Last blog for a few days as I am off to cheer on the British team in Rotterdam. This is a little gift to me from my recently departed horse Pikeur. I will celebrate his 7 years of life with me and silently thank him for all the education he gave me. I will also ask his forgiveness for going down the wrong path in trying to make him better. Still miss you every day handsome! One last ride is all I wish for but I will have to wait until we meet again on the Rainbow Bridge.
I travelled to Worcester today to see my old friends Fiona Walker and Sam Twyman. Actually they are married but Fiona goes by her maiden name still as she is a famous writer. I mention this because if anyone likes a racy, exciting novel with an equestrian interest then her books will satisfy most people. Sam has set up a riding school with a difference using Spanish and Friesian horses to teach his clients on. Some are stallions and all are highly trained and even do the GP movements. They are heart breakingly beautiful and intelligent and any artist would be happy to sit and paint them all day long. It was while I was treating a few horses that I pondered on the future of dressage. With children as young as 6 learning to ride on the bit, an admireable feat, and more people from suburbia learning to ride as a sport, will the ponies of the past be abandoned? Health and safety spoils all the fun these days but does this mean that children will never play cowboys and indians bareback in the fields again? Reading a comment from a lady who rides in the city really brought home how ignorant some people are about the countryside. I do not mean this in anyway disrespectful. We were discussing riding around the stubble fields when she asked, 'whats' stubble?' I found this sad and wanted to invite her and her horse to come and experience the joys of ridng across vast plains of freshly cut wheat and barley. This reminds me of another incidence when I was working in Germany. My boss frequently popped his head around the door of the barn and announced that he was off for a few days. The first time a few days was 2 weeks and I was left in sole charge of 8 showjumpers whos' lives consisted of stable, horse walker, indoor school and little else. We had a large forest behind the yard so I decided that they should all hack whilst the boss was away. Amazingly they all hacked out on the bit and not one was naughty! None of them could gallop, collected canter yes, medium canter yes but gallop no. Now in those days I was braver and more adventurous so my aim was to teach them all to have fun! We jumped park benches and picnick tables, trotted and cantered in and out of the tannenbaums and went up and down dale. By the end of 2 weeks they were fitter than they had ever been and so was the forest ranger who frequently tried to catch me to tell me off! Anyway the boss returned and we set off for a show in Neu Stad Wied up in the mountains. Birgitte accompanied us as help for me and company. She was a lovely girl and a good friend. Birgitte loved dressage and could sit really deep and do some amazing dressage stuff, as I called it then. On the first day Dieter, (AKA Boss), sent us off hacking to warm up the horses. Little did he know that they had been do just that for 2 weeks. We took the trail up the side of the mountain and chatted away as friends do when Birgitte asked what time the first horse was on. I suddenly realised we had been gone ages and if we turned around it would take longer to get back. The quickest way was straight down through the pines which was steep but negotiable. 'Right,' I said.'follow me!' It was really steep, so much so that the horses sat down on their hocks and all I could hear was poor Birgitte sobbing that I was mad, she was going to die and should she turn the horse side on!! Well you know what its like when someone else is terrified, you get the giggles dont you! I have never laughed so much in my life! Here was a fantastic rider and yet she could not negotiate the side of a mountain on a carpet of pine needles! We arrived safely at the bottom and in plenty of time for the warm up. Mind I had to buy Birgitte a schnapps in the bar to help her recover! But thats what I mean when I ask about the children having fun with their ponies and the future generations, not only of dressage riders but all disciplines.
Health and safety and parents, please don't ban cowboys and indians, or chase me charlie or bareback jumping! Ponies should be a childs best friend and best friends have fun!
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