Thursday 11 April 2013

[Monthly Review] March 2013

Apologies for the late post! March ended up flying by and now I need to try and remember what happened!

The month began with a trip back to Houghton Hall for their Winter Dressage Championship which you can read about here. After this, it was clear that his canter showed problems so the saddler was booked, unfortunately the earliest we could get fitted in was early April. 

With this being said, I didn't school Pea much as I didn't want to bore him with constantly just walking and trotting and also I was a bit paranoid that if there was something serious with his saddle I didn't want to then risk damaging his back so we stuck to simple hacking. Even hacking was clear there was a problem with him cantering as he would hardly canter out hacking which is rather unlike him, so I stuck to trying to keep him fit by walking and trotting. He has been going to nicely and being rather well behaved that it's such a lovely change. He's always happy to go out hacking, despite going two or three times a week where as in the past he would get argumentative if we hacked too often. 

As a change I decided to brave it and take Pea out on the roads, through the village with a friend. I was slightly apprehensive as Pea can be slightly spooky and also a bit funny about walking on the road but he was a true star. He never batted an eye at anything that went past, even the bus! In fact, it wasn't until we were coming back down the drive to the yard that he decided to spook at a bit of snowball that was roughly the size of a football! Silly horse! I have begun to realise that Pea is often better behaved out in new situations such a shows and out hacking out somewhere new! 

April has started off well. I have had Pea's saddle sorted so it now fits, and although at first his canter was still awful, after talks with my Instructor we believe it could be the cold weather causing him to be tense and therefore finding it hard to canter. This week, with the warmer weather I have found this to be true as he has eagerly cantered, and more than 5 strides! This means that my plans for this month are to get him to comfortably canter around the arena and circles. I hope to take him out to a dressage competition at the end of the month before heading off for second round Trailblazers in May.

Thanks for reading!
Laura & Pea x


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