The waiting game!

Well is she, isn't she?  Everyone keeps asking is she pregnant or not? "I don't know" She is certainly calmer and a little sweeter in the week of her cycle when she should be tearing my head off.. Darcie is certainly what you would call a hormonal mare! She did try and take the arm off my new jacket though the other day so perhaps not!

Anyway the next stage is to have her scanned, thats booked at Bishopton with our vet Richard next Monday 27th, so all being well we will find out then. Richard did leave us with the statement "There is no reason why she shouldn't get pregnant". Hopefully Kate Fallaize might be able to take us down in her lunch hour, especially if I offer a nice sandwich.

Darcie is really struggling without her back shoes on, she has really soft soles and can feel every atom (yes I do mean atom, well it feels like that anyway). I have to say though that she feels lighter behind and has a greater step under than she did with shoes on, maybe there is something to this barefoot lark. Think when she goes into her confinement we may persevere and not have her back shoes put on. However it would be really good to do some shows and maybe a little dressage this summer whilst she still can and we certainly can't get any work into her at the moment. So if the scan is positive we shall be calling Andrew Cox our Farrier, maybe he could put lighter shoes on the back. We can only ask.

On the plus side had a really good ride on Saturday with our good friend Kate and her horse Devon, although Darcie would not canter (sore feet you understand) we did some exploring and have found a brilliant ride with a stream to cross, great flat roadwork, plenty of gates (we like gates its one of the few things that Darcie excels at) and lots of canter fields (although filled with ewes and their new born lambs, so just trot fields at moment) Cant wait to get shoes on, then its body protector, neck strap and go, go, go.....

Freezing Brrrr

Well its snowing again. March! will it never end?

Darcie is desperate to get out, we have resorted to playing with a Parelli ball which one of the girls at the yard bought for her horse. Its like a big Pilates ball, Darc quite enjoys kicking it about the school she will even do it when I am on board, although we did get into trouble when I was trying to teach her to dribble at trot and she kicked it against the wall of the indoor school when there was a canter lesson going on... Beckham eat your heart out.

We are going clicker training tomorrow at a weekend training with Hannah Dawson (if it stops snowing, otherwise I shall be there minus my horse). Will let you know how we get on.

This week

We had a really exciting day on Wednesday, we went to a BD Qualifier, Shearwater Young Dressage Horse at Northallerton EC with Zoe Haigh and CeeJay one of my clients. When we arrived we were delighted to see Lyndsay Peacock and her lovely horse Fair Trade (another one of my clients). Both horses did well Ceejay taking third in his class and Fair Trade taking a fantastic first and third overall. I am very pleased to be associated with both of these great riders and their fabulous horses. You can see the video of Lindsay and Fair Trade below

Last month

I have still got to tell you all about the Horses Inside Out Conference that I went to last month. What a fantastic two days in Grantham. The first day was spent listening to research from a number of eminent people the second day was spent at Arena UK, it was really freezing, however that did not distract from the master classes by the Olympic Human Physio and his quick fixes for rider crookedness to the both the dressage coach and Show Jumping coach training some pretty fantastic young riders and horses. Watch this space to find a more detailed account!