To all those who rode out today or schooled outdoors, I salute you! Sorry I can't take my hat off to you due to the 3 point harness! With winds of 65 mph and tree branches blowing across the fields I decided to leave my horses in and gave them both massages instead.The muck arrived at the muck heap well before the wheel barrow and it was hard work all round to stay on my feet when the stable doors were being whipped out of my grip. I am hoping it dies down tonight as I dont fancy the drive down to Crofton Manor tomorrow in gale force winds! Oh for an indoor school!
This time of year I always find my energy and enthusiasm start to fade and everything becomes a bit of a chore. However, with the long dark evenings approaching I have set up the old TV in my boudoir and sorted all my training videos out and intend to spend many hours watching and learning all that I can. If all else fails Reiner Klimke is a cure for my insomnia. He has that deep slow drawl and I find I never get to the second horse before nodding off. I have also bought Stephen Clarkes new DVD on Grand Prix which is great but the volume does not really go high enough to hear him clearly. Years ago before I was a listed judge, a friend of mine dragged me off on a freezing morning to sit in an outdoor school and watch training. It was a judges course and the trainer was from some far off land and spoke with a thick accent which I found hard to understand. In my attempt to keep warm and stop my feet from becoming blocks of ice I was wiggling my feet and seat when he suddenly shouted something at the rider that sounded like,'Shit hard'. I whispered to my friend,'Bloody hell! Is that a new movement?' Needless to say we ended up giggling uncontrollably! The worst thing was he did have on the tightest pair of breeches I have ever seen in my life and my friend was mesmerised by them. Indeed, at lunch she made the comment,'the budgie has escaped his cage,' which I had never heard before. Needless to say I didn't learn a lot about dressage that day! Not that I was that interested then, my heart was still in the show-jumping ring and I missed the quick wit and camaraderie of the riders I mixed with on the circuit. There was Nick, missed again, Turner and Ross the Goss Irvine and Alan Oliver and so many more. I can remember coming off night duty after 7 shifts and loading my two horses up and driving miles to a show, jumping 4 classes driving home and then partying until 4am! Ah for the energy of youth!
Some of the demos I have been on have been brilliant and others not so good but isn't that the same throughout life? How many of us have been taught the wrong thing early in training? or gone down the wrong route with a horse? How would we know that it was wrong until of course we learned otherwise? I watched a video clip today that someone put up of the Baucher system that is supposed to train horses to be light in the hand. I understood the premise but goodness the reins were long and although the horses did improve they were never over the back, quite hollow in fact. The video was made in USA so I'm wondering if this is a new fad or if they have it a bit wrong. Im sure Baucher did not mean to introduce collection before the horses were truly over the back. Anyway I would just like to say, to anyone reading, do not look any further than England for the best trainers. We are infinitely lucky to have some very talented trainers and riders. No longer do we get excited by foreign sounding names and run for the cheque book to sign up for a day of wisdom. Now we can just pop down the road and see fabulous horses and riders at shows or at home.
As we get older, and yes it does happen to all of us, it would be easy to become bitter and cynical. Life does not always work out the way we dreamed it would. If this was so I would be married, a famous show-jumper and have an indoor school! Rather than mourn the fact that we are on a downward slope our mature years should be spent passing on knowledge and wisdom. That is not to say that we shouldn't have a lot of fun too! I was intoduced to a lady a few years ago who has the nickname Granny Gange. Now she is in her later years but boy does she know how to have fun and is always the last to bed and the first up in the morning. I will eventually have to hang up my boots, well from competing anyway, and then I intend to travel to all the international shows across the world and partaay,partaay,partaay!
Not that I don't already of course!!
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