Charlie Pickman

The Season has finally started for Charlie Pickman!

At long last the eventing season has begun for me, the rain has stopped and the ground is finally drying up. We took Meg and Nanny to Aldon to do the Advanced Intermediate and Intermediate sections where the ground was very dry, almost hard in places - but at least there were no worries about deep mud. Instead there was a very strong bitterly cold wind with sleet at times! Lovely.

We have been working on Meg's dressage over the winter and recently been teaching her to do flying changes. Sorting her body and legs out in this way seems to have completely blown her mind. So trying to keep a top hat wedged in place in the very strong wind whilst endeavouring to control an excitable mare with legs flying in all directions as she rapidly lost concentration (and trying to remember the test at the same time) was not easy - our performance was described as tense! Thankfully her show jumping has become a lot looser and she wasn't struggling with the height at all so that was good. For the majority of the cross country course she felt fantastic, but took a dislike to a double of narrow fences and had faults there. However, she finished full of running and hopefully having had an outing will now have got some of the butterflies our of her system.

Nanny wasn't firing on all cylinders and didn't have any enthusiasm to jump - not her ususal self at all - so she did not go cross country. She will have a short break and see if she recovers her normal appetite for eventing.

Why is it that horses can perform so well at home and then change personality on "the day"? Someone once said "horses are great levellers" - hmmmmmm, aren't they just! After Aldon we are having a big rethink and going back to the drawing board. We have withdrawn Nanny from Gatcombe, but at present Meg is still aimed at Belton. Work continues with the other horses bringing them on and getting them fit, so lots more to look forward to!

The drier weather has meant we can go cross country schooling at last so we took 3 of Tim's horses from the yard with great success. Vladamir and Paddy were new to cross country fences and went particularly well. Vladamir is only 5 and made everything feel easy. We are hoping he will be a horse to look out for in the future!

We also had the pleasure of going to Cheltenham on Gold Cup day - this was one of my prizes for winning the Stately Homes Challenge last year. We had a fantastic time being able to use a box for great viewing. Many thanks to Mrs Benney and all the others involved in providing this excellent prize.

Charlie

P.S. The picture is of Nico at the dressage regionals - just to prove that not all my dressage tests are "tense"!