help with this that Jack would probably need a lot of training to get him out of it, but at the end of the day he is a hacking cob and is at least 22, so I’m just going to pick and choose my battles with this one.

When it came to the riding I did the whole session with no stirrups as I want it almost to become the norm for me so that when I do have stirrups I shall have a better seat as well as a better knowledge of where my legs are supposed to be. I tried to get out of my kicking habit as we warmed up, by simply applying pressure with the sides of my legs to Jack’s belly and releasing the pressure when he moved. This is actually how you are supposed to ask for movement from a horse, so all the ‘keep kicking’ that I was taught when I was younger was just giving me bad habits. I know that it is a difficult one, as instead of using your heels to ask for the aid you have to use the inside of your leg. This is a little more difficult on a horse you are rather large for (I can fit a 17hh rather happily), however it did begin to work on Jack, although his problem was that he will happily walk forward, but it was maintaining the energy in the gait that was the hard part.

After a while I did manage to keep Jack going, and we even made it into trot! From this I found it easier to keep my balance and to sit nice and deeply within the saddle. My muscles began to warm up after a while so I was then able to focus less on myself and more on Jack as I encouraged him to lower his head and neck forward as well as keeping his energy active. This was not Jack’s favourite thing to do, but at the same time I could have made him work a lot harder. We did have a little canter on each rein but seeing as the canter transition on Jack is difficult most of the time, today it was super difficult with the addition of no stirrups, the heat, and him being extremely lazy. I probably didn’t sit back enough in the transition but he just did the pony trick of trotting faster and faster. Eventually we did break into canter and I did manage to sit to it nicely as well as the transition back to trot. Now I just want to become as confident without stirrups as I am with stirrups, so then I can have the confidence to give Jack a bit of a boot when he isn’t wanting to do as asked.

This weekend was great as my horsey bestie Katie came to visit from Essex and she hadn’t ridden since the last time she has visited which was the end of May beginning of June? Either way we managed to get Jack for three days worth of riding which was very exciting, she had even signed herself up to Dressage4All in the hope of getting a test done so we could compete against each other on Jack!

So on Friday the weather had been a little all over the place and I was half expecting for us to be soaking wet when riding this evening, thankfully the weather held out for us and we were able to get most of our session in before it started to pour. Jack seemed to remember Katie from last time and did not seem impressed, I then got on to try and warm him up but we had forgotten to bring a whip which made it hard to get Jack to stop pretending he was old and lazy and show us the energy he really has! I used the reins as a whip to get him going but after about 20 minutes I was pooped! Although I hadn’t ridden for a while and I had done was hack I managed to make myself saddle sore, but decided again to work on my sitting trot to strengthen my thigh muscles and engage with the seat. This being the second time I had properly tried it it was easier, and I felt more comfortable in the seat and not as though I was going to fall off! Then Katie got on and began to work him a little more as I had only done trot on him really, Jack was then rather cheeky and began to buck in the canter, so she did lots of circles and transitions to keep him energetic.

Then on Saturday we learned the prelim 2 dressage test as that was the next competition for Dressage4All. Katie warmed him up today which was a bit of a struggle as given that we did bring a whip this time he still began to buck whenever you used it. However the threat of the whip and it being there seemed enough to give Jack that extra energy boost that I needed on Friday. Then Katie began to work her way through the test whilst I stood and filmed. It was a bit of a role reversal as I have never filmed for anyone before, usually they are filming for me! Watching Katie go through the test Jack seemed to lack power and she really had to push him to get into the canter. After the free walk movement he didn’t really seem interested in carrying on doing any more work, so when Katie asked for canter he bucked and then dropped back into trot halfway around the circle. It was so annoying as they were only a few moments away from finishing the test, but that is the beauty of online dressage as you can film your test as many times as you like before picking the one to submit! So Katie gave him a whirl round in the canter to prove he could keep it, then we began filming the test again. He seemed much better on this second go around and he extended his neck long and low in the free walk which always increases marks. Then coming to the same canter movement Jack bucked again and again dropped the canter, Katie managed to get him back into canter again but he carried on dropping it after a few strides. It was clear that today just wasn’t Jack’s day for a dressage test, and although we were in the mood for one he certainly wasn’t. After this it was clear he was just going to get worse and worse if we carried on trying to keep filming and get him through, for even if we did it would not be a high scoring test. After this I got on and simply carried on with my no stirrup work. I was pretty saddle sore after yesterday but found that after my muscles had warmed up I was feeling better, although Jack’s saddle isn’t very comfortable and my seat bones were killing! I then began to work his head a little bit seeing as I was confident in my seat, but Jack was super worn out already so we decided to give walk him around for a while whilst I did some leg exercises.

Monday was a really really hot day. I didn’t fully notice it seeing as it was quite windy but it wasn’t a cool wind. We shared the arena with a girl from the yard called Emma on her horse Carling, who was looking much prettier than Jack. I think Jack was just off from the start seeing as it was so humid, I trotted him around and began to try and work him and get him going forward without the whip using lots of changes of direction and transitions. I found that he starts the transition with plenty of energy but then his problem is maintaining that energy throughout the gait. He was puffing quite badly after we had trotted around a little and some some small canter circles, he was also really hard to get into canter as he really didn’t want to do it. With this I decided to take it up a notch with my no stirrup work and increased his trotting speed and gave it a go in the canter. I was a bit wobbly at first but it was easy enough to get in the correct position, the only tricky bit was going back to trot as that was pretty sore! Then Katie did some lighter work on him as there was no chance we were doing the test today which was a shame, but it really was too hot and he had worked hard given the heat. Katie also showed me how to encourage the horse to lengthen his neck and work over the back, for instead of placing the head in the position of the outline and keep it there, by keeping the neck as long as possible this is more difficult for them to maintain yet produces great results and could be pretty handy for the full neck extension wanted in free walk.

With these past couple of riding sessions I have decided to try and ride Jack more than I have been doing for the rest of the summer and to work on my no stirrup work. Given this, by the time it gets to September I shall be a pro in getting the correct riding position and my muscles shall be stronger making me a better rider. Working on myself then doesn’t add the pressure of making sure Jack looks perfect for the test every time, however as I increase my confidence and stability in the seat, I can then begin to focus on other things than not falling off from bouncing around!