What a year!!

As it's coming to the end of this year it's made me think back to all that we've achieved & the new problems that have occurred.

As said before in my first blog my horse was very quirky & when i say Quirky i mean a rearing/napping, backwards thinking mess

It's weired as it seems like that horse never existed to me now, he's such a happy boy. However it took complete faith & a lot of patience & courage to get him to the happy big softy that he is now. Im glad i took a chance & bought him as i really do have a very strong bond with him

This year he's paid me back ten fold and has excelled himself, not only is he grasping ridden work quickly and progressing fast with collected work, we also managed 2 placings at regionals a 5th place at the Winters in Feb 09 & a 5th place at the Summers 09.

The year did take a drastic turn though in April with recurrent & serious Colic bout's, they where dreadful, eventually after taking advise from one of my trainers Spencer Wilton we made the decision to trial the horse on Gastrogard & my Vets agreed it was the only thing left to try.

The Difference was incredible in my horse after just 3 days on the Gastrogard it was apparent that he was suffering from Ulcers. The colic has never recurred since we started him on the Gastrogard. He's now maintained on a low dose of Gastrogard daily for what will be the rest of his life.
He's more than worth it though & thankfully are Insurance AmTrust has been brilliant throughout!!

Normally you would scope a horse for Ulcers, however the only Vet that could do this was a traveling vet & there was a wait for him or we could of paid for it to be done at Leahurst.

We all felt we couldn't wait with the dreaded Colic bouts & that Leahurst was not really a viable option, so with the insurances approval we decided to go straight to trailing the Gastrogard.

After the Summer regionals we went back out to try to Qualify one last time at Novice, we still had just enough points & i really didn't want to waste them.

I was very chuffed when we Qualified for the winter regionals 2010 in 2 outings he was obviously flying now his Ulcer's where under control.

We also dabbled with a freestyle test i spent ages doing a floor plan, picking music & editing it. I found it great fun & quite easy to do to my surprise.

We qualified on our 2nd try ever at freestyle with over 70%!!

Unfortunately the first try wasn't so good my music editing was quite wrong & way ahead of the floor plan, so i had to go back to the drawing board. Luckily i managed to hire my local indoor school & re-shoot a new video, i then re-edited the music & sorted it. This time it worked out!!

So we now have to classes to contend for at the Winters 2010.

Not only that but in September 09 we landed a small sponsorship from Equine Premium (Protexin), we already used there product as they where the only one's that have ever help my horse with his dodgy tum. So gaining support from them has really helped us & helped my horse stay on Acid Ease which really does help him, we wouldn't be without it.

So as i said in the opening What a year, here's hoping that 2010 will be just as if not more fruitful!!!

Keep checking back as new posts coming soon about our winter training.

From the begining or nearly......

I am an amateur dressage rider, like hundreds of other amateurs in the UK, i hope to push myself to as higher level as possible in affiliated Dressage.

Ive been riding for many years & have owned horses since i was 8, before that you would only ever find me at my local riding school every chance i got i would be there, a complete nightmare for my non horsey parents.
Luckily for me my Mum also loved horses, so she gave me the help i needed to convince my Dad that a Pony would be a great idea!! That was 23 years ago now & my horse addiction is still going strong.

From that point i started competing in Showing, eventing & showjumping. It wasn't until my next horse a 4yo TB that Dressage started to really play a part in my life. Again my chosen sport with this horse was eventing i loved the thrill of XC. However my dressage scores seemed to be quite good, this eventually led to us being chosen for the dressage team with the local PC.

I hadn't realised just how big Dressage was going to play a part in my life at this point!!

Once i had grown out of PC i decided to try Affiliated Dressage, competing in Prelim & Novice BD & Elementary Unaff on my two horses a TB & a IDxTB. Both of these two horses are now my beloved field ornaments.

Nowadays i have to fund my addiction myself & spend as many hours as possible when not working full time training, & competing in my chosen sport of Dressage. I also teach a few hours of a w-end. I'm very lucky in that i now train with some of the best trainers in the country & i travel anywhere & everywhere to compete & recieve training.

Nearly 4 years ago i stumbled on my current Dressage horse a very quirky KWPN & i feel my real dressage journey started, i have learnt more in the last 4 years than ever before with this horse.

Above is a Picture of my current dressage horse at the BD Novice summer regionals 09!!