Been a while...

First of all sorry it's been a while since my last post. Weve been having a quieter month this month here at CTD.
Lots of clipping, Mud & rain have been the order of the day.

It's given me time to get job's done, i have been writing a few reviews for Pegasus Health, we've used there products here at CTD for a while so it fitted for us to help them with reviewing products.

Not only that but Pegasus Health are a lovely company to deal with, they understand what we need for our Equine friends & supply top quality supplements at great prices, there own brand products are the higest quality products we have come across & is why we use them. Plus there customer service & delivery is fantastic so we at CTD are more than happy to help review products.

Why not have a look yourself -

http://www.pegasushealth.com/

http://www.facebook.com/PegasusHealth

My most recent review is for Pegasus Healths Nature Bute. You can view the review & have a look at this marvelous product here. We use this daily for all our horses & couldnt be without it.

http://www.pegasushealth.com/product/boswellia-serrata

The next review i will be doing is on No Moody No have a read below.

 Murphy our 27yo TB was diagnosed with Cushings a few years back, He didn't look like a Cushinoid horse & my vets really didn't think he was suffering cushings, but I stuck to my guns & got the test done.

Test confirmed Cushings & he was immediately put on Prascend. He started on 1/2 a tablet & progressed up to 1 tablet a day. We luckily didn't suffer any of the side effects that many do when put on this drug. Murphy also didn't have a hugely high ACTH was recorded in the 40's but he did have a lot of issue's Lammi, & Ataxia.

After we completed the 6 weeks on Prascend he was tested again & he had come down to 32. He looked better & obviously felt better but our management was strict no grass as it seemed to trigger him into Lammi.

Due to the cushings he suffered Ataxia it's something we will never get rid of but it varies in its effect. At his worst stage he could hardly get through a stable door & at his best you would never know he suffered Ataxia he's never gone back to his worse stage & can happily canter round roll, buck & leap. In fact he is harder to handle than my 2yo as Murphy truly believes he has a right to be naughty lol & at his age I'm not arguing (mainly because he would probably flatten me ;-) )

By January of the next year he did start to go downhill again, he was suffering LGL (low grade Laminitis) the vets decided to up the prascend to 1.5 tablets a day.

Once again he picked up quickly, however on testing he was 31. He has since been tested twice more & he never goes lower than 31.

We decided after to talking to Mark from Pegasus Health to try NO MOODY NO which is Vitex Agnus-Castus (chasteberry). This is renowned for helping cushinoid horses, mare's seasons & OTT Geldings.

We decided to start Murphy on this alongside his Prascend, he has now been on it 2 weeks. No Moody No is a very strong Tincture so only 10 mls is fed daily at Maintenance rate & only 20mls is needed for up to the first 10 days this depends on the horse though, but compared to other brands this is a very cost effective product & it is much stronger than other's on the market one of the reasons I desperately wanted to try it after speaking to Mark (Pegasus Health).

Murphy cannot taste it at all which again is a huge bonus.

After the 1st week of being on No Moody No we noticed he seemed more lively & brighter in his eye. But this is a rolling review, we plan on having Murphys ACTH test again at the beginning of December. Normally he has gone up in his ACTH result at this time of year. So i will be very interested to see this result.

  

I'm hoping through using No Moody No we will be able to stave off having to up the Prascend for longer.

We also started are 2yo Filly on No Moody No as she does suffer with mood swings, she has also been on it 2weeks & we are seeing differences in the fact that she seems much calmer in herself. She's lovely natured anyway but can get a bit bossy with the geldings over the fence line, since going on No Moody No this has calmed right down.

Keep checking back to see how we progress with No Moody No.

 

http://www.pegasushealth.com/product/No_Moody_No

On other news,
Everyone else here at CTD is doing well, Galante is ready to go out at Elementary & Troy is more than ready for Adv Medium. We hope to get this Adv Med done soon so i can get my first one over & done with & the nerves that go with this :)


We will be kicking off again next month starting with the chase for summer qualifications for both horses, this is if we all havent had to retreat to an ARC by then :0

I do hope all who are reading this are not suffering to badly with this awful weather, my heart goes out to those who are. Keep safe everyone.

Road Trips, Petplans & New Friends...

First of all i don’t have great history over the years with the Petplan Area's in fact every time I’ve been or tried to go it’s culminated in a disaster of some sort.

I did previously enter Galante for the Petplans at Kingswood, when 2 days after i had entered he came down with a cough & strange sneezing thing. I tried everything to sort him but reluctantly withdrew & lost all my entry fees. :(

A few days after withdrawing we realised that the cough & sneezing was due to the swallows that had hatched in his stable he was standing inhaling there "Fecal Matter" basically eeeewwww.

So we set about with operation Vent lol which entailed putting a big vent in the stable right under the swallows. The next day cough & sneezing had vanished. Typical, so thanks to the swallows i lost a lot of money & my boy lad had suffered.

I had decided not to bother trying for any more Area's then stupidly decided last minute ( well with a few days to go to entry close) to go to Arena UK for the Novice Open. Bit of a drive for us which was 185 mile round trip, but hey what’s a tanks of fuel:eek:

Day came & my usual groom my wonderful Mum had come down with not only a severely bad back but terrible sickness. Thankfully just as a friend had stepped in my Dad decided to come, he hasn’t been to a show with me in probably over 20 years & I wasn’t sure if I would cope with him tbh. But Thankfully he is also a human satnav so i knew with him as co-pilot i would at the very least get to Arena UK.

Got there & wasn’t let down by Arena Uk's facilitys it was everything the photo's promised huge arena's loads of parking just space galore. I had a quick walk round & asked people who were all very friendly where to go. It felt very relaxed & i was happy that i had made the decision to enter at this venue.

Warmup was huge, once in there a friendly face appeared & asked if i was so & so to which i replied yes & then i recognised the person. I had known them online for years but we had never met in RL. So that was lovely i went on to meet a few more people which was great.

G warmed up super & was mega relaxed we didn’t even book in for the w-up class as i knew we would never get there in time. So it was just the AF test for us considering he’s never seen flower pots I wasn’t sure what he would do.

So onto the test he went into the arena fine a little lookey at the descrete flower pots but nothing rememberable.

We where then greeted by the judge at C who had now jumped out of his box. Without even a smile we got barked that “he hadn’t got a bell so could we enter NOW”.

 I was a little taken aback by the judges tone especially as we where a few mins early for our allotted time. However I politely replied with a smile “of course thank you” so we started G got a little tense at points & was a bit worried going down the first c-line that the Judge was going to jump out again, so feeling he was about to spook big time I made the turn a little early but nothing serious, he did a lovely sweet test tbh.

 Transitions especially the canter /trot where ropey. The walk also wasn’t great but we hit every marker & i was pleased with the test overall he felt super at points. I Don’t think I could of asked for more, he is super sensitive horse & not only reacts to every aid he also picks up on your mood. He can go very inward at shows which results in a behind the leg horse it due to his lack of confidence, but he didn’t this time he stayed forward so huge achievement.

Unfortunately due to the distance & the ridiculously slow scores I ended up having to leave the Area's without knowing my score. Which if I’m honest i was very disappointed about. BUT thanks to my friend who lives near by I got my score just after I had got home she very kindly text me. It turned out we had managed a respectable 64.19% & 13th place out of the 32 starters there were some super horses in the Novice Open so my baby Spanish didn’t do bad at all. Super pleased.

Here's a few piccy's thanks to the Human Satnav aka Dad for taking them:D

We still dont have our Petplan Sheets so im yet to find out what the judges thought :(

Now where almost coming into November all of us at CT dressage will be taking things a little more quietly for at least a month. I dont have holidays so i think now would be a good time for a few weeks off, horses will just do hacking.

December we hope to come out & start our mission  to complete summer qualifications for both horses.

September the month of 1st's

September has been a memorable month at CT Dressage, not only did our 2yo filly win at the BHHS champs, we've also had Castle Troy out.

 I'm still very over protective about Troy since his return to work & competition. For those who are only just reading for the first time in 2010 Castle Troy had a field injury & managed to severely damage his Impar Ligament & DDFT. Prognosis was extremely poor, however we never gave up hope & researched as much as we could.
After a few weeks of receiving the MRI results i decided that the best course of action would be to try to rehabilitate him Barefoot here at home. TBH i didn't have many options so the shoes came off. It wasn't a miracle cure but it certainly changed things from the off. Within a few weeks the lameness had changed as was no where near as severe. But it still took from September 2010 - April 2011 for him to come completely sound.
His management was strict he was turned out in a small electrified pen, but he did spend 4 months on box rest with controlled walking in hand.  He continued his rest in the field pen, with the in hand walking for a further 6 months, until the day i sat on him & did the walking under saddle.
To say it has been a journey is probably the biggest understatement of the century, but he did come sound & has gone on from working Medium to now working PSG. I truely believe that taking him barefoot has been the best thing we could of done for this injury, he is moving so much better than before the injury happened he feels strong.

But all the above is why i feel the need not to over compete or train him as I'm desperate for him to stay sound & enjoy life (which he does immensely he Love's his work & was the most deprest horse Ive ever seen when he was lame).

With the above in mind i did decide we had a play & took him to Eland Lodge to do 2 Mediums, M63 & M71.
He has always been a spooky horse so i was expecting some dramatics especially at Eland as he has a history of it there. But i got nothing he was a sweet as a lamb, warmed up fantastic & then did a super test. I could of rode it a bit more boldly but i did really enjoy myself, my centre lines weren't perfect at points but again i enjoyed it.

We had a bit of a wait for M71 & Troy was getting tired he did feel like he had put a lot into the previous test so i decided to do a short w-up & go in. He was behind the leg in this test but because he had gone so fab in the first one i backed off & let him tootle round. The 2nd test was OK but far from brilliant.

On the way out back to the truck we went via the score board, only to find we had won the restricted section of M63 with 65.5%. THRILLED.
I guesses a score of 62% for M71 & wasn't far wrong as we came in 3rd with 62.6%, not a bad score considering.
We had a fab day & Troy proved how far he has come, I'm still not going to push him though but i do hope to make an Adv Med debut soon.

Now onto our lovely Spanish boy Galante, he is now back up & running since his run in with the swallows. He's just getting better & so much more powerful. One major change we have made on the recommendation of our trainer was to change him into a Micklem Bridle & a Hanging cheek snaffle. The effect is quite dramatic as he's come up even more in front & has gone light in the hand whilst feeling like he's coming through from behind much quicker & easier.

 We went training with him on the 26/9 & started work on travers, Half pass & simple changes. He's such a smart boy but so sensitive when ever he comes above the contact it's always because I've overdone an aid. So he is effectively making me have to be a better rider to be able to get the best out of him.
From a rider/trainer point of view it's wonderful to have 2 very different horses to train, Troy is like an Old shoe & knows me so well but can at the same time venture behind the leg. Ive always called him my lazy, sharp boy.
Galante on the other hand is very forward & super sensitive. He makes me have to plan every aid & respond in a very forgiving way my seat is the ultimate aid for him yet to heavy & i completely ruin it.

We managed to get some vid of his training, they are poor quality as there mobile phone video's i haven't edited them apart from adding music so you can all see for yourselves my faults & his sensitivity. But on the whole we got a lot of of the training session. Remember this boy is only rising 6yo.

Hope you enjoyed reading & watching as ever there is more to come so keep checking back.

Long w-ends, trophies, tantrum & Bedding...

Right where do i start, August was a very busy month for Galante & Troy. Training wise both horses have steped up a gear.
Troy is now working very easily toward PSG at home, he is easily breezing through canter pirouettes & changes. We have now also done some Tempi changes, it's all very exciting. Im also sure more exciting news will be on the way but atm we are keeping a lid on it. So all i can say is check back often to see if we spill the beans.

Galante made it out to 2 shows as well as training in august & completed his Novice open petplan qualification with sheets to spare.
We where all ready to compete at the Kingswood Petplans on the 6th & 8th of September however a few days after i put our entry in he came down with a dry cough & sneezing. The vet advised us that it could be a virus but it more probably was an allergy to something due to the speed at which it came on & no other symptoms.
So cue all of us here at CT dressage doing much head scratching to try to find what could possibly be causing it.

Despite using Propell Plus, Protexin recover aid & winergy Ventilate he was still suffering. So the decision was made to withdraw from the Petplans & give him a few weeks off.

We finally realised that his cough & sneezing coincided with some swallows hatching in his stable, unfortunately where he likes to stand in his stable was right below the swallows new nest & there mess was falling down the stable wall right in front of his nose.

We decided the best cause of action would be to create another vent in his stable at this point so yesterday we set about doing this. Please note no Swallows where upset or harmed by us doing this stable alteration, in fact they watched & im sure where shouting orders at us.

Galante has already had a week off due to this allergic response & today i was greeted by a bright & bouncing Galante. He well & truly told me he was feeling better & so far not a single sneeze or cough has been heard, however I'm still glad we have withdrawn as i need to make sure he's 110% well. But im very glad our stable alteration has worked for him, But it does indeed point to the swallows being the problem.

 We have been inundated with Swallows this year they have had a bumper year, so even though they are lovely i will be quite pleased to have them pack there familys up & go on there long journey to africa.

So now on to Our huge news :) 

We attended the British Hanoverian annual Championship show on the 1st & 2nd of September 2012 at Moulton College with our 2yo British Hanoverian filly Fabiosa.
We competed in the 2yo filly class on the Sunday & we won!!!

Eavie aka Fabiosa was also awarded the highly regarded 1A award from the German judges, they really liked her & said she had a lovely active hind leg, good limbs & a very good frame for a mare. The only comment that was down was she had a slightly flat croup, well we can live with that lol.

The tantrums came when Eavie decided she was not going to wear her in hand bridle & she through her toys out the pram.

 We have handled Eavie & prepared her extremely well for the up coming tasks that this show was going to present. But unfortunately she did find the atmosphere overwhelming, even to us her Human counterparts we found the atmosphere a little bit crazy.

   To top the day off she then also decided that she wouldn't load. Again this is the filly that literally runs up the lorry ramp normally.
It really does just show how different atmospheres can take you by surprise no matter how much prep you put in.
However saying all the above she really did put her best foot forward in the ring & literally showed herself off to the maximum to our relief.

Needless to say even though we encountered problems, we are absolutely made up with our 1A awarded filly!!

We now have a job on our hands as she can go forward for the Elite mare candidate award, which includes a stud book inspection & a mare performance test. It is going to be quite difficult to achieve for a first timer as even the proffesional studs struggle, however we are going to give it our best shot as Eavie is certainly a worthy candidate as 1A's are not handed out easlily.

Now onto something completely different bedding!!

 We have tried many different types of bedding over the last few years from, Miscanthus to wood pellets to paper. But we have always ended up having to go back to our trusted bedding of choice shavings. We have some clean horses & some filthy box walker type horses here, & whilst most types of bedding worked well for the clean ones they always ended up costing a fortune & being problematic with the filthy ones.

However a few months back we decided to tried Equibright bedding our last batch of shavings where just awful but thankfully we where very pleasantly surprised by it by Equibright. We use the mixture that has wood & straw, it's quite weired as it has briquettes blocks in the bedding. This means that as the horses use the bed it tops it's self up as the briquettes break down. I was sceptical & asked many questions before trying it, thankfully Jane at Equibright is lovely & was completely happy to answer all my questions.

I first of all ordered the trial pallet of 12 bags, they came extremely quickly & i bedded my 27yo TB Murphy who is the most filthy down on it the same day.

I have to say it has been a doddle to use & muck out. It is lasting longer than shavings & doesn't move quite a much in the stable as shavings.

I'm also noticing my muck heap is reducing faster.

All i can say is if anyone is looking to try a different bedding give Equibright some thought. I have it in all my stables, my lorry & my chicken shed lol we are really impressed with it.

Training, Training & Training.....

As from the tittle i guess you all know what this blog will contain :)  Its been a busy month with both horses out training with our trainer Steph Cooper (list 1 judge & GP rider).

We have come on in leaps & bounds, both the horses have worked there socks off & neither one has disappointed with there talent.
Sky Galante is now able to do Baby Half passes, Half steps, Traver & Shoulder in with great technique his Medium Trot is really starting to get big & he oozes power. He's become extremely fit so working him is getting more & more fun he just rises to every challenge & feels like his talent & trainability is endless. He is everything you want from a horse.

Castle Troy has also been out to see Steph, to say we have made a difference in this horse is an understatement. His last session with her was amazing, we where back to riding our Advance movements & he felt awesome. His Halfpass is now completely fluent with correct bend it's positively joyful to ride. We also worked on Canter Piri's, Changes & Piaffe.
This horse has not just come back from a huge injury he's working better than ever, I'm still playing the lesson over & over in my mind as it really was a dream come true to be riding at that level.
Steph Cooper really has helped me so much i feel like I'm a completely different rider & I feel so lucky to have not one but two extremely talented horses & a brilliant trainer who seems to be able to have that knack of getting the best out of me & my Boy's i really wish i had been able to train with Steph years ago. So now its Fingers crossed they all stay well as we all know horses are a lovely mix of lows & highs.

Below are a selection of picture from Troy's first training session with Steph - These where taken on the 18th July 2012 & yes the weather is supposed to be Summer :-/

We have some competitions planned for both horses so be sure to come back & find out how we get on.

As always thanks for reading :)

PRE's can extend & do BD...

Well Galante didn't let us down, with our new Trainer Steph Cooper we have a new enlightenment to our training. We have definitely stepped up a gear with Steph's help.
This showed in our recent British Dressage outing to the Field House. We managed a brilliant 66.13% to come in 3rd in the Open section of Novice 38 first place was on just over 67% so not a million miles away. Galante really held his own against some good competition & He feels quite secure at Novice level which is very exciting for a 5yo & not only that a PRE there are many misnomers about this breed.

I'm hoping for great things from this horse in BD & we aim to help get PRE's even more on the map for dressage however there are currently a fair few doing very well within BD & some doing very well at the higher levels.
They are a truly versatile breed & brought on correctly & carefully they certainly are a tough match for any warmblood plus Galante is a British Bred PRE so it just shows what calibre we are able to produce in this country. Please visit www.bapsh.co.uk for more information on this Breed.

Pic's from our recent outing.

I would like to thanks Emerald - Foto's for these pic's, please visit them at

www.emeral-fotos.com

This May be a long one....

Since my last blog i feel like it's been none stop, I'm only just catching my breath.

The big news first Castle Troy made it out to a BD competition for the 1st time since 2010, we entered him into the Medium classes. He was campaigning at this level prior to the accident but when we did compete at Medium we stayed in the Training sections. This was to be my biggest mistake as Troy got injured & i had no recorded proof of riding at Medium Level apart from my sheets.

Troy was ready to go out & compete once more at this level, i decided that i would go for hopeful clear rounds. By clear rounds i mean no spooking, forwards & most of all accurate. We really didn't know how Troy would react to a comp environment as he hadn't been in this situation for a long while. Needless to say he didn't let me down & seemed to be really enjoying himself he always loved competing. We chose Beaver Hall to make his debut back.

He was a little behind the leg in the w-up so i worked on transitions & before i knew it we where being called.
The moment Troy set foot in the main area he lit up. It really was as if he was announcing himself back to competition, he went from being a bit behind the leg to very much in front of the leg. The bell rang & off we went.
He felt fantastic & so forward i beamed my way around the test, i could of ridden the Half passes more but i was more intent in enjoying every second. By the final salute i was in tears, it was such a happy occasion.

More's to the point we ended up 3rd out of 6 starters with a score of 61.4% for a first outing on a horse that was written off i don't think it's a bad result he's also qualified for Hickstead regionals & part qualified Petplans.
Unfortunately we have no pic's as my camera Man (mum) was calling for me.

We decided he will not be competing at the Hickstead regionals, but we will see if we can leisurely secure a Petplan qualification.
Next

Sky Galante this horse is really coming on, we have our new trainer Steph Cooper (list 1 judge & GP rider) & we are flying.
Galante is much more uphill & his medium trot is really there now. He's is out competing at Novice but i am Keeping him in the Training sections for now as this horse does not deserve any bad or mediocre scores on his record. He is a very promising horse & when you ride him you can feel that GP is really not out of the question for this horse its so exciting. But atm in the dressage arena he can become nervous so I'm working on riding forward tests & not worrying about the score. I know he's more than capable & Steph Cooper has given me great faith in this, but he's not shinning yet in front of the judges it will come i have great faith & patience in this horse.

We did to our surprise manage to get onto the Jennie Loriston - Clarke clinic again this month this was held at Ingestre, it was an enjoyable session. Please see vid link attached.

 http://youtu.be/2vHrOUUOPss

We are out with Galante on the 1st July to do his first long arena test, however July is going to be a bit of a slow month due to finances. We have annual vaccinations to do & teeth floating as well as Murphy's ACTH routine testing. So with big vet bill's competing will be on the back burner but i do hope to get out a little.

Where Back.....

So the really big news first Castle Troy has finally made it out, we had booked in for a local clinic with Maria Eilberg & i made the big decision that Troy was finally ready to get out. This horse has spent the last 2 years recovering from a field injury which severely damage his Impar Ligament, this had then adhered it's self to the DDFT.  The rehabbing of this horse has been immense, every little detail has been covered included taking him Barefoot of which has been the best thing to happen for him.

The tears, the box rest the small turn out pens the hours of endless in hand walking, the walking under saddle & the endlessly slow fittening have all come together. 

But i can say with some quiet confidence that he is back in action at home he's working very happily at Adv level & i can honestly say he's moving better than before his accident. He really does love being Barefoot. 

He realised quite quickly that it might be him going out & started to get a bit excited, he loaded perfectly & started tucking into his hay with the odd scream of excitement & off we set. When we arrived i tacked up & UN-loaded him to walk him round he was very excited. It then came to my turn so on i jumped aided by my lorry ramp, he's a lot taller than Galante lol.

From the moment we started he felt lovely, very supple swinging & into the stretchy warm up contact, after i had warmed up Maria decided she wanted us to work on right Shoulder In the left was very good but the right just lacked slightly.

Troy didn't miss a beat & worked beautifully, to say I'm happy is an understatement, the prognosis Troy was given by the vets was extremely poor. So to have got to this point feels like a dream come true, the next thing now is going to be his return to competition. But like everything Ive done with this horses rehab it will be a slow return there is no rush & while the thoughts of regionals & petplans is luring the thought of keeping my horse sound, happy & well is much more important. 





Next up in this Rather long blog is Sky Galante, we decided that i wasnt really that happy with our competition performance & decided to to have a session with List one Judge & GP rider Steph Cooper. It was a great session & a huge difference was made with both of us. I had yet again been riding Galante flat. Steph set about changing this & soon Galante was looking like a different horse. We worked on bringing the trot back to almost Piaffe for a stride & then going forward again, the medium Trots where much improved well actually the whole thing was much improved. It was a great session & Steph is a trainer we will be going back to very precise but easy to understand & full of humour.

So both my gorgeous boy's are out & about, training is the important thing for Galante at the moment & Troy the next plan is UN-decided it may be a competition or some training but it's lovely to have these options with these horses :)

 Till next time thanks for reading.

Been a while.... But we've got going

Well it's been a while since my last blog & boy have we been busy. The aim of April was to get Galante our 5yo PRE out doing some BD novice.

So far we've managed 2 competitions, both have been a bit of a shell shocking experience for Galante. We soon found out at our first attempts at the beginning of the month that Galante finds the idea of competitions quite scary.

He's a lovely chap who even though he's worried he will continue without any issues, but he does go seriously behind the leg & this then makes the whole connection to the rein very wobbly.

Having said this though he did try & listened he has even managed to pick up 3 yes 3 lol BD points, I've recently found out that sometimes getting anything above 58% on a PRE is a good score. I'm yet to believe this as my judges comments where quite spot on, there really was no hiding the tension & as such score suffered, but it's early days & I'm more than confident that Galante is going to pick up some big scores once we get over the star struck issue.

We have entered a young horse class also so it will be interesting to say the least!! Not something many PRE's are entered for lets just say that & hope for the best..... Im not really worried about the fact he's a PRE tbh & it's never something that enters my mind as such. As long as i ride him correctly i think he may do well if i hold my nerves.

Now onto Troy he is the horse who has come back from a catastrophic field injury. We where given a very bleak prognosis from our vets & Leahurst. Needless to say i kept a very tight grip on hope & somehow even through the bleakest of times we made it through. He has been sound since April last year, however only came back to schooling in August 2011. I do attribute taking him Barefoot one of the biggest factors in this success story, that & an extremely carefully managed rehab. Honestly some days i cant tell you how emotionally & physically drained i would be.

BUT TROY IS BACK & he's lost 44kg in weight he had put on quite a lot of weight through being off work so it's been hard to get it off him.

He is now back training at a good Adv level & back with all his moves changes, Half Pass, working canter Piri's, half step & passage. The work is well all i can say WOW.

He has gained so much from being barefoot that his natural movement has such expression now & for the first time it is easy to see this in his work. I'm now able to get the expression under saddle & really ride it's a fantastic feeling & lovely to see in the mirrors of the arena. He is the first horse Ive trained to Adv level & boy have i missed being able to ride at this level I'm am the MOST GRATEFUL person to have this horse back & sound.

We have our first outing planned for Troy next month with a trip to train with Maria Eilberg & then shortly after we will hopefully be out doing a few Medium tests with the hope of possibly gaining a quick qualification if possible & Troy can keep a lid on his excitement.

So it is very much all systems go at CT Dressage & I'm seriously hoping for a good year, mind you it's already a good year in the fact atm all my horses are well & sound long may it continue.....pleeeeaase.....

Im very sorry but we have no comp pic's for you but i do have one of the lovely Castle Troy in his new Matchy Matchy Eurostar from Fur feather meds. Troy still has weight to drop but im so pleased where getting there.

There is also some exciting news for my clients we have recently teamed up with http://www.confidentandpositive.com/Home_Page.php who are based at Somerford Park, Chesire.

Sue Moran is a qualified member of the Association of Professional Hypnotherapists and Psychotherapists and is an NLP Master Practitioner. Sue is also fully involved in the equestrian world so understands the unique issues that riders face, whether they are nervous riders, "happy hackers", top International Eventers, Riding Club competitors or Grand Prix Dressage Riders. My clients are being offered 10% of a session with Sue please contact me if your interest.

Thanks as always for reading, there will be more to come as April is far from over :)

The Highs, Lows & everything else in between.....

It's been a while since my last entry, it's only now I've found the time to actually sit & write this... We really have been operating on all cylinders, there have been many highs, a few lows & some worrying moments.

I will start from the beginning which was 3 fabulous lessons with Dianne Breeze, Galante & Troy both worked super. We had not long prior to these lessons found that Troy was yet again suffering Ulcers, instead of the usual Colicky behaviour we had super sharp, spooky & down right nasty behaviour off him.

As soon as i put two & two together we put him back on his Gastrogard & informed the vet, he is still being treated. But even within a few days of being back on Gastrogard he was starting to go back to the lovely soppy guy he normally is. He had a few nappy incidents in his lesson but it was quickly over & he went on to work the best he has done.

Galante was yet again a star & we worked with him on his Medium trot work.

The real high came at the beginning of this Month with a lesson from Jennie Loriston - Clarke, we has decided Galante would be the chosen one for this opportunity. The venue where the lessons where was Ingestre so i was really chuffed to get a place as Ingestre is local.

Jennie was as i thought she would be fabulous, she put me at ease straight away. Galante was a bit start struck though & piaffed his way around the indoor for the first 5 mins, gawking at the small audience.

We worked along the same lines that Dianne has me work on. Jennie felt i concentrated a little to much on collection & that i really needed to ride a bigger trot. We worked on trying to get the Medium trot.

We then moved onto the Lateral work, Jennie wanted all Shoulder In to be done down the centre line. Of course she was able to notice my rogue left hand quickly & get it tucked back into the neck. We then had another go at finding the Medium Trot & to all are amazement's it happened.

I was so proud of Galante Jennie seemed to really like him & said i was training him well & that i should keep doing what I'm doing. Which i beamed about. It was really enjoyable working with Jennie & i did get so much out of it that it has helped me step everything up a gear with the boy's.

Disaster then struck a few weeks after with Galante getting a Rather large swelling on his jaw, he was fine in himself but i called the vet in immediately & we x-rayed. X-rays where inconclusive but they did possibly show a fractured tooth & the vet also thought he could feel a fracture. He refered us to Rainbow Equine in North Yorkshire, so Friday we loaded up & made the 4hr journey upto Rainbow Equine. Galante was booked in for a CT scan, again he was a star & apparently he was the best patient they have ever dealt with for the scary CT scan.

The scan soon revealed a large retained cap with covered 2 molars, it was such a relief to find out the cause, the stubborn cap was removed & we where given the all clear to set off home. So 8hrs of driving god knows how many motorways & traffic jams we finally made it home feeling extremely tired but so happy that Galante was home with us.

Galante has the all clear to stay in work so as soon as the Antibiotics are finished & the anti Inflammatory we will be booking in for his first attempts at Novice BD.

Phewwww that was a long one, thanks so much for reading & remember to check back to see how we all progress.

Spanish one take's on BD with a surprising result...

So we've moved on a bit since my last blog, unfortunately my Ankle hasn't. It is still very swollen current thinking is i have partially torn the Tendon as well as Ligaments.

But I'm not giving in with the help of painkillers & a dressage whip to aid poorly left leg & my brand new very posh blingy PROtector hat off we went for Galante's first big boy show (aka British Dressage comp ).


It was only Prelim & due to my rider group i have to be in the open section of Prelim & Novice, so we where never going for a win we where just going to allow Galante to get some ring time. (I have to say i found this very refreshing & I'm actually really enjoying competing with the pressure off i do like to wind myself up & taking Galante out has really helped the competition nerves to go away).
To say Galante was a little taken back by it all is a bit of an understatement, the venue we picked was the Field House.
When picking the venue i did slightly forget that he has only been in one indoor school twice!


The Field house is a lovely venue & has two indoor schools that adjoin each other so you get to warm up indoors. This was the first time i had been back to the field house since Jan 2010 & i was pleased to see it's lovely outdoor arena finished, it really is going to be somewhere i frequent a lot this year.


So back to Galante, we walked into the Indoor to find another horse warming up. Galante was very excited at proceeded to Piaffe every time we halted & passage round the arena. I only allowed 30 mins w-up for him as he isn't quite 5yo yet & i knew that the day would mentally drain him. But he warmed up like a Pro, i kept an eye on my Mum who kept giving me pointer to work on & i felt completely prepared for the test.
So the time came for our turn!!


The doors open & Galante gets to see the competition arena for the first time, white boards a glory, quickly followed by "what the hells that at the end of the arena mum".
Hmmm i had also forgot that he has never seen a judge in a car!!

So after some tense toing & froing we where allowed to enter the arena, then the horn goes & off we go.
We start down the centre line get to x & it turns into the wobbliest c - line i have ever rode & then STOP. Galante was transfixed by the car & the people inside. With A LOT of coaxing i managed to somehow get him close enough to the car to make the first turn.
He was very tense throughout the test & there is a lot to look at in the arena with a viewing gallery & cafe right next to it.


But he did let me ride him & we didn't miss a marker or transition, by the time we got to the end i could feel Galante really settling. I couldn't help but beam when we had finished i was so proud of him.
The biggest problem actually came when we tried to leave the w-up arena & go back to the lorry, he was most perplexed by the transition of dark arena to light outside but eventually we made it out & back to the lorry. Where we commenced treat time for Galante.


There wasn't long in between tests so i was back on before i knew it, again i kept the w-up very short & did mostly walk as by now he felt drained.
We entered the arena for the test & he did feel behind the leg, i then made the decision not to push him & just have a quiet round. This is exactly what we got & he felt like a little grown up going passed all the things the frightened him in the first test without a blink of an eye.


The trot work in the 2nd test did feel behind the leg but both of the canters where super & he really got the marks for them & comments.

So to my joy we had somehow managed a 1st & 2nd place for our section of which i was competing against 3 other, score's where on the low side but the judges comments where most encouraging & very positive.
It was a wonderful day out, it's been a long time since i competed & i had forgot how much i enjoy it & Galante really made the day.


We have a lot of competitions coming up as the plan is to keep getting Galante out now & then make the Jump to Novice with hopes of qualifying for Petplans at Open Novice.


Troy is still ticking along nicely I'm pleased to report that we have finally got some weight shifted off him. I cant believe how long it's taken to get any weight off him, we still have a way to go but not as far as we did.
He will also be out competing soon.

Eavie our almost 2yo is doing fabulous & im hoping that somewhere in between all the BD comps she will get to go out in hand to some local shows.

Thanks for reading & pop back soon to see how things progress with Team Turner at CT Dressage :)

New Year, new plans.....

First of all i would like to wish all my clients past & present a very Happy new year.

2011 went out with a bang here at CT Dressage literally with a trip to hospital for me. Unfortunately for me Castle Troy has been feeling Rather to well recently & while it's lovely to see him returning to his former glory it also means he can be extremely sharp. This was brought home to me while flying through the air & into the menage fence :0

Luckily i have no broken bones, but i did receive a head injury which quickly progressed into the biggest swollen face & 2 black eye's i have ever seen. Ive also managed to tear ligaments in my Ankle.

Doctors orders where to not ride at all for 2 weeks, well as you can all imagine i was back on within the week. However i was pushing myself & found that i was more injured than i had imagined.
So it was another few days before i tried riding again, I'm now feeling much better & if it wasn't for my Ankle there would be no reminder of what happened just 1 week before Christmas.

Anyway onwards & upwards, we now have a wonderful new saddle for Sky Galante & he is going better than ever in it. Thanks to Sally Cartwright for her fabulous fitting skills yet again.

We have our first few shows planned now for our now techically 5yo Sky Galante he will be debuting at Affiliated Dressage later this month. I'm very excited as he is a wonderful horse, I'm extremely smitten with him, it will be interesting to see how he is received by the judges.
I've yet to plan Castle Troy's first competition but it will be in the next few months & hopefully we will be able to snag a cheeky qualification at Elem for the summer regionals before returning to campaign at Medium once again.

So a busy year is being planned with Fabiosa, Sky Galante & Castle Troy lets hope we can get some good results.