October Round Up

Where to start with summarising October!?

Well... The month started with a fantastic day out at a local dressage competition. Louie is a cheeky chappy, so just going and having a relaxing day was all we were aiming for. We got so much more and came home with a rosette for 2nd place in a huge class of 21!

Read all about it in our previous post: Louie Pulls It Out The Bag!!

Mid October, we had a good (but challenging) lesson with Cathy Burrell. We decided to pick back up on the canter work...Louie had other ideas and clearly thought it was far to much like hardwork, throwing caution to the wind and bucking his way round for the next 10 minutes! After that, he settled into a nice canter, albeit a bit tense.

Pleased to be back onboard

Two happy, smiling faces...

First time back onboard in two weeks, after a kick to his knee in the field

One Year On...

A year today, my big, beautiful bay Thomas was put to sleep, following the discovery of a large tumour wrapped around his colon during colic surgery. It was very sudden. I was away with work in Greece at the time, and coming home was one of the longest flights - it felt like I was flying to the moon and back...

Together, after completing our first BE100, safe and sound.

A Week of Box Rest

Unfortunately, Louie came in with a rather large front offside knee last Thursday, with fluid and swelling all around the joint, lame and a cut on the inside of it.

From Thursday to Sunday...

Tip Top with TopSpec

I've always been a fan of TopSpec products, not just because of their product range, but also their feed & nutritional advice is fantastic. Not only do they listen to the needs and requirements of your horse (& you) to make their recommendation, they also aren't wholly biased to just their products... This shows that for them, it's not just about selling to you.

I've been really impressed with how well Louie has done on a basic diet, with standard grazing and good haylage. In the 9 months that I've had Louie, I feel he has developed well, with a combination of a good exercise regime & well balanced diet.

Part 1: Our Journey So Far

As Louie & I have now been together for 9 months, I thought I would start introducing a post every couple of months to better diarise our progress. So this is part one!

Let's start at the beginning... I first met Louie on New Year's Eve morning, down near Yarm, North Yorkshire. In the day or so leading up to going to see him I was convinced that he was too small and would be too thick set/too much bone (& he was grey!)

Arriving on the yard, which all looked very professional - very tidy, I walked over to see Louie, who was stood happily tied in the yard under the heat lamps. Instantly, I loved the look of him!!

FaceTime with Louie!

A nice surprise to have a FaceTime with Louie in the office this morning! :)

Louie Pulls It Out of the Bag!!

Another dressage update from us this week as we headed off to the dressage on Sunday.

Alarm set at 6am (much to Andrew's displeasure! & even I had a grumble about it...) This isn't an early start, but has now become one for us since no longer eventing throughout the summer. Heading to the yard to feed, have a quick brush, load up the wagon, and get going.

Times were 9.06am and 9.52am - great times given to us by the organisers at Lane Farm Equestrian!!

I much prefer arriving with plenty of time to spare (without being sat around bored for hours before!) so we arrived just after 8am, with a rather jolly looking Louie - fixated on all the horses running around in the fields next to the car park (I think I know where he would have rather been!)

Louie taking everything in during our first warm up

I collected my number, and headed to the horse box to get changed. Leaving Louie in the horsebox with our partition open, off came his magnetic boots, bandages, tail guard and rug. I always go tacked up still, as it's much easier and makes for a relaxed time when we arrive.