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A month with a full on start then a weather enforced break. I had several outings planned in the first three weeks of December so plenty of good intentions. The youngsters, Spirit, Zak and Newt, went to a jumping clinic with David Gatherer at SNEC early in the month. The aim was to do some longer courses than I can set up in the school at home and work in company. All three went well, with Spirit and Zak showing an improved attitude since their previous outing. Spirit hadn’t been to SNEC before but jumped all the fillers first time which was impressive as he hasn’t seen a huge amount to date. Newt thoroughly enjoyed himself and was particularly enthusiastic.

I had been at SNEC the previous day to do a couple of dressage tests with Rod and Uno. I had entered then in both novice tests so was fairly busy. Uno bounced around the collecting ring before settling down. He did save some large bounces for the first test and did exit the arena during the first canter but was much more civilised in his second test. Rod did his best to swank round the first test to win but was miffed to find he had to perform again, convinced he had already done enough. He was also disappointed that flying changes were not required so did offer to throw some in. He did enough showing off to win this test too. I was pleased with the way he went and it was good for him to get back in to doing tests confidently at a lower level after the pressures of the event season. Uno was much more forward than his last test at Blair which is encouraging and I tried a different warm up strategy with him which seemed to help (the lack of show jumping and cross country no doubt also helped!) so the plan with him is to keep getting him out to do tests over the winter.

I took two days away from the yard to complete the last days of the UKCC Level 3 course. We had a mock assessment on the second afternoon and I was happy with the way it went, having made some of the suggested improvements. Just the portfolio to complete and the final assessment day to go.

Also getting some attention this month was the two year old, Mop. After lots of quiet handling, he went on the lunge again before being leant over, sat on, then finally ridden on the lunge. He took all of it in his stride so that is all he will do for now and it will make the task of starting him off next year much easier. He has grown a lot since the summer so he will have a lot more strength next year hence this year’s quiet backing.  If he had followed the career path of the others he ran at the stud with he would have been completing his first year in racing. His half brother won a maiden hurdle race last month so he may be in the wrong job!

The intended BSJA outing for the older horses was aborted due to snow. It wasn’t essential that they had the outing so we decided not to risk taking the lorry out thinking we would be able to re route as the snow wouldn’t last long. It still hasn’t gone more than two weeks later. The one drawback to having an indoor school and being able to ride in just about all weather is that it is absolutely freezing when most other people have surrendered to going inside to the warmth. We were able to work the horses most days in the run up to the holiday period to gradually wind them down. I went away from Boxing Day to New Years Day to meet up with some American family friends in New York, thinking the snow would be gone by the time I got back- wrong. In my absence the path to the school had transformed into sheet ice so the horses are temporarily confined to the yard as there is no way to safely get a horse out, let alone ones that will no doubt be a tad fresh.

The first part of the month was dedicated to shovelling snow, chipping ice, carting water buckets and steaming hay. With the indoor school fully accessible after a lot of shovelling and salt scattered the horses’ exercise programme wasn’t disrupted even though the yard work took up a lot more time than normal. With all the extra physical jobs required to get the day to day tasks completed my personal fitness hasn’t needed much extra work!

The first outing for 2010 was to the BSJA at SNEC. Not knowing how busy it was likely to be after the snow I didn’t arrive too late to find that there was still ages to go before my classes. Uno did the 1.05 open and Newcomers, with Rod and Tom also in the Newcomers after we decided not to hang around waiting for the bigger classes but as the horses hadn’t been out for a while height wasn’t really an issue. Uno was wild in the first class and stopped at the water tray, insisting it was going to eat him and he had never seem one before- he seems to have forgotten he is an eventer who jumps over much scarier obstacles so cross country schooling may be interesting this spring! He behaved much better in the next class (jumping the water tray without batting an eye in both rounds!) and finished third. Rod jumped a good clear in the first round but I didn’t give him the best ride in the jump off so he had a couple down. Tom had a shaky start as he again reacted badly to the loud music in the collecting ring, luckily it got turned down otherwise he was exiting the arena. He jumped well and won the class before having to leave the prize giving as it was far too exiting- at 18 he really should know better.

The following weekend the same three plus Zak and Newt went to the first arena event at Howe. Zak and Newt were in the intro and pre novice, while the others were in the novice and open. Zak found the collecting ring quite challenging but jumped a good round in the showjumping before going very green on the cross country section. He found the water tray terrifying even though he had jumped one the previous day and also earlier in the week- this one was different! He went better in the pre novice so some progress was made. Newt did the opposite, he went well in the intro with one pole down but thought he would take charge in the pre novice as he considered himself to be quite the expert having already been round. A few more poles ended up on the ground but his enthusiasm is encouraging as he used to be somewhat lacking in boldness. Uno was much calmer this week but we had some steering issues so no placings. Tom was enjoying himself in the novice but he tapped two poles out through not quite paying enough attention, he redeemed himself by winning the open with a better performance. Rod only had one pole down between the two classes which is something of a record for him and he came away with a third and a sixth.

There were no outings for training or hacking due to the weather but hopefully we will be able to get going soon. Jay eventually managed to get to the vet for a leg scan which went perfectly so she has started jumping again and should be out competing shortly.

With the season fast approaching, preparation stepped up a notch this month. Outings, planned for every weekend, were all successful, quite surprising as the aim is only to school them round.

Jay, Rod and Uno went to their first dressage show of the year at SNEC to do some novice and elementary classes. This was Jay’s first time out since June but she behaved far better than she can do and won her novice and came third in the elementary. Rod did not feel his usual self but was fourth in both his elementaries. He had been very spooky the previous day when snow had been melting off the roof so seemed to have tweaked something during his acrobatics. Uno had a mixed day, warming up well for his first class before being so naughty I had to retire in the test and do a bit of schooling before leaving the arena. He came back out for his second test as if nothing had happened and went beautifully to come second behind Jay- quite what goes on in his head at times, I’m not sure, but progress is being made.

The next outing was the second arena event at Howe with five horses. Jay was having her first jump in public and she was entered after behaving in the collecting ring the previous weekend. Tom, Uno, Newt and Zak were also in attendance. Zak’s performance was much improved from the last event and he jumped round confidently without remotely bothering about the monsters he had seen the last time. Newt also went enthusiastically and managed to get a 6th placing. Uno had a couple of ‘moments’ where brain and body weren’t working together but a change of bit helped a lot and he proved that had also come on since the previous event. Tom enjoyed himself again to win the open and Jay had a good day to pick up a third and a fifth.

The next arena event at Ingliston had the added complication of a dressage phase so only the older horses went. Jay and Uno did the novice and were joined in the open by Tom and Rod. Their tests ranged from very good to very wild! Jay led the novice but was a bit too fresh in the open. Uno was settled for the novice then could have done with a further two days to have performed as well in the open! Tom turned in an acceptable performance and Rod was decidedly fresh, nearly bucking me off. All jumped well with three double clears and four placings. Jay won the novice and was 6th in the open, Tom was third and Rod was 4th in the open so a pretty good day in the end.

I had been asked to ‘guinea pig’ Tom at the BHS coaching conference on cross country riding with Eric Smiley at SNEC. Despite not being too keen on having an audience, he performed well and thoroughly enjoyed himself (no dressage required!). I intended to use this as a warm up outing for the first Sportjumping competition the following weekend but this was postponed due to Gleneagles being under an impossible amount of snow. Yet again we escaped the snow at home but the surrounding area had quite a few inches.

The lorry was away for a week to get its final set up for the season ahead (heating will be a huge plus in March!) so I was able to do more teaching and get stuck in to my UKCC Level 3 portfolio. Having the benefit of an indoor school in this weather has meant that lessons are pretty much guaranteed to go ahead so I have been fairly busy.
Newt has been doing his best to get himself another sicknote after being in consistent work for four months which is a record for him. On the wettest, windiest day we have had for a while he managed to remove his rug in the field so came in rather chilly. This didn’t have the desired effect so he repeated the performance the next day! Despite his best efforts he is still in work.

The horses are all looking well after such a hard winter, I feel this is due to having their diets assessed at the end of the season by my feed company as even the unclipped ones have a good shine on their coats. They also had the first of their bi-annual dental checks by David Brown of Equi-Dent, all behaved well except Jay who needed a repeat visit to be done under sedation. This is where a co-operative back up team is a weight off my mind as that afternoon we had the vet, dentist and physio in working together on different horses.

Lincoln entries have gone in and been accepted. Witton is the other event in March – weather permitting!