Winter has dragged

After the dressage Nationals and all the hard work preparing for them, I wanted Fred to have a little fun. So the

following week we went down to Flowerhill Eq for some XC schooling with Amanda. He absolutely loved it

and was flying around. He loves his XC.

He got bored waiting for me

The focus then went back to Cu Chulainn while Fred had a bit of chill time. We started back hacking and the

following weekend we did a spot of jumping, just the 90cm class as it had been so long since I’d been jumping

properly. He had an unlucky one down in his 2nd round.

Walking the dog

Some beautiful sunsets

A little mini photo shoot for the boys

Bluto getting to know the girls

The October bank holiday I’d signed up to go on an Amateur Eventing training weekend up in Ross House in

Co. Cavan. So Friday, CC & myself packed up and headed east. We got there and I settled him in to his stable

for the weekend. That evening we had a talk by the vet Hugh Suffern, who is from Tullyraine veterinary

surgeons and was at WEG as part of the Irish team. The talk was on fitness of the event horse, but it kinda went

off topic a few times and delved into some really interesting topics. I never knew the benefits of interval

training for the non-event horse. Hugh said it’d be good for Fred with his arthritis (whilst writing this I’m

noticing I have not yet done this :o ). The recent summer weather with the hard ground also came up. He

found that he was seeing a lot of tendon and ligament injuries as a result of the hard ground and unsuitable

riding.

The next day we had our first lesson which was a Showjumping one with Robert Murdy. CC was his usual ball

of energy self. But we worked a lot on flatwork, mostly flatwork and it was fantastic. He gave me a few tips

that really stuck with me. For one, my seat was completely wrong and that was why I keep tipping forward.

As well as that I’ve been gripping with my knees!! CC loved the jumping and excelled at it. We had a break

then for lunch and after that we had a flatwork lesson with Ellinor Murdy. I felt that lesson went on a bit too

long and was mostly us walking around, but I did get some bits from it. We were tired after it. After that we had

our Halloween dress up hack!! I put a few cobwebs on CC and dressed myself up as a skeleton. It was good fun.

On the Sunday we had our final lesson, the XC. The ground was hard after a hard frost so we kept it to the

purpose built XC arena. We worked on things like accuracy and speed. And again CC performed brilliantly.

It was a great weekend overall. I was never in pony club or the like so that was my first ‘pony camp’ type thing!

Thoroughly enjoyed and would highly recommend to anyone looking to do something similar!

The cool arena at Ross House

We had some fabulous cold weather

The Dude settled in well

Grass with the troops

The following weekend we were off to Duffy’s equestrian centre in Claregalway. I brought a groom this time in

Caroline Boyd. I hadn’t gotten out on him much during the week and we hadn’t been jumping, so I entered him

in the 80s as a warm up and then the 90s too. I was considering doing the 1m but said I’d see how it goes.

CC ended up winning the 80s class after having a flying double clear, every time we turned there was another

jump to jump, so it really flew. The 90s we were double clear too but I had a little senior moment when I forgot

which way the next jump was, so rather than crossing my tracks I had to go the long way around to it. That was

a pity as he’d been absolutely flying it! I didn’t bother with the 1m as he’d done so brilliantly; I wanted to leave

him at that. We did a few more SJI shows at Creagh Equestrian centre to finish up the year.

The Dude

The winter passed by quickly. Joke. It did not. It is still not over.  It’s April and it’s bleedin Baltic out. I promised

myself this winter I wasn’t going to box over to other arenas in the evenings. The only riding I’d do would be in

the mornings, as that was very tiring last year with mucking out and feeding after boxing somewhere. Unlike the

last few winters though, this one although dry enough, was quite dark. There were mornings I was driving to

work with full headlights on, after feeding the animals and putting them out, so there was no way I could ride in

that. So this winter I got SFA riding done. The horses didn’t mind so much, but I found it frustrating. There were

maybe 3 frosty mornings that were gorgeous. That meant I was a long way off where I thought I’d be.

Fredster

Check out that mist!

Fab morning

Ya gots to be prepared for the cold!! Spot Rusty in the background

As well as that, when I went to bring Fred back from his hols, he was lame. With his arthritis, you always

wonder if it’s that or something else. So it can be hard to pinpoint initially what’s wrong. As it turned out it was

an abscess, which is unusual for him. But it took forever to heal. There was a lot of pouliticing and I used

essential oils and Epsom salts to try and draw out the infection. We had to go to the vet to get some drugs in the

end to help fight the infection. Eventually he was all better and ready for action.

Yes Fred, poultice

Epsom salt soak

More poultice fun......but how well does he look?!

Vet visit cos poultice not working........also vaccination time!

I had to do walk and trot for a long time with both horses as I was getting out to ride sporadically. The weather

got worse the longer the winter went on. I mostly rode around the edge of the big field out back. I did lateral

work in walk and trot. I downloaded a handy little app called Equilab. It was fantastic and so interesting. It

shows a detail map of your work out, the paces you do and the time length. Now I didn’t always remember to

turn it on, but it was good when I did. It’s funny some evenings it was too wet or horrible out so I can see I only

rode for 7mins!!

Started Cu Chulainn on Bluegrass Turmash to keep up his condition

My happy face is cos Fred is sound and we're off for a hack, yay!!! Check out all that hi vis!! 👍

Add caption

Hurry up mam!!

Fred did a little extra work over the Christmas, he was a lovely big gent and got the G.I.T. up in the saddle for

the first time ever!! After about 2 mins he commented on the amount of core strength needed to sit up straight,

why yes, we don't just sit there!! But he said himself he really enjoyed it. So much so, I dragged him out again

and this time I was on CC. We went a bit farther afield the second time. Fred again was a gent.

Fred the ledge

All aboard

One morning I was doing flatwork with CC and I was trying to slow his trot by posting for a bit longer. He

spooked at something. A tiny spook. But because I was so high in the air, I went out the side window. There was

no coming back from it. He went trotting off then stopped to eat grass, while I laughed my way down to him. I

was due a fall from grace. Thankfully it wasn’t a big one!!

Here's some pics from our winter

Putting him to work

I noticed Fred had lost a bit of weight in his hindquarters, so I put him on maize to beef him up a little. Well.

It drove him bananas!! It took me a while to cop it. I thought he was just ‘fresh’, but no it was the maize. So I

took him and CC off it bar a cupful. It’s made the world of difference to CC and his demeanour. He’s less

frazzled. Fred went back to normal too.

Mid yee haw moment

Me laughing at having just survived several 'fresh' moments

In February I joined SJI. I’d love to say that it was as simple as doing it online and putting in payment details,

but no. I had emailed before to ask how long it takes when you’re renewing your membership, ‘turn around the

next day’ was the reply. Wahoo, I’d have everything ready for the start of the Ballinasloe league then the

following weekend. But no sign of my tickets or stickers, so I had to pay a day registration fee. Very infuriating

after having paid up my membership. A week later still no sign. They’d put out a message saying there was a

delay on processing them now as there were so many applications in. Queue more frustration. Eventually I rang

them and they said they’d sent them out so I asked them to resend them as I had never received them. The next

day I got two enveloped with the tickets. Miraculously the one they’d sent two weeks earlier had arrived the

same day. With the same post date on it as the second one?!? Then more phone calls for my stickers. Eventually

I had everything. After a serious pain in my back side.

Learning the course

Totally out of practice!!

Flying high

Big smiles, delighted to be at it again