Haven't made any posts for a while as my equine life has become somewhat turmoiled. Annie fell in the field in February and she has damaged her fourth lumbar vertibrae. This is where her pelvis sits. Unfortunately, after just over 9 weeks box rest and a cocktail of daily drugs, there is no improvement. We are waiting on decisions from a variety of vets and neurology specialists so that we can make a fair decision about her future health and welfare. Annie has hated being on box rest, and has become grumpy and intolerant. Here she is looking somewhat chirpier, chatting to a friend across the yard:
My search for another horse to continue my rider development has paid off, and I am now the wonderfully proud owner of Sacramenta Z - known at home to us as Grace! I have owned Grace for one month now, and I could not have wished for a more perfect pony! She is 7 years old, by Sandro Z. She has predominantly done showjumping up until now, but we believe she has fantastic potential as an event horse. She loves cross country and has amazing natural paces - I am just trying to master them!
We have had a couple of training sessions with Alison Kenward at home, some stressage with Sabrina Jones in Mursley and we are about to commence our XC training ready for the area horse trials on the 8th June! Also known as judgment day!
Here she is looking all shiny at home:
And a couple from Sabrina's the other day:
Wednesday 14 May 2008
Tuesday 26 February 2008
Funny picture!
Saturday 23 February 2008
XC training, and Annie's poorly :(
Took Annie up to Hanslope with John Mears to pop a few XC fences and get her confidence going again over natural fences. Although she was jumping, we felt that she wasn't quite her normal self and pulled her up to take her home again. Two days later she was diagnosed with a respiratory infection - so we were right!
Here is what Annie thought of the ditch - always good to test the brakes!
She did overcome her fear though, big scaredy cat!
Tuesday 5 February 2008
Showjumping lesson with John Mears
Had a fantastic jumping lesson with John on Sunday afternoon, and for once the rain held off! Annie flew, and when we put a course together it really felt as if we were flying. Everything feels like it is coming together for us now, and I can't wait to test out our new skills on the cross country course! In the meantime though, practise makes perfect so we will keep grafting away for a week or so until our first XC outing of the season to Hanslope - Saturday 16th February.
Wednesday 23 January 2008
Tuesday 15 January 2008
Annie is famous!
Following our appearance in Chiltern and Thames Rider magazine's January issue, and Wednesday 9th's MK News, the announcement of our sponsorship deal has now been run on the Milton Keynes website - brilliant coverage for my sponsors so I am thrilled!
You can read it here - http://www.mk-news.co.uk/mknews-news/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=247259
In other news, I have now received all my registration documents for British Eventing and am now officially an affiliated rider... even though I am yet to compete! Annie is also now officially a British Eventing horse, putting her showjumping days behind her. Roll on April so that we can get to our first event!
You can read it here - http://www.mk-news.co.uk/mknews-news/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=247259
In other news, I have now received all my registration documents for British Eventing and am now officially an affiliated rider... even though I am yet to compete! Annie is also now officially a British Eventing horse, putting her showjumping days behind her. Roll on April so that we can get to our first event!
Sunday 13 January 2008
Dressage at Addington - 13th January 2008
Unfortunately no pictures from today, but Annie performed really well despite gale force winds - her pet hate! We only did Prelim 7 due to the weather, and I was thrilled with her performance. Unfortunately, due to judges (grrr) we only finished middle of the field, but I am confident going into next Sunday's competition knowing that she is improving steadily. Hopefully our percentages next weekend will reflect her progress!
Next Saturday we have a training clinic at Bury Farm, followed by two further dressage tests (Prelim 4 & 10) at Addington on Sunday. Fingers crossed for some slightly brighter/dryer/less windy weather...!
Next Saturday we have a training clinic at Bury Farm, followed by two further dressage tests (Prelim 4 & 10) at Addington on Sunday. Fingers crossed for some slightly brighter/dryer/less windy weather...!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)