How to Excel At Being Average

The Team Quest and BRC Quadrille results are in… Aaaaaand breeeeathe!  Team Quest Regionals and Quadrille are now over for this season.  Just BD Veterans and BD Draught Horse Champs to get through before I can start worrying about Christmas instead.  I need to decide whether to clip the furball before, between, or after these two competitions.  Before and between, I risk making a mess of it.  After and I risk him looking like a hairy yak again like last winter… Team Quest Regional Championships We did it!  We went to Championships and we did not disgrace ourselves.  Beau was aptly described afterwards as having been a ‘perky pony’ in the test, which wasn’t his greatest timing!  He went beautifully in the warm up, but I was out too early and let him stretch after twenty minutes.  When I came to pick him up again he objected – he was quite happy stretching thanks – so we had some tension in the test.   Also, the preparation phase may have been hindered by me setting my stirrups

September 2016 – My brain only has room for Quadrille and Team Quest It’s interesting how much I am learning just from the act of writing this blog every month.  Its effects run wider too:  Several people have told me that they are keeping a record of what they have achieved and setting goals for themselves, inspired by the blog.  Not that this blog is super-inspirational – it’s more that the act of keeping a record reminds us that although we may feel like things are just the same, actually we have moved on, improved, learned, and are hopefully now just that little bit better than we were for the sake of our horses Thank you Mollichaff for helping me, and everyone else inspired by what we’ve been up to, to be better riders and have more fun! Side saddle I have been focussing on making the costumes for quadrille, so haven’t got round to making myself a habit yet.  But – I did get a smart navy cutaway jacket off eBay

August 2016 - Hot hot hot It’s lovely to be able to write about how hot July was!  There were a few days mid-month when Beau was sweating in the field, so I just made sure the water was topped up and left him to it.  He owes me nothing and would not have thanked me for s schooling session in 38 degrees.  One day I did decide to bathe him and cool him down a little – it’s the only bath he has not strongly objected to Side saddle We have done a little practise, though not as much as I’d have liked because I seem to be trying to learn how to do everything all at the same time.  We did go for an early morning hack at the height of the heatwave, so I chose to go wonky as there would be few cyclists and little traffic on the roads should I experience wobbles or loss of steering.  Actually, that particular day a large cycling event was advertised on the internet, with the route going past the end of Mrs Whipcracker’s drive so w

March’s weather proved challenging for us in the wilds of Northants.  The mud was becoming unbearable, but perhaps more so the cattle shed muckings out in the nearby farmyard.  So we moved both horses to our dear friend and neighbour’s yard down the road.  (The humans can close the window…) They now have grass and more space, and my sister Tory keeps her horse there too so we can all play ponies together – perfect.  I am unbearably excited about the approaching Spring and Summer now – it seems as though opportunities for improvement are everywhere – not least because the boys’ new landlady is Mrs Motivator and doesn’t let me get away with the old stock excuses of ‘it’s raining’, or ‘he’s too lively to ride today (very rare)’!  I intend to grab eac h advancement and build on it as much as I can  Progress? I had another lesson with Jonathan Canty just before the Cherwell Valley RC dressage competition on March 26th, and we practised strategies for improving my inconsistent contact