It felt like not a lot had happened since the last blog, as Eventing Western Australia enjoyed a 6 week hiatus from eventing and lots of families went on holidays, while the rest were enjoying WEG from the comfort of their computer screens. However, I soon realised that it has been about 2 months since my last blog and I am running terribly late! Where did the time go!?
After enjoying a lot of WEG footage, I packed up all my things and two horses and drove the gooseneck over to Yalambi Farm Stud in Margaret River for some intensive schooling with Rory Hovell – one of my favourite coaches in WA who has recently returned from Europe.
My home away from home at Yalambi
Using it as a good preparation for the upcoming Alcoa CIC***, we worked mainly on getting Murph in front of my leg. Being a hot horse, it is easy to stop riding from the leg and I am terribly guilty of giving the hand to go forward. I was also taken back to the basics, and had forgotten how good it is to not only count strides, but just count the rhythm in general. Exercises like counting 1 – 20 in walk and going from medium to collected to medium, all the while still counting away, and then continuing in trot, really helped me learn to feel when he was behind me.
From there I headed straight to the event held on the Alcoa farmlands in Pinjarra. A little worried I still had a lot to work on, and still learning the feel, I was quite nervous. I think having had 6 weeks away from it all didn’t help! But Murph put in a good test, just a few mistakes, and some tension but still managed 2nd place. By Sunday the rain set in, and it was clear we were going to stay wet all day. A clear showjump round that started out amazing but slowly crept back to old habits had us move into 1st place. I was hesitant about XC, with the rain and the going, but Ewan Kellett had been working hard to provide an amazing new track and I was dying to get out there and have a go! A good but slow run, and almost going swimming in the water jump, saw us just hold onto 1st place!
Alcoa CIC*** jumping my own sponsored fence! (lucky that one didn’t come down)
After that event I was lucky enough to get into a lesson with Equestrian Australia’s dressage coach Gareth Hughes. We used the afternoon to run through a test, have it critiqued and then have a lesson the following day. I was happy enough with how the test went, it wasn’t amazing but was n’t bad either - but boy was I not ready for the wealth of knowledge I would gain the following day! Since I had been working on getting Murph in front of the leg, now it was time to include some suppling exercises, and Gareth got me using his knowledge of movements to help with positionings that would encourage him to use his ribcage and not get tight. It becomes a whole different story if I go into too much detail, but I have to say I am in awe, and it was so great to get feedback on what to do with your warmup at a competition as well as training at home.
Working on the walk with Gareth Hughes
And finally, earlier in the year I put my hand up to coach at a week-long school holiday riding camp known as Mobrup. The time came to head down there, I took two horses with me to keep working (and left some for Mum!) and was informed I would have 2 groups of 10 twice a day. To start with I was stressing a bit, ‘what do I do with 10 kids?!’, ‘how can I keep everyone entertained so that whips don’t become the main diet of 12yr olds?’ Well luckily, I knew most of one group, and so I thought why not teach them what I am learning. Sure they are learning younger than I did, and on horses that may not have a clue what they mean, but it was worth having a go.
My ‘big’ kids group at Mobrup (note the parents photo bombing in the background!)
Surprisingly I found myself reaching the eve of the last day at Mobrup a bit sad to be going home. I had been blessed with a great bunch of kids eager to learn, with parents just as eager to gain more knowledge. What did I teach that many kids you ask? I passed on something I learnt from Lucinda Green – the ELBOW. E for Engine, L for Line, B for Balance and OW if you get the above wrong! We spent Monday working on Engines, using exercises from Jon Pitts on controlling our seat bones to influence the horse. Tuesday was Lines, doing angles and curves and S bends and Wednesday was Balance, lots of 2-point trotting, no stirrups, one handed riding etc. Thankfully no one had any major OW’s!
It’s tradition at Mobrup to wear your PJ’s for the last lesson – Alexa Bell does it in style, in an Eeyore Onesie!
Now that I have returned home I head to the Swan River CIC and then back to Yalambi for some more intensive training before making the trip across the Nullarbor to the Australian International Three Day…
Murph sneaking in midday nap at Yalambi
