A great weekend of training!

We had a very busy 'training' weekend last weekend with a dressage lesson on Saturday and then we joined in on a XC clinic with Italian Olympic rider Vittoria Panizzon on Sunday.

On Saturday we had a dressage lesson with a trainer very local to us, a lady called Mary Coleman. She has got a fantastic school with plenty of mirrors which I find very useful indeed although to start with Diaz kept making herself jump as there was suddenly a horse next to her when we went past the mirrors!! Diaz did some lovely work for me and her flatwork is finally all starting to fall into place! We did some work on her medium trot strides as well as quite a bit of transition work to get her to engage her hind quarters properly and use herself. For more pictures from our lesson and to watch some video clips please Click Here!

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After a good nights sleep for Diaz and I we were soon on our way to Littleton Manor Equestrian Centre on Sunday to join in on a clinic held by Italian rider Vittoria Pannizon. The nearer we got the Littleton the more excited I became, after all it has been almost 5 months since I was out on a XC track!! On arrival it became clear that Diaz was as excited as I was about it all! We started warming up and Diaz felt great, it took her a while to get used to the ground as it was, as expected, a little deep in places due to the weather that we have had recently! Luckily the ground at Littleton is quite sandy so although deep in places it wasn't too holding on the horses which was good! We started of with some simple fences which worked well as Diaz was slightly hesitant to begin with but she soon transformed into a XC machine, taking on what ever I put in front of her and the bigger / more complex the fences got the better she jumped! We finished off jumping some BE100 / Novice sized fences, decent sized drop fences to skinnies, and steps in and out of the water! To view more pictures from the XC clinic as well as a video please Click Here!

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After two positive training sessions, BE membership sorted and with entries for our first event now done I have to say I'm getting very excited for the season ahead with Diaz and can't wait for the events to start!
 
With my other two girls, Roxie has been enjoying lots of hacking recently to help build up muscle and fitness as our sand school gets a bit deep and boggy this time of year - with Roxie and her new princess ways she's not overly keen on getting wet and muddy! I'm hoping to get Roxie out to some dressage competitions in the very near future. Milli is now to start work again, although I haven't yet sat on her due to her clearly forgetting everything she has done under saddle for the last 4 years; after 3 months box rest she has turned into an un-backed 3 year old! The walk work she has been doing isn't quite as exciting as it was last weekend so hopefully we will keep at least one hoof on the ground this time, or is that just wishful thinking....?!?

Until next time,
 SG Equestrian
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***Keep Calm & Canter On***