It’s that time of the year…

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When most people in the horsey world decide on which society or club to join or think of a goal for the forthcoming year.

I will again be joining my local riding club, Gwennap (http://gwennapridingclub.tumblr.com/) as that is where I started out showing and it is also only down the road, which is handy if I want to hack to a competition like I did a lot last year! The club not only does showing, but holds open show jumping and dressage days and evenings, cross country competitions, a derby day and even an adult gymkhana evening (alcohol allowed!) It’s a proper grass roots club with something for everyone and although I don’t do the showing there anymore, it is an excellent place to take the babies out, either ridden or in hand. I really enjoy the dressage evenings they have on and they usually have the clear round on at the same time over the working hunter course, complete with water splash! There is a dressage day next Sunday (13th) that I am aiming for, both with Harry and George and the club have gained the use of a new indoor school nearby for the winter, enabling them to have club events for the whole year.

Splashing about!

I am undecided on joining any other clubs or societies as yet. BSPS has always been too expensive to do, although they do seem to be the new society to be with if you have an M&M as, under their membership, you can compete in RIHS and Olympia qualifiers and also HOYS. The NPS have a fabulous combined Dressage/Spring Festival in April but it is too far away for me! It is also the time to start planning shows and events and this year George and I will be doing a lot of variety and mother will also be wanting to take her Shetland out, especially now he is gelded and is an absolute angel!

I also did my good deed of the day – helping a friend find her lost horses. They had escaped from their field and poor Emma was very worried so rang me to ask to spread the word. Naturally, I put it on Facebook and within 15 minutes, another friend, Hannah, had replied that they were shut in her field. Emma and Hannah were connected by me and it all ended happily!

Happy New Year…

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Happy New Year – how fast did 2012 go?!

Highlights for me included having my writing published in Horse & Hound (twice!!), winning dressage competitions on Mr Porge and doing live blogs from HOYS and Olympia on the NPSW website – www.native-pony.com – which led to the website passing over the 100,000 hits mark in just six months! Unfortunately, that meant I neglected my own personal blog!

So hear is my New Years resolution….to actually keep my blog updated at least once a week! 2013 looks to be an exciting year for me, though I am one of those people who takes each day as it comes! I hope to have lots more of my writing published – I am yet to get over the excitement of seeing my name above a report in a magazine or newspaper. My last report of 2012 was on the M&M supreme at Olympia and happily, Western Morning News also used my photo to go with the report. That is another aim for me, to take more photos! I think I might attempt a photo a day on here – horsey of course! I am also hoping to start an NCTJ (National Council for the Training of Journalists) fast track course in February. I passed the pre entry test, where I had to do a two hour exam, and I am glad it is only taking place at the college 15 minutes away from home, so I can finally get George fit for the early competitions. With George this year, I am not sure of any specific aims, but I would like to do more dressage and achieve higher scores – our highest last year was 68% but I know it can be better. We also love jumping and just having a lot of variety to what we do – some of the best things are going for lovely long hacks with your friends and family in the sun (!!).

Anyway, hope there weren’t too many sore heads today from last nights festivities and you all have a happy, healthy and horsey 2013 🙂

Magpie x

A bit long, sorry!!

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I have accidentally neglected my blog for a few weeks so thought I best update it! I have been quite busy out showing at the weekends with four shows on the trot! Better start at the beginning of the month – we took George to the NPA show. It was a bit of a wait around but thankfully dry! Georgie jumped a super round in the workers to come 2nd to the eventual champion. This was our first show of the season so I was proud of how well he went. The nest week we did the NPS show, again Mr George jumped super – it was a fab course, up to height and well built but boggy ground at the bottom of the hill – he produced a lovely clear round and we won the class. A quick change of his bit to his pelham and we were in the ridden class – we were second to Amy’s lovely Dales. We put George back on board and got the Shetlands ready for their class. Stan was a very good boy for my first attempt of showing him and won the class and took reserve junior champion. Clare was in Ireland so was very proud of her boy!

 

We had a bit of a fire scare before the NPS show – I had bought a Showerking hot horse shower back in April with my first money from H&H but due to being away and not doing any shows, I didn’t get round to unpacking it until a few days before the show on the 1st. We followed the instructions and set it up with our new gas bottle – George didn’t like the sound of it and the shower hose was clearly not long enough so we complained about that and was advised to attach a hose pipe so it can be placed further away from George and easier to wash his whole body. We tried again on the day before the NPS show and we managed to wash George fine. After finishing George, I moved onto Stan and had half done his body, turned around to untwist the hosepipe and the shower was on fire! Mother and I were so shaken afterwards, we called the fire brigade to check all the equipment and that it was safe. Another complaint and the shower was packed off to be inspected. I had a reply today and the black washer that had come with it had not been put in the proper place. We had followed the instructions and assumed the washer went in a different position to how it was supposed to be – there were no pictures to show how it was correct and I am absolutely fuming. I am now putting the case to Trading Standards. Several friends have been put off using theirs from this and others have also told me of theirs setting on fire.

Anyway, back to the showing! We went to Praze Fair and Clive (the lorry) did us proud and managed to zoom in through the muddy gateway. We got a 5th in the riddens and a 2nd in the workers with a pole. We decided not to enter the M&M WHP class as mother had work in the evening so wanted to be home in time. On Monday, we had Stithians show and Bry had got back the night before so I offered her the ride as she is only back for two weeks. We were unplaced in the in hands in a strong class so we were not too hopeful for the riddens as he didn’t seem her type. However, he was pulled in 2nd – did a lovely, foot perfect show and won the strong Cornish class to our delight. He also went reserve champion to the winner of the small breeds class. What a lovely end to the day!

We have got Camborne show this weekend and dressage on Tuesday. We are taking Garfield to our local riding club show for his first ride around – he has been happily hacking out for the last three weeks and had his first canter on Tuesday, proving to be sensible and happy in his work. Its lovely been out doing shows but after Camborne we are having a little break from them for a little while as I would like to do some Cross Country or Show Jumping.

Til next time! X

 

Garfield is a big boy now!

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Mr G – 3rd time ridden and walking around on his own.

Our PBA gelding, Garfield, has been slowly broken and backed over the last 3 weeks. He has taken to it really well and seems to be really enjoying his work and having a job to do. We have had him since he was weaned so it is quite special to see how he has grown, changed and matured over the years. He will officially be 4 in two weeks and we are glad we have waited until now as he needed time to mature mentally and physically. All the boys in the field came to watch him when he was being lunged and long reined, and also when he was first sat on – they seemed impressed! This was him 3 weeks ago – learning how to lunge properly. Once he got the hang of the lunging by himself, he progressed to long reining, proving sensible and brave. Then on Monday, Clare decided someone should actually have a sit on him – he has only ever been leant over! Taking it all in his stride, he stood like a rock and hardly batted an eyelid. Today (Friday), he went out for his first big boy hack, just around the valley with two of our sensible boys and Garfy led most of the way (partly cos his legs are so long and we cannot keep up!) The next step is to trotting with Clare on him – we will not be spending much time in the sandschool as we do not want him to get bored of work already and also, hacking gives them things to observe and overcome. For now, getting him going forward is our main aim and he is doing a grand job at the moment and we hope it continues – we are all very impressed by how much he has taken it in his stride! Our long term aim is to do a walk and trot dressage test in August. He has only been to a handful of shows in hand and was pretty good about his new surroundings. I will update over the next few weeks how he is getting on!

Mr G on the lunge!

I have also been hacking Mr George most days to get him fit for the show on Sunday – he has been very good and as we have a worker class on Sunday, I thought I should have a bit of jumping practice in the sandschool! He is feeling quite fit and enjoying his work and absolutely pinged over the jumps today, including tyres and a raised cross pole with green bale wrapping underneath – he did not blink an eye! I did have to give mother a crash course in how to use my DSLR camera and she did do quite a good job, though a bit blurry, but there are not many times that she gets a shot of me actually going over a jump!

George & I today!

H&H report and awaiting university results!

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Today was the day my second report for Horse & Hound came out – I got a lovely text off Clare with a pictures of each page (3 pages!) this morning and have just got back from town picking up my own copy! Whilst trying to find the equestrian section in the shop, I also spotted Equestrian Life South West magazine and suddenly remembered that I had sent in the Devon County M&M report. I had also sent in a few pictures but despite being acknowledged for the report, I was not acknowledged for some of my photos – oh well, they still got published! My Royal Cornwall looked fabulous with all the photos (by the fantastic Hamish Mitchell) and everyone seemed please, especially Nathan, who finally got his photo in H&H!

I am now starting to get really into my photography and adore using my camera. I went up to our local riding club on Tuesday evening and they had clear round X country on, which was the perfect opportunity to practice jumping photography. Thankfully, it was a lovely evening (quite contrasted to the weather right now!) and I managed to get quite a lot of nice piccies! I have also now set up a Photobox account (http://www.photoboxgallery.com/celestemagpiemedia), where people can buy my event photography prints for as little as 12p. I have noticed an increase in people wanting images purely for Facebook, so am offering a digital download for £2, which is perfect for Facebook and other social media, emailing and adverts.

I have also entered George for the evening dressage again, which will be on Tuesday so fingers crossed we do as well as we did last week! We have a showing weekend planned – Mum and Clare will be going to a Shetland show at Tall Trees, which is luckily indoors! On Sunday, we are hoping to get to Penzance horse show – but we are holding out to see if the weather clears up! Hope everyone has a good weekend if you are going out showing!

Lastly, I am expecting my results from university within the next week – I have my fingers crossed and will hopefully update with good news next week!!

Celeste x