April 2010 Archives

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter, I really enjoyed the break even if it was a bit chilly, the last week or so has been gorgeous though, I went away last week to Vale View for some training, we flew over on Wednesay evening, we decided to take the train this time instead of hiring a car, to save a bit of money, it was pretty straight forward & I enjoyed just being able to sit there & read my book instead of concentrating on the road. We got to The Cottage B&B at around 9.45 pm, back to my second home & greeted with a nice cup of tea. I had a lesson booked with Julie in the morning, so after a good full english brekky it was time to go & ride Fernie, I had a great lesson & then had another in the late afternoon on George with Ian Woodhead, we decided to play music in the school as George has shown us he's not too keen on it, it did get him a bit hot but Ian helped me to calm him down & we ended the lesson well. The next day I had two more lessons with Julie one on each horse, I had a canter on Fernie too, which I'd been dying to do. The lessons went really well & both horses were great, Julie gave me a couple of exercises to do which should help to strengthen my right leg.

While we were there, of course, the Volcano had errupted so we didn't know if we'd be able to fly home on the Friday, I thought it'd be best to try & get tickets for the boat on Friday night from Liverpool, instead of hanging around the airport to see if the planes would fly, so I got Lizzie to book us a couple of tickets & we trained it up to Liverpool & got on the boat home, it was a lovely flat crossing  & there was a really pretty sunset. I managed to get through my book too, which totally isn't like me to read a whole book, but when I get into one I can't put it down. Good job we got on the boat or we'd probably still have been there, getting fat on Christine's yummy breakfasts. 

Last night I had a lesson with Clive on Bernie, it was really good, Clive said it was the best he'd seen us both do. I'm away on Thursday, I'm going to try a horse to see if it'll be suitable for the RDA qualifiers in May, and then have a ride on another over in Lincs, then we're off down to Vale View again for the summer qualifiers, luckily we're booked on the boat so we don't have to worry about the plane situation, I just hope it isn't windy!!!!!  

Well I've not posted for a while, but I've been away at Vale View, training & at the Para Winter Championships. We went away last Monday evening & a full week of training lay ahead before the Championships on Sunday. We arrived at our B&B, or our second home as it is now, at about 9pm & had a good cup of tea, then an early night to prepare for the training. It wasn't such an early start so we had time for a nice full english to begin the day. I had a lesson with Julie Hyslop on Fernie & then a lesson on George later with Peter Storr, it was a difficult lesson on George as he was very tense so I was learning how to get him listening to me. After a few days of lessons my knees were looking a bit raw, they'd been rubbed the thursday before I went away, at a lesson with Angela on Buzz, where I'd been practising my sitting trot, so it was to the shop for plasters for me.

Mum found it a difficult week as her sheep were lambing at home, so she was worrying about them, dad found it even more difficult as he was left lambing the sheep & up all hrs through the night delivering mums little woolly friends. I think dad will volunteer to come with me next time, so he can enjoy the full english breakfasts & a bit of a rest. Jimmy also stayed at home, he was left in charge of Shayne, Lupa, Rod Rod & Ziggy, everything was fine until I phoned him on Friday night, he didn't sound very happy! The reason being Ziggy had decided to go AWOL, we leave the door of his tank open as he likes to be free range & we close the living room door so he can't go anywhere else in the house if he does decide to go for a wander, however Jimmy couldn't find him anywhere in the living room, which then made him wonder did he shut the door when he left. We usually find him hidden in the dark corner behind the TV, but not on Jimmy's watch. He hunted all around the house for hrs with no joy, & text me at 10.40pm to say he was going lizard hunting again, eventually at twenty to one in the morning I got a text saying Ziggy had been found, sleeping behind his tank, because it's a converted wardrobe he'd forgot the back was hollow & Zig had crawled in & gone to sleep, thank goodness he found him or I'd have been worrying all weekend.

On saturday, my sister Lauren, aunty Kath & friends Becky & Lizzie arrived to come & watch the competition, we watched some of the Dressage that was on at Vale View & then went to the pub for our tea. Sunday arrived & I was nervous, I just about manage to stomach a bowl of porridge, my first test was on George, he worked in beautifully & I was ready to do my best, however, when we got into the indoor he tensed up, I did do the best I could but it was really difficult & he was very tense throughout, doing a bit of canter where we should've been trotting, I was lucky enough to be entered on Fernie as well, he also worked in well, nice & forward going, we went in the arena & he did a lovely test, after a bit of a nail biting wait our mark was put up on the board, we won with 71.43% I was over the moon, especially when I realised we got overall restricted Champion too, it was just amazing, I was so pleased.

I'm away again the middle of April for a couple of days training, then again a week later for the summer qualifiers back at Vale View.