Trec Qualifier

The hot weekend of 8th and 9th Sept, I competed in a Level 2 Trec Qualifier.
Another first for me and Mr Fudge, we had been hoping to do a qualifier for a while, but somehow it hadn't quite worked out.
That weekend is the worst timing for a teacher, after first week back at school, so I had decided not to enter, and was going to do a different Trec at the end of September, which would have been even nearer home ... but that one that was cancelled.

So ... I was really brave and entered by myself (my usual partner's horse is still lame unfortunately).
This meant getting away ASAP from school on Friday, loading up lorry, and driving  into the depths of  Northamptonshire to get parked, and the corral up for Fudge before dark.
There was an accident on the A14 so we were stuck in trafffic for about 20 mins, but still made it with enough time.
No-one spoke to me at all (treccies can be an odd and cliquey lot), but I worked out by watching other people that I should take Fudge to the vetting check.
I was a little concerned about it being right after he'd been on the lorry for nearly 2 hours, but he'd just had a roll and pinged back up again so walked him around a bit and went for it anyway.
Vet very complimentary and all was fine trotting up  :-)

Sublime evening moment was eating my dinner, sitting on the lorry steps, watching Fudge settle in (he ate the grass in his corral the first night) in the sunset as the sun went down behind trees on the top of a hill.
Oh yes the glass of wine might have helped too  :-)

Saturday's POR (orienteering) we were due to start at 11.55 so I had a nice easy morning drinking tea, getting saddlebags etc ready, fetching water for Fudge etc.
The organisers were a bit behind by about 15 mins, but no problem copying route (had remembered my specs!!) and set off.
There was a lot of road work on the route, and speeds meant you had to trot a lot of it.
I decided to trot as much as we both felt up to, and not to push it for the time if it felt too much.
We got overtaken by a few people, but happy as we'd gone through some lovely countryside, on a lovely sunny day, and seen some pretty villages, and I was feeling confident with the navigating.

The speed on one of the off-road sections was 11 kph, but the route was twisty and was obviously going to take a lot of work and checking to get right.
At this point I found a few other riders going in all sorts of different directions  :-(
I took my time, chose my best guess (there were 3 possible routes all almost parallel), ignored other people going other routes, and ended up by a little wood and by a gate.
Careful map checking made me finally give in and open the gate (impossible to do from horseback) to go through.
This brought us into a gorgeous grassy field, and all the landmarks fitted the map - happy Cindy  :-)
However, even the opportunity to canter across this lovely field was interrupted by spotting a ticket, where I had to stop to look closely to write the correct number down.
It turns out I was correct going through the gate, but had made an error earlier, which gave me some penalties.

Anyway continued here, careful compass checking, met lots of other people who had taken different routes but got to the same place!
Finally found another checkpoint, only to find I had missed the correct entry flags which they had hidden out of sight. Grrrr.
By this time we'd been going a few hours, and it was 28 degrees, very hot, and no water for the horses.
The next bit was easy roads, and another checkpoint where there was a field full of horses and riders.
Two levels were using the same route, so we could not leave more often than every 5 mins.
I had an hour to wait here, and still no water for the horses.
It turned out that the Level 3 riders had previously had a vetting stop and there had been water there for them.
Us poor L2 riders has been going 3 or 3.5 hours (or longer if they'd got lost) and had no water.
Finally me and another rider persuaded them to phone back to HQ to get someone to come out with a bucket which could be filled from a little stream.
This turned up 10 mins before I had to leave the checkpoint, but thankfully Fudge did get a drink.

I then discovered why we had to be 5 mins apart - the next section had loads of gates  :-(
Some could be done from horseback (Fudge is pretty good with gates) but some could not.
Next checkpoint was by a farmyard, again I stupidly walked straight towards them, instead of being suspicious, so picked up more penalties (although of course I didn't find this out until later).

The last section went through a field that had a water trough, so we stopped for Fudge who was very grateful for a long drink.
Sadly the route after that had a lot more gates again. I was pretty fed up of them by then  :-(
We found the finish line, and then had about another 4 km back to the lorry park.
I'm afraid it leaves a sour taste that a 20km route becomes 24km, although Fudge felt fine, we just ambled back, and I got off and walked for the last mile or two.
We finally got back to the lorry nearly 6 hours after we'd started. A 20km route usually takes about 4 or so hours.

Fudge washed down and happy with haylage, I had a cup of tea and a snack, then went to walk the PTV (obstacles) course before dark.
Nice course, interesting variations, and some challenges to give a clear difference in the marks.
At least by now I'd met more people to talk to, at checkpoints etc, and whilst they were walking the course too.
Dinner, more wine, and then early to bed shattered!
Sunday morning vetting, I thought Fudge might be stiff, but he was in better shape than I was  ;-)
Vet very happy with him, but I did watch her fail someone else's pony who really was lame, even I could see it, and I'm usually rubbish at seeing these things.

Another leisurely morning then, also running late on the timings, but Fudge warmed up nicely and was keen.
Control of paces felt good in both walk and canter, thought they should both get a score (they did)!
Started the PTV course and Fudge decided he should be doing XC, and got faster and faster as he couldn't see other horses any more! Sigh.
We finished within the time, but the ridden immobility we got 0 for, as he wouldn't stand still at all  :-(
It took a while to stop him for that I could get off for the led sections ...
We trashed a couple of other obstacles too, but also scored some 10s, so happy overall.
The final obstacle was a log jump, max height for L2, Fudge flew it perfectly so we finished in style.
Nice cool down and chat to some other people, packed up and drove home.

Provisional scores on the Sunday put me in 8th place out of 12 competitors, talked to the organiser about where I'd gone wrong with the route.
At least I know what to look for in future!
I thought my score was quite low, but there were some much worse than me.
There had been 13 entries but one had got so lost and behind on the timings that she'd given up.

Final scores published last week, and I finished still in 8th place.
Bit disappointed with my score, but overall still very pleased that I went, and did the whole thing without getting horribly lost.
Another 2012 goal ticked off, I successfully completed a Trec Qualifier  :-)

BRC area dressage

Our turn to go and do dressage last weekend - a little apprehensive since we haven't done any for quite a while.

It was the riding clubs area qualifier for the winter championships, and held at Keysoe this yea,r so a good venue.

Fudge and I entered the team test to ride N24, and a warm-up test.

The warm-up was a choice (for me) of N28 or E42, and I'm a bit fed up of N28, so decided it was time we had another go at an elementary as we hadn't done one all year.

Thought it was worth an experiment, plus I get to ride in the double bridle  :-)

However, I forgot that because it was classed as a warm up test, it came first, whereas I'd have preferred it the other way round - oh well.

We were given times of 3.30pm and 4.08pm - good job Keysoe has lights!

Never had such a long lie in before dressage, even with the longer journey to get there, and being paranoid leaving extra time for getting lost, passport checking etc.

I cleaned my long boots in the morning before I went - unheard of!!

Fudge had feathers shampooed the night before though, and was left with strict instructions to stay clean - amazingly it worked!

Got there fine, one wrong turn on the journey but didn't add any time and found a space to park close to the collecting ring entrance.

So, we warmed up well despite a teenager falling in love with Fudge and throwing her arms round his neck for a cuddle!

Fudge was good and tolerated it, although he thought he deserved a few treats afterwards, and was most put out that she didn't have any ...

So, in to E42, very smiley judge, so I grinned back as we went down the centreline - nearly forgot to halt, whoops!

I must say I was very pleased with how it went, not much medium trot to speak of, and medium canter was just faster really, but that's where we are at the moment.

Fudge tried really hard in the canter loop back and counter canters, which are quite hard for us.

Finished on 58% so very pleased as last elementary we did was 53%, so a good improvement.

Nice comments from judge about us being a partnership, and a 7 for my riding  :-)

With hindsight Fudge was perhaps a bit tired by N24 even though he'd had a rest with a bridle change.It still went well though, another smiley judge and the sky was beautiful with a sunset to look at which made me smile inside.

Finished very pleased with my pony, and on our way out we got accosted by the area organiser who demanded that I let her know as soon as I've finished with Fudge as she wants to buy him! She said it nicely and admiringly so I was laughing, but she got told there is no way I'd ever sell him ...

I untacked, looked after Fudge, put him back on the lorry and went to get a cup of tea and piece of cake in the cafe and chatted to the remaining members of my club whilst we waited for the last few scores and results.

The warm up tests were finished first, and it turned out that we came 2nd in E42, although only out of 5 entries, and one of those had retired!

Beat my own riding club chairman who came 3rd - whoops! The one who came first was on 60% so we weren't that far off either!

Still, a rosette's a rosette  :-)

N24 we got 62.3% so also very pleased. The class was enormous because it was one from every team entered.Not placed, somewhere in the bottom half of the class, but a lot of the scores were very close in the 60-64% area, so happy with that too.

Alconbury hunter trial October 2011

Another long write up from yesterday's hunter trial.
We did one 2 weeks ago too, but I haven't got round to writing it up yet ...
Skip to last 2 paragraphs if you don't want the details  ;-)

So yesterday morning I got up at 6am (erk) to go to a local hunter trial.
One we did for the first time a year ago, and had one run out, but a very positive run, so I wanted to have another go.
Walked the course in the drizzle on Saturday afternoon thinking it was looking a lot smaller than last year. I was also thinking that the ground was quite hard, but had good grass cover on most of it.
It was a 75cm class that should have been a BRC area qualifer until BRC head office changed their minds about the hunter trial competition and decided not to run area qualifiers but make the championships direct entry for 2012!
Anyway feeling very positive about it, Fudge should jump everything well within our capability.
In fact I also walked the 85cm course whilst I was there, thinking that we could jump about 70% of it, but there were still a few fences to scare me!

The drizzle continued, and turned into lots of rain overnight, yuck.
When I got up (did I mention it was at 6am?) I did think I was mad to do XC in that weather and thought about going back to bed.
Glad I didn't though, by the time I'd got to the yard, fed Fudge and got lorry ready, the rain had pretty much stopped.
I drove away thinking to myself it's got 2 hours to soak into the ground rather than being slippy!

Fudge did his usual pipe and slippers act of being asleep whilst I did studs, boots, groomed, plaited and tacked up!
He ambled over to the collecting ring at the slowest walk ever, I started to worry there was something wrong with him, but actually I think he was still mostly asleep!
Collecting ring pretty busy as there was a mini XC clear round on as well, so lots of kids on ponies and adults on youngsters at first outing!
We avoided them all, trotted and cantered round, Fudge very responsive, hoorah he's awake then!
The class was all on time, so I had 10 mins left to hop over the 2 warm up jumps a few times, had another canter, and then ambled around again.
You aren't allowed a watch of any kind at this event and they are strict about it, so I took my watch off and gave it to Hugo to look after.

The competitor 2 before me could not get his horse out of the collecting ring and had to be lead, you have to walk between 2 hedges and through gates, and they lead him through there too.
I think he was given 4 goes at getting through the start and up to fence 1, but didn't manage it, poor man I felt very sorry for him.
So when I got through to the starter, he called out "can I start you in 10 seconds?" I called back yes, and trotted on towards him, approached the start line still in trot, and Fudge cantered off at 3-2-1 Go!
I love my pony  :-)

The entry form for this venue asks for commentator notes, so I wrote something like "Coming back for a 2nd attempt at this event, hoping to go clear this year. Today is the anniversary of when I bought Mr Fudge 10 years ago, so I'll be celebrating tonight whatever the result!" As we cantered towards the first fence, I heard the commentator start to say it all, and Hugo said he adapted my wording to include a mention of some champagne!

So to the course - Fence 1 little palisade, fence 2 tyres, fence 3 step down and fence 4 another bigger palisade turn right canter along a hedge line.
Apparently that's where the photographer was, but I never saw him, too focused on the job  :-)
Nice post and rail fence 5 with straw bales under it, I'm sure it was bigger last year though!
Big circle through compulsory flags, I kicked on here, fence 6 brush and right turn back on yourself, so we jumped it on an angle, I looked right, put my left leg back and we landed on the right leg beautifully - and caught by the photographer too!
Fence 7A step down sunken road and B step up again, kicked on again for fence 8 more tyres but bigger this time, turn to a really wide log fence 9.
On the wrong leg here but Fudge's counter canter is better these days, so he kept cantering where he used to go disunited  ;-)

Fence 10 trotted into the water, turn left in the water, and cantered out of it up the hill. Really kicked on here as it's up hill and I thought I'd been going too slowly so far!
Fence 11 first real full up height, square profile and much wider table - Fudge flew it  :-)
Kicked on again to fence 12 black pipe, jumped from usual canter stride, felt fabulous.
Fence 13 another turn left, got the correct leg on landing again, so we cut the turn through compulsory flags about a metre to the right of the white flag  ;-)
Fence 14 was a choice of 2 side by side, an open tiger trap a little lower than another square topped wide box jump.
Slightly down hill but Fudge in nice regular stride so I aimed for the box jump and another one he flew perfectly.

Through a gate way and yet more compulsory flags, 2 teenagers ambling their way round the course - teacher mode on, I shouted "Behind you!" whilst riding straight for them.
One jumped to the left and one jumped to the right, both shouting "sorry" after me!
Down the hill again, left turn through last set of compulsory flags, I thought we were a bit too fast and risking a slip, steadied up just a little, but as soon as we were on the level again, Fudge powered on towards fence 15 a very solid looking wide pheasant feeder thing! Slight up hill to fence 16 another tiger trap, Fudge turned for home down the hill without me steering at all, I just sat back, steadied him for the last telegraph poles fence which is still on the downhill, and couldn't help but "yee hah" loudly through the finish line. I'm amazed I had any breath left really by then!

I met a couple of people I knew on the way back through collecting ring and on the way back to the lorry, I must have had an enormous grin on my face as they all grinned at me and a small boy I'd never met before asked me if I'd had a good round. Took ages walking Fudge round, washing him off etc, had a cup of tea myself and worried that I'd been too slow, or had I pushed Fudge too much as he perhaps wasn't as fit as he had been last year.
Once he'd dried, had drunk some water, and was breathing normally, I left him on the lorry with his hay.
Went back to look at scores, only half of them were up as the class had only just finished. There were well over 50 entries in it.
Bought bacon and egg sarnies for me and Hugo, looked at photos, bought 4 of them  :-)

More scores up by now, and overheard a conversation between 2 other people about the optimum time. I'd worked it out to be something over 4 mins, maybe 4 mins 20secs or something like that, but given that you're not allowed a watch (and I never feel I can look at it anyway!) I had ignored it. These other people had decided the optimum time was 4 mins 8 secs as the class before ours was the same course, and the winner was on 4 mins 16 secs and had 8 penalties. They were pointing to the provisional scores which showed someone on exactly 4 mins 8 seconds. I nearly fell over when I saw it was my entry number!!
I must have squeaked or something because they turned round and said "is that your time?" and were very complimentary!
Anyway it took another 3/4 hour for confirmed scores and the presentation (we went back to the lorry in between to check on Fudge and put my photos away safely).
When we got back, it was confirmed that I had indeed won it - eeek!
What better day to win a competition like that, on the 10th anniversary of when Mr Fudge arrived in my life, I have to admit, tears came to my eyes.

Oh yes, and we won a sack of organic carrots (from a sponsor) and £22 - I've never won money before so that was great, I got my entry fees back!
Also a lovely red rosette with 3 colours of ribbon in it.
Poor Hugo got the job of carrying the carrots all the way back to the lorry  :-(
Mr Fudge got to eat some of them, and I left the sack at the yard for all the horses to share.
Actually we brought some home for our dinner too, they tasted great with the pink fizz I'd opened by then.

Sherwood Forest Trec - 13th August 2011

Mary and I went to Sherwood Forest to do a Level 2 trec competition.
We felt rather out of practice as it's our first once this year, but being in the school summer holidays we were prepared to travel a bit further for one.
We had heard that the group running this one have a good reputation for routes and organisation etc.

So on Friday afternoon we packed up the lorry and set off - in fact it took us about 2 and 3/4 hours to drive there which I thought wasn't bad at all.
It was a nice setting in the forest where they have a mostly grass extra parking area for trailers, lorries and corralling horses.
Not much grass though as it is obviously used a lot, but we had haylage with us.
Hubby Hugo set about cooking our BBQ dinner whilst we built the corral and found the toilets etc.

This competition had the PTV (obstacles section) out on the POR (orienteering section) which we had never done before.
We didn't know where it would be on the route, just somewhere.
This meant you couldn't walk the course in advance, but they did give us a list of what the obstacles would be.
They also said the time allowed was 26 minutes, which scared us, we are used to a PTV that takes less than 10 minutes!

Our map room start time was 11.50, so Hugo duly made us bacon and egg sarnies so we had eaten well but still had a relaxed time getting ready.
Sadly by this point they were running half an hour late  :-(
We heard stories that the route was long and complicated so people were asking for extra time in the map room (which you get penalties for) so they had time to copy it.
The route was drawn as 2 sections in different colours, as some of it came back the same way as you went out, but with slight variations.
As a pair we always do map copying so one of us copies forwards and the other copies backwards.
I only just managed to copy it in the 10 mins, Mary did not and so did not have the beginning of the route which was the forest section.
The map was then sealed in an envelope whilst we collected ponies and were given our maps back at the start line.
By the time we had done tack and equipment check and got going, it was about 3/4 hour later than we had expected to leave, and we now knew it was a very long route that would take hours to ride.
With hindsight what we should have done here was stop round the corner and for Mary to copy the forest route, but we didn't of course  :-(
The first section was straight forward though, and we got to the first checkpoint that was only about 3km into the route.

The next section was much trickier than it looked on the map, with the usual forest thing of lots more tracks in real life than were drawn on the map.
We took 3 goes to find the correct track, which probably wasted about 10 mins as we had to go far enough down the track before we realised it was not right.
We tried to catch up a bit of time, but then went wrong again. This time checking our compass and we were on a lovely wide track facing almost completely in the wrong direction. Boo  :-(
By the time we had re-traced, found the correct route, and trotted a lot to the next checkpoint, I worked out we were probably about half an hour or more off the time, and we'd done more distance of course, so we were concerned that the ponies would tire before the end of the route.
So we made a decision not to be too competitive about the next section, and look after our ponies.
This was a long section with roads, bridleways (stony or hard) etc and we had been given a speed of 8km/h, which we thought was too fast given the conditions.
We got to the next checkpoint about 15 mins too slow, which was in fact better than we thought it was going to be  :-)
This turned out to be the start of the PTV, where they were sending us out every 4 minutes. We had a  30 minute wait here, which helpfully gave me time to go for a wee behind some handy bales  ;-)
I found the long wait a bit frustrating at the time, but Fudge nodded off, which turned out to be good for him.

Fudge is usually a star at PTV obstacles, but this time he was more concerned at being separated from Splash.
However we did canter under the low branches without hitting them, and he did the ditch and 2 jumps OK.
Then there was a long canter section along 2 sides of a field, this really was a spread out PTV, I had to check my map to make sure I was going the right way!

Fudge annoyed me at the gate by spinning round on the spot having heard Splash coming, but I had already had hold of the rope to open the gate, and had to drop it again, so that was more penalties. Sigh.
He lead downhill beautifully, but then could not see Splash, so he jogged up it overtaking me  :-(
The mount was good, nicely on the side of the hill so you could be uphill, but I hadn't quite got on and both feet in stirrups within the time allowed, so zero for that!
Water crossing was into a river, along it about 20 feet and then out again - Fudge was perfect - hoorah! Then bending poles which again was great.
Meanwhile I took a look at my watch and realised we were nearly 20 mins in to the 26 mins allowed for PTV. Part of the problem was that the fence judges were holding us up when there was another competitor coming.
Oh well, across another field, when I overtook the couple ahead of me who seemed to be lost!
The rein-back, which Fudge trashed as he had gone back into Where's Splash mode rather than concentrating on the job!
Down a winding track, and canter across a stubble field for the last 2 obstacles, which were ridden corridor (cantered, but touched a pole) and ridden immobility (perfect).

Then the control of paces section, by which point we were really tired. Fudge did a lovely canter, which I knew would score (I got 13 for it).
His walk back again was good, Splash had appeared so he had something to aim for. We scored 8 for that, which is pretty usual for us.

Once Mary had finished her PTV and COP, we started back on the orienteering thinking we had miles yet to go, and they'd given us a fast section of 9km/h.
There was a winding track with low trees so difficult to trot, then a road section, under 2 railway bridges, and a road crossing with a pelican crossing so we had to wait for that too, so 9km/h seemed unfair.
We assumed we would catch it up on the next section which was a long bridleway, but no, having crossed a pub carpark (including the bouncy castle!) there was a checkpoint, who said he was the finish!
I was really confused, there was still another few km of route we had spent time copying at the start in the map room!
The checkpoint judge had to explain that was the route back, or there was a 1.5 km shortcut but it involved the main road.
Mary and I opted for the road as our 2 are sensible with traffic, and we'd had enough. Well I had  :-)
If we'd gone the long way, it would have been more like 28 or 29km rather than the 21km we did (plus the wasted re-tracing our steps in the forest).

Back at the lorry I was much improved after 2 cups of tea and 2 pieces of yummy cake (Mary specials), but by then I was so tired I was really grateful Hugo was there to drive the lorry home.
By the time we'd packed everything up (we had to bring all the poo home with us as there were no disposal facilities!!) it was quite late, and we got back to the yard about 10.45pm in the dark.

We are still waiting for the confirmed scores and results, but have seen some provisional ones.
As it turned out, they decided not to award any time penalties for the PTV to anyone. I am very pleased about that, as I thought it was very unfair.
Our times were something like 34 and 38 minutes, and we'd cantered wherever we could!

There were 16 pairs in our class so we are expecting to be last or very close to that.
Hard to tell on the day if anyone else got lost even worse than we did  ;-)

Houghton dressage day

Yesterday I took Mr Fudge to Houghton International Horse Trials to take part in an unaffiliated dressage competition run under BRC rules. There was a team competition (2 riders rode P12, and 2 riders rode N34) and warm up classes as an individual competition.

The warm up area was on part of the cross country course, so we warmed up around the XC fences next to Kai Ruder  :-)

Fudge behaved himself as the superstar he is (I know, I'm biased) apart from one small strop when he bounced on the spot as a protest to me picking the reins up again after the 'stretch on a 20m trot circle' at the end of N24, silly boy! I giggled my way down the centre line at the end of the test as I was still laughing at him, we like to make the judge smile  ;-)

Anyway to keep this brief, we got exactly the same score - 64.6% in both N24 and N34, from 2 different judges, and it turned out to be 8th place in both, talk about consistent! The team I was in came 2nd, so we came home with 3 rosettes and a bottle of Norfolk cordial as a prize for the 2nd placed team. Very pleased with that, Fudge went well and for once I felt I rode properly!

Sadly it was not that well organised, it started about 25 mins late, and some of the arena markers were not in the correct places! Results were also an hour late coming out, but hey, it's the first time they've run it, and they said they will do it again next year and wanted feedback/ideas.

Start of half term

Testing new blog!

Toffee back to normal

Toffee is much better and almost entirely back to his usual self. As it happened, the vet was coming out to the yard yesterday to see another horse, so I asked for Toffee to be checked over whilst she was there. She says he is how he should be 2 weeks after the operation, and took his temperature which was normal.

Obviously we are still keeping a careful eye on him in case it recurs. The vet suggested the wound had sealed but getting him to walk round on Sunday opened it again so it can continue to drain by itself. He is still a little swollen, so there is obviously still fluid leaking out.

Improvement

Toffee is much better today (phew!), the swelling has gone down, although still noticeable, and he is walking and trotting round the paddock during the day.

He whinnied both this morning and this afternoon when I went to walk him round again, and tried to bite me, or my coat sleeve, or the lead rope, whatever's handy, so is much more his usual self  ;-)

He walked with me much more confidently and taking notice of his surroundings, even spooking at things, and looks a lot brighter. Still a little quiet for him, so fingers crossed for the improvement to continue over the next few days.

Toffee not well :-(

It appears I spoke too soon about Toffee being absolutely fine after his castration. He's been fine and his usual self all week, then on Friday evening he was lying down nodding off in his pen which is unusual at the time when I am still there. I put it down to having had a tiring day - farrier to trim feet, being put in a different stable, then someone waving a measuring stick at him later on!

Yesterday when I brought him in he was rather subdued. I had a good look underneath and everything is rather swollen again, but more than it was for the few days after the operation. Amy (YO) told me that he had been perfect to lead out in the morning, which had both surprised and pleased her! I said do you mean he was subdued, and she agreed perhaps he was not his usual self  :-(

This morning she texted me to say he was much more swollen and walking very gingerly out to the paddock.

She called the vet who said give him bute (well, Danilon) twice today, and get him walking actively 5 times during the day, and call her again tomorrow. She says it is unlikely to be an infection as he is still eating, she says he would be off his food and getting much more poorly.

So, I've been to the yard and walked him around, very reluctantly, he didn't move when his playmate was bucking and squealing round him (because the tractor with scary noisy rollers on the back was coming past), and after some walking, I let him go again, and he stood by me at the gate as if to say "don't leave me". I kept myself busy for half an hour putting away the jumps we'd all played with for the last few days, as the arena needs levelling now. Then I went back and walked him round and round again, in the paddock this time, and this time he was walking a bit better, the swelling has definitely gone down a bit, and he was taking more notice of his surroundings and not so clingy.

I am going back again later to do more walking round and see how he is.

Arena Eventing at Fenning Farm

Today Fudge and I managed to get out in the lorry - for the first time since last October! Spring must be on the way as I've been feeling more motivated to get out and about again. So we went to a local venue that has been under new management for about a year, to have a go at Arena Eventing.

This started with 7 show jumps, followed by a timed section of 9 XC style fences of rustics, brush, straw bales with carrots on top etc! We entered the 75cm (2'3") and 80cm classes (2'7") and managed to come 5th and 6th respectively, although the classes were rather low in numbers so it sounds better than it was! Generous venue though still gives rosettes to 6th.

I was very pleased with the way Fudge jumped, not quite so pleased with the way I rode some of it, but we got over everything! In the 75cm we had 4 faults with the planks down, and one refusal at the corner, so circled and Fudge flew it the 2nd time. I didn't get the best line to it the first time, and I don't think he'd quite worked out what it was. Anyway as it's in the XC section, there are no faults for refusals, you just have a longer time of course.

In the 80cm we had 4 fences down, but a good time of 1 min 11 secs

which turned out to be only 4 secs over the optimum time, so I was

very pleased with that. We are out of practice at jumping courses that big, and 16 fences is a long course! Mr Fudge put in some fabulous jumps, he really tried, I could feel him working them out and realising they were quite a bit bigger than last time! The 4 fences down tended to be unlucky that he just caught a pole which then fell. Oh yes and he scattered carrots and parsnips all over the arena by scraping them off the top of the straw bales with his big feet  ;-)

So - a good day, definitely worth getting out of bed early on a Sunday morning for.

Meanwhile, for those who didn't see my status on FB earlier in the week, Toffee had his appointment with the vet (and 3 trainee vets as it turned out) to be castrated. Poor thing, I felt very guilty putting him through all that, but the vet assured me it was very straight forward, and he has been fine. He is walking just a little gingerly, but hard to tell any real difference.

Today he was playing in the paddock as usual with his same age companion, so he's obviously feeling well enough to run around as usual.

So it's official, I now own two geldings  :-)

Review of 2010

My 2010 goals were:

- take Fudge on riding holiday (went to Norfolk in summer)

- do JumpCross training and competition (did one of each)

- XC/ODE (did 3 hunter trials)

- more Trec competitions and try level 2 again (did one L1 and two L2's in a pair with Mary, plus a winter indoor)

- stay overnight in lorry (3 times)

- get more than 60% in Novice dressage (according to my sheets we did that 4 times, all unaffiliated)

- do Elementary dressage (did it twice)

Plus it wasn't a goal at the start of the year, but doing more SJ got added part way through the year with a goal of jumping the dreaded 85cm which we managed by qualifying for BRC Festival of the Horse Combined Competition, so I jumped a course including many 85cm fences 3 times, and had numerous jumping lessons too  :-)

Phew, we managed to fit lots in there!!

Then in December I bought a foal ... which also hadn't been a goal for 2010, but has been on the back burner for the last few years ...

Anyway - goals for me and Fudge for 2011:

- more level 2 Trec, hopefully a qualifier if we can get to one on suitable dates, as they are supposed to be much more difficult, and possibly including competing as an individual if I'm feeling really brave

- long distance riding, Suzanne and I are intending to ride the Mary Towneley Loop this summer

- JumpCross competitions (do Intro level again, then hopefully have a go at the next class up)

- arena eventing (a local venue is running some this winter)

Goals for me and Toffee for 2011:

  - lead properly  :-)

  - pick all 4 feet up willingly - it turns out that someone else had taught him this (I assume his breeder) as he did this perfectly for me last week, and we haven't looked back since!

  - gradual separation from his fellow foal companion as they are now inseparable ...

  - become a gelding - him, not me  ;-)

Toffee's arrival

I've been rather busy over the last couple of weeks, and here's why.

Today we collected my new boy, Toffee.
Photos of Toffee's arrival on Photobox
Photos on facebook

He is chestnut and white, but we think the brown bits will turn roan. His passport says roan.

I am a sucker for white legs and belly splash, and a big white blaze  :-)

His Mum is TB and his Dad is ID x Hackney, bizarrely!

He should make 16hh to 16.1hh, or so his breeder reckons.

Very proud Mum  :-)

JumpCross at Wittering

Fudge and I entered a JumpCross competition at Intro level (2' to 2'6") which was my last remaining 2010 goal. Thankfully they gave me a nice time so I didn't have to get up at stupid o'clock, just normal early ...

When I walked the course I thought it was all jumpable, but some tight twisty turns and I was not going to attempt the joker fences. Although I did walk the lines, the joker fences were enormous! There were 3 on the course, a double, and the last fence which was skinny, parallel and enormous! It took me 3 goes through the rulebook to work it all out, but basically your score is your time in seconds, refusals (+50) and knockdowns (+20) are seconds which get added on to your time as penalties. The joker fences are -40 each if you clear them, and +40 each if you knock them down. First competition, so I was just doing it to have fun.

Fudge bless him was half asleep in the warm up, he did the bare minimum to walk, trot and canter, and jumped the warm up fences. He cleared them positively so I was happy that he was just conserving energy (wise boy).

They don't count you down in a start box, it was an automatic timer, so they called us over, and basically Fudge cantered off with me when the starter in the hi-viz coat waved us through   :-)

Ah I was right, he was just conserving energy - he flew through the start, his ears pricked towards fence 1, a nice cross pole start. Thankfully Fudge then realised he didn't know where he was going, slowed down a bit and asked me where was next  :-)

Fence 2 was an arrowhead shape, on a slight uphill, no problem, then up a bank, sharp turn down it again, pop over a cross pole at the bottom. Canter erratically downhill (never been my favourite thing, and we had to slow up for the first bigger fence. More downhill to the lake and streams, basically all the water. Skinny fence 5, tiny but Fudge thought it was too small to jump, so he knocked it down! Turn back on yourself, down a bank, through a stream, up a bank with skinny fence 6 at the top, proper jump this time. Down the bank across another stream. By this time I was grinning like a maniac, it's such great fun  :-)

180 degree left turn, x pole into water fence 7, canter through quite deep water. All was going so well, then I noticed the swans calmly floating across our path. Fudge put the brakes on fast, I shouted at the swans, they looked at me as though they owned the place. Fudge shot left, I lost both stirrups and nearly fell off, grabbing some mane to hang on, I was not going to fall off into that smelly water! The swans reluctantly swam away, and Fudge trotted out of the water with me still hanging on to his mane with no stirrups. Once on dry land I pulled him up, got stirrups back, took a deep breath, and set off again. Our time was b*ggered anyway, I might as well enjoy it!

Another turn back into water (no swans) fences 8 and 9 with water between them, no problem. Negotiate narrow path with a sharp right turn to fence 10 which was a bigger upright out of the water, still no problem, Fudge had got back into a good rhythm. Even managed to jump fence 11 to change leg up another steep bank, sharp turn back down through the hedge, canter across the open, tried to make sure I was breathing still. Fences 12 and 13 I thought was a very tricky line when I walked it, but Fudge thought it was obvious and very easy, what a good boy. Downhill again to fence 14, a pole diagonally across a ditch. It was optional at this level, you could cross the stream and up a step instead, but I felt confident. Fudge flew the ditch  :-)

Then I forgot all my decisions about not jumping any jokers, after all, we'd had one knockdown and had lost time with the swans. I thought, what the heck, they don't look that big from here ... Fudge did a beautiful turn and locked onto them, so we went for it! I reckon part A was 2'9" and the spread part B was 3'  - both of which feel very big to me. Fudge eyed them up, popped part A, realised he was a long way off part B (only one stride between), and took off anyway. I slipped my reins and tried to stay on as we flew through the air - it worked  :-) I was grinning like a mad thing, telling him what a good boy he was, then I realised I had no reins to steer. We almost missed some compulsory flags and had to turn a circle whilst I collected my reins.

Across the stream for the last time, up a steep bank for fence 16, another big one but again I needn't have worried, Fudge had it all sussed out. Up the hill for the last time to offset rails, I had heard on the tannoy a lot of people having run out at part B so I planned a careful line and jumped part A on an angle, and Fudge realised straight away that part B was next. Big fence 18 straight ahead of us, and then the last fence 19 to go. I remembered I said I wasn't going to jump jokers, and decided not to risk it. Jumped the usual one, which was big enough anyway, and crossed the line yeehah-ing in my usual style  :-)

I walked Fudge off, he was dripping from all the water, and from sweat as he needs clipping again, but it didn't seem fair to clip him before this, as I was going away for a week. There was a chilly wind so I put his rug on (for once he seemed grateful) and left him with hay whilst I had a cup of tea and chatted to the girl who'd ridden after me.

Photos are here: http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/album?album_id=734742966

JumpCross is such good fun, I enjoyed it enormously.

Then scores were announced, and we'd come 7th out of about 25 in the class!! I was over the moon. If only we hadn't had swans, I might have got a rosette! But then if we hadn't lost time with swans, I might not have gone for the joker fences double, which of course had taken 80 off my time.

Anyway a fab first go at it, they pack up for the winter now, but I hope to do it again next year.

Alconbury hunter trial

Anyway today we did a 2'6" hunter trial I have been trying to get to for about 4 years!

Each time (twice a year) it has run, the day has clashed with something else, or they turned it into a qualifier for something and didn't run a 2'6" class.

So today we made it, and got round on a beautifully sunny day  :-) When I walked the course yesterday I was happy with it, apart from a couple of fences which were up to height and one quite wide too, very flat topped. I was concerned about a sloping narrow on the side of a hill, which was the penultimate fence, as we have never jumped anything like that. It was called 'helsinki'  which meant nothing to me, but I have looked it up since!

On the day Fudge was happy warming up and seemed to realise it was XC day, he's a funny old horse really, he's done enough now I suppose to recognise the different situations. Today was studs and brushing boots, so that means XC  :-)

Anyway he was up for a good fast canter warm up, even though it was a hot day and he really needs clipping again, which can often make him sluggish. He jumped the warm up fences happily too, and was keen to trot through to the start, tanking off with me to get going!

I had to pull him up as the lady doing the gate spotted I had my watch on, which is not allowed, so I had to stop to take it off. She helpfully put it in her pocket for me saying that was better than being disqualified for wearing it!

We had about 3 mins walking around by the start, and then cantered up to the start line as they counted down the last 5 seconds and jumped the first 3 fences (palisade and 2 logs) confidently which settled my nerves. Fence 4 was a step down (they called it a ditch but it wasn't) close

to fence 5, Fudge backed off a bit down the step so we weren't on the most forward canter towards the big palisade (my least favourite type of jump) but I needn't have worried, he just popped it, and we even managed to land on the correct leg (I remembered to ask for it) to

turn a sharp right to fence 6 straightforward rails which I reckon were only 2' high.

Fudge decided he could go faster here and flew it, thankfully landing on the correct leg again (I forgot to ask this time) to go in a large left handed loop through compulsory flags around the field. We galloped this bit, Fudge was telling me these fences were easy and he could make the time if they were all going to be like those   ;-)

Fence 7 a small brush which he popped over, then turn back on yourself to the sunken road fence 8ab which was fine, Fudge decided to trot and I said that was a good decision. He continued to trot after it, I think he was a little confused because there were 2 C elements that he could see, but neither were on our course.

Off we cantered again heading for the tyres that he's jumped a number of times before when we've done Trec competitions at this venue. As he locked onto the tyres he picked up speed again  :-) So tyres for fence 9, another loop to a log fence 10, water fence 11 (trotted in and out down and up a sloping bank).

Then you turn up the hill to a table for fence 12, which I thought was up to height yesterday. So did Fudge, he backed off it and took off perfectly to clear it. I love my horse. Then fence 13 straight on but all still up hill to a chair, where the photographer was - another lovely jump, I shouldn't have worried even though it felt a big fence to me.

 

Fence 14 a beehive still straight on up the hill although levelling out now. Not such a good jump, I thought he would go from further back and Fudge put a short one in. I belive I squeaked!! Then fence 15ab nice inviting telegraph pole rails, not big, but horribly offset and of course you can't circle between A and B. I thought we had a good line, but Fudge didn't quite understand me, and just glanced off left to run out of the B element. I started to circle round, then had a blonde moment and shouted to the fence judge did I have to jump both parts again, and she shouted back yes! I know this perfectly well, I was fence judging myself last weekend at a coffin ABC fence! So we came round again, and this time Fudge realised what I had intended, and did a textbook angled jump over A, and a little turn to B clearing them both. Turn back on yourself and head back downhill though more compulsory flags.

By this point I was puffed and Fudge was dripping, my reins were covered in frothy sweat  :-) Fence 15 is really cleverly placed as you're both tired or tiring from doing the big up hill section, just after 3 of the largest fences on the course, and you are 4/5 of the way round the course. Fence 16 on gentle slope down was another big wide table, Fudge took off ok, I just heard a hoof tap it on the way up but we were fine. Then a nice cantering section along the top of the hill and more downhill through the last set of compulsory flags (8 sets altogether on this course!) which gave us a much needed breather. I got my head together, I steadied him up for the next turn, and told him there were only 3 more fences to go - did you know my horse can count?

Anyway fence 17 a larger but inviting fence, they called it a pheasant feeder but it was more like a house to me  ;-) Then fence 18 the helsinki I was worried about, which Fudge thought was the easiest thing he'd ever seen  :-)

Turn downhill to the last fence, a pile of telegraph poles with a blue plastic top. Fudge flew it and took off rather further back than I expected, so I slipped the reins and hailed a taxi. We cantered at high speed (still downhill) through the finish line with me yahooing as loud as I could manage!

Needless to say it took us a long time to cool down. Fudge got a bucket of water chucked over him, some walking off, sponged off, more walking off, and then drank half a bucket of water for good measure.

I got a cup of tea and a pain au chocolat sitting in the sun on the lorry ramp  :-)

We didn't get placed as of course we had 20 penalties, I worked out we came something like 14th out of 25 in the class. The optimum time was 4 mins 32 secs, and we completed in 5 mins 30 secs, so with the run out and extra circle, we would have been on a good time, so a shame really, but today's objective was to complete this hunter trial we haven't done before, so that got a big tick  :-)

Very happy with my pony, he earned himself parsnips and apples and a day off  :-)

Oh yes, and yesterday was the anniversary of the day Fudge arrived with me 9 years ago, which I put on the entry form for today's commentary. I've never entered anything that needed a commentary section filling

in before, so I wasn't sure what to put. The commentator basically read out everything I wrote, word for word!

Combined Competition - BRC Festival of the Horse

Fudge, Suzanne and I went to the BRC Festival of the Horse for our Combined Competition championship.

I got up at 5am (erk) and was at the yard for 6am only seeing 2 other vehicles on the way. Had to get out of the car to open the farm gates, shut my thumb in the car door (ouch). Thumb throbbing but not seriously injured, felt like a bad omen after I'd left poor hubby Hugo in bed after a day of throwing up and worse (yuck).

Oh well, tried to be positive, sorted lorry, went to get Fudge - hoorah he hadn't got muddy even in the rain overnight as I'd shampooed feathers and tail the day before he was still looking good, but rather dusty. Suzanne arrive to help get him ready, I plaited his mane and we set off for Aston le Walls.

I had allowed 2 1/2 hours and in fact we were there in about 2 hours 5 mins as the roads were so quiet. Plenty of time to get passport checked, go to the loo etc, and feel relaxed as there's plenty of time. It had rained a lot overnight there, so put studs in as it was all on grass. It was humid, but not yet too hot, so I didn't mind getting stock and tweed jacket on at this point. Riding Test 8 was first, got Fudge tacked up in dressage saddle, that's him ready, then me.

So I got on for our planned warm up for the riding test, walked Fudge up and down in the lorry park, not feeling quite right. Tried trot instead, it felt awful. Was the saddle slipping round, or had I got the stirrup leathers different lengths? My left foot felt lower and I was struggling to keep my foot from slipping out of the stirrup. Got back to lorry, checked stirrup hole, no it was in the correct hole, but the leather was slipping off the bar! It looked all wrong, I couldn't understand the angle the stirrup bar was at, so I hopped off. Suzanne and I peered under the flap astounded to see the bar was hanging off. The join of tree and stirrup bar had sheared across !!

So then panic change of saddle, it's a good job I was jumping too, or would have gone all that way and not been able to ride at all! White dressage saddle cloth doesn't fit the GP saddle so well, and I only had a brown girth as I was using a brown numnah for jumping - argh!

Now feeling stressed that I was late to warm up, and doing flatwork in my GP - I don't feel anything like as confident about my position and so on. Tried to calm down and concentrate on warming up. Then the sun came out, and it was boiling hot and high humidity, Fudge's least favourite weather   :-(

He felt like a slug, and I'm not allowed whip or spurs in riding test (until 2011 ...) - sigh.

Tried my best pony club kicks to wake him up before we went in to the arena, then the judge kept us waiting for ages, I think I went round the outside 4 times before the horn went. Anyway it felt OK, but not great, Fudge was poking his nose out and not helping me out much, although there were some nice moments, and he was obedient, just no spark. Suzanne walked him round for me afterwards whilst I stripped off hot jacket etc and cooled off myself. 2 hours between riding test and jumping, and they'd just finished building the course. Went to walk it, some tricky turns and a couple of (to me) seriously big fences, up to height and spread. Nothing bigger than we've been jumping in lessons though, so should be OK if we could get changes of leg etc.

Went to check scores, RT we got 70% and were in 3rd place  :-)

Apparently I can ride in my GP then  ;-)

Youtube video of Riding Test is here.

Had lunch, tried to relax whilst still planning jumping round in my head. Went over to the collecting ring in plenty of time so run through the warm up routine my jumping instructor had given me strict instructions to follow! Thankfully Fudge woke up properly at this point - hoorah jumping, not that boring dressage stuff!

Suzanne was great with putting poles up/down etc. Watched 2 other people jump to see what lines they took, then it was our turn.

You tube video is here - Style jumping

If you want to watch with the scores - nice approach very happy with fence 1 (8), straight to fence 2 (7), turn completely round the other way - Fudge went disunited and took some convincing to trot to get the correct canter again, so fence 3 (6) - hmm spotting a pattern here. Dog leg to fence 4 which was smaller, felt a nice jump and I was in the right place (7). Landed on wrong leg for the double fence 5, so trot to change again - big jump in over the spread (6) and struggled to get myself sorted for the B part (5 - comment 'behind movement'), good turn but canter feeling flat now, so fence 6 (5 - same comment), and the last spread fence 7 (5 - same comment).

Photo of jumping fence 1:

The judge gave us 7's for the canter before and after the round, a 6 for my security of lower leg (I know that needs work), and only a 5 for upper body position (again I know this) and also an interesting comment about being tense through my arms which I hadn't realised, although could have been nerves. We had 4 time penalties, the changing leg via trot probably accounts for that, but I was so pleased with Mr Fudge, he jumped so much better than in the qualifier and cleared everything. The jumping lessons have really been worth it.

There is video of the riding test too, but it's longer and I haven't had time to upload it yet.

So all over, I chilled out properly, made a cup of tea, and waited for the scores, expecting to drop a number of places as there were some very good and stylish jumping rounds. When the scores went up, we had only dropped one place so came 4th overall. Very pleased with Mr Fudge, he was a star  :-)

A gorgeous green rosette and an unexpected prize of a £15 voucher for the NAF stand, which I promptly spent!

We set off back just after 4pm, but by 4.30 had to pull over with a nasty burning smell - the front brakes had stuck on and were tryting to set fire to the wheels, well they were pretty smoky and very hot. Sigh.

We waited a little, I phoned Hugo who said throw water over them to help them cool faster. We did that a bit, and phoned for recovery ... So after 2 hours in the lay-by waiting for breakdown recovery ... I'll try to cut out the boring bit, we eventually got home much much later than planned. I was shattered and went to bed as I had to get up early today - 1st day back at school, mad year 11 revision for their GCSE exam this afternoon so a rather full day.

Tomorrow I may get 5 mins to myself to think about the broken saddle and lorry.

That was my Sunday.

PS. Big thank you to Suzanne for being so supportive all day, video-ing our rounds and keeping me sane during lorry traumas. She was a star too  :-)

Lucinda Green XC Clinic

Today Fudge and I went XC schooling with Lucinda Green at Ely Eventing Centre.

Lucinda is just like she is on the telly, apart from the swearing  ;-)

Thankfully none of the swearing was aimed at me or Fudge (although we did get a stiff talking to), and I thought she was rather hard on one girl, but it did work in the end!

There were 6 horses and riders in the group, and after a chat to learn names and to find out what we each did, we started with about 7 skinny poles (max 3' long) and various plastic wings or blocks. All the poles were on the ground, and our mission was to get over/under/through them without cantering, in any way possible, stopping and clambering was OK, but running out was not. I didn't think this would be a problem for Fudge, but he did take exception to some green blocks, so that was interesting to begin with, by the 3rd time he was fine with them. After this she asked us all to name the 2 things we thought were most important in this exercise. I said keeping my legs on and focusing on where I was going. Others said similar things and she was pleased that between us we covered all the essentials for good XC riding! She said her phrase was that your legs and eyes create a tube that your horse has to go in, which was an analogy I liked.

So we had to do the same exercise again, some poles were now raised, and gradually she and her helper put all of them up to about 2' high, then we had to do a small course of them, and this time cantering was allowed too. After the last pole we had to stop and halt for 10 seconds before patting horse and giving them a long rein. Lucinda watched each one of us in turn.

One of the riders with a relatively new horse had a great deal of difficulty and ended up falling off (she was fine, bounced straight up to her feet), and the horse escaped across the field. She set off in pursuit ... I didn't think we'd see them again!

Then it was my go, a good start jumping 3 poles one after the other, but I then discovered my steering was not great, as the fences were not placed in straight lines to each other, and had a couple of run outs, missed one out completely, and Fudge refused to stop until he was near other horses again, so I was called over for a chat ...

Lucinda said in her opinion, when Fudge takes charge and decides to charge off to join the other horses, I've taught myself not to do much about it, and therefore I've taught him that he can. Hmmm, it seemed very silly and very embarrasing when it was put that way, but I think she's absolutely right. She asked why I turned him in a tight circle to slow down and then stop, instead of stopping in a straight line. I said because I didn't think I could stop him in a straight line, so she made me do exactly that, in between every fence! Yes it was hard, and I failed completely between the 1st and 2nd fences, but each time got quicker, and by the 4th one Fudge was totally bored by it and just stopped, albeit throwing his head in the air. First major thing I learned.

Lucinda said that she was pleased with us, she could see that he likes his jumping and that I'll be fine most of the time, but I need strategies that will help/fix it when he decides he's going to run out or simply gallop off with me, for example on a course heading for home on the last few jumps, and she's completely correct, he does do that, and it can be quite scary, although I also know I secretly rather enjoy it ...

Once we'd all done the short course a couple of times, the other rider re-joined us having caught her horse, and seemed none the worse for it. Lucinda sympathised that the mare was difficult, and could see what the rider was up against, she recommended that she trot and canter round the field away from all of us until the mare settled and realised who was boss!

So we carried on to the water to walk in/out up/down the banks and up a small step out. They were all fine with this. Then we went to a coffin combination and began with a log, dip and another log which we had to jump in both directions and stop afterwards in a straight line for 10 seconds as before. Then we walked over the ditch by itself - ditches had been identified earlier by a few of us as the thing we have most difficulty with. Typically Fudge didn't hesitate at all, so then we had to trot the ditch and up a short slope to jump a palisade fence after it.This was fine too, although I thought the palisade was a bit bigger than I was happy jumping, and got a bit worried that Fudge was only trotting, and wouldn't have enough oomph to get over it. I was wrong, and was the 2nd major thing I learned.

I think I still think of our jumping ability as it was a few years ago, and I forget how far we've come, how much fitter and how much better muscled Fudge is now. Multiple times that afternoon I realised that Fudge can jump 2'6" obstacles from a virtual standstill, with no bother at all, and I was very proud of him  :-) Then we reversed direction, jumped the palisade, which looked even bigger from the other direction (why is that?), then ditch and onto some tyres to make a combination. We then went back to the water, and joined the two together, step into water in walk, trot up 2 steps out of the water, across the field, and back to jump the coffin. I was especially pleased doing this because Fudge listened to me perfectly when I said he was going too fast after the water, and stopped him after the last fence perfectly in a straight line as soon as I asked. My horse learns fast  :-)

Somewhere in the middle of all this, the mare and rider we'd lost earlier, re-joined us and began to jump the logs and coffin. Boy that mare could jump, and frankly I thought it was a different rider, she became so confident! We also lost the young girl who had previously had a lot of stops and falls XC, hence the Lucinda schooling that her Mum had paid for. Her pony stopped at the first log, and the girl burst into tears. Lucinda was very hard on her, she said she did understand how hard it was, but until the girl f***ing took charge, it was going to continue happening - more tears. I really did think this was too far, but she left her to mop up her tears whilst she sorted out another who was having run outs at the coffin and got into quite a state about it! Once that was solved, Lucinda turned back to the young girl, and said right lets get you some tools! She produced spurs and 2 schooling whips from her car, and gave the girl instructions to use them all if she thought her pony was going to stop! This she did, to a classic look of shock on the pony's face! She then jumped everything she was pointed at  ;-)

So now we had a full class of 6 again, we set off for a different field, joined another few jumps together into a little course, and then a big step up and enormous log. I had thought it was big, but hadn't realised quite how big, and neither had Fudge. We jumped it, but didn't clear it, poor Fudge scraped the inside of his knee on it, and rocked the log in doing so! We got shouted at to come round to do it all again. Needless to say, this time I kept my leg on much more, and he cleared it by a mile. I checked his leg and it was grazed, bleeding a little, but basically OK, so we carried on.

We had found another complex with different sized ditches, and had to walk/trot/canter each one a number of times. So, we'd had about 2.5 hours by this time, and called it a day after Lucinda had talked to each one of us. Oh yes, and she insisted that we all get off and loosen girths and walk the horses back to the lorry park. I agree with that completely, but I've never had a XC schooling session where it's been insisted on before.

Lucinda followed us all back to the lorry park and stayed chatting for quite a while. I washed Fudge's scraped leg, and put some wound powder on it - hey for the first time, I used the first aid kit that's been in the lorry for years!! He wasn't bothered, tough guy that he is, and only wanted some hay by this point.

It was a great session and I would definitely recommend her, yes it's

expensive but I did learn loads. Mind you, I was completely shattered when I got home.

Royal Windsor Horse Show

I was given a late time (16.33) so it wasn't a horribly early start thankfully. Jenny Fudge and I set off from the yard just after 10am. We stopped at South Mimms services on the way there for us to go to the loo and of course to check on Fudge. He was travelling well, and looked totally bemused that we had stopped, and why on earth would he want a drink of water! I hadn't really appreciated how close Windsor is to the M4 so it really was an easy journey, M25 was fine we just cruised along about 45-50 mph.

We left Fudge in the lorry park chomping hay in the lorry so Jenny and I could get our passes and find out where everything was. Closer than I was expecting was the answer! We found the entries list and scoreboard, looked at the arena, and Jenny went off shopping whilst I went back to the lorry and had a cup of tea  :-)

We tacked up, and mooched up to the collecting ring (meeting Caroline there) so Fudge had already seen it all before the test proper. No problem, he was a chilled out star. One of the stewards asked if he could take a photo on his phone, but he didn't want me in the picture  ;-)

So back to the lorry and a leisurely tack up and get jacket etc on, back on board and wander up to the collecting ring again. Jenny and Caroline checked out who was in the arena, and how many to go before me, sadly they were already way behind the start times we were given.

After an age waiting in the drizzle as the class was running 20-30 mins late, we finally went into the arena. Fudge had a little look at the advertising boards first time round, and then ignored everything else going on. I took a little while to relax properly, and without either whip or spurs I felt Fudge was not really as forward and bouncy as I'd have liked him. However he listened and did everything I asked, when I asked. Left canter got a bit dodgy, but right canter was fantastic  :-)  Suddenly it was all over!

Back to the lorry, fed Fudge pieces of parsnip (his favourite) gave him his haynet etc, made another cup of tea and ate a jaffa cake for some energy, couldn't eat properly, still too excited! We had made it to Windsor and hadn't disgraced ourselves, and I even managed to enjoy some of it! I took Fudge's plait out, put him on the lorry, and we wandered back up to find scores.

Jenny got to the front and worked out I was in 2nd place at this point, and there were only 2 scores to go up - eeek! There was one person on 150, and there were 3 of us on equal scores of 146, so they were using collective scores to separate us. Mine were 38, which put me in the lead. Total disbelief set in here, I kind of froze, until Jenny told me to leg it back to the lorry park and she would phone me when she'd found out what the plan was.

It turned out there was a mounted prize-giving up to 10th anyway (which nobody had mentioned before). The top 3 were to ride again in the main arena. Meanwhile Jenny phoned Caroline and she came straight to the lorry

park to meet me there, boy was I glad to see her! I threw stock, boots, hat and jacket back on whilst she tacked up poor Fudge who had been unceremoniously dragged off the lorry again. By this point the tannoy was announcing my competitor number to say they needed me in the Castle Arena NOW! Caroline told me not to panic, tightened the girth for me and told me

to trot at high speed across the lorry park as my warm up! I left them trying to lock the lorry door as I hadn't told them the knack, sorry!

It turned out that we really did come 2nd, out of I think 24 entries  :-)

Anyway Caroline has already said about the chaos going on at the main Castle Arena, poor Fudge had been trotted and cantered on the way over there, and then shouted out by an officious lady in a hat, he was not best pleased. I got there eventually, to be told the juniors were in first anyway, so it was 10 mins before they needed me - phew! So we walked round and tried to calm down. They were running so late by this point, that in the main arena the steward in a bowler hat told me just to start, so I did, down the centre line only to get the judge shaking her head at me. I got cross at this point, stopped Fudge, and said to her "but HE told me to start", pointing at man in bowler hat, who had appeared next to her, and he said "we have to, we're so behind" - so I went back out of the arena, and she honked for me to start, so I went straight back in again. Grrrr.

Not the best start we could have had in the main arena, and it took the first trot circle before I got a grip on myself and made myself breathe out and relax, Fudge visibly relaxed too, Caroline and Jenny said it was so clear to see! The rest is a blur I'm afraid, apart from the finish and hearing Mike Tucker say "and that was Dr Cindy Wells and the great character Cornelius Fudge" and seeing my name on the huge screens! My few minutes of fame, I was announced by Mike Tucker  :-)

The other 2 rode their tests (a lot more calmly than me) and Fudge bounced up and down near a tank, other large military vehicles, tractors with trailers reversing into him and a pipe and drum band starting up. I couldn't cope with a lot more by this point, but back in we went once they'd finally worked out who was 1st, 2nd and 3rd. We were 3rd. Fudge was a star as I shook hands with people congratulating me and pinning rosettes on us everywhere, and one of the judges made a special comment to apologise for the chaos as she realised it had not been the best start for us.

Then the lap of honour, which started as a nice canter, and ended up as a mad gallop out of the arena overtaking the 2nd placed horse, me apologising profusely and giggling stupidly as I tried to stop Fudge (no chance) who had simply had enough. I left Caroline and Jenny to collect prizes and sheets, and took him away from the hovercraft that had just started up as well!

I will admit I had a little weep on the way back to the lorry, Fudge was an absolute superstar all day, and I love him to bits. I'll leave out the journey home, suffice to say we got back to the yard a little after 10.30pm last night.

Photobox piccies link here
You tube video of our Riding Test

Huge huge thanks to Jenny for keeping me going all day, and night ... and to Caroline and John for being an emergency groom and cameraman. They were fab, I couldn't possibly have done it by myself.

Right, better go to the yard and sort out the mess I abandoned in the lorry late last night!