Grace is mine!

It was my 24th Birthday on Tuesday and what a fantastic birthday it was! My Mum and Dad have bought me a lovely wood burner for the lounge, so I did not expect anything at all. My Dad handed me a brown envelope and inside it was Grace’s passport, a photocopy of the cheque he has sent to Jill and a picture of me riding her. I couldn’t believe it… she is really mine now! It has still not sunk in yet, but every time I think about it I just keep grinning.

The master saddler is coming on Friday to have a look at sorting a saddle out for Grace now I have bought her, so hopefully we will have a saddle that fits her perfectly rather than making do with Hannah’s which is a bit too narrow for her.

We have a lesson with Spencer Wilton on Wednesday, and then with Jo on Sunday morning. It is a shame they are both on the same week, but that is just the way it has fallen. I am also trying to get Grace in at Andrea Johnsons (nee Morris) for some jumping training but she is really busy at the moment so we are just waiting for an opening.

Half halts

Grace and I have been for our third lesson with Jo Graham. I did not think Grace would travel very well because she was quite stressed out loading as there were some horses in the field and others going out on a hack. I loaded her five times until she loaded and unloaded quietly, which seemed to work quite well.

I unloaded her at Croft and she had not sweated up at all. While tacking up and putting her boots on, Grace can sometimes figgit as she knows something is happening, but today she stood still and was relaxed.

Once we got into the school, Grace had a few shies at things but then put her head down and worked. We worked on the full transitions for a while and then Jo started to incorporated half halts into the work, which Grace picked up on quite quickly. Jo thinks she is an intelligent horse, so because of this I have to keep her schooling varied and keep her constantly guessing otherwise she starts pre-empting things you are doing. For example, she was walking around on a long rein, then I picked up the rein and she started trotting. Jo asked me to put her back on a long rein a few times so that she doesn't think shortening the reins means 'go'. Although she did add that it was not a bad thing because she is constantly looking for what you want her to do next!

We had a really good lesson, and Jo said she is a completely different horse than the one she first met. She thinks we are working well together now, and that Grace is a forwards thinking mare that has a lot of potential!

The Spencer Clinic

As usual, we were running a little behind schedule!

As we pulled up to the yard, I had to take Grace off the trailer, tack up, boot up and then go into the indoor arena. I am not sure whether she has ever been in an indoor school, but after the first few spooks she behaved really well. She was a bit stressed because she could hear other horses walking around on the yard outside, so did not relax as much as I had hoped she would, but we still got some nice work out of her.

Spencer felt her topline was not 'spongy' enough, and was too much like an ironing board! So he asked me to take her neck a bit deeper and lower to encourage her to stretch through the topline. This worked quite well, and after a few strops she started to swing through her back and really step under.

However, Spencer felt she struggled through the collection because of something in her right hind. He said it could be because she is weaker on her right side, or there could be an old injury just starting to niggle because of her increased workload. So I am going to keep an eye on it, and am aiming to get her saddle rechecked and a physio out by the end of the month.

I also mentioned that I feel Grace fiddles with the bit and loses the constant contact. Spencer said he does not know any young horses that go well in a cavesson nose band, and he rides all of his youngsters in a loose fitting flash. I also asked about bits as the eggbutt she is in at the moment is not my favourite type. He agreed that a loose ring would be better, but a thicker one than that I had been riding in (16mm). So Grace is now the proud owner of a Sprenger Conrad KK Ultra loose ring snaffle in 18mm!

It has only come this morning so I will try it on Monday when I am next riding her. Hopefully, I will feel a difference as the eggbutt seems to encourage her more onto her forehand and I am tentative asking her to come back up because I know how they can pinch the tongue.

Grace has also destroyed her mirror... I have ordered a new one from a different company as I have had a few issues with the previous one I used, and it should be coming in the next few days. Grace misses her 'friend' and keeps looking at the empty gap, but I have promised her it will be coming back soon!

We have booked our first Preliminary test

Grace and I went for another lesson at Jo Graham’s on Sunday, and had a fantastic lesson. As soon as we entered the arena she knew she had come to work. She was responsive, enthusiastic and looking for the contact immediately.

Jo said we looked like a real partnership rather than fighting each other, and she thought she was a very athletic young lady! However, she noticed that my position had suffered a little through concentrating so much on Grace. So my legs were put back, my chin lifted, and it was a much better picture.

We did quite a few straight sides off the track and loops in from the track to get her moving away from the leg and learning to go in a straight line on her own without me having to hold her on a line.
A gentleman who watched our previous lesson came up to me at the end and said it looked like a completely different rider and horse this week, and said I should be proud of all the work I had put into her.

It is our Spencer clinic tomorrow afternoon… the nerves are starting to jingle a little bit now!

Lessons with Jo Graham

Last week Grace and I went over to Cheshire to have a lesson with the British Dressage trainer, Jo Graham. Grace loaded and travelled very well, she did not sweat up at all and seemed to settle after her initial few shouts as we left the yard.

Andy helped me tack her up, and Jo asked me to come into the school and work in as I did at home. So we worked in long and low, but she was quite tense and spooky (it was very windy, and there were lots of scary things lying around). As I asked for right canter, a lady was turning her horse out in the field next to the school and Grace thought it was all just too exciting and did three huge bucks, the last one unseating me completely and we parted company!

Despite this little ‘mishap’ at the beginning, we went on to have a really good lesson. Jo said I am doing too much and Grace not enough. She relies on me to hold her up, keep her going and to do all the work. We worked on getting her much sharper off the leg and into a more consistent contact. This involved shortening my reins and not using my legs as much, just when she backed off.

Since our lesson we have been working really hard on what Jo had pointed, and it did not take long for me to realise how little work Grace was getting away with. Since following our new ‘routine’ Grace has been sweating up quite a lot after a 45 minutes session, whereas before she would not even be out of breath!

The difference in the way Grace is going is unbelievable. She is coming up in her shoulder now, sitting back on her hocks a little and learning what a half halt means!

We did have a lesson booked for tomorrow, but Grace had a bit of a swollen leg on Thursday morning, was trotting up slightly lame and it was quite hot. So I got the vet out (I’m paranoid about tendons) and discovered she had an infection in her leg which was causing the swelling. I have been cold hosing it twice a day and bandaging it at night, which along with the antibiotics have brought the swelling right down and she is no longer lame.

So we now have the Spencer Wilton clinic to look forwards to on Wednesday…

A Video of Grace (just click on the red cross)

Grace has a new friend!

Grace has become very attached to my other mare, Hannah, who is currently 10 months in foal and ready to pop! Whenever I took Hannah away from her, Grace would go absolutely bananas and scream and scream until she came back. It became worse while I was away. I think this was because her routine had changed and she did not have me to cling to in situations.

I put up with the screaming and running around for as long as I could, but then decided that ignoring her was just not working as well as I had hoped it would. I looked into various options (calmers, toys, licks) and came up with the idea of getting her a stable mirror.

The first time she saw herself she snorted at the mirror and ran to the other side of her stable, but the longer she spent with it the more she liked it. She even went to sleep next to it on the first night! With the mirror she has become much better when Hannah goes, and apart from the occasional relapse when Hannah shouts and she knows she is just around the corner, it seems to be working. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that she keeps improving because in a couple of weeks Hannah will be going out every day without Grace.

Other than the attachment issues, Grace has improved in her schooling too. She is becoming much more consistent in her canter work and it is now easier to get her trot more uphill and her into a more grown up shape. The eggbutt snaffle I put in to help her reach for the contact has now done its job and she has started setting against it when she is having a ‘silly’ moment so I am going to try her in Hannah’s Nueue Schule one (copy of the KK) to help lift her shoulders and to prevent her setting against it. It is also much kinder as it does not have the nutcracker action of the eggbutt.

Up until now I have taken her work quite slowly, but I feel we are at a stage where we need to start increasing her work load and asking a bit more of her. Because of this, I have booked a lesson with the British Dressage trainer Jo Graham, and we are going over to Warrington on Sunday morning. Hopefully she can give Grace and me something to work on over the next few weeks as I would like to get her out to some unaffiliated competitions this spring, and then affiliate her before the summer.

We have also been given a place on the Spencer Wilton clinic at the end of January which I am really looking forwards to as he has a lot of experience with the younger horse and he will know immediately whether she could make the grade I believe she can do.

Until then we will keep working on the things I feel she is weak on and Andy is coming taking some photographs tomorrow afternoon so there are some photos to follow tomorrow.

Rebecca and Grace
xxx

A picture from November... more recent ones to come

Three months on...

I have been a little poor updating my blogs recently as things have been very hectic with Christmas coming up and changing my job… but I promise to update this regularly in future as it would be nice to have something to look back on in the future.

I am actually on holiday at the moment, sunning myself on the beautiful island of Barbados… it is glorious sunshine, white sandy beaches and turquoise water; what more could you want!

Grace has been gradually improving, although we have had a huge milestone to contend with: mud rash! It suddenly flared up and got worse and worse in a very short space of time. The vets kept coming to look, putting her on antibiotics and still it would not go. We finally got a grip on it a few weeks ago and it has been gradually improving, although she had a small relapse this week while I have been away. I called the vet out from here because I know how quickly it can flare up, and they have taken a sample of scab (lovely!) to send to be cultured. If this does not show much up she will have to go into the vets and have a small biopsy of the leg it has affected the most to finally get to the bottom of what is going on!

Apart from her mud rash Grace and I have lots to tell you…

We have been hacking out with a friend of mine on her chestnut Thoroughbred (two gingers together) and so far Grace has behaved very well. She gets a bit worried by bigger vehicles such as coaches, skips and so on, but she tried plunging forwards and as soon as you put the pressure on she will stop and just shake while it goes past. This is just baby behaviour and the more she sees the better she will become.

We have also been doing a lot of work in the school on her balance. When she first came she found it difficult to canter (although not down the field squealing I may add) and her trot was very choppy and wobbly. But behind this you could see she had a natural ability for dressage. So we started from the very beginning once she had been rebacked and have worked our way up.

Grace is now working consistently well in trot and walk and I have started asking her for a more advanced outline which she is finding difficult but is doing with a lot of success. Her left bend is becoming much easier and elastic, but when I had the saddle fitter out she felt that she had a twinge in the right hand side of her back so the physio is booked for Monday morning when I get back!

Before I came away on holiday I was absolutely frantic trying to get organised for Christmas, so I have to admit the number of times rode diminished a little. However, my gorgeous husband said he would come and muck out on Christmas Eve so I could ride Grace one last time before I came away.

The saddle fitter also felt the dressage saddle I have been using is now too wide because Grace has lost a lot of weight and has a lot of muscle now to build up. She tried Hannah’s Albion SLK Ultima on her and it fitted perfectly, it just needed lifting a little at the wither. Until it was being stuffed (the lady was taking it away while I was on holiday) I used a front lifter polypad… What a difference!

Grace has always been on the forehand in the canter and it has been difficult to get her to stretch over her back. However on Christmas Eve she just glided, lifted her back and we were cantering the most beautiful canter. I just could not believe it… I cannot wait to get back and get back on!

I will get Andrew to take some photographs over the next few weeks and show you how much she has changed in the past three months. I look back at the photographs of her when she first came and she now looks like a different horse. She is fit, starting to tone up and looking much finer in her build.

Grace and I were booked in on the Spencer Wilton lessons at Arkenfield this month, but as luck has it they are while I am still away. So I’ll have to wait until next month now which is a shame. I am also planning on getting involved the Northern Dressage Group when I get home as they hold a lot of clinics that would be fantastic for a young horse. We should be looking to do our first few Prelims in the next few months, but I have a feeling she will move up to Novice quite quickly!

Baby steps

Our second week has gone really well. Through our baby steps we have made a lot of progress and Grace’s ability is starting to shine through.

Because I was having difficulty getting Grace to make a true contact at the end of the lunge I asked my instructor to come and give us a few pointers. Andrea felt that Grace was not working up to the bridle properly and did not recognise some of the commands she was being given.

Andrea did lots of transitions with her through vocal commands, which the first time she seemed to be very confused with, especially the ‘stand’ command. Anyway, she came back last night and the difference was fantastic. Grace had really got her head around what we were asking of her, and worked in a better contact and more consistently.

Andrea left us with our homework so that was where we started tonight: lots of transitions with the voice, but when she trotted she had to work through the bridle not above it.

Everything was going really well, so I felt it was a good time to get on. My husband, Andy, stood by her head holding the lunge line as I got on and then followed us when I asked her to walk on (with my voice and with my leg). Gradually, Andy moved away and then I just knew it was time for us to go it alone.

Andy unclipped Grace and walked away. Grace continued to listen to my voice all the way around the school, and even though it was windy and the panels of the school were rattling, she continued to listen. We even had a trot on each rein before doing a few transitions.

I am hoping to gradually reduce the amount of time Grace is on the lunge and increase the time she spends being ridden. But tonight she did not put a foot wrong, and I feel as though we are really working as a team now!

Sorry for the quality of the photographs, the battery on the camera was going and it was just starting to go dark.

Day Three

Grace has settled extremely well and today has been the best day yet. At first she was quite stressed in the field, galloping about all day and not being accepted into the mares’ herd. It did not help that she has come in season, so spent all day tarting at the boys over the hedge.

Her second day in the field was much better. Although she was still being chased away, she started getting a little closer to the mares. I have been lunging her every day she has behaved really well. In fact, she was so good on Monday that I decided to jump on for a few minutes. There were a few bucking fits, but apart from that she was really quite good. I realise this was probably a bit soon, but I was just so excited. For the next few days I will only lunge her in her tack, get her fitness up before I get on again.

Today was the third day at Newhouse and she just keeps improving. She was much more settled in the field and was great to catch and have her feet trimmed in the afternoon. This good behaviour carried on to tonight…

We had a beauty session! Her mane is much shorter and although she started being a bit awkward about it, she soon realised that it wasn’t as bad as she thought and if she ate her net she couldn’t feel it as much. It needs tidying up a bit more, but I thought she had put up with enough so will have another go tomorrow.

Another first for her was having the clippers run over her body. They were just some mini clippers but they make quite a lot of noise with the blade guard on. I have to admit I did expect a decent sort of reaction, but Grace did not bat an eyelid. She turned to look at the clippers and then carried on eating her net. I ran them all over her, including her face and ears and she was brilliant!

We are ready for clipping on Saturday and we are getting to know each other through every experience.

She is home!

We went to pick Grace up today. She travelled really well despite the fact we had very bad traffic caused by several accidents on the M6. It took us around two and a half hours to get home, and although she had sweated up, I think a lot of that was because she is a little woolly bear at the moment.

I got her to the yard and she did a lot of shouting. She unloaded well, but because she had been a bit unsure of the trailer at Jill’s (it can take them some time to get used to the way they have to turn) I remembered something Richard Maxwell said to me: “When you get to a show, you need to reload them so that they know that is what is expected of them when they are somewhere different.” So I reloaded her and she went straight in and turned even though she was in a new place, with a new person and new horses cantering over to see what was going on.

When she went in her new stable, she had a snort and a sniff, but was soon munching on her haylage. She was frightened of her automatic water feeder, so I went to try a bucket because I was a bit worried she was tucking up a little. She dipped her nose in the bucket but then went as dunked it in the water feeder!

After I left, I got a text message from a fellow livery saying Grace was whinnying like mad when I left… poor little girl. But at least she likes me!

I am going to nip back and check on her in a while, just to make sure she is ok.

Fingers crossed that this is the beginning of a lovely relationship between the two of us!

Pictures from when we went to see her...

As I first got on her:

Let me introduce you to Grace

Grace is a five years old 17hh Warmblood x French Thoroughbred chestnut mare who I have decided to take on loan while Hannah is in foal and has the foal at foot.

After a lot of discussions with my Dad, we decided that I did have the time for another horse. I wanted one I could bring on again, but I did not want an unbacked horse as I admit that I do not have enough knowledge to start from the very beginning.

I was looking for a horse on loan, but there were so many horses for sale that my Dad and I agreed that maybe we were going to have to buy a youngster and sell it in after twelve months. However, my Dad was worried that I would get too attached and not want to sell it when the time came. He knows me far too well!

I tried to keep an open mind when trawling the adverts on Horse Quest, Horse Mart and Horse Deals, but I was shocked at how expensive some youngsters were. There were a few that I thought would be suitable and emailed quite a few people regarding their horses. Someone had mentioned a website called Project Horses, but I was a little dubious when I first went on as a lot of the ones advertised had issues that I know out yard owner would not appreciate (weaving, cribbing etc etc). I also had to think that I would be selling this horse on…

As I was going down the 16.1hh – 17.1hh section I noticed a nice chestnut mare that was up for sale or loan. The horse sounded quite nice and from the picture I thought that she would look quite stunning with some muscle tone and extra condition. I emailed the lady who was selling her and received an email back explaining that the owner would consider loaning Grace if the person was suitable.

I arranged to go and meet Jill that Friday with my friend Sue Williams and my mother-in-law Carol. As soon as we turned into the yard I saw a very pretty chestnut looking at me from the field who looked vaguely familiar.

I could not believe how different Grace looked to the picture on the internet. She looked beautiful in real life and I was immediately smitten! Jill brought her in and left me to have a play with her in the stable while she made us a cup of tea (after a very desperate toilet visit I may add!). She was extremely good having her feet lifted while she was eating her net and did not mind being fussed at all.

When Jill first asked me whether I wanted to ride Grace I have to admit I was a little wary. After all, she had been broken twelve months ago and only sat on a few times since then. I decided to see how it went, so asked for her to be lunged for a while first. She was a little lazy on the lunge, but once she had cantered her trot really started to show and the potential in her started to shine!

I just knew I had to get on, so I walked her around on the lunge for a few minutes and then was set free, so to speak. Walking her around I could feel that she understood my aids when I asked, and even though she had not been sat on much, I have to admit I felt quite safe on her.

So, Grace will be coming to live with me on 8th October and I cannot wait! I have already been out and bought her a bridle, grooming kit, bandages, feed buckets and a few other small things too.

This Blog will keep a record of our progress together and hopefully show what a great horse she will turn out to be!