March is it Spring yet :-(

As you can tell by the title to this months blog March has definitely not been great weather wise, we have had our first quiet month here in god knows how long. The weather & annual Vet visit meant that i have had to revise my spending for this month. However the weather has put pay to any competing atm anyway our arena is still covered with snow.

Both Galante & Troy are going well i will say a new saddle is needed for Galante but im getting desperate to get out again. Troy has had a course of Cartrophen to help maintain his joints & is feeling fantastic. Such a shame i cant make the most of it atm with this i will say it again dam weather!

I have made the best of it though & took the time to work everyone in hand, it's always a lovely thing to do & I should do it with the boy's more often as they really enjoy it. Troy worked mainly on lateral work & Piaffe in hand, he thought it was most hilarious to add his own version of Spanish walk into the mix. It doesn’t help that I find it very funny also so he now uses it to make me laugh I’m sure.
Galante had a lesson in manners & was introduced to some more of Richard Maxwell's groundwork techniques. Galante is a little hot atm & is quite fun to ride atm, I like them forward so I’m using his extra sparkle to my advantage.

Now on to the exciting bit, We last updated you saying we where finalists for the Pink Equine sponsorship, unfortunately we where unsuccessful.
However by a twist of fate a company that i follow on facebook Equestrian originals has very generously offered a sponsorship deal. I put my application in & we have been shortlisted.

I am very excited about this latest development as the company Equestrian Originals is a small family run business supplying personalised horse equipment, clothing and occasionally leatherwork. It is just the sort of company Carrie Turner Dressage would love to represent & we would like to take the time to thank them for offering this sponsorship deal in such a trying economic time.

Why not take a look at what they offer -

Equestrian Originals Website

Equestrian Originals Facebook Page

Equestrian Originals Ebay Store



There have been a lot of applications for this sponsorship so we have everything’s crossed March 29th is the day we will find out if we have been successful. I don’t envy them having to decide a victor.

Fun times & potential sponsorship

Well again it's been a little while since i last updated you all & boy what a busy time we have been having. During January & February we managed to get out competing a fair bit with Sky Galante, we even ventured into some Elementary & despite his greenness at this level he managed scores of 61.47%. We also have done a few Novice freestyle classes as well, culminating on the 27th Feb by wining & qualifying for the winter regional’s with 69.16%. Castle Troy has also been kept busy with a trip to see Jennie Loriston-Clarke at Ingestre, we are very lucky to be involved in this clinic & would like to thank Tim & Rob from Ingestre for letting me have a place. Jennie was her usual fab self & Troy was little on the edge. Luckily we managed to grab a good 15 mins to walk & settle him then our lesson started. We worked on Canter Piri's & Changes, i loved the way she helped me change both for the better. We have been tending to get stuck in the Canter Piri's but Jennie made me concentrate on turning the shoulder only & moving out of the Piri before we got stuck. The changes can be very good & also very bad at times, i have a tendency to ride canter with my right lower leg to far back. Jennie picked up on this & made me ride my canter coming into the Right to left change with my right leg on the girth. Again it made a huge difference as it would. All in all we had a brilliant time i got a real going over but came out of the lesson beaming & wanting to do it again. The Vid attached to the blog is a small section of some of the work we did during that lesson, it was very cold that day so excuse me & Jennie being wrapped up like Eskimo's. The next exciting this we did was get a visit from Richard Maxwell, Max came to help me start my 3yo Filly we don’t have any issue's but she is a very special girl. We wanted Max to come & give us more tools to make her backing process as smooth & easy as possible. It was a wonderful but exhausting afternoon Eavie worked really well for Max & I’m pleased to say is going from strength to strength with her groundwork. Final exciting news, Carrie has been chosen as one of the finallists for the converted Pink Equine sponsorship. This is something that would really help Carrie, Pink Equine do so many lovely things from bling Browbands / bridles to saddlepads & even your doggies can get in on the act with their range of bling for dog's. Have a look at their site - http://www.pinkequine.com/index.html Please also have a look at their Facebook page - Http://www.facebook.com/pinkequine I hope you enjoyed this rather condensed blog, as always there is loads more to come with Troy starting his competition season this month.