Snow to Sun!!

  Tuesday.........I'm sitting in work staring out the window incredulously at the snow falling..........yes folks, you read that correctly. SNOW. It's nearing the end of March and it is full on snowing. Yesterday, I put CC out in a lightweight rug because the day before the sun was splitting the rocks. The poor créatúr was frozen when I got home. So it was back to the heavyweight rug. #guiltymomalert

Tuesday night we went over for a jumping lesson. He was very chill for the first half hour. We let others canter around us, so that he remembers that we don't all canter/gallop at the same time. And he was fine. His trot was fine too. But after our first canter he was tense and it was choppy and his trot became choppy too. We jumped and he didn't race at them, but I held him too much ( a big issue of mine) and then he wasn't able to flow at them as well as he should be. We finished on a good note ( which I always insist on). We did a related distance and it flowed.

Wednesday I got up early and hacked out Fred. It's a struggle to get out of bed, but then once I'm up it's grand. The sun was well up at that stage and it's a great way to wake up.

Quality time with the King

After work, I went home and hacked out CC. I tried doing flat work on the hack, but he wasn't having any of it. So we argued a bit and eventually he relaxed. Nothing like having a ditch either side of you to focus on keeping them straight! Rusty came with us too. Although it was beautiful out it was frrrrreeeeeezzzing. There was a cutting wind. As you can see below Fred was unimpressed at not being taken out.

Gotta stop and appreciate the views

Serious sunset

Fred was unimpressed

On Thursday a few friends came over and we went for a lovely hack. The sun was out, it wasn't cold and we had some beautiful scenery. Fred was delighted at being out too and CC decided he wanted to be leader for most of it! We all really enjoyed it. My friend that rode Fred is just getting back into the saddle and he's a great gent to start back on. Ok, so I'm biased, but it is true!

An important message for anyone out hacking

Gotta be the leader 😀

 Friday we all had a break and I let the boys out to the paddock for the night. Their first night out since early November ( bar that night they weren't supposed to be out). Slightly selfish on my part, I wanted a guilt-free sleep in. But sometimes you just need to re-charge your batteries properly.

Fred wondering if they were actually allowed out in the paddock............CC eating as much as he could in case they weren't!

Naked!!

 On Saturday, the sun was splitting the rocks. The morning was spent pottering about. I did a spot of hedge cutting in their field, completely forgetting how hard core it is. My arms were wrecked after.
I took the boys' rugs off so that they could get some Vitamin D in and the cats were adamant they were getting some, following the sun all day!

I am lion, hear me roar!

Just following the sunshine

Daddio & Rusty just chillin'

In the afternoon I went over the road to film some dressage to help me put music to it for the Corrib RC show ( and if it's good enough, for the RC Festival in June). I spent the first hour clearing the arena and some of those wings are heavy as lead! So between doing that and the hedge cutting, I'd already had two workouts!!

Can't remember my own test!

Cu Chulainn was up first. He was great starting off, but he still gets tense after the initial canter. So I had to work backwards from that canter to try and get him to chill again in the trot. Took awhile, but eventually I was ready for filming. We got through it and I'm pretty happy with it. I think it's got enough difficulty and suits him. There's no extended trot, because his normal trot isn't strong enough yet. But we have circles and serpentines and extended canter (if all goes well).

Next up was Fred. And Mr. Fred was in flying form. He basically said, 'mam, you've been giving me oats and haven't cantered me in ages' , with a swish swish of his tail......He was a bit tense in his too, but it was a fighting me tension. He was doing his whole 'I'm a stallion' thing. In the middle of doing my test with Fred I realised I'd put little or no walk in it, so there was a slight adjustment needed. I'd made it a bit more complicated than CC's too, so couldn't really remember it. But got my two videos done at least.

CC captivated watching Fred dance

Sunday is D day..............it's Hunter Trial day. EEEEkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.......Also last night the clocks changed ( which is great, cos it means longer evenings) so that meant I'd to get up at 7am old time 😔 I didn't walk the course on Saturday but I'd seen photos of the course and felt confident that I knew the jumps and where they were..............queue laughter...........lots of laughter..............

We got there in good time and they were delayed in starting, so had time to walk it. Entered CC in pre novice singles and novice singles, and Fred just in novice singles for the spin, cos he loves his XC. Poor Fred hasn't seen an XC jump since last September, but he absolutely loves XC so I couldn't not bring him. After I entered the classes, I went and walked the course..........this is where the laughter really starts......

So the jumps were big and the course was technical and tough. The pre novice started off nice and easy, to lure you in.....but then as the course goes in you had drops, a good 85cm or bigger log and then a left handbraker turn straight away......so a lot of the pre novice was like a novice course and then the novice was very much a novice if not open in other places. *deep breaths*.............*deep breaths* I knew CC was able for it, but I was afraid I might be asking too much of him on his hunter trial debut. Fred, I wasn't worried about. His only issues are the first few, before he gets into his rhythm and you just point him and smile for the camera 😀

It was a fabulous day. The sun was splitting the rocks again, so I slapped on some suncream and gave the boys some water. Then it was time to get the gear on. I had my helmet cam fully charged and the memory card in. Myself and CC rocked up to the warm up. He found the warm up a little bit stressful, but still behaved himself. A bit of jogging. We did a few warm up jumps and were ready to head out. He paid no heed to the loudspeaker that we had to walk past or the starter. 5-4-3-2-1 and we're off! A few green jumps at the start, but then we got into a nice flow. Water.........no issue. Drops........no issue. A little look at people on the course, but nothing major. We were flying along a path in a wooded patch when he spooked at a bench and nearly put me in the lake!! He didn't charge, he wasn't strong, leg on a few times but most of the time it was point him at the jump. We were clear all the way and he was an absolute pleasure to take out! This guy has a lot to give and is definitely a triple threat! We finished it with grins on both of our faces! 

We had a nice break before our next class as the novice pairs class had big entries. I managed to get a bit of food and water into me, and the boys stocked up too. We tacked up and headed up again. This time CC didn't want to go in to the warm up and threw his soother out of the buggy. I just remained calm and let him think it was his idea. I had 2 entries in this class so they let me out early. I was fourth out on the course. He had sweated up a lot in the warm up due to tension, but again, once he was out on course he took it all in his stride. Our only issues this time was driver error! I had focused so much on the pre novice course that I'd forgotten certain parts of the novice course! So poor CC had to deal with handbrake turns and jumping from nothing. All of which he aced, pinging everything! For the first water we had a log with a sizeable drop behind it, into water. All of which he'd never done before. Also, a nice crowd around, waiting for everyone to get wet! Not a bother to him! We had a nice steady trot going in and pop over it and nicely through the water - which was far deeper than I remembered! And from that on to his first narrow jump! (where the photographer caught an excellent photo of us!!). I knew the ground a bit better this time so I could really push him on in places and push him for the jumps. He finished the tough novice course clear. I couldn't ask for much more from him! Absolute starbar and I'm still gushing.........

What a horse!!

Up and over!

Next up was Fred. By the time we got tacked up and up to the arena there were very few left to go ( mostly because I hosed CC down after his round and took my time). So I went straight into the warm up, one lap of walk, a bit of trot, canter and 2 jumps and we were out to the starting box! This is where he decided to lighten the load and relieve himself for about 5 mins, the starter was not impressed. He popped everything and had a nice gallop along the straight stretch - it'd been a while since we had a full on gallop!! Then coming to the last jump I spotted my friend out with her camera and stuck my tongue out with a huge grin on my face, Fred was in flying form and we were loving it!

King of XC

Absolutely delighted with my boys, a triple clear for us and we all enjoyed it. The aim of the game was to go around, enjoy and get home in one piece! All of which we did. 

The boys celebrated with a nice roll with their rugs off and enjoyed the last of the sunshine. I celebrated with some beer and cake...........each to his own 😁😂

The boys will have a well deserved break for a few days and I will revel in my happiness and pride!!



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