Make-Shift Month

October brought many new challenges with it and apart from being rather stressful it's certainly not a boring month. My main mission has been to patch up that large hole in my income caused by the illness of the horses so I've been doing quite a bit of random teaching here and there. I can't wait for things to come back to normal.

The Case Studies work continues and it's very time consuming. I am hoping to finish video editing of the two already finished Case Studies today. There are some fabulous video editing software out there but I am making do with a free one so I doubt I will be very pleased with the result. It will hopefully be informative enough and motivating enough to encourage riders to enquire some more :) Once it's all ready I will first post the videos on my Horse and Country TV Blog as a preview so keep checking their site...

If you have a friend or a family member wanting to learn to ride you might want to send them a link to Academy's new blogger:

Jody Stevenson

Jody is learning to ride with me and as I found out she is also a writer (a film writer but that's just a detail ;) I asked her if she would like to guest blog about her riding experiences. She is funny, eager to learn and a pleasure to teach and I think her writing reflects all these qualities.

Some excerpts from Jody's blog:

“I’m scared!!!”O.K. I was excited before, but now I’m here, I’m just plain scared! There are two big strong horses standing in wait for me and my friend (who’s late as usual…). They’re both crazy beautiful – but soo big!…. So I’m feeling more than a little intimidated right now. As I’m guided onto my horse (his name is William and he’s apparently about 80 in horse years), I suddenly feel immensely privileged that this huge majestic beast is giving me a piggy back. I mean seriously, how many strangers would you just let jump on your back?.. Especially as he knows full well what the next hour holds in store for him! Namely, this slightly crazy girl flapping her arms and legs around in unfathomable patterns and expecting him to “do something”, whilst letting out the occasional excited and fearful squeal. Lucky for me, on top of having a fab trainer in Wiola I also have a fab trainer in William. He’s been doing it for so long that, he is mostly able to interpret my uncoordinated and clumsy movements and save my life by stopping when he knows I’ve lost balance.”

“Without the saddle I can really feel Honey’s movement. I learn to recognise the dip in Honey’s side when she’s raising her back leg off the ground, I also learn that a little kick when she’s doing this will propel her leg further forward and subsequently make us move faster. I’m pretty impressed with myself when this little trick works, until she start’s getting a little too fast, when I hang on for dear life.Now I have to think of my body in two halves, the waist up, which I should be keeping straight and strong at all times, is mine and the bottom half is an extension of Honey’s so should become one with her natural movement. So while my bottom (which really shouldn’t be bouncing all over the place) moves from side to side with her, my chest should move forwards and backwards. And my elbows should be by my side (which they never are). Oh easy peasy!”

Jody's Blog can be found on:

http://www.aspire-equestrian.com/blog/category/guest-blogger-jodi-stevenson/

On a good work note I took on 5 days of work in Banbury next week at a new Dressage/training yard so I am looking forward to seeing the new set up! Although I will probably end up rather knackered at the end of that week ;)

Kingsley Photo Update

Photo by Nic Barker of Rockley Farm: Kingsley 13th October: Basking in the Sun :) More updates on Rockley Farm's blog.