East Shropshire Riding Club

East Shropshire Riding Club

Well May has certainly  been a busy one.

Honeychop

Katie Jukes with one of the winners

It all started with the first of two Honeychop giveaways the first being at the East Shropshire Riding Club. It was bank holiday weekend so I should’ve guessed the weather wouldn’t be great even so we (Katie Jukes and I) gave away bags bad bags of Honeychop to all winners in the showjumping classes and all winners in the dressage too. On such a dismal  day (weather) it put smiles on a lot of faces as prizes at local riding club shows are a rarity. We gave away lots of samples and vouchers too.

My first show of the month was at Penkridge and district riding club I was excited to try out all we had been practicing in our lessons competitively but  . . . . It was not to be.  Although I had tacked up and even studded ready to jump there were such hysterics from Corky as he was terrified of the paintball that was going on just the other side of the hedge so  I never even left the lorry park.

Corky and I at Beaconfarm

Corky and I at Beaconfarm

I tried for nearly an hour  to calm him down by circling in trot but with the repeated outbursts of paintball he was getting more and more ‘wound up’ this all escalated into him stopping dead refusing to go forward reversing and rearing ( totally out of character) at this point I gave up got off and took my now shaking ,sweating and terrified horse home.

So the next weekend we went to Beaconfarm riding clubshow. I was a little apprehensive that he wouldn’t settle, but he was a star (OK after being rather tense in the warm up to start with) so for the first ie in ages we jumped a course on grass he was enthusiastic if a little too much but it was great to feel him wanting to do it just a pity the jockey didn’t ride to the fence downhill so he stopped and then got it down.

Corky and I at Beaconfarm

Corky and I at Beaconfarm

We even did the next class again slightly too enthusiastic but feeling a little more confident as we went round. Our results on paper weren’t anything special but  I felt we had achieved a small success from a joint confidence point of view.

We have had another lesson with

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Honeychop goodies

Abbie Griffin but unfortunately whilst hacking there we had a disagreement with a herd of young bullocks resulting in a piaffe that valegro would’ve been proud of.
So as you can imagine he wasn’t ‘with me’ for the first part of the lesson but we ended it by jumping a course of fences in a nice rhythm with take off ‘spot on’ and with control it wasn’t necessarily pretty but it was effective.

Birmingham Children Hospital Horse and Dog show

Birmingham Children Hospital Horse and Dog show

I finished the month with the second Honeychop giveaway at the Birmingham Children Hospital Horse and Dog show. Pat Sharman and team managed to raise over £7,000. All the winners in the showjumping and dressage classes received a bag of Honeychop.
It was an incredibly long day for Katie and myself but we were making the most of the sun which is such a difference to the first giveaway when I wore my coat all day as it was cold  — that’s British weather for you !
I’ve had some great feedback from some of the winners with photos of their horses enjoying their Honeychop.
another month gone and there’s still a rosette famine to sort out !!