Well, I think we have found the answer to the squealing and bucking in the show ring... as it was described by my trainer... you're squeezing her eyeballs out! I hate it when I find out that it's me causing the problems. I have a very patient horse, thank goodness, who manages to forgive my foibles, as I forgive her when she's a boob occassionally. And a good trainer who is guiding us back to fill the holes in our training so we can progress. Today she said that the hardest step is getting…

Last weekend, our May long weekend here in Canada, some friends and I drove 6 hours up into the interior of BC. We rented a cabin for 6 and we took 3 horses. It was a place called The Hills in 108th Mile House. The altitude is 12,000 feet, the air is clear and the trees are not as big and lush as our famous "wet coast". I loved the serenity, no people, traffic noise or cell phone towers! I took my new horse Bandit, who has spent years on the Hunter/Jumper circuit, and he has never done much…

So we’ve done it. We’ve got a meaningful result at a decent level. Dell finished 9^th in the CIC* at Hambleden. But

blimey it was a bit of an epic weekend.....

For starters I was missing school on Friday (again) but an early start meant we had plenty of time for Gray and Dell’s dressage.yes""> I’ve often been told that a problem with the junior system

is that you don’t get the experience of competing against…

So this last month has seen some solid progress. Troublesome horses have decided it’s more fun if they play ball and others have decided to let us know that they’re well and truly back on form – let me at it!

A last minute substitution saw Gray head off to Nurstead Court for his first Pre-Novice (PN) of the season. He

did a fabulous…

I've know Berit since I was 14. We have always shared an interest for horses and we both lost the true love of our lives. Hers' was a big black gelding called Hector. She swore she would never get another horse ever again, but a few years passed by, and one day she called me up and said, "I just became a horse owner again". She told me that the horse she had bough was a new born stallion. A native…

I always feel like I should be doing…

Shortly after I was married I got my first Yellow Lab, Gentle Ben. For the next 13-plus years Ben worked on our farm with me. He had an uncanny ability to tell sick horses from healthy ones. Ben helped with every foaling. As soon as I’d let him, Ben would be in the stall cleaning the foal. Every mare allowed him access, which was astonishing.…

...it erases the memory of the good.

It had to happen. It happens to everyone, I just did not know it would happen today. The day started out so good. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and spring was in the air. The horses graze 24/7 in a huge pasture that reaches over 90.000 square meters.. As I walked through the forest to find the horses I had such a good feeling about this day.

(The pony…

2010 Del Mar National