Autumn Vibes

A great season has come to an end…and what a season it has been! We’ve ridden at our last show of the year, the Caledonian showing championships. It was a lovely show and what better way to end this years run than winning both classes! The day didn’t start well with Gerry being a total nightmare to plait in the morning, he wanted out of his stable, so decided that rearing and pushing my mum and I around was the way to get what he wanted, erm, think again Gerry!! I got my way and got those pesky plaits in, we boxed up and headed down the road. It was a 2 hour drive to the venue and the roads were very, very wet! However, we made it and got ourselves together. I had entered the working hunter, forgetting it was on grass! And on a really horrible wet day where the rain just poured the whole day, Gerry jumped the only clear round in the class and gave the judge a beautiful ride for us to take the top spot. Sadly the other entry in our side saddle class didn’t come forward, so we got to parade around the beautiful draped arena, with the music playing and disco lights lit up by ourselves – Gerry was brilliant and the atmosphere and surroundings didn’t seem to phase him at all. All I wanted was for a better run than Blair, and he gave me what I asked for! It was 7pm by the time I had finished my side saddle class, and our working hunter championship was to be the last of the night, I decided that Gerry was deserving of a rest and we decided just to trailer home (it was a journey home too so if we’d stayed it would have been past midnight for getting home again!)

Check the muddy legs after workers!

The next weekend we had dressage, but for some reason ..I decided to give it a bash in my side saddle! I just entered the one test and the venue is just 10 minutes up the road thankfully, so that day was not too hard going. I’d not managed to practice as much as I could, so was a little nervous for once, BUT Gerry was very, very well behaved and we managed to score 67.20%.. and WON The class!..pretty reasonable for our first prelim “on the side”. There were 9 other riders in the section so I was just delighted and really couldn’t believe we had won, I had boxed up Gerry to nip him home then was going to head back to the venue for my results, but my mum called and said she had my test AND my rosette, rosette I thought, huh that’s good going, I got a rosette! “what did I get?” “you won!” haha, I can still hear it… I really genuinely couldn’t believe it. Clever Gerry! He enjoyed an afternoon in the sunshine and got clipped the next day, poor thing had been getting so sweaty! We went for the classic hunter clip – he looks great. 

Sleepy G

So winter will hopefully consist of some much needed lessons, some show jumping and some more dressage. I am very much looking forward to my trip down South to meet with team Honeychop for Your Horse LIVE. I had a really great time in 2016 and I’m expecting the same this year, no pressure on supplying the banter team Honeychop!

Winter is rolling in fast, make sure you are prepared! There is lots of feeding advice available on the Honeychop website, and the team are always more than happy to help, do reach out if you have any questions or want to request a sample.

Until next time, Grace & Gerry x

Winnings