Books, Burghley, Home Made Pizza and Academy's tasks

You never know how much rubbish you have in your own house until you try to tidy things up. September started for me with a giant clearance. Having been ill almost entire August and being unable to shed a horrid cold for several weeks, my energy returned all of a sudden. At first I just wanted to get rid of stacks and stacks of equestrian mags that I seem incapable of throwing away but ended up filling our patio up with mountains of large, black wheelie bin liners full of all sorts of stuff we no longer need/use...For those of you who don't know our house is a size of a match box so I was impressed at how much storage space it actually has ;)

Old magazines gone it was only fair to order some new books to take up the available shelves! I decided to ask my mum to order some books in Polish for me as although I have no problems reading any English training books it always feels like I learn more reading in the mother tongue.

There are many new things I've learned since I've lived here and I am ashamed to admit but I find some concepts way easier to explain in English than in Polish.

I am rectifying this by reading some excellent books in both languages. The two I've just finished are:

1) Centred Riding by Sally Swift

English Version: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Centered-Riding-Sally-Swift/dp/0851319335

Polish Version: http://www.empik.com/harmonia-jezdzca-i-konia-swift-sally,51570,ksiazka-p

2) Klaus Balkenhol - The Man And His Training Methods

Polish Version: http://www.empik.com/klaus-balkenhol-szkolenie-ujezdzeniowe-wedlug-zasad-klasycznej-szkoly-jazdy-konnej-schoffmann-britta,prod29890131,ksiazka-p

English Version: http://www.amazon.com/Klaus-Balkenhol-Man-Training-Methods/dp/157076378X

The Sally Swift book was a great read, some very good ideas on how to explain variety of riding concepts and some excellent examples of very creative images illustrating those concepts.

I also have her second book and I am looking forward to reading it.

The Klaus Balkenhol's biography was a joy to read and very inspirational. I thoroughly recommend it, fantastic insight into life of a very dedicated horseman and coach as well as into his classical training methods.

He is to be the guest speaker at British Dressage's: The Albion National Convention which will be held on the 27-28 November at Hartpury College and I am planning to go to at least one of the days.

Burghley 2010

On Saturday the 4th of September, Kari and I made a two hour road trip to Burghely Horse Trials to watch the XC and to see Craig and Spider doing their first 4* track. It was immediately apparent why Burghely is regarded as the most difficult 4* - the ground goes up and down non stop and there is barely a stretch of even galloping surface. Everything seems to have a gradient to it and if the ground happens to flatten a bit there are strategically placed mounds to make things nicely hair rising!

Despite Kari's hope to avoid any drastic looking falls we ended up witnessing a dreadful one of Rosie Thomas. Her horse Barry's Best caught a knee on the table jump, landed on his knees and face, rider's foot went deep through the iron and didn't release when the horse got up resulting in an awful looking drag :(

Both were fine and Rosie hopped along to give the horse a big hug once stewards had caught him.

Spider went clear and looked fabulous.

A couple of videos I took of Craig and Spider:

The crowds were substantial and it wasn't easy to see the action unless you planted yourself at one jump, sneaked your way to the ropes and just watched several riders going over. In this way you could compare different ways of riding to and over each jump but it could get samey!

The Academy

Time has come to deal with the mammoth task of editing all the Case Studies videos. It's a Grand Design scale project in itself as I literally need hours of free time to upload all the videos and then put them together into short clips. Let's just say I will be relieved when that's done.

The riders are doing very well and I hope you will enjoy reading about their progress.

I wrote a second part of the blog for Horse & Country TV's website and sent it over. I try to make sure that what I write there isn't identical to the content on here so if anybody reads both blogs they won't find the same boring waffle ;)

The H&C TV blog is more about the ups and downs of the Academy from the launch, set up and the running point of view but I also included details that I haven't discussed on here. I will post a link once the second part goes online. If you missed the first part, here it is:

Horse & Country TV Blog: Where It All Began.

There is another company that wants me to write for them so I need to come up with an interesting version of a blog like material that isn't a repetition of the other material I already write. It's all great opportunity to share my passion for this project but believe me, writing on other sites is a bit stressful as I am very aware of my lame grammar. Thankfully, I have lovely secret proofreaders who will help with any major mishaps!

On the subject of sharing the news - I am working on more, hopefully interesting ways of spreading the word about Academy. Once those ideas are finalised I will post more details about them.

Other Stuff

I blame my friends for making me re-visit the kitchen and start cooking at home again! I really don't have the time for this!! ;) They prepared the most fantastic home-made pizza last week with plenty of some home-prepared ingredients and then actually baked own bread for our breakfast! It was just plain delicious and so tasty :)

Haakan's Home Made Pizza - Yummy!

It's therefore entirely their fault I spent an hour in the kitchen today getting our dinner ready but it was so worth it!

London Ride Network

A couple of weeks ago someone emailed me saying they couldn't make a meeting organised by London Ride Network and whether I would be interested if she recommended me for her place. I have never heard of this organisation but thought it might be interesting to go. According to the information I received "The purpose of the network is to: work in the collective interest to develop the industry, share knowledge and best practices, fund access to the sport, work with external agencies and engage with County Sports Partnerships (CSP’s) and schools. "

I then got sent the Agenda for the meeting and decided it sounded intriguing.

I am not sure if I will be able to meaningfully contribute to the meeting but I would certainly love to learn how to search for funding as well as how to create better environment for the sport to develop further. Every now and then I teach a child or a teenager who have so much drive and talent and I think, damn you could be really good if there were opportunities for you to make it in this sport! The sad truth is that the costs of training and competing are way beyond the reach of those kids' parents. The meeting is on the 28th so I shall post a note of what it was all about.

Off to Kent tomorrow for more Academy chat, some riding, some videoing - speak soon!

No Feet No Horse

It seems a theme now that I have very little time to update this blog so a long update is coming tomorrow. Today I will pass on the news on Kingsley...

If you read my last post you will know that nothing has improved Kingsley's feet problems and we faced a sad end of the road. There is only as much money and tears you can spend on a horse and the decision was made to have Kingsley put to sleep.

As my friend was going to be away we decided to arrange for everything once she returned. In the meantime I had someone coming for a lesson who happened to have a barefoot horse...The said horse was placed at the Horse Of The Year Show some years back but had since developed various feet problems. The owners tried many types of shoeing, pads etc but opted to take the shoes off in the end as a last resort. A year on and the horse is sound and happy.

It got me thinking...I have read a little on barefoot in the past and although I would happily never shoe a horse if it was done from a young age but I wasn't sure what to think about this chucking shoes away after years of having them on. From my limited knowledge on the subject I was aware that any barefoot rehab needs careful preparation and experienced trimmer to supervise the process. The last thing we want is to put Kingsley through unnecessary painful procedures.

I must say it wasn't easy to even make the decision to try one more time. We were prepared to call it a day and start afresh but every time we discussed it neither of us could say "right, let's do it on this/that day".

The more I looked at his feet the more concerned I became. The many photos taken of him helped me to trace the shape of his hooves and even to me they looked in ill condition.

To learn more about it all I posted a thread on Horse & Hound Forum which you can read on here: http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=400084. It has 87 replies as per today and they make for rather interesting read.

If you do read it you will notice a lot of criticism of the farrier. As I now know, the farrier isn't always to blame. He might have been doing all he could have to work with the ill hoof. If the foot doesn't grow well not much can be done.

As Kingsley wasn't at all comfortable in his egg bar shoes we agreed for him to have wedges for a couple of weeks as we were advised he needs pressure taken off his DDFT (Deep Digital Flexor Tendon).

These are the photos I took 2 days after the wedges were put on:

11th September 2010

As you can see this is one unhappy pair of feet. After having a good thorough chat with my friend we decided we should try to give the boy this one more chance and try him barefoot. The question was, how to go about it.

We both would have loved to take part in his rehab and learn what he really needs to become sound but after researching all the options we think we found someone who will do much better job. Once everything is finalised I will post an update.

I found some great reading about barefoot thanks to members of the Forum:

http://barefoothorseblog.blogspot.com/

http://www.rockleyfarm.co.uk/RockleyFarm/Home.html

http://www.hoofrehab.com/

Also:

http://eventing-a-gogo.blogspot.com/p/hooves-of-steel-barefoot-journey.html

http://www.easycareinc.com/education/whybarefoot.aspx

http://blog.easycareinc.com/blog/natural-hoof-care-in-the-uk

http://eventing-draft.blogspot.com/search/label/trimming

http://ohhorsefeathers.blogspot.com/

Vet visit today - it's not better, it's worse

I must say I didn't think we would be given good news today. The last time I walked Kingsley he just started feeling uneven and rigid again towards the end of the 30 minute hack and I decided that it was best to wait till today with riding him more.

And in fact there was no good news. However, I was quite shocked to find out he actually got worse than he was back in April. He was lame in walk and trot on the hard on straight line. Very lame. Nodding lame.

We then lunged in the arena on a all weather rubber track and his trot on a circle was the worst I have ever seen him. I kept pushing him on on vet's request but to be honest it was painful to watch.

On the left rein his feet sequence in trot was poor and he had no desire to move forwards. On the right rein he couldn't trot at all. He moved in bunny hops like canter strides, half cantering half trotting, cutting the circle inwards to avoid any bending.

I decided there and then that even if there was any chance of any further treatment I was not riding him until I saw him trotting up sound without a rider.

As he was moving so much worse than last time in July, the vet decided to nerve block the foot again just to see if there wasn't anything else going on.

He was much better and much happier to move which indicated that primary pain source is in the left front with right front being less affected.

Having said that, he wasn't fully sound after nerve blocking.

We also looked at his X-rays from April and July and compared the changes. They showed further deterioration...

He has had one dose on Tildren IV (full body) in April, 2 sets of navicular bursea injections - one April/May and another in July, Navilox and is off work since August 2009. No improvement wouldn't be a problem. But he is so much worse :( I was really shocked to see him in trot today. The last time I lunged him was a couple of months ago and to see him moving so oddly and with such difficulty today was just so disheartening.

There remaining options are: another change of shoes...more tildren...more bute...and the most kind of all - PTS.

I would love to see him happy and perky again; he is not a content young horse right now. As many of you will know I would love to ride him everyday and would happily hang on to a possibility to do so but after today the saddle stays firmly on the rack :(

And the Good!

Onto the good and exciting parts of life!

The Academy project is still very much a project and although I've been sitting quiet with it due to my health it has brought me several new clients already.

I am working on ways of promoting it other than slapping a grand, boring advert in a magazine so stay tuned as I will share all the ins and outs.

We are now blogging on Horse and Country TV's website so please do visit and say hell0 (not sure how but perhaps you'll figure out??!). I will try to share the details of the whole project on there in form of a diary. Here is a link to my blog on there:

http://www.horseandcountry.tv/celebrity/wiola-grabowska/where-it-all-began

I've been on a mission to find some more interesting Guest Bloggers for the Academy blog and here are the new faces for you to get to know :) I hope you will enjoy reading their updates as much as I do.

In August, the Guest Bloggers include: Gary Diplock & Mind4Sport ( Gary agreed to share a great insight into Sports Psychology and importance of mental skills for ALL levels of riders) , UK Eventer Jeni Ball (Jeni runs her yard and loves to event), The Mystery Emma (who writes hilarious novel-like romance/yard drama) and US Eventer Cassidy Sitton (passionate rider, Eventer, Coach with a freelance job in advertising). Have a look at their posts on here: http://www.aspire-equestrian.com/blog/

I've also been busy trying to gather as much advice as possible from all the good will people who agreed to give it away.

Talking about good will people...one of my substantial debts was literally waved away by this amazing person and I really wish I could do more to somehow give much more back to all the extraordinary people who help me so much!

Perhaps one day.

Next month is looking exciting as I am off to watch Burghley as well as hopefully nursing myself back to health!

Pic.below: Craig and Spider (Just Ironic) - Spider is Burghley bound!

http://www.burghley-horse.co.uk/

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I suppose it's time to...

Good first or bad first?

Let's start with the bad so it's over and done with. It will be here as a separate post as I will probably delete it some time soon.

I've been delaying the update because all I wanted to write seemed unnecessarily negative and ungratefully moaney. It still is in fact. I resent it because it's just damn arrogant to complain whilst having a roof above my head, enough money for food on the table (well, most of the time anyway) and a job I love.

The truth is, I haven't been well for over a month now, if not longer, and as much as my mind and soul want to do it all, my body just can't cope :(

Some of you may remember my post from some time ago when I listed all the possible options to consider regarding a plan for the future, for riding and for the Academy project. I thought I could do it all. But I can't.

Right now, I work and work and work. There is nothing I do right now that could class as something for myself. I resent the thought as selfish but we all need this little bit of reward for all the hard work, don't we?

No matter how much you love your work and how much job satisfaction you get from it, we all need something outside of it to complete it all.

Until now, I thought the job satisfaction would do me just fine. That I don't need anything especially for myself to be happy.

Sadly I was wrong. I wish I was this altruistic person who needs no fun for herself. How much easier would that be!

There is this massive puzzle piece missing and now I know what it is: it's the riding, the purposeful riding. The lack of it makes me feel down. In the same time, although I hate to say it, I lost a lot of my enthusiasm and hope that things can change much in this department.

As much as lack of riding sends me down, my passion for the job lifts my mood up. It's one of those things when you have to chose in between two equally important aspects of life.

Either way, I suppose it's time to temporarily suspend my updates. You wouldn't want to read a monotonous list of complaints I am bound to write if I allow myself to do so.

I've taken some days off next month as my health is firmly telling me I am ruining it. Days off I can't really afford. I hope they will be of some benefit to my body as they certainly won't be to my mind.

Kingsley boy wasn't great yesterday either. I keep telling my naive self to stop getting excited every time he walks less pottery. I've been there before with Fetas and it's not worth the emotional roller-coaster. And yet, every time he seems a bit better there is new sense of hope. Only to be crashed by a melancholic state of his the next day and a shuffly, trippy walk stride. The vet is coming on Saturday morning to review him. Hopeful part of me counts on good news.

One step at a time. Sometimes it feels like going through a desert - you want to go fast as the iron hot sand burns your skin but the rule still stands - one step at a time.

Ok, enough of this overly honest moaning. It always astounds me that you can get so low in life in some areas of it and yet be on a total high in others.

Good job horses read body language and a word about Academy's Blog

For the second time in my teaching life I have landed myself with a fabulous onset of laryngitis and today, I lost my voice all together. I could croak a thing or two up to yesterday but that's just about gone too. I can whisper.

For the last few days I have started my days actually saying to myself "Voice Test" only to hear some ninety-year-old like voice coming out of my throat. Not fun.

It's not painful until you try to talk when you have a full body workout trying to blow air into your larynx and make any sounds at all.

It didn't help that I only took one day off since it happened on Sunday and the 25 hours of teaching I've done in the last three days wouldn't have helped :(

Coupled with a mild cold this lovely condition leaves me rather exhausted and I hope it goes soon! Having had a hoarse chat with a nice lady in the Pharmacy yesterday it doesn't look like I have much meds choice and the best one is REST YOUR VOICE. She gave some lozenges which taste absolutely vile - they contain liquorice which I just can't stand. However, they do help a little so I will eat some ;)

Yard work today so nice silent body language with horses and then a whispering training day for Pauline on Saturday!

Anyone has any miracle, granny style recipes for getting my voice back??

Anyway. For all those who aren't on ever reaching Facebook but do visit the Academy's new website - I would like to thank you all very much as we've had almost 3000 visits in the first week of the launch :) It's probably not much in the grand scheme of virtual reality but it's good few for me and I am really happy someo

ne enjoys the site.

If you haven't noticed already, I've started a new blog on there which is going to hopefully be educational, inspiring and a bit different to this one. The Academy blog is based on a Guest Blogger basis so apart from myself and other Team members blogging I also invited numerous riders to share their experiences with everybody.

So far, we can follow the riding life of:

Casey Stickland

A sixteen year old rider from Australia who moved continents to pursue her Dressage dream. She is now based at Talland School of Equitation in Gloucestershire, UK. Casey blogs about her journey to become an International Dressage rider, the training and some great advice from her own lessons.

Well worth a read!

She is now at Summer Regionals at Addington as I type and will blog about her experience of it when she comes back. To read Casey's blog on Academy's site go to http://www.aspire-equestrian.com/blog/guest-blogger-casey-stickland/

Pippa Allan...

I met Pippa at Barnfield Riding School in 2007 and she rode with me for 3 years before deciding she wanted to try something fast & furious. Also sixteen, Pippa went to British Racing School in March this year to do the 9 weeks long Foundation course. She described it as the best time of her life! She is now working on a flat racing yard in Epsom but has some exciting plans worth following. She has a rather rough writing style which I decided to leave as it was (mostly!) because it adds authenticity and suits her well ;) http://www.aspire-equestrian.com/blog/guest-blogger-pippa-allan/

Candace Potempa

Candace is a delightful personality and a great friend of mine. Unfortunately, she lives rather far away - Chicago, Illinois, US! Candy works full-time and has recently bought her very first horse. She is show-jumping mad and has some wonderful experiences to share while she goes through the ranks with her mare, Flirt. http://www.aspire-equestrian.com/blog/guest-blogger-candace-potempa/

Some more great Guest Bloggers in the pipeline as well as some of Academy's Team members blogging about their training, teaching and competing: http://www.aspire-equestrian.com/blog/

If you like it, please help us spread the word about the Academy. Post a link to us, Become a Fan on our Facebook Page or click 'Like' button. Everything to do with promoting the Academy is done on a shoestring and it is only possible thanks to amazing help from some extraordinary people. I will tell you all about what we do to get the Academy out there very soon!

I'm back on the roads!

For now that is. Wiola let me update you on my life as I am such a multi talent - she says I am just perfect at avoiding being a riding horse. That's fine by me. I mean, everybody got to be perfect at something, right?

Mr Vet came on Thursday and decided there was an improvement in my way of going. Of course it was. I have it all figured out. See, my Mum and Aunt would never EVER put me down if I get even wee bit better. Granted, if I am lame non stop I am going to be in deep trouble.

This means, if I go sound for a bit (not difficult as with all the nice Danill-meals I'm getting there is very little discomfort anyway, you see), then lame for a bit, then sound again, I am buying myself a lot of time on this lovely yard with my dear buddies and the pampering services here are second to none.

So there you go guys, I've got it all sorted in me little head. I am no silly horse.

I am still lame in trot. Lame as a duck Wiola says. [Enter ears back here - I am a 6 year old Irish Sports Horse thank you, not a d u c k].

I forgive this bad language as Aunty Wiola took me for a very nice ride on Friday. Did I mention I like hacking? So I do. I know Wiola gets bored with hacking but frankly, I don't care. Neither do I give a damn about her riding career and all that nonsense. She told me that if I would only go sound to be a hacking horse I could be replaced with a competition horse.

Now, please tell me I am wrong but - I like it here. I don't want to be replaced by any freaking show horse that is afraid of a body brush and shows the whites in his eyes when approached with a slightly differently shaped feed bowl.

You are with me guys aren't you? I think Wiola might as well get used to a career in walk hacking. Surely there is one such? That is what I like doing anyway. And Mummy would always agree with me so that's that.

A few photos of me below. Just for the record, I *did* say they are all almost identical and there is no point having them all here. I wasn't listened to.

See, she likes hacking really ;)

Speak soon,

Kingsley

xxx

Ok, so Academy's website is LIVE...

http://www.aspire-equestrian.com/

Please let me know what you think! If you spot any mistakes or broken links do drop me a message or leave a comment - it will be really helpful :)

I am taking this opportunity to thank everybody involved in taking the idea of the Academy from dreamy and unrealistic to something doable and hopefully useful to many riders out there.

You know that quote: "If you can dream it, you can do it..."? Well, the thing is it was said by Walt Disney...you can make anything possible in a Hollywood film. In real life you need enormous amount of patience, hard work, long hours, impossibly long hours in fact and most of all a lot of help from people who believe in you and your idea.

Thank you to my wonderful man for creating the super website despite my total inability to submit material in correct formats and to all who made it possible - you know who you are :) X

Some Exciting News, My Chiro session and a bit of a Riding Frustration!

My new regime is proving to be a very good choice. Although I am actually working a few more hours than before I no longer have to commute for 4-5 hours a day 5 days a week and this has added some rest time to my weekly schedule :) I've also "booked" myself a day off next month which is an achievement ;)

For those of you who like statistics or are into industry analysis: I am now teaching about 39-40 hours a week plus 10 hours yard work a week plus around 3 hours (only :((((( ) riding a week (this doesn't include numerous pop on this pop on that during lessons and some odd schooling). I intend to continue like this till the end of the year but have some mad plans for 2011 which will hopefully let me ride a bit more. Right now I am throwing myself into improving all my riders and I'm trying not to dwell too much on limited training for myself.

Let's call it conscious cheating of ones subconscious ;)

The more time I spend on improving others the less I despair about so little riding time - a win/win situation. As a result my clients get a bit of a boot camp but it will hopefully take them where they would like to be.

One thing I've learned for sure is that if you have no financial back up you have to keep calm and carry on ;) If you're going in the right direction, the opportunities will come up your way...

One such opportunity has arrived in form of an offer from Horse and Country TV!!!

I will be writing a blog on their website on the ins and outs of the Academy. As I am setting the Academy up on a shoestring every promotion opportunity is great. I hope you will follow us there and I will post a link to Academy's blog once it's up and running.

While we are on the subject of promotion...If you like the idea of an everyday rider/ grassroots rider having an opportunity to train via holistic, progressive, comprehensive Training Programmes that don't cost more than an average riding school's voucher, then please join the Academy's Facebook Page on here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aspire-Equestrian-Riding-Academy/233852927658?ref=ts and suggest it to your friends. It will be much appreciated :)

I wish the technical tasks on the website could be sped up as I would love to put it live now for you all to see (and maybe send your comments and feedback :).

I might not be riding as much as I wish but I'm trying to focus on being riding-fit anyway. Part of my plan for this year is to sort out my shoulder/neck pain which gets worse after riding. I guess mucking out deep litter bedding in your teenage years, falling off a lot while backing young stallions and being put in plaster 8 times doesn't help your body to stay healthy. I am trying to fit in my sessions into my hectic lifestyle and Kari (who also works as Academy's chiropractor) came to see me today at my lunch time. We did a first part of prodding and poking which apparently starts diagnostic process. On a serious note, it seems I have much less sensation on the left side of my body and could have damaged some nerves but I will see Kari again for further investigations (I had to shoot off to teach and we didn't complete the assessment).

The funny thing is, my left side does feel less "connected" to me when I ride.

Kari's sessions and exercises have made some fabulous difference to some of my riders so I am really interested in seeing our method of combining on-horse training with off-horse very specific, personalised exercises developing and gaining popularity. It's not just professionals who can be trained in this way!

Pic: Kingsley still on box rest. Vet is coming again 4th or 5th of August.

The hardest bit is not to resent poor little Kingsley every time I see him; as much as I like him he reminds me all the time about the year of riding he has stolen from me. Naughty boy.

Seriously though, as frustrating as no-proper-riding is, what I miss the most is that everyday work with 1-2 horses and I fully intend to make it happen next year.

Enjoy your horse/pony - kingdom for a sound horse!

Aspire Equestrian Riding Academy on Twitter

http://twitter.com/AspireAcademy

Guest Post From Kingsley

So basically guys I'm still lame. I think it's funny that my mum Pauline and my aunt Wiola haven't really had a chance to ride me properly for a single time since they bought me and that's just about a year ago. My life is pretty cool apart from when the vet comes and sticks needles into my pasterns [what the hell?] and when I need to stay in my room for god knows what. I like going out and hang around with my gang so being grounded is just no good.

Just so it's clear I am displeased about all this 'stay in your room' business I make sure all the rugs and anything left in my stable is thoroughly mixed with shavings, hay and my poo. I see to that all right and if a rug has no rips on it I am right there to add some.

From what I gather my left foot is pretty much buggered. I *know* I move my left fore in a semi-circle before it hits the ground but I really don't think it's any body's business to tell me how to walk or trot or canter. I like doing things my way and it annoys me when these two-legged creatures think they know better.

It's my right to be pampered. When my aunt comes she always calls me "Hello Trouble". If she thinks I don't know what that means she better think again. Sometimes I decide to ignore her and pretend I don't see her so she goes and gets a treat - I trained her well.

Mummy is different - she buys me all the great stuff so I always have a good look when I hear her. It's easy to deal with Mummy, she basically does as she is told. I know I'm always right.

Aunty gets cross if I barge into her and although I know it's wrong I like to test her now and then. Plus, it's not her who has to stay in her room for days on end so really she is no position to tell me how I should behave!

I get to be groomed a lot. Now, that's rather cool and I like it. My aunt says I'm a lazy pet horse and my mum calls me a giant hamster but to be honest I find it quite offensive. Whenever I'm not grounded I have a lot of stuff to do, places to see and rugs on my friends to rip so I am no lazy hamster thanks very much.

My situation is pretty grim from what I understand. Aunty told me today that IF I ever get better I will have a lot of hacking to do as there is no way I would be allowed to do my own thing. That's fine as I like hacking.

I'm also told I will have to go to the Horsepital which I don't think is funny at all. My mum wants to know what exactly is wrong with me and Mr Vet said I most likely damaged my collateral ligament. And I also have navicular disease but that you knew.

Last week my physio, Anna Johnson, came (yeah I do get physio of course) and apparently I'm tight in the back and hamstrings - really? Try being lame for (at least) a year and not be sore anywhere else...good luck!

So that's it for now guys. I've had my left foot re-xrayed and re-medicated with cortisone injections and if I'm no better in the next 10-12 days I'm off to Newbury for MRI. The joys. I just want to go and graze some grass!

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And this is how Kingsley looked on the day I first went to try him.

August 2009 at seller's yard

And now: end of July 2010

Getting The Balance Right

Apologies to all who visit and see no new posts but hopefully I will be able to go back to more regularly scheduled waffle from now on :)

There is quite a bit to catch up with so I will attempt a little catch up.

First of all, we had a lovely time at Rick's mum wedding at the beginning of the month, the weather was brilliant and all gone well and cheerful. I somehow managed to give myself a weird neck strain/muscle spasm the day before we set off but our hotel room had a whirlpool bath so I spent considerable amount of time in there! One thing though you might want to remember - do not pour generous amount of Dove Bath Cream to a whirlpool bath...I succeeded in creating a giant igloo like cover for myself made of Dove Bubble!

The mini holiday over I started thinking about the possible changes in my working schedule so I could commute less and catch my breath. Coincident had it that one Centre I freelance for didn't need me as much on one of the days while the other offered me a raise and more hours. It confirms my belief that luck is nothing else but good timing ;)

Better still, this move decreases my commute costs and makes it all a bit more profitable (or survive-able in case of this industry!).

I'm still working 7 days a week but hopefully this little change will allow me to take a couple of days off next month.

The reason for this extreme business is of course the Academy project. Sometimes I wish I could just settle into a work at some cosy little yard and be fine with it, arrange for some training for myself and enjoy less hectic pace! This is not to be though as I obviously have the 'slow down' button broken.

Running of the Case Studies has been both interesting and challenging. There is a lot of fine tuning still to do but the more I work with the Academy scheme in mind the more convinced I become that this is the way I would like to follow.

Apart from the Case Studies, I have now signed up 3 riders to the actual Academy's Programmes. We are not officially live yet as far as the website goes (one more little section there to do and it will be out into the wide world web) but as the riders are keen I don't see why we should wait any longer :)

I will introduce the riders on Academy's blog which will come with the website.

The Case Studies Riders are being videoed extensively and photographed a lot so once their profiles are made up and ready to go live you can follow their progress.

Suzanne (pic above), training on the Development Programme with a Cleveland Bay mare Rosie from Barnfield Riding School has made a fabulous improvement to her canter work and general timing of the aids. She will continue the training throughout August and we will enter her and Rosie into a Prelim test at Dressage Anywhere . I incorporated Dressage Anywhere into Academy riders' training plans as it's such a good idea for a focus and competition opportunity for any rider without transport, on limited budget or simply one without own horse. It's low key, low pressure and fun enough to make less competitive riders happy but serious enough to provide re-assessment of the work.

Pauline is going through one of those remarkable weeks where everything seems to be clicking into place and she is reaping the rewards of hard work the weeks before. It's great to see and I'm sure even better for her to feel but it's not without a lot of sweat!

I wanted to put some videos from her lessons up but each contain variety of ideas that might not necessarily be suitable for wider viewing ;) Still picture will have to do.

Basically, Pauline has this habit of gripping with her thighs, push her looong legs onto horse's shoulders and raw with her arms which causes many rather comic reactions in almost all horses she rides. However, she's been working mega hard on this and yesterday she actually RODE the horse she is training with and it was a wonderful sight. If I didn't threaten to break her wrists and legs in my commentary then I would put the videos up for you. As it is I don't expect everybody to appreciate my dark humour that I save for my regular riders so I'll better get some silent footage for you next time (or swap my instructions for music when I have more time).

We've came up with a training strategy that transformed Pauline's riding and that is neither incredibly original nor costly AND anybody can do it :) Details on Academy's site very soon!

The girls on the Foundation Programme Case Study did their Training Day on the 10th of July. It was hot!

They both had a chance to test their skills on 4 different horses at Hall-Place Equestrian Centre where I run my Intensive Training Days. I so regret I messed up the filming as they did such a good job showing how much their jumping has improved throughout our little study. Bad camera skills on my part.

I sense I might be killed on Sunday for putting the above pic up but it just describes this rider really well!

The girls' Case Study is now completed and I will have to make do with whatever footage I managed to produce.

Annette and Pocholo, the gorgeous PRE gelding Case Studying the Development Programme were making some great progress too but we were worried about some contact issues. The teeth examination later and Pocholo is having his wolf teeth taken out! Once he is back in action we will continue with the training plan. Since taking on Pocholo and Annette as Case Studies I became more aware of a very strong notion towards Spanish horses in this country. It seems people either love them or can't stand the way they move! Pocholo had a very traditional Spanish training as a 3 and 4 year old which means he pretty much wants to carry himself in a Grand Prix frame while his back and hindquarters are more in a below Prelim level state of development. His lovely owner is very committed to going back to basics and the work he does now is very simple strengthening and building up training.

He has superb work ethics and although we are now schooling him as any young, low level Dressage horse I am very keen to get to know the breed more and see how/if the training needs to be adjusted.

I should also mention another of my riders who I started teaching a couple of months ago and who is now looking for a co-sharer for the horse she rides. Simon is a 13year old, Zangersheide bred gelding. The best thing about his rider is that she really does work on her "homework" AND it shows. Every time we have a lesson we can add a little thing here and there because the necessary work has been done. She has now started to build a very good relationship with Simon and that increased her confidence. The horse can be spooky so for the first couple of lessons we worked on being able to use movements like leg-yield, half-circles and counter-flexion which in turn allowed the rider to place Simon's legs where she wanted them to be. On our first lesson we had to spend 3/4 of the time on de-spooking Simon but on Monday we could work on rider's position and its influence on the gelding's way of going.

As many top riders/trainers will tell you, it's the little details that count. I listened to a HorseRadioNetwork's podcast the other day which started series on Inspirational People. The trainer interviewed was Denny Emerson...one of the things he said was something like this: ...riders need to learn to take their time with the basic training, we all know it. I go to a clinic - he said - and the rider asks me what she needs to improve on. I tell her she needs to develop independent seat. Everybody knows that this is necessary. The independent hand. Everybody knows the rider needs independent hands. I go back there for a clinic 1 year later and the rider still hasn't gotten the basics. Three years later, the same. The riders bring themselves down. We all need to put some effort into this basic training no matter how boring it might seem in comparison to a thrill of a competition.

Teaching S. and Simon reminded me about this podcast (well worth listening so click the link above if you have a minute). It's so rewarding to find riders actually putting in practise the things you work on in a lesson. Some riders treat lessons as necessary evil, the time to be shouted on and then they do the same old thing once riding on their own. I hope there will be less and less of riders like that. It's amazing how much any rider can improve when they throw their heart at it :)

Following my mission to "do it all" i.e. set up the Academy and continue my own training I squeezed in a few hours of tuition towards the BHS Stable Manager exam and the Stage IV exam on Friday. I have a sneaky plan to do with these two but I won't put it in writing yet as to not spoil said plan.

On Friday I met up with Jenny who is briefly back from Russia and we sat down for some pancakes and a catch up in Covent Garden. I hope she comes back soon and gets involved into some exciting horsey business with me :) Her mare, Kir Royal, who is currently eventing with Isobel Hudson of South West Eventing, has grown up and doing very well at BE100 level. She is being put up for sale...if you are a chestnut mare type person you should check this one out!

Straight after lovely time with Jenny I met with some of great friends from Barnfield RS and thereabouts for a long awaited trip to War Horse!

If you haven't yet seen this superb play you just have to go. It's all what everybody is saying and much more. The details that the actors have gone into to make it look and feel real is tremendous. I cried and cried as seemingly lifeless shapes came to life thanks to the cast behind it all. Incredible doesn't even describe it.

I am looking forward to the movie being made but somehow I don't think it would be the same kind of revelation as this play was.

Amazingly, someone has only told me today their good friend is working on the actual War Horse film!!! This someone is an actor (hopefully immensely famous one day so I can claim my acquaintance with a Film Star!) who learned to ride with me last year for his role in Henry VIII. Laurence has returned for some more equestrian fun to prepare for his next role...This one is set sometime in 1892 and he plays an Austrian Emperor... of sorts ;) The mission was to learn to dismount a horse in a style so I showed him a few and he settled for this one:

Laurence, if you're reading don't forget to send me the actual scene from the film!! :)

I most likely missed a thing or two out from this update but as it's already longer than any other post I better finish and catch some sleep. Speak soon!

Amazing & Beautiful...

Bad Blogger

Pic: Thirsty Kingsley. The 25-30C temperatures don't help the grass to grow...

There is a decent update coming very very soon. Right now I'm spending every waking hour either working or commuting or working. It's not fun. I'm tired and I had to change my alarms so they say exactly what day it is, where I'm going and what time I need to be there as I'm so out of it in the mornings I am pretty sure I would pop onto a wrong train going to a wrong yard.

Nearly 7 months of 7 day a week, almost non-stop work and dreadful commute has just about finished me off. July is the last month I'm continuing with this marathon and will be rearranging my work from August onwards.

Apart from trying to open my house door with my Oyster card, putting Kingsley's fly rug the wrong way round, waiting for kettle to boil while it sits on the kitchen counter AWAY from power supply, putting my face sun cream on my toothbrush and failing to video properly the Foundation programme Case Study riders on their Training Day (I managed to press ON for when the camera was not in use and OFF for filming)...well, apart from all that I'm doing great ;)

I'm counting days till the Academy website finally goes live so I can sleep again and rest again.

Proper update as soon as possible!

If all goes as it does I will need more motivational books than even Foyles can sell...

I should be packing for our departure to Cheshire now but I'm so tired I'd rather just waffle and update this blog ;) Tired seems to describe my general state of being recently. I wake up tired, work tired, eat tired and go to sleep tired. I *know* it's not good, believe me I do and I am perfectly capable of giving myself a telling-off pep talk. I then go off and get tired some more.
As you can guess this post is just a lot of tired waffle so you might want to wait for the next one to read any proper update on more interesting things.

Perhaps those of you who compete their horses and really love it can understand me here...I might not be competing but getting the Academy project off the ground feels like awaiting a big show. I know I should be resting and all but everything is just too overwhelming and over-absorbing (is this a word?). I can't mentally relax for all the ideas and "to do things" that play football inside my head.

To make things "better" I gave myself an enormous muscle spasm in the neck today. I took a group of beginners out and spent almost two hours with my head the wrong way round. It's no wonder that horses look lame and neurologically unsound if they have any muscle problems in the neck...
Amazingly, I taught a child in the evening whose mother is a Sports Massage Therapist (human ;) - OK, one lucky dip here! - so got a few tips on how to go about my new spasm friend. I'm therefore sitting here trying to drink lots of water, heat patch plastered on my neck and gentle stretches from time to time. I hope it goes by Saturday as I have to wear a dress and heels and I am not spending my second Sunday off this year with pain in the neck AND feet!

So this is all this post is about. Tired and quite sad, missing my family and...did I mention tired?
I'm hoping the next few days will revive me somewhat but the laptop is coming with me so I can finally finish the website content marathon.

Ricky's just announced my bath is ready so off I go. Speak soon!

This is how my evenings look like right now: video making, images choosing, txt choosing etcetera...