Schoolmaster Fun.

I have had a lot of fun this week riding Dillan owned by Sabrina Jones FBHS. I really enjoyed my lessons and it was great to find purpose in my riding again. Dillan not only looked after me he did exactly what I asked and this made me giggle as sometimes I hadn't intended to ask for wiggly lines just a canter transition ... Once I relaxed and focused on feel and stopped being intimidated by riding such a superstar I had a wonderful time. Thank you Dillan for helping me get my confidence back ( thank you to Sebastian too who nursed me through my first enjoyable canter since my falls earlier in the year ) and thank you to Sabrina for understanding what I needed to do to find joy in riding again.

Good News from Jack HQ!

We now know what Jack is allergic to- midges, dust mites and stable flies. Three things I cannot eradicate from his environment!! Jack will now have a course of immunotherapy to calm down his system. Even better news the spots on his back and tummy have gone so he is coming back into work. He is also behaving much better whilst being walked in hand. I am very relieved as I was getting a bit fed up with him standing on two legs and being a diva... Ginty and Jack are very attached to each other at the moment which poses a problem in terms of doing anything where they lose site of each other. In the end yesterday I walked both of them in hand together. Felt like I was back working on a polo yard. I am looking forward to Grace coming to stay for a short holiday so that I won't have to keep borrowing Arista and Dillan to act as substitute friend every time I want to exercise one of the divas :) .

2009 CTR Rider Representatives

Team mates Alison Kenward and Jen Englishby have been shortlisted for the CTR 2009 Rider Representatives scheme. Please vote for the duo who are in different sections. See CTR issue 201 for more details.

Eagle eye readers will note that Alison's profile mentions that Alison is a voluntary committee member. Alison would like to make it clear that she stood down from the Aspley Guise committee last October. Alison's original application mentions that she HAD been a committee member and Alison would like to apologise to the current committee for the misunderstanding.

Great Day at BETA with RB Equestrain

I managed to escape from the snow yesterday and enjoyed a day at the BETA International Trade fair with RB Equestrian. I met up with several people I knew and enjoyed learning about whats new for 2009/10.

I was intrigued by the Racewood stand where they were demonstrating a dressage simulator together with interactive rider position assessment and virtual dressage test riding. I really wanted to have a go so maybe I will book a lesson at one of the BHS centres in my area.

The Fashion Show provided some light entertainment and I enjoyed viewing the new clothing collections as well as the new seasons rugs of course!

I came home and gathered my thoughts for a freestyle meeting with John and Joanna. We had a long agenda and by 1am I was feeling a little sleepy. We are all feeling very positive about freestyle dressage and looking forward to the clinics and demos in 2009. I'll admit to a lie in this morning and I was very pleased when I checked my messages and found that RB had WON Retailer of the Year. Fantastic and very well deserved!