Liz Taylor

A snowy start to the year

Well, its 13th January 2010 already and annoyingly I have not sat on a horse since before Christmas thanks to our near arctic conditions which have not only frozen my supposedly all weather school, but now dumped close to a foot of snow making even the simplest of tasks impossible! Oh, and its still snowing!
The temperatures caused havoc at the yard with all of our water freezing up...we have been transporting water from home (2miles away) but of course feeding lots of hay and the horses not being able to get to grass only means they drink more water than usual!

My last blog was prior to Enigmatika’s first outing, to a group lesson organised by my local Endurance Group. Enigmatika was absolutely fantastic. All of the hours of schooling we had put in at home worked dividends and after walking her round the extremely frightening indoor school for a while to calm her down, I got legged up and she immediately worked in a lovely outline and on the bit, working fantastically well and to my delight completely ignoring the other horses. After 45 minutes of perfect behaviour it came time for the horses to do a bit of cantering, this was slightly too exciting and we did have quite a few bucks, but she was controlled and quickly went back to a nice calm, on the bit outline. A very very pleasing start.

Since then we have attended two further lessons, the second one was also very good with fewer bucks! Again she worked very sensibly in a lovely relaxed outline – I was really very proud of her.
The third one was a bit more frustrating! After she had gone so well in our previous lessons she decided this game was easy...and I was just an inconvenience!! We had a bit of a ‘stroppy teenager’ stage as I was asking for a little bit more, some trotting poles were introduced, and horses were not going round in one circle, but working on their own sets of trotting poles...this gave her plenty of excuses to get a bit excitable! But we ended the lesson well and am very much looking forward to the next one!
Enigmatika is fed on Dengie Hi Fi Lite, Dengie Alfa-A and some Alfa-A Balancer, this seems to keep her in a really great condition, providing enough energy to cope with the work I am asking her to do, but not making her fizzy or excitable. Even when Falaina was racing at 100miles, she would just be eating Alfa-A and HiFi Lite (supplemented with performance vitamins & minerals and electrolytes)...it is such a fantastic diet that provides them with exactly what an endurance horse needs, plenty of fibre and enough slow release energy to allow them to do the job and last the distance, but not making them fizzy! All of the other horses are on Alfa-A and Hi-Fi Lite, just differing amounts dependant upon the horses.

Investing in some lessons with a good instructor has proved invaluable for Ennie, not only is she going in a fantastic outline and building up the correct muscles, which will enable her to use her body to its full extent when she starts her Endurance career this year, but she really is a joy to ride, and very responsive. I really would encourage everyone to undertake some kind of schooling (preferably lessons) as it really will pay off hugely when it comes to actually competing in an endurance ride, the horse will not only be more responsive, but also better able to cope with the ground you are asking it to cover. It will also be more balanced, which short term should help to reduce niggling injuries, and long term increase the long term soundness and career of your horse. I know my local EGB group is organising a fun dressage competition at the end of the winter, and I think this is a great way to give us a ‘schooling aim’...and I’m very competitive, so this will give me a great focus.

I am very lucky in that my local endurance GB group (Offas Dyke) is very pro active, and is fantastic at organising events, not only have they organised the group schooling sessions which have been hugely well supported but they are also holding our ‘fun dressage competition’ to see how we have all progressed with this winters schooling, we also have a farriery talk at the end of the month, and in March I am hosting another training day at my yard for local riders who are hoping to compete in their first endurance ride this year. If you are thinking about having a go at Endurance, please contact Endurance GB (www.endurancegb.co.uk) who will give you details of your local group, if you are local to Gloucestershire/Herefordshire/Monmouthshire then please look at www.offasdykeegb.co.uk. Local groups are a great way to meet people and get a taste of the sport, so its well worth finding out the contact details for your regional group!

Unfortunately Enigmatika’s first ‘Endurance Ride’ was cancelled due to the snow/icy conditions, her first endurance outing was supposed to be the Christmas Pleasure ride which is in the Forest of Dean, however as it was scheduled for the week after Christmas the arctic conditions had already taken a fair grip of the country. A real shame. Once we are able to start working her again (fingers crossed we should be thawing out by this weekend according the met office!) we are planning to do some little winter walk/trot dressage tests before the endurance season gets going, and I also hope to do some ridden showing with her this year as she has some fantastic paces and again its great experience for a young horse.

Finally, the other horses are all well (although not enjoying the snow), we had Falaina and Karaanza scanned at the beginning of December, and both are still carrying foals, so fingers are still tightly crossed for July.

Hopefully, by my next blog the snow will have disappeared and I’ll have been able to start riding again and will have some stories of Ennie’s first outings!!

Wishing you all a happy and successful 2010!

Liz