This blog post aims to let people know how things are progressing on the yard at home, at competitions and how reflecting on training/outcomes has helped me improve.
With the weather starting to change, I have had 3 year old Greenhays Blueberry (aka Blueberry) and yearling Greenhays Saint Ramiro (aka Ronnie) at home (details in horse section). They have taken well to being stabled when necessary, and relaxed into a routine with the working horses very quickly. I have enjoyed making the most of longer days to work the horses before the clocks change later this week; this led to several young horses being clipped at 8pm. I found this a great way to relax with the horses and extend the trust in our relationships; all of the horses enjoyed the experience and look even smarter as a result.
Our 3 mares and foals have remained out in the field, enjoying the autumnal sun. They showed their inquisitive nature when visited by Chloe Pope Equine Photography, who took some lovely photos shown below.
Super Nova has continued to lead the yard on the competition front, showing her versatility by winning her first 2 medium tests with 68+%. 2 days before this she was placed in her British Showjumpimg class – I look forward to jumping her first 1.30m next time out. She has become very rideable and having overcome a virus earlier in the summer certainly has her spark back now! This weekend I felt the benefit of the training we have done during lockdown (teaching myself using mirrors in the arena) as I retained my position to become champion at the British Dressage Youth Inter-County with the highest score and highest average of the weekend. I was awarde 94.4% for my riding on the first day and 95.4% on the second day.
Greenhays Eclipse (aka Eric), a homebred 4 year old gelding enjoyed the privilege of joining Nova at the Advanced Apprentiship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) training day last week. It was his second outing away from home, and first time at a competition venue. We were all proud of how well he took to being at a stange place 2 hours away from home at GW Equine, happily jumping around a course of fillers. Like any young horse, patience and thoroughness with establishing good foundations is starting to show, allowing his natural ability to show.
Reflecting on the 3 most important things for progressing along my equestrian journey in recent months:
1) Mirrors. I have been able to continue progressing during lockdown without coaching due to the direct feedback provided by mirrors. It is easy to look at the mirrors to reflect on how the horse feels compared to how it looks; making it easy to correct straightness, balance and positioning for myself and the horse. Not only does this enable me to make quick real time adjustments to improve my day to day training, it also enables me to consider how things will feel when I do not have the luxury of mirrors at a competition. I now feel confident in my ability to make minor adjustments to perfect my horse’s way of going and perform at the best of our ability.
2) Reflect and perfect. Having had consistently exceptional results with Super Nova last year, my competitive self was starting to search for what I was doing wrong to be getting mostly ‘good’ results with few ‘exceptional’ results having progressed will during lockdown this year. Many would settle for good results, but I know that I am lucky to have produced a young horse who is talented and trainable enough to consistently lead from the start at competitions. I am hugely motivated and determined to help us perform at the best of our abilities. 11th/65 at Keysoe International is a good example, even good results can be used to improve future outcomes. Rather than overthink and not make the necessary adjustments to improve, I now choose three things I would like to improve at each competition – 1 primary and 2 secondary points. Making sure that I also take note and recognise things that my horse and I did well. This has already been a successful strategy; Nova coped incredibly well with the international arena and challenging weather conditions at Keysoe but I needed to change my warm up routine to ensure she remained in front of my leg and remained connected when entering the test. I did not create drastic change, that was not necessary, but small adjustments to the end of my warm-up routine considering our previous weaknesses were successful when winning 2 Medium tests at a British Dressage competition 2 weeks after Keysoe. Earning 68.46% in Nova’s first Medium helped reinforce that our training at home has been effective. This was followed by our win at the Inter-County where she did 2 more lovely tests and proved that we can be consistently ‘excellent’ rather than consistently ‘good’.
3) Learning from experience and the experienced. My equestrian career thus far has been focused on developing training and yard habits through personal learning; monitoring how the horses respond to changes in different variables and my way of riding. Being accepted onto the Advanced Apprentiship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) programme and having the opportunity to attend my first training day certainly reinforced the importance of having the support and guidance of experienced professionals. I really enjoy learning, and look forward to being able to implement an equestrian outlook that combines the skills of others into a united effective strategy for training and managing a competition yard.
Lots of new videos on my YouTube channel – https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCoWn3QH5e2eCuNgFabhpcGA/videos
Alexa x