My trip to Vale View was great, we caught the plane to Birmingham at 7am on Thursday morning, it was absolutely bucketing rain on the way to the airport & blowing a hooly, so I was a bit worried about my drive along the motorway with all the rain, but after a bit of a bumpy landing, it was nice & dry in Birmingham & not a rain cloud to be seen, thank goodness!! We had some breakfast, then started our journey, mum, me & the lovely Tom Tom, don't know what we'd do without him. An hour or so later we reached our destination, we went to the pub around the corner from our B&B and got a drink & some lunch, then we made our way to the equestrian centre, we were a bit early getting there, & had an hour or two to kill, Peter Storr was doing a clinic so we watched a few of his lessons. Then it was time to get changed and re-acquaint myself with the lovely George. He didn't think much of the wind blowing about outside, he found it a bit noisy, I had a good lesson though & was booked again for 8am the next morning. We went back to our B&B for a up of tea after giving George a couple of polo's to say thanks, then to the pub for dinner and home for an early night, feeling rather exhausted. I was up nice & early looking forward to my next lesson, which again I enjoyed, working on my walk & trot, I had another lesson booked at 12, trying to fit as many in as possible while I'm there, we went back to our B&B for breakfast & a bit of a sit down before going back for the next lesson, Julie decided to try me on another horse, Fernie, a big bay, he was lovely too, he suited me better than George as he took up my legs more & I seemed to be more balanced in trot on him. When I went to get off I got my leg stuck on the back of the saddle & I was dangling on the side, it must've looked quite funny & it's a good job Fernie didn't mind, mum had to push my leg over & there were a few people in the car park that became my audience which was a bit embarrassing. After my ordeal getting off I went & got a shower before we left for the airport. I'm planning to go back at the start of January for a few rides before the winter qualifiers on the 23rd Jan. I'd have liked to go in December too but it's a bit too expensive for me. I've booked a table at a tack sale for thurs to sell a few bits & bobs to make a few quid to put towards my trips, I'm going to organise a local coffee afternoon or car boot sale in December to raise a bit of money too, hopefully then I'll be able to get away a bit more often. This Sat I have my lesson with Maria Eilberg, time to get Bernie working again after a few days off, I don't think we have any competitions for a while now, so hopefully at our next one we'll be much improved, fingers crossed.
November 2009 Archives
Last week I did my first ever Novice test, I got a surprise phone call on sat morning from my cousin Sally to ask me would I take Buzz in a Novice test she'd entered, as she was a bit under the weather, without any hesitation I said "YES" all though I had never done novice before, but I knew it would entail a bit of medium trot & canter.....hmmmm!! I was secretly happy she wasn't feeling great as I REALLY enjoy riding Buzz, and all though I'd never done Novice I thought I have to start somewhere & by doing it on an experienced horse like Buzz it'll give me a good idea of what Bernie has to aspire to. My test on Bernie was at 1.02pm & Buzz was at around 2.30pm, I warmed Bernie up for about 3/4 of an hr, he seemed to be a bit distracted but I thought I'd managed to get him listening to me, that was until I got into the indoor arena anyway, he thought he would be awkward & decided to shout to anyone who'd listen, flex to the outside, hollow, everything horrid he could do, he did, so I left the arena not feeling very optimistic about my score. Then I had to learn my next test for Buzz, by the time I'd got off B & found a test sheet to learn from it was getting close to my next start time, so after a few of reads of the test I thought I knew it & got on Buzz to warm him up, there wasn't much time for that either, after about 15mins it was time for me to enter the arena, I didn't have much chance to get nervous, the bell went & off I went, Sally never warned me Buzz was nervous of the judges box, which was where the canter transitions were, probably for the best really as most likely I would've tensed up & made the situation worse, but just a little bit of spooking & we carried on for our medium canter, I really enjoyed myself which is what it's all about & I hope Buzz did too. When I went to see my scores I was surprised to see I'd come 4th on Bernie with 60% & I'd got 62.9% on Buzz which I thought wasn't a bad effort for my first Novice test & considering I haven't ridden Buzz in an outdoor arena for a test. I'm really pleased that Sally thought of asking me to take him in it, it was a great experience for me.
Next week I've got a lesson with Janet on Tuesday on Bernie, a lesson on Weds with Clive on Bernie & Thursday I'm off to Vale View for a few lessons, mum's coming with me this time to keep me company, she hasn't been before so she'll get to meet the lovely George, & hopefully I'll have lots to write about.
I've also managed to get a great write up in Just Dressage magazine, I'm the rider profile & my George got himself in the big picture so I'll be showing him that, he'll be awfully happy with himself. I'm really pleased with his progress, in a round about way anyhow, he was in on Monday for the farrier, but he really doesn't like being in the stable without company, so mum let him out in the paddock to occupy himself, anyway when the farrier got there mum couldn't catch George he was trotting & cantering around sound as anything, so today out on hack I thought I'd push him into a canter along a nice grassy path, I loved it, hopefully we've reached a milestone & I'll be able to push him a bit harder on our rides & build his musles up even more, then I can enter him in some prelim competitions, with a bit of calmer to stop him getting too excited and trotting so high I land in the spectators area, for that I think I'd lose a few marks!!!!
I haven't had any lesson's this week, Angela has been away so I haven't had my weekly lesson, also it was half term last week so I didn't have much chance to ride at all because Shayne was off school & mum & dad were away so no babysitter, mind you it was hardly riding weather the end of last week & the weekend. I've booked my flights to Birmingham to go to Vale View for some more training, so that's something to look forward to, & also Maria Eilberg is coming over to the island this month so I've a lesson booked with her, which I can't wait for.
I got my face in the local paper last week, I'm looking for sponsors to help me with my training costs, so put my story out there for all to see, it was quite strange reading it because there was a lot about my accident which brought back bad memories. Here it is if you fancy a read http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Rowan-fights-back-to-make.5772470.jp
On Friday we had a halloween party, or "Hop tu Naa" as us manxies call it, my sister Lauren had organised it for the West Coast Riding Club, we decorated the football club, where it was being held, on thursday, I love all the spooky decorations! Then on friday we carved our lanterns & painted the kids faces for the party. I dressed up as a corpse bride, fancy dress, my favourite. It was a really good night and made good profit for the club. Unfortunately Shayne's werewolf costume never came in time, instead it came yesterday, so while Shayne & Jimmy were out I put it on and giggled to myself about how I would scare them when they got back. It was Rodney I scared though, she was sitting on the couch & I pulled the mask on, she took one look at me & couldn't move quick enough, her little legs were running but she couldn't get any traction on the floor, she was fine once I removed it & she saw it was only me, not sure she likes werewolves. Anyway I hid in the cupboard when I heard the boys coming home & jumped out at them with a roar, it definately did the trick, they both looked well shocked, hee hee, I'm just a big kid really!
