Wow, what a weekend. On Sunday Twizzy, myself and Mum headed off to Rockingham horse trails to compete in the Novice. We had been to walk the course on Saturday morning so we didn’t have to do this on the day, it’s a good job we did as it also gave us chance to find the secretaries tent, which took a lot of finding, and this would be because the tent, was in fact a wooden building!!

We had times which were the middle of our section, so our dressage was 9.18 and then an hour before show jumping and then XC at 11.02, so our times were quiet tight. As Twizzy has been a little bit of a monkey in the dressage Mum decided that she was going to lunge her while I got myself ready. So once we got back from collecting my number bib and walking the show jumping, we got Twizzy tacked and studded up and Mum wondered of to lunge for 10 mins while I got myself ready. She said she was a good girl, bar the snorting to start. Once I was ready and went to find them, and we bought Twizzy back, made her feet look pretty with the fab Silverfeet and went over to the dressage warm up. Well, it was like riding a horse that had already had 20mins of work, she was amazing, really soft and into my hand, and I felt I could ask anything of her and she would just do it. Warming up alongside some of the best riders in the world is very surreal..... !!  I was soon our turn to do our test, and on the whole I was so pleased with it. The odd little spook at the flowers, but nothing like a spook Twizzy can throw, just a little shoulder wiggle. Sadly our judge wasn’t as impressed with our test and we score a 40.5 there was some very odd comments on our sheet, ‘not holding line on a circle’ ‘not centred in medium trot’ ‘hampering’ all things I’m not 100% sure what was meant by these.  But as the test was so much better than Belton & Keysoe Mum and I were both still really pleased.

They are calling for people to come down to SJ, so we got changed quickly and headed on down. I don’t think we saw anyone jump clear, poles were flying everywhere and there was a very people stopping, but the course was not a normal sj course you find at an event, there were dog legs, tight turns and jumping off almost no stride at all. The poor chap before me had 36 sj faults, so I was feeling a little bit sick when we went in. I remember what Tina had told me, to keep kicking and keep coming forward, so off we went. PING, PING, PING, PING, Twizzy was on fire, she flew round the course and didn’t touch a pole for a fab clear round. Mum said it was the best she had seen us jump this year, I couldn’t have been happier.

Again they were calling for people to go down to XC, so we got changed and booted up and off we went, there was only one person in the warm up when we got there, so the chap in charge said we are ready when you are. So that was it. A good cantering round the warm up and pop over the jumps and we were being counted down. I knew I needed to get kicking and keep kicking, so that is just what I did. Twizzy was ace. Before I knew it we were in the middle of the course which is where the trickier of the fences were, a chair to a angled brush which was approached downhill, we didn’t get the best shot at this and I managed to take the flag out with my leg, but we put that behind us and galloped on over the next few fences. She flew over the open ditch towards the drop fence and logs on the top of a hill (like the quarry at Badminton, but smaller) after the drop fence, we skidded a little bit, but once I got my knitting back Twizzy put all her trust back in me, and popped over the logs like a star. She flew through the coffin, and we were nearly home. I kept kicking and she kept galloping and we finished with just 3.2 time faults, our fastest Novice cross country round yet.

We finished just out of the top 10 with 14th and if we had gone a little bit quicker and got home within the time we would have been 6th. 

But on the whole Rockingham was great fun, Twizzy was a star and I didn’t give up. Maybe at Little Downham we will get inside the time, only time will tell.

On Sunday we went to Keysoe for our 3rd event of the season. We have never done the Novice at Keysoe before and we weren’t really sure what expect. We have done the BE100 there before and it’s always an up to height course, and the novice followed suit.

When we arrived we went and walked the course. It was up to height and had a few very tricky fences thrown in for good measure, after all they were holding a NRF as well. The first tricky combination was at fences 6 and 7. A curved palisade, to a left handed corner on 4 forward strides, as they were numbered individually, you could circle and I wasn’t to sure if I was going to, or to keep kicking and go straight. The next tricky fence was the water, although it didn’t walk that bad. A wishing well, followed by a drop into water. A few fences later there was a double of very upright boxes on a left hand bend, these walked massive. The course also had a couple of very skinny beer barrels, which were going to require very positive riding.

After we walked the course we headed back to find Twizzy and get her ready for dressage, as we had a lot of time we threw some tack on and I went for a trot and canter round the warm up before coming back to the trailer and getting all out kit on for our actual test. While we were getting ready we could hear that the cross country course was causing a lot of problems, mainly at that corner combination with a lot of horses nipping out to the left. We still had a lot to do before we could start worrying about the cross country, and off we went to dressage.  Twizzy warmed up really well, she was really forward and giving me an amazing feeling – such a shame it didn’t continue when we were in the arena – grr!!! The less said the better, she was very spooky and not helpful at all down the hedge side of the arena – gutted is not the word, we had our worst dressage score to date of 44.5!! It was a harshly marked section but that really didn’t help matters, but as we have learnt from past events, it really isn’t over until you cross the finish line.

We didn’t have long until it was our turn to SJ. The course seemed to be catching a very few out, with poles falling all over the place. If you happen to follow me on Twitter you will know that I have started having lessons with Tina again, and we have been working on keeping a good forward rhythm in the show jumping, and me not seeing a stride at the last minute and pushing her to it. So with this in mind it was our turn to go, I kept following and Twizzy was pinging, she felt amazing. We were very unlucky to just tap the upright at fence 8 for one down, but she flew the rest of them giving them plenty of air.

Next up was the cross country. I was still a little undecided what I was going to do at the corner. As we were getting ready to do the lady parked next to us had just come back from her round so I asked her how to ride it. She advised me to just pop in over the palisade and then sit quietly and hold the line. With the plan in place we went over to the warm up. There was so many people waiting to warm up, there had been some holds on the course and the fence judges had lost connection with the control team, which must have been down to the rumbling of thunder and hail storm that we had – lovely!! After all the problems had passed it was soon out turn to go. I kept kicking, and kicking and was jumping great. We flew over the first 4 fences really well. We got a little close to the table at 5. But we put that behind us and kept kicking to the tricky fence..... Popped in.....held the line....PING – wooohoooo massive pats for Twizzy and we got kicking over the next two fences before the water.  As bold as brass she flew over the wishing well and into the water with a massive splash. I kept kicking and Twizzy kept answering every question I threw at her. We got a perfect shot at the boxes and she was as honest as you can get at the skinny barrels. We kicked on home to come home with 12.8 time faults the quickest we have been this season so far. I was thrilled, we managed to see a forward stride and I wasn’t having to check to see the stride the whole way round. We finished 16th out of 36 and for once there were people slower XC than us.

Before Rockingham I shall we doing lots of dressage schooling on grass in the spookiest places I can find. This started yesterday, Twizzy was not overly impressed as the field with the markers in happens to be the same one I do my cantering work round, but I did manage to get some good work out of her. I plan on doing this every time I ride her, even if I just run through the test for next weekend. Fingers crossed it helps as I would love to have a top 10 finish next time out.

We had a very busy weekend, which makes a pleasant change to normal.  On Saturday Mark picked Twizzy and I up in the trailer and we went for a hack with Mum and Charlie on their side of the castle, there is so much more cantering their side and we manage to go about 10miles in 1hr30min. This included about a 2mile strong canter for Twizzy and I which has made my legs ache like crazy. The main aim of hacking Mums side was to do a lot more cantering and this was most certainly ticked off.

On Sunday we headed off to Elms Farm at Caythorpe with both Twizzy and Charlie. Mum was doing two prelim tests, 4 & 14, and they were up first.  It was so windy, don’t let the photos trick you; it was blowing a gale up there! They did prelim 4 first and they didn’t do a bad test, it was lacking a little WOW fact, but nothing to be disappointed with, everything happened where is should have done, and Mum managed to hear me the whole way round, which was a bonus.

They had about a 20min wait until their next test, which gave me chance to nip back to get myself ready for my tests, which were 20mins after Mums last test. Twizzy seemed very happy munching hay in the trailer and nodding off to sleep. By the time I had got changed it was back to my test reading duty for p14. This test wasn’t so great, about half way through the canter work on the left rein Charlie got something in his ear, which caused him to stick his head in the air and jump on the spot, Mum stopped him and gave it a bit of a rub and tried to carry on, he did finish the test, but he was a little bit fussy in the head and not 100% happy. We aren’t really sure what it could have been, maybe a fly, or many just a bit of grit or dirt out of the wind.  They ended up with 5th in both tests, I can’t remember what the percentages where, but I think they were both about the 66 mark.

Next up was Twizzy, who I’m sure thought she had just come for a trip out in the trailer to eat hay. We both were using my dressage saddle, so once I was tacked up I chose to warm up as far away from all the chaos that was going on in the warm up near the dressage arenas. We ended up in a 60x40 all to ourselves – BLISS. Twizzy warmed up on, a little bit off the leg, but after a few load bangs from the gate, she woke up a bit and we were off. It was soon our turn, so we headed off to the arenas, as I was doing two tests, Mum said she would read for me so I didn’t get them mixed up. All I can say is it’s a good job I knew them, I couldn’t hear a thing down the far side of the arena and Mum managed to miss a movement out while she was reading as well. I was really pleased with Twizzy there was no spooking and she did everything where I asked her to do it, result, much better than Belton.

We had about 50mins before our next test, so we stood in the indoor out of the wind. When it came to re warming Twizzy up I stayed in the indoor, pure luxury (Id love an indoor) out of the wind and we were the only ones in there, as by this time more people were arriving as they had BD running in the afternoon and the small outdoor arena was getting a little busy. Twizzy was moving amazing in there, flicking her little toes and being so responsive to everything I asked of her.

We went back outside about 5 mins before our test to let our eyes re adjust to the bright sunshine that was out there. Our judge for N34 was the same lady that judge us at Belton, I hoped we could show her just how good we can be, and Twizzy most certainly did, with only one small mistake on our circle where she jumped into canter for one stride the rest was almost foot perfect, her mediums felt amazing and on our sheet she commented on how bold our medium canters were.

We came 3rd in novice 27 with a 66% and 2nd in novice 34 with a massive 70% I was super chuffed with her and felt that I rode her really well. I hope we can produce the same quality of tests at Keysoe on Saturday.

As we are very local to Belton, I’m always one of the first to go. This year we were 5th to go in our section, so not as early as last year. We arrived in plenty of time and got our number collected and went to walk the SJ course. I got on Tizzy a lot earlier than I would normally do as we were ready, and it’s a good job I did, she was being a pain in the bum, she wouldn’t listen and was doing her best impression of a camel! After a good 30mintues I finally got some good work out of her and she was listening to what was being asked. It was soon our go, so off we went down to the dressage arena, I was trotting her round the arena and the judge rang the bell, just before I went down the centre line something upset Twizzy and she got really tense, so I did another circle before I started., The test we had was N110, which has a halt on the way in at X - Well, I stopped Twizzy leapt and started cantering left …..GRR not impressed, I just had to try and stay on the saddle, which I did, and bought her back to X and halted. The test wasn’t great at all, she really wasn’t settled and I have no idea what made her so unhappy. Both canters were late and she struck off on the wrong leg to make things worse. To say the least I was a little cross, apart from my medium work, that was all brilliant, very uphill and off the ground…. Funny that!! I was very pleased to get the test over and the only thing I could do when I came to my final halt was laugh and shake my head - naughty Twizzy.

When we were heading back to the box she was still very unsettled, Mum said to just enjoy the rest of the day and not to worry about what had just happened as I can’t change it now. We headed on to show jumping past all the scary flags and almost flattened Mum a couple of times!! Twizzy was pinging in the warm up and our Show Jumping round started really well, after fence 5 we had to turn right handed to the triple, but Twizzy was heading left, I managed to get her to the triple, but we didn’t really have the best canter in, we over jumped in and just tapped the 2nd part of it to have it down. As we had a little disagreement on direction, I was very cautious of the time allowed so got kicking on round the 2nd half of the course. We had a small striding error at the last, when I saw a long one and Twizzy saw a deep shot, so we had this down as well. Not the best SJ round we have ever done - I was very cross with myself as she really didn’t deserve to have the two down that we did.

It wasn’t long before we had changed tack and were heading off to the Cross Country warm up. Just before it was our turn to go it started to rain. I only had one frame of mind on the course and it was to KICK, I had nothing to lose, today I wasn’t going to be winning on my dressage and SJ. So off we went, we got a really good start to the XC, Twizzy was pinging and I wasn’t doing to bad at seeing a forward stride to the jumps. We flew through the water and over the skinny dog kennels and we were having a great time and 4 fences from home we were well up on time with 1min.30sec to get home in, was I finally getting things together speed wise? No, we glanced off the corner at the very last second and once I managed to get Twizzy stopped to turn her round to try again time ran away with us (she gets scared when she knows she has done wrong and she jumps about on the spot!) I came round to the corner for the 2nd time and she just popped it and then jumped the last few fences to finish.

So Belton wasn’t as successful as we had hoped. Twizzy was a little bit too fresh and I let her down on XC. I hope that it has given me a big kick up the bum I need to not just rely on Twizzy to jump everything clear for me and to just do a sweet dressage test all the time.
We are at Keysoe next followed by Rockingham which are both a little closer together than Oasby and Belton were, we hope this will mean she isn’t as fresh and we get a better result at them both, but only time will tell. We are going to try and get a lesson with Tina before Keysoe to fine tune us up a little bit.

When it rains it pours and when it snows we get gail force winds just to top it off. At this moment in time I cant actually remember what lovely green fields look like, being able to ride in a Tshirt and not falling over on ice or getting stuck in the mud - but surely its nearly April, so things have to improve, right? Our next event is Belton on the 12th April and Twizzy and I havent jumped since Oasby due to the dire weather at the weekends, things have to improve...... come on British weather, sort yourself out!!!

As the weather is starting to become very boring, I thought the best way of cheering myself up was to invest in a new XC base layer, along with a few others from #twittereventing.
 they have been purchsed from the Born and Bread range, which you can see here -www.
Can you see mine? our first outing with it will be Belton - well hopefully.

After finally drying out, and de mudding nearly everything, its time to reflect on our first BE Event of the season, let’s start with stating the obvious, the weather was not in our favour. Twizzy loves fast ground, and would be much happier eventing in a drought rather than a bog, but hats off to all the BEDE team for all their hard work: and their smiling faces even on Sunday afternoon, and the landowners for letting the competition go ahead, as many of us start our 2013 campaigns a little bit muddier than we envisaged.

The dressage warm up has been moved to where the XC start and warm up has been in the past, I’m sure Twizzy thought she was just here for XC, she was like a cat on a hot tin roof as I was walking her round the dressage warm up. As I started warming her up she felt ok, considering the ground, not as forward as I would like to have been riding her but she was tracking up, and her canter did have some jump in it. I tried to warm up at the top of the warm up area which hadn’t seen as many horses on it, which meant it wasn’t as bad as other places in there. It wasn’t long until it was our turn to go, so exercise sheet off and we headed over to our arena. I don’t blame my dressage judge for having her engine running and her window wipers going, because without them she wouldn’t of been able to see, but Twizzy being Twizzy found this the perfect excuse to be a little bit on edge!! I started my test in rising trot, coming down the CL to halt at X, well you would have thought we got stuck in the mud!! Twizzy spotted the horses on the XC at the top end of the field, she stuck her head in air and refused to listen, so I saluted and carried on, as Twizzy felt like she was looking for an excuse I moved off from X in sitting trot – Why? No idea, it felt like the right thing to do. I managed to keep her moving forward a little bit better though the mud, there was a few mistakes in our test, TWICE she cantered when we were meant to be trotting, which of course bought my score down rather a bit as I had 4 for both these moves, but we came away with a 36.5, which I didn’t find out until later on in the day.

Next up was the show jumping. The course seemed to be jumping well and most people were having 1 or 2 down.  I didn’t have too many jumps over the practice fences, but jumped them all a couple of times each. It was soon our turn to go, once in the arena the jumps had been moved to better ground, so cantering round the arena I was able to get a more forward and bigger canter out of Twizzy. We cantered in to the 1st fence and Twizzy felt a little bit backwards, after landing over the 1st fence, I gave her a kick and tap down the shoulder and she jumped round the rest of the course much better, really pinging and giving all of the fences a good clearance. I was really pleased with how she had jump round the show jumping, so off to cross country we went.
Showjumping Pictures

Being nearly one of the last to run XC we really didn’t have the best of the ground at all, the Xc warm up was just mud, and Twizzy was no happy cantering on this, we jumped one warm up jump which was jump, buck, mud, buck, mud, buck so I bought her back to walk and just walked round till it was our turn to go. Not the best warm up in the world, I agree!!

We set off out of the start box and we really were not travelling at all, at this point I was still unaware of what our dressage score was, so I was happy to just get going over the mud and over the jumps in one piece. We had a really bad jump over fence 2, we only went up. On landing I gave Twizzy a kick and headed over to one of the new jumps at 3, we didn’t jump this much better, so on route to the next fence, she had a few smacks down her shoulder and we were going better over the ground. We jumped the next few fences really well and out of a good rhythm, we jumped fence 7 which was a drop hedge out of a good stride and we got kicking on towards the next fence, the ground was really deep, and it was really difficult to find some better ground to run over, Twizzy managed to keep jumping everything that was in front of her, but we weren’t travelling as well as we should have been. I kept kicking and Twizzy kept jumping everything in front of her and we managed to complete the course without jumping faults.

We got a lot of time faults....30.......so yes a lot, which was a little disappointing, but we did get round clear. After a lot of washing off and being towed off, thinking the clutch had gone, but realising we still had the truck in some weird gear, we got home, everyone got de mudded and warmed up and we live to fight another event which will come in the form of Belton on the 12th April.
Cross Country Table Picture
Cross Country Water Pictures

Verdo horse bedding is one of the top searches on my website since my sponsorship deal started with them. As there are lots of forum posts out there, asking which wood pellet bedding in the best value for money, most absorbent, brightest etc, I thought it was about time I gave you all my honest view of the bedding, along with some pictures of the bedding in use and some facts about it.

I have one horse (as I’m sure you know already) Twizzy a 16.3 Belgium Warmblood Mare. I have had her since July 2009. Before starting on Verdo I used to use straw. The difficulties I found with straw were mainly due to my stable not being flat; the urine used to run away under the rubber matting as the straw would not soak it up quick enough – leaving a very potent smell in and around my stable. This was also not overly handy as I muck out before I go to work in the morning and found myself smelling like a stable on far too many occasions!!

Since using Verdo

·         I no longer smell like a stable while I’m sat at my desk – YES!!
·         Mucking out takes me 10mins in the morning
·         Only one trip to the muck heap – I can even muck two horses out with one wheel barrow
·         My stable always smells fresh
·         2 bags of bedding used a week
·         Twizzy hasn’t had Mud Fever as bad this year – the only thing changed is the bedding.

Below you can see some pictures of Twizzy’s Verdo bed before I muck it out, after I have mucked it out and once I have put it back down again.

I have added two different sets of pictures, because some nights she seems to of had a party in there, and other mornings it is very tidy, but as you can see I still only get the same amount of dirt in the morning.

As I said above I use 2 bags of bedding a week in my stable. With one of the bags I empty a bag in to the wheelbarrow and mixing with a bucket of hot water I leave in for 10mins and then I tip it out in to the rest of the bed, by spreading it evenly over the 3 banks. With the other bag I just add the dry pellets, again splitting them between the 3 banks I have. I tend to do this on a Wednesday and then on a Sunday, one bag on these days. I also turn my banks over every other day as I feel this way you can ‘re fluff’ the bed up again and by doing this, you find a whole lot more bedding than you thought was in there.

**TOP TIP**I do have to admit, I do try and catch her having a wee in a bucket when I put her to bed at night, but on the nights where I don’t manage this, there is just another small wet patch in the morning and because Verdo soaks up extremely quickly hardly any bedding is wasted. **TOP TIP**

Twizzy has been on this same bed since June (with the extra 2 bags a week) and as you can see form the pictures, it hasn’t changed in colour, it is still looks bright and clean.

So if you fancy having a go with Verdo Horse Bedding, just drop them an email via their website, or call for a chat.

For the past 4 years we have started the season off at the EMDG ODE, it’s held on the wonderful Osberton Estate near Worksop, for the 2nd year running, Twizzy and I were doing the open, which is an equivalent to a Novice -  with a few 1* fences added to make it more challenging.

My dressage wasn’t till 1.44pm, so we didn’t have to set off to early, Sunday morning plaiting up in the snow and washing those last minute stable stains off was all I had left to do. We set off to Osberton at 11am. There was less snow the closer we got to event, and even the sun made a little bit of an appearance.

When we arrived at the ground we had a quick little chat with Tim Wilkinson before setting off to walk the cross country.  Tim said it was a lot bigger and bolder than it was last year, and he wasn’t joking. The first two fences were nice and inviting, a log to a roll top and then came the first big question at 3, It was the drop to skinny which is normally in the CCI* class, the drop had a log on the top, and it was then 3 good forward strides to the skinny, fence 4 was a drop hedge – forgiving you may think, but it did have a hell of a drop on landing. A couple of fences later was the water, which again featured a 1* fence, a palisade type fence, one stride into the water and then out over a skinny brush. The rest of the course was lovely and really inviting. Towards the end of the course, there was a couple of combinations that could catch a tired horse and jockey out, a double of skinnies on a good 3 forward strides and a slight off set double of skinnies.

Without too much time to dwell on the course we have just walked, it was soon time to get Twizzy out for the dressage. It was so cold warming up, and I think Twizzy thought the same, she wasn’t going as forward as she does at home, but she didn’t spook at the judges car, which is an improvement from previous years. The test could of been a lot more forward and had more power and WOW about it, but it wasn’t to bad for the 1st test on grass this year, even if medium canter was a little on the jolly side. We scored 38.5 for our effort which wasn’t to bad considering.  Without a doubt I need to run though my Oasby test on grass at home before we go to Oasby!

We put Twizzy back in the trailer and changed my bit ready for show jumping, and got Twizzy’s boots changed. We had a quick bite to eat, in the form of homemade blueberry muffins (mmm) before long it was time to head down to the show jumping. It seemed that those going clear jumping were having time faults and those without time faults were having poles down. I watched a couple go, while trying to dodge the over excited horses in the warm up, and got my route planned in my head. Twizzy felt a little tired when I was warming her up, she was jumping everything clear, I just had to kick her a little bit more than normal. It was soon out turn to go, and off we went into the ring, I had a little practice of my turn back to the skinny at 3 on my way round and then off we went. She was pinging. We didn’t touch a pole, and she kept a nice forward canter the whole was round to go clear inside the time.

At the event there was a stand hiring out head cams for £5, because the XC was rather beefy in places Mum thought it would be great to see our round from my point of view, the course was also a long way round and Mum wouldn’t see a lot of it, so we hired one. I got it fitted after SJ, and we headed back to the trailer to get changed. I kept as many layers on as I could, and kept my nice warm bright yellow hunt shirt on for extra warmth.
We headed over to the XC warm up and Mum set out to the other side of fence 4 so she could see the steps and then run to the water. It was soon our turn and off we went. Twizzy was on true Twizzy form, just popping everything that I pointed her at.  Fence 3 felt massive and I got slightly left behind over the skinny at the bottom of the drop, but Twizzy just carried on in true Twizzy fashion, we flew through the water we no problems what so ever, she just pinged out. We flew round the rest of the course without taking many pulls or having any problems at any of the fences. Our next little hiccup came and the double of corners, she twisted in the air over the first one, and there wasn’t a lot of corner to jump at the second one, she was so honest and just jumped what was in front of her, and as the commentary said ‘ It wasn’t very stylish but it was clear’ – you will be able to see this really well when the hat cam video arrives. We flew over the outset skinny’s and over the last to finish with a clear.

We handed back the head cam and went back to the box with Twizzy, she wasn’t even puffing when we got her back, so I’m really pleased with how fit she is. We had a quick look at the head cam footage, which is great, and headed over to the score boards. The course seemed to have caused a few problems, but it seemed like the problems were in the other open section and not mine. We did however  finish on our dressage score for 9th place.

So next stop is Oasby on the 9th and then to Belton, it finally feels like the season is underway.

What a busy weekend, the shampoo was back out, and I had to remind myself how to plait up quickly. New hair nets and gloves were bought, as I’m not sure air con via holes in your gloves looks overly smart at all.

Twizzy has done her best this past month to get as dirty as possible, and with our school resembling  a puddle for most of the time, ridding her hasn’t been a clean task either, so I’ve been very lazy and haven’t been washing her, so yes she was supporting a very dirty tail and black sand stained legs. So on Friday night I was armed and ready with warm water, shampoo, and the mounting block, so I could make her look more grey than beige and I was impressed with how she looked – Twizzy less so!

Saturday we headed off to Laughton Manor to do two dressage tests, we were doing Prelim 14 and Novice 24. There was rather a lot in my first test, but because I was doing two I was near the end. The warm up was quiet busy and Twizzy was really not going forward at all, she was doing her tiny little trot that looks pretty, but really doesn’t go anywhere at all. So after kicking her on forward in canter for a few laps of the warm up on each rein getting her to work over her back, she was finally doing some form of trot that might belong to a 16.3 Warmblood rather than a 12.2 show pony.

Before long it was out turn to go. I had learnt both tests, but a lady offered to read so I took her up on the offer, just to make sure I didn’t get the two mixed up. Twizzy’s test wasn’t too bad; her free walk was poor as normal as she was trying to trot, but all in all, she did everything that I asked her to do when I asked and it was a very obedient test. There were only 3 more after me and then the class was to finish, so we went back to the trailer and mum hung around drinking tea to wait for our sheet. We came 2nd with 71.85% and the winner was on 72% so we were very pleased.

After a 30 min wait and watching the lovely Novice horses warming up, it was our turn to get back in the warm up. She was going much more forward this time, so we did a little bit of medium trot and canter, and just got her moving more forward and listening a little bit more, again I had my test read and off we went down the centre line, Twizzy was being really good, but as I got level with H, there was a loud bang out side the door as we shot off toward X as little bit quicker than we should have done (this was meant to be a 10m loop to X) quickly she came back to be and carried on the rest of the test very sweetly. I was very pleased with our test as I felt she listened to me the whole way through.

We took her back to the trailer and went back inside to watch the last few in my class – they were very posh!! We have a quick look on the board and we had won with 68% even with the 5 for our free style in the middle.

On Sunday we went to an event clinic with Tina Canton. Twizzy and I were the most experience partnership in the group; with a year of Novice under our belts as the rest were BE100 horses. Twizzy was a little star, she jumped everything, but also found everything easy and was skipping, bouncing and squeaking her way round, making everyone smile and comment on how lovely she is.

Next weekend we have our first ODE of the year at the EMDG ODE at Osberton. The weather forecast looks good, so fingers crossed for nice sandy ground to start the season off and no more snow!!!!

Until then its practice, practice and yet more practice.