Thank you 2015

Affinity Bay has ended 2015 with three regional qualifications for next year at advanced medium and PSG level...this winter Finn and Merri will be training for the High Profile shows at the start of 2016 at PSG/inter 1 level.

The start of a new year is a great opportunity to say a huge thank you to owners, sponsors family and friends for their continue support throughout 2015. 

Qualifications.....

Affinity Bay has some new PSG music put together by Judy Firmston-Williams. We made quick floor plan that incorporates canter pirouettes, four and three time changes on a curve, half pass in trot and canter and shoulder in.

 The floor plan plays to Finn's strengths and I really enjoyed riding it at Wellington Equestrian Centre. 

The test to plan and Finn was really well behaved. We finished in 4th place and have qualified for the Winter Regionals!

Finn finished his advanced medium qualification at Oldencraig with two wins on 70 & 72%. 

Training

This week I had two very good lessons with Judy Harvey.

My first lesson was on my brothers event horse, Drumbeat. He is a 17.3hh Bay gelding aged 8 and a total gentle giant.

In the lesson we worked mainly on straightness, self carriage and suppleness. Drum has a really good attitude to his work and was a pleasure to ride.

My next lesson was on Merri who was brilliantly behaved. We had beautiful sunshine and Judy had us doing changes (4's-1's), half pass and canter pirouette work. Both lesson were really great and we are very lucky to have a clinic so local to us. 

training video

I have recently been busy teaching for the local Riding Club as well as doing private lessons and clinics. Its lovely to teach such a variety of different horses and riders at excellent facilities. 

As the weather gets colder I am now looking for some really effective winter gear.....perhaps one of the heated jackets.....brrr!!

13/9/15

  As the leaves fall off the trees and Autumn starts to draw in it is with deep sadness that I write that on Sunday 13th September  we lost our dearly beloved horse,  Louis. 

Thank you Louis for the memories that we will always cherish, the experiences we shared together and the competitions we contested. Our competition  highlight together was Houghton International CCI* and a double clear round at our first Open Intermediate Under 21.  

   Louis was abundant in his enthusiasm for life, he was always smiling. Every morning he was bright eyed and excited at the prospect of being worked- when you emerged from the tack room with his kit his ears were pricked, eyes wide and he would have one leg wavering in eagerness.

   Louis loved human and equine company. He was very gentle and would take a polo from between your lips on command....he really was a special horse. His best friend was Drumbeat who he enjoyed field antics with. They loved scratching and rolling...and their favourite tipple was eating the new shoots of grass which were growing slowly where we had just re seeded round the gate area...yumyum!

I would like to thank Louis' owner Felicity Norrie. Thank you Felicity and Rob for letting me ride The Bear, your support over the years has given us so many happy memories adventuring around the country competing.

 

Thank you Jonathan Chapman for all your jump training and support and Ian Woodhead for dressage training. Louis was working on his tempi changes and canter pirouettes only a few weeks previous.

   I would also like to thank our Sponsors Blue Chip Feed, Equilibrium Products and Lisa Sparrowhawk. Louis was in peak condition thanks to Blue Chip and Equilibrium ensured he was always the best dressed/booted horse.

   Bear had many supporters and is in the hearts of many- Thank you all for your kind messages- I can only say that he passed away painlessly doing what he loved and will be cherished in the hearts of so many people forever. 

Thank you Louis for being the horse of a lifetime, you taught me so much and I wish we could all express your joy and enthusiasm for life as freely as you did. 

. 

Its that time of year....

Its that time of year again.... British Dressage Summer Regionals!

Affinity Bay (owned by Felicity Norrie) competed at Addington Summer Regional Championships in the Advanced Medium Open and Prix St George classes. As always Addington had very large competitive classes with a great atmosphere. We arrived Monday mid afternoon and stabled over night. Finn was very happy with his stable and made some great friends next door...although it is always painful to watch your horse who has been having regular physio treatment and been primed for the event literally climbing the walls with giraffe neck to communicate with the horse over the wall...
Finn's first test was the PSG on Monday evening....we arrived with plenty of time and I decided to take Finn for a leg stretch then put him away for a few hours before getting on again to warm up for the test.
Finn warmed up very well, producing relaxed half pass, changes and pirouettes in the canter and his trot felt great.
He started his test really well, he scored good marks from most of the judges for his extensions, half pass, eight meter circles and shoulder in and was mainly on 7's and 8's for all of these movements.
His extended walk was good and relaxed with large but correct walk pirouettes. The canter was rather excitable which meant a costly mistake at the end of the four time changes and one unbalanced pirouette as well as an 'exuberant!' extended canter. Over all Finn did a good job and scored 65% which placed him middle of the class. We have lots to work on but there is so much that has improved over the last year. Onwards and upwards!

The advanced medium test was blip free to score 67%. The trot work was more conservative than the day before but you cant have the expression and a safe test (yet!). I was really pleased with Finn's changes which have become so secure and he was really with me in the canter work.
He was very pleased with himself- and was rewarded with copious amounts of Polo's!! He finished just outside the rosettes in 11th place.

At Last!
Louis and I had been entered for Aston Le Walls for months....and we got to compete! Our first British Eventing Novice since Louis injury earlier in the season.
Aston has changed so much since I last attended. The course has many new elements, combinations and the ground was perfect. The shopping village was impressive, with live music, many food choices (I opted for a pizza from a funky red pizza van with stone bake ovens) and the atmoshere wasn't dampened by the constant light rain. I considered myself lucky to only have light rain as usually it is a given that when I go eventing the heavens open and the rain pours down.....
Louis did a good dressage test to score a low 24 penalties, the show jumping was good apart from a silly rider error through a combination. I dithered and in hindsight I should have just pushed on for a long stride! Other than one blip in the show jumping the rest of the round was good  and Louis cantered side ways down to the start box for cross country. He gave me a brilliant ride and finished with  a clear round ! We had a few hazardous moments on course.... which were caused by flocks of ducks! Louis just charged strait towards them with me wailing as I didn't want to run them over! We nearly had squashed duck when they were perched on the steps I was rapidly approaching to jump down! Luckily they scattered just in the nick of time.

Show jumping

Louis had the best Saturday morning in a while....Show Jump training!

My brother (Bonar) and I had a show jump lesson with Jonathan Chapman at Green End farm which is approximately a 30 second hack across the road from home.

We started walking a 15meter square making sure we made quarter pirouette turns at each corner, we then reduced this 10meters.

We then did the same thing in trot and then tight square turns to first a cross pole, then an upright and then a spread. Each time focussing on making sure the canter was collected, bouncy and the horse was in self carriage. Both Drum and Louis were making fantastic bascule shape over the jumps.

Below is a short clip of how we finished the exercise..... Louis (aka Tigger) loved it!

Louis

July 2015

The last few weeks of July have been packed with training, teaching and getting organised for next month!

Louis and I had a break through training session with Ian Woodhead. Louis is a top event horse but when it comes to dressage physically it all doesn't come so easily to him. However over the past year with the right training and Louis' endless enthusiasm to learn we have made great progress! In our last lesson we were working on canter pirouettes, tempi changes and asked the question.....

Can an eventer work towards piaffe and passage!? Hopefully in a few months we will know the answer!

Finn and Daya have been training with Judy Harvey at a local yard that we can hack to. Daya has proved she can produce every variation of a change (and some really excellent ones!) but we continue to work towards consistancy. Daya's trot has really come on recently and she is now finding the lateral work much easier. Finn was working on similar aspects in the trot as well as tempi changes and Judy pushes us to improve the canter pirouettes. They are still a little large but we had our best one to date to the right in our lesson.

I had a busy few days teaching at Pony Club camp. I was in charge of a fantastic group of children ages 6-10 as well as a set of twin four year olds!

OBH North really know how to make instructors want to teach at camp next year.... Each day we were served the most fabulous lunches with deserts and cakes that would have trumped those baked in the Great British Bake-Off. We were really spoiled! 

Finn visited camp on show day to perform a dressage to music demo. The children really enjoyed it and Affinity Bay certainly did!  He revelled in the applause, pats, 'ooos' and ' arrs & polos.

Teaching at camp teleported me back to not so many years ago when I attended....I was the type of child that prepared weeks in advance....colour coding my grooming kit, lead rope, buckets and haynets (all in purple of course). 

Camp was a great experience and I would definitely like to teach again next year!

I have also started teaching the dressage for Breakspeare Riding Club, doing clinic a few times a month. We have a good variety of horses which always makes teaching interesting and enjoyable. 

Louis has been entered for his next British Event (we are not telling him) and fingers crossed the lead up is all good this time.

Finn is going for a pre regional outing to Windmill farm at the start of August then competing at the Regionals on the 10th and 11th of August. I am going to Keysoe Regionals this weekend to support a client so looking forward to feeling that regional atmosphere! 

Short video of Daya & Finn training....

http://youtu.be/WYtbvPKjwmM 

Reflecting on the Nationals.....

  

  Now the horses are qualified for the Dressage Regionals and Louis next event is in a few weeks there is some time to reflect back on the British Dressage Nationals....

I qualified four horses, Daya, Finn, Bing and Louis all for the Advanced Medium Restricted Class, Bing and Daya for the Advanced Medium Music and Bing also qualified for the Meidum Open and Medium Open Music. 

It was a very busy Nationals and I was very relieved to have such a big efficient team who took care of the horses wonderfully- Thank you.

In the lead up to the Nationals I worked with Lisa Sparrowhawk who gave me performance coaching. I have been working with Lisa since the start of the year which helped me focus at the Regionals in February where I had to ride 10 different tests on four different horses. 

With the Nationals fast approaching it was time for a meeting with Lisa....I was very set on the outcome I wanted and was stressed as there was so many variables and things that could go wrong having four horses in one class with forty minutes between each test. Lisa helped me understand that when you purely focus on the end result what often happens is your internal dialogue and unconscious mind focus on not achieving the result/outcome you are looking for....the effect of this is that your performance suffers. So we shifted my mindset and focussed on all the small details that would result in an overall good performance. We mapped out each small step and stage of the competition and then used some visualisation techniques so I could get in 'The Zone' easily...after doing this I was filled with calm and felt positive going to the Nationals. Between each test I made sure I refocussed using visualisation techniques before getting on and starting to warm up the next horse. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and felt so lucky to have four fantastic horses at the Nationals and I couldn't have wished for a better result.

Daya Won on 69.56%

Affinity Bay was 2nd on 68.55%

Urbanus was 7th on 66.52%

Eventing and Pony Club demo.....

  Louis started the event season in April at Hambelden International Horse Trials.....
He scored a 32.5 dressage and had a few poles in the show jumping but gave me a fantastic clear cross country.

Louis XC at Hambelden International

 Louis had a lot of time of last season due to a knee injury he got while eventing so we made sure that before we started eventing this season we went cross country schooling with Jonathan Chapman too blow away the cobwebs. We have been training at Milton Keynes, Parwood, Attington Stud and more recently Tweseldown with Jonathan whose expertise really helps when tackling the trickier combinations. We focus on making sure that the horse is jumping independently and the rider isn't interfering to much as it's very important cross country that the horse takes responsibility for the jump as there are no poles to be knocked down! The rider has to make sure the horse has a good approach and the canter has enough energy and not see a stride and hold the horse back/push too much. Everything has to be in a good quality canter with rhythm.
Our second British Event was Chilham Castle. I had never been before but last year my brother went on his event horse DrumBeat and loved it. I was not disappointed! The course was up to height, technical, up and down hills, utterly beautiful and very well maintained.
We arrived 15 minutes before the dressage thanks to an enormous amount of traffic on the M25...luckily we had many hands to brush, tack up and stud up so within 5 minutes we were trotting over the grassy estate to find the dressage arenas. Louis excelled himself and did a lovely test to score 16.5 penalties! He then jumped a great clear show jumping and flew clear round the cross country! Louis was on top form and I was looking forward to our next event Aston Le Walls....
Unfortunately Louis got a splint on his right fore so he had too have a month off work but touch wood we are out again in a few weeks

Louis XC at Chilham Castle

                                                     

  The area 12 Pony Club Dressage Regionals have just taken place at Middle Grove farm hosted by the OBH Chilterns and Louis and I were asked to do a test to start the competition and get the Judges 'eye in'. As I was warming up I was having flash backs to 2012 when we got a wildcard to the Pony Club Nationals after our area test featured some freestyle movements and we ended up 4th. Louis then went on to win the PC Open Nationals overall and it is an achievement I will never forget. I had been to the Nationals many times but it had never all come together in one test on the day...until 2012. I was so proud of Louis for keeping his cool in a 20x40 grass arena....perhaps after his semi final test in the morning and his dressage to music test (where he somewhat disgraced himself)  he had given into the fact that we really had travelled to Cheshire JUST for dressage and no cross country was on the cards. When we left Cheshire we felt like bank robbers with all the prizes we received- the Pony Club really knows how to celebrate!
Our demo test at the areas this year went really well (other than an excitable walk). Louis scored
 9's for his free walk, leg yields and circles. The OBH Chilterns were very kind and gave me a voucher for my favourite shop Classic Dressage....I'm sure I wont have any difficulty spending it! Thank you!

cheesy music hiding some of the mothers commentary!

Training....

  Since the horses success at the  British Dressage Winter National Championships at the end of April they have all had some down time. Over the past month we have been cracking on with qualifying for the British Dressage summer regionals at Advanced Medium level and Prix St George. 
Daya qualified for the regionals at Bury Farm and Windmill Farm for the Advanced Medium class on scores of 69.07%, 68.10% and 67.89%.
Affinity Bay has qualified for the PSG and the Advanced  Medium regionals. He competed at Patchetts Equestrian centre and Windmill Farm and scored 68.81%, 67.94 % and 66.9%.

  Both Daya and Finn were lucky enough to  have training with Stephen Clarke recently.  Stephen is a very effective trainer and with both horses we focused mainly on  reactions from the leg and half halt which improved the quality of the trot and canter. It sounds basic but it made a huge difference  to all of the lateral work.
Finn was working on his tempi changes and canter pirouettes which are coming along nicely. We even did a few lines of one time changes.

We have also been training with Judy Harvey and Daya has been working on changes, half pass and creating more gears within the trot.

Finn and Merri have competed at Wellington, Keysoe and Addington Premier Leagues this season. Finn produced a fantastic fluent test at Addington. I was particularly  pleased with his tempi changes and the trot work.
Merri also had some good results with her best test at Wellington PL scoring 68.03%. We have also been out and completed an Inter I at Bury Farm. Merri was perfectly behaved and we got our best marks for the trickier movements such as the canter zig zag with changes and the two and three time changes. The trot work was good, we had to do shoulder in on the center line then 8m circle to half pass. Merri is very talented and athletic, she gave me a lovely ride.

We are now training towards the summer regionals in August with Finn and Daya.

 short vid of Daya training with Judy Harvey

Finn training with Stephen Clarke