Busy again... & some very unexpected but exciting news :-)

It's been a while again since ive managed to update my blog. The reason for this is I've been so busy over the Month of May & into June that I've not had a moment to myself, dressage has taken my life over with Judging, Competing & training.

The excellent news is that Galante had his Medium BD debut at the beginning of May, we soon realised that this level really suits him & I am proud to say we are going to Regionals at Medium level.
It all happened extremely quickly & with the new cut of for the summer qualification being the 31st of May I can safely say I didn't expect to qualify, but we did & i'm extremely excited to be a riding part again of the NW regionals as the closest I have got these last few years is by being a volunteer writter .

Below are some pic's of Galante's last training session in May with Matt Frost.

The next exciting news is I've been selected to be an Ambassador for the gorgeous Celeris Boots, im totally over the moon as these boots are just gorgeous & totally made to Measure with 24 measurements to give an exact fit. The prices & options for these boots are also unreal for the service you get.

I have a pair of Polished Black Diogo's (with a little bling ) on order & I will be wearing them at the NW Somerford regionals, if anyone would like to view them please feel free to message me & pop to see us. I'm sure you wont be disappointed in what you see.

Celeris have a fantastic new website so take a peek - www.celeris-boots.co.uk or http://celerisuk.com/

There will be a link coming shortly on my homepage which will take you straight to Celeris, but for now if anyone interested could contact me & I will pass you straight on to Celeris UK.

I'm currently getting to the end of being a Trainee Judge & have no upgraded onto the list for testing, this is frightening & exciting at the same time but hopefully I will become a listed judge towards the end of the year.

That's it for now, short but packed :-)

Sky Galante starts the two big P's........

We've been busily training here at CT dressage, Sky Galante has really upped his game & we now felt the time was right to start the Piaffe & Passage. It's still shakey & green but my god is there an awful lot more to come from this horse.

Below pic's where taken on Monday 7th April 2014

New addition to CT Dressage Team

Im very proud to announce that on the 14th Febuary Florentyne joined our team.

Florentyne is a 2yo British Hanoverian by Floriscount, Florentyne is also out of an Elite Hanoverian mare.

We where very lucky to be able to purchase this very special horse, he has come to us from Fosshey Stud the very same Stud that bred our mare Fabiosa.

Florentyne has everything we want a fantastic temprement, uphill frame & movement to drop jaws.

Matt Frost, Andreas Hausberger & Changes!!

Well this last week has been a very busy one with a 2 day clinic with Matt Frost at the start of the week & then a very special lesson at the weekend with Andreas Hausberger, 1st Chief Rider of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna !!!!

Matt Frost was amazing as usual, he is a great trainer & bring so much humour to his lessons that you cant help but enjoy them. On the Monday we worked on Lateral work, with our Medium debut not far away it was important for Matt to have a look at it. Galante is now a very supple horse, but he does block me slightly in the neck in Half pass & Traver he brings his head way up & then hollows over the back if he can.
The way we have counteracted this was to ride the lateral work in a deeper rounder frame, this worked very well & helped to keep him soft & swingy through each step.
Matt was very pleased with our work & said that the next session would be working on the Flying changes.

So the next day we toddled back to see Matt, Galante came out quite hot i was expecting him to be behind my leg & tired but no he was mega forward. He warmed up lovely so Matt then said right lets go with the changes.
Now changes are something we havent yet played with so i was a little eeeek with how Galante would take to it. We started with riding a 10 mtr circle in canter on hitting the centre line i took the shoulders in the new direction & then did a change of leg through trot. We did this on both reins.

Then it was time to do the changes, same thing as above but this time after i had taken the shoulders to the new direction i asked for the change, well the first few where huge!! I lost stirrups & we found Galante was very good a disunited canter lol.
However at a couple of rough attempts we finally started getting clean changes, Galante was mega.

Pic's below of our Flying change attemps -

On Sunday we made our way down to Dovecote Stables the home of Equine Ethos for our very special lesson with Andreas Hausberger, 1st Chief Rider of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. All i can say is i was NERVOUS very nervous, i spoke to a few people who had already had there lessons & they said Andreas was lovely.
So before i knew it i was in the stunning indoor arena looking at a load of spectators who where all waiting to hear who i was & about Galante, i was really bricking it.

Andreas really tried to get a picture of my riding experience, i have to say i didnt really do myself any favours as a few mins into the Piaffe work Andreas said " YOU ARE an EXPERIENCED RIDER ", my reply " am i ", Andreas " YES you REALLY ARE, i can tell from your reactions to the horse".

So as you can see i really must of come across as a wannabe dressage rider lol.

Anyway the lesson was fantastic Andreas really liked Galante & said i was a good rider who made his job easy. Andreas worked with me on starting Galante's Piaffe & Passage Andreas walked beside us for both.
Galante picked up the idea for both Piaffe & passage very quickly think it was maybe the amout of sweeties he kept being fed lol.

But this work really improved the Trot & canter, we ended the session with Canter work, going from working to collected & sprialling in to a very small 8 mtr circle.

It was fantastic & i will hopefully get the chance to train with Andreas again.

Galante hits the big Marks

Unfortunately since loosing Troy i have contemplated all sorts of things & have really been down. However life does have to go on & with that i started competing, we have been very lucky to be recieving training from Matt Frost of AM Dressage & he has really helped improve Galante's way of going.

So on the 11th Jan we made our first outing of the new year to a local venue Reeseheath for a crack at the Novice qualifier & the Elementary, i arrived a little later than i should of as got delayed doing jobs. Reeseheath was then running early now at Affiliated you can go in at your time or you can go in early, i personally never like to keep a judge waiting to long & as Galante felt good in we went.
He was relaxed, soft supple & in front of the leg i couldnt of wished for more.

The judge agreed as we got a score of 71.43% & 2nd place in the open section, very chuffed.

Then came the Elem, he did feel a little tired but still did a stonking test but was flat, bless him. We did get a great score though of 68.38% & 5th in the Open section.

So lot's of lovely qualifying points for the summers.

Very proud of my spanish boy.

Sad end to 2013

Hello, im still here. Sorry to anyone following the news page on my site but ive been thaty busy over the last 12 months i havent had time to update.

2013 was not the year i had hoped for Castle Troy did compete at Adv Med & qualified quickly for the Petplans at this level & at Medium. I had commisioned a Freestyle music composition at Adv Med level for him & things where looking amazingly bright. Unfortunately my plans to get out & about came to an abrupt end when i sold my Truck quicker than anyone expected, unfortunately the new truck wasnt ready.
Then late September Troy didnt seem his normal self just off, which is something he did nearly every year he never liked autumn. He did pick up again & was back to being his frisky self only to then go & get cast in his stable.
He got himself up & i booked my Physio straight away even though he seemed fine, as few days went by & i noticed he wasnt quite stepping through on his right hind, a few more days went by & i noticed he wasnt right in his poll.
Physio came & found he was tight in the right hind 1/4 but nothing terrible, however the next day he couldnt put his head down then things went on a downward trend. The vet came god knows how many times we tried all sorts of things but everyday as one symptom dissapeared another more serious one developed. It was obvious his right hind had detiriated but he also couldnt walk properly on the left now either.
4 days in after i had nursed him for 48hrs straight he collapesed in the stable he was in agorny the only decision left was the end his suffering.

I lost Castle Troy on the 10th November 2013 & have been left completely devestasted, the vets & physio believe he had a bleed into his spine an injury which would of occured from getting cast. I would give anything to have my gorgeous boy back but at least i know he is no longer in pain.

so 2013 was the worst year ever & one i couldnt wait to get rid of.

We miss you very much Mr T, thank you for all the years we had together you made me have to rethink everything when it came to training & riding i can never repay you for all you taught me. You came to me as a really sad screwed up 5yo & you transformed into a horse my dreams could of only hoped for.