How to Excel At Being Average

Your Horse Live - Part 3 We survived.  Stella started the weekend as a UXB and ended it very glad to be back home with her buddies!  She was an absolute star every time we dragged her our of her stable, and coped admirably with the 'circus' in the final day's warm-up Tory and I were so proud of her and so grateful to Alison Kenward for the opportunity to play there.  If we have proved to only one audience member that anyone can do dressage to music then it was all worthwhile I am not sure I would do it again.  It cost us a fortune, Tory and I had to take holidays from work, and it was so so stressful for humans and horses alike.   However, it was a baptism by fire for Stella who has had a relatively quiet calm life up until now - and she stepped up to and beyond the mark doing everything asked of her (except standing still!).  What a legend We were very proud to be given the opportunity to represent Equestriman.co.uk too.  Amazingly comfy breeches whi

Saturday, 9th November continued... The walk up to the arena and the go round was much quieter today which Stella appreciated.    The arena had been opened on time so the ponies from the rescue village had their go round in-hand, and when they went back to their beds we went in.    Stella was very good, relaxed and quiet so Tory gave her half an hour of mostly walk which was a victory (she much prefers to trot everywhere) and left.   The stable walk round skipped us.    The lucky attendees saw the amazing Valegro, the People’s Horse Art, and had a good chat with the Ben Atkinson team about their training methods.    So we went shopping.    There is so much here and lots of very interesting people to talk to so if you’re horsey you can’t get bored between the lectures, the demos, the interviews and the shopping. We quickly tracked down our quadrille teamies, and Equestriman Simon, then went to lunch with Alison and her Mum, and two lovely ladies who Alison coaches up in Yorkshire. 

Thursday, 7th November 2019.   Tory and I have been invited to support coach Alison Kenward at her dressage to music demonstration at this year’s Your Horse Live event. We are packing mountains of food (human and equine), drink, clothes, tack, safety kit and of course our super smart Equestriman breeches, gilets and base layers into the Horsebox and the camper van we have hired for the weekend. We are both nervous. Me extra nervous because we found out too late that the horses needed to have been vaccinated within 6 months and Beau is due next week.    So we are only taking Stella who I have ridden 3 times! We have agreed to share the riding so we both get to push ourselves out of our comfort zones, and get to have a lesson a day in the live coaching session.  We are also excited. Since we didn’t do quadrille this year this is our annual holiday! The camper van has a shower and central heating as well as a room each for Tory and I so we don’t argue over the one bed in the Horseb