When the dust settles......

This week horsey life clashed with real life with a bang.


In general, real life has been hectic of late, with working 6 day weeks and work being crazy busy, starting a new job soon, trying to get time to ride, trying to get time to see people, trying to get time to sleep and trying not to get run down........


Unfortunately, this week my uncle passed away after a long illness. He lived beside us and was a regular in my life. Although the last year of his life was fraught with the illness, it made him a bigger part of our lives as relations visited regularly to see him and called for updates. Often I would call in to his house to wave to him from Fred or Cu Chulainn when we were out hacking.
Funerals are a big deal in Ireland. You go to funerals here not only to honour the dead but for the people who are left behind. There was a 45 minute queue to go to my uncles funeral, and as one person said; 'he would have loved to have been there himself'. It was a great send off. It was also my birthday....
There will be a big hole in many people's lives and it will take the dust to settle for that to be realised.

Last week, we prepared for the onslaught of #SuperSunday. I stupidly entered 2 dressage competitions, 5 different tests, on 2 horses, in 2 locations with 1 idiot rider......

On Tuesday morning I rode Cu Chulainn and we practiced some shoulder in and leg yield. That evening I took Fred for a flat lesson with my dressage trainer. We did a lot of lateral work, shoulder-in and some leg yielding. Then we moved onto haunches in. I have done haunches in only with Cu Chulainn, which is far easier as he is so forward. With Fred, this required a LOT of leg. You're basically asking them to curl their body around your leg and move forwards, but not sideways. We got there, slowly, very slowly. He was great and felt really good. I however, found walking upstairs to make tea the next day a little more difficult than the day before and cursed my weedy legs. I also made promises to myself of yoga and pilates.....

Wednesday night I was in for more torture. I brought the two over the road. Fred was doing a jump lesson and CC was just schooling. I did lots of transitions with CC and worked on using my seat to slow his rhythm rather than my hands, which he fights against, and then I fight back and I get sore arms. It's taking practice, it's hard to teach an old dog (me) new tricks but he's responding well and is getting less and less tense. I'm also using outside bend to slow him down without impairing his forwardness. His transitions into canter were lovely and he didn't speed up in the canter. Also, some of the ponies were acting up and he didn't pick up on that or misbehave, as it was quite a busy atmosphere. Another brownie point for him.
Fred was tired after his lesson the night before and we had some issues with our jumping. His canter stride is huge and he eats up the ground so it can be difficult for me ( lack of experience and confidence) to tell him when to hold back a bit from a jump or to push on, but at least I know this now and I can work on it.
Wednesday was also V day, so true romantic that I am, I asked G.I.T. to come over to me and we could hang out AFTER my lesson.......... #priorities

I didn't get time to get up on a horse again till Saturday. I brought CC out to the field after work and we had a flatwork session. To be fair to him, I had asked him to jump there the Sunday previous, so he wasn't too bad. He was mostly mad because he hadn't been fed yet but had been brought in (I have h-angry horses).
Afterwards, I plaited the two boys, but didn't roll them up. I groomed Fred, but CC was still wet after our session, so I put him off till the morning. I packed the jeep with snacks, tack, and other paraphernalia I may need for #SuperSunday. I emotionally blackmailed G.I.T. into coming with me to help. My first test was at 9.30 in Creagh Equestrian Centre and my last at 5.20 in Annaharveys farm, I was going to need all the help I could get!

Warm up

Cool down

Fred loved the attention

All packed

Clean beds 👌

So the cats found a new source of water.....

I was awake before my alarm went off. Not with enthusiasm but with that dread of why did I do this to myself?! I was wrecked after working the last 6 days, I had slept ok, but not for long enough. Too late to back out now however. Let's just do this as best we can.
I left home at 8.30. I had a nice warm up with Fred and was ready for our first test. We went in first. One thing I was conscious of improving on was working canter after medium (bigger stride) canter. As his stride is so big, judges have commented that there isn't enough of a difference between the two being shown. We worked on this in my last lesson too. I felt we really showed a difference and overall I was delighted with his test. No time to give him a few carrots though, it was straight into the box and off to Annaharvey.
We arrived there in good time, but it was still tight to CC's first test. He didn't get the warm up he should have, but in we went. The arena was particularly spooky as one end leads out to the warm up and outside and is completely open, the other leads into an open stable area. As well as that the judge was in a garden shed type thing at C and then the sand was making a funny noise off the arena edge markers. He was tense and not as perfect as he could be, but I was still happy, he'd only one noticeable spook.
Fred was in next for the novice. He had a good warm up. I got my two novice tests mixed up and went wrong - even with someone calling it out! As I went up the centre line for Fred's test it hit me. I was wrecked and I felt drained. Fred not being as forward as CC, means you need to really keep him going and he requires a bit more leg. He did a lovely test, but I felt he was tired too, so I pulled him out of the next novice test and put CC in.
I had a decent break before my next test, so I rehydrated and ate a bit. I got to catch up with my friend Trish who'd come from Wicklow with her horse. I tried to learn my tests but it was like trying to learn chinese. Not that I didn't understand the tests, but they were just not staying in my head. I was zonked and still had 2 tests left. The joys.....
I warmed up CC. This time we had a good warm up. I had no excuse ( time-wise anyway). We did some lateral work, some serpentines and I used outside bend to try and not reef him.
I remembered the whole test too, mistake free! He was still a bit tense, but definite improvement. I thought I might be able to get in a bit earlier for my novice test as he was already warmed up, but unfortunately not. So I had the task of keeping him occupied but trying not to kill him out either. He was ready to go home (and honestly so was I). My friend Miriam called out my test, thankfully, as I was beyond being able to do a 5th test without it being called out. He did his best attempt at novice for that day and I was happy with him. There's a lot more to come from him.
I was going to take Fred out of the box and let them have a little grass before we headed home, but CC was having none of it. When I went to take Fred out he jumped in the box beside and basically said, take me home now!
Once I'd got my last tests and rested up a bit, it was time to hit the road. But because I'd had such an exhausting day my jeep decided, for shits & giggles, to go into limp mode, so we crawled home.......and I mean I thought we wouldn't get to the top of a hill at one stage! There are a lot of hills between Athlone & Ballinasloe and you know all about them when you're towing 2 tonnes with no power.......EVENTUALLY we got home.

Needless to say, Monday was all picture, no sound with me. I recovered Tuesday and then the week fell apart with real life.........

We'll wait for the dust to settle...