March 2015
Well, I said in my March blog that things were set to get
busy and I was absolutely right! In short, in the last month we have:
1. Been to
Cambridgeshire for intensive training with Tiny Clapham
2. Bought a
new lorry
3. Welcomed
our first home-bred foal into the world
4. Won our
second event on the trot
Back in March I was lucky enough to head down to fellow
Fulmart Feeds rider, Tiny Clapham for some intense training to help our
preparation for the Badminton Grassroots Championships. We had a fantastic time
down there and learned so much! We had a flatwork session where Tiny helped us
no end, giving me some new exercises to work on at home. On the second day we
had a jumping session where she put us under more pressure and created some tricky
exercises. Herbie didn’t find them easy but by the end was really getting the
hang of them and I could feel his brain working quicker which was one of the
key objectives. All in all I felt we improved a lot over a short space of time
and would like to thank Tiny for the time she spent with us.
While we were at Tiny’s our broodmare, Umber, was getting
closer and closer to foaling but in the end made us wait a whole 10 days after
her due date before giving birth to the gorgeous Ginny Rumba! Although I am
very biased I think Ginny is totally beautiful and have spent hours watching
her in the field and taking countless photos and videos!! We are now ready to
put Umber back in foal so the long 11 month waiting game starts all over again!
Follow me on Twitter @lmstepho if you want lots of cute foal pictures!!
Following my training with Tiny and also lots of sessions
with my regular trainer, Zoe Rymer, we headed off to our second event of the
season at Norton Disney. Herbie showed that his win at Askham Bryan was not a
fluke by performing a lovely dressage test (for a score of 23) followed by a
double clear to win our section. Whilst I know Badminton will be a real
challenge and the standard of competition will be high, it’s nice to be heading
there with two great results under our belt. We head to Badminton in 2 weeks so
it’s very much ‘all systems go!’
Our next blog will include the low down on Badminton so let’s
hope it’s a positive one, for now I’ve got a lot of training still to do and
then a mammoth lorry packing session before the adventure begins!
Best wishes,
Lucie (and Herbie!)
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