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.