After jumping Milli in her WOW saddle for the first time last week, and with the huge improvements in how she is working on the flat in her new WOW dressage saddle I couldn't wait to see how she would feel jumping in one at a competition.......

There was very big entries in each class with jumping starting at 9.30am and finally finishing at 8pm, with as many as 45+ entries in some classes! I picked Kim up on route as she wanted to jump the first few classes. Maisey jumped two lovely double clears for Kim and had they been registered with BS they would have finished in 5th place out of 45+ entries which was a great result!

Due to the large entries Milli had been stood on the trailer for quite a while but this just made her even more excited to be out! She was very fresh in the warm up, to the point she was trotting round and kept squeaking to herself!! When I jumped her in the WOW saddle at home she just kept improving her way of jumping with every jump! She warmed up great in the WOW flat seat event saddle and was jumping brilliantly! We went in to jump the discovery and she jumped an amazing double clear for me and we finished in 3rd place out of another very large class so I was chuffed to bits. Even more pleased after many spectators came up to me after the class and commented on how beautiful our round was and how well Milli was jumping, making it look easy! I was also told be many people riding that I was on a jumper not an eventer! haha Our round felt amazing and there was a huge improvement in her straightness, as I have noticed from pictures taken eventing that she tends to take of off just one of her back legs where she is drifting right on the approach but in the WOW saddles she is 100% straight! There is also a big improvement in the shape she makes over a fence! she has always used herself correctly over a fence but in the WOW saddles she is basculing much more and she makes 1.10m feels like 65cm!!

As you can see from the picture below she is jumping 100% straight, really using her back and lowering her head! I also love how secure my leg remains in these WOW saddles both jumping and on the flat. I feel much closer to the horse and able to influence them much easier without there being any visible changes to my position!

Regarding the change in Milli's straightness, these two pictures below show you exactly what I meant. In the picture to the left (XC at SofE - Sept 2013) she is very clearly taking off of just one of her back legs putting a lot of strain on her body where as in the picture to the right (SJ at Blue Barn - Nov 2013) she is very straight. both front legs are in line and so are her back legs showing that her take off was much more evenly spread across both the hind legs making the jump easier to her thanks to the WOW saddle. It is also noticeable how much straighter I am in the saddle too as I have been struggling with my straightness a lot since my accident but after riding in these WOW saddles for a over 6 weeks now it is already noticeable how much straighter I am in them and no longer need to have asymmetric air in my saddles.

For some more pictures and a video of Milli jumping please check out her Gallery page...

All in all it was a very good day out and the improvements in both my horses since being fitted with WOW saddles and also being treated by Sofia Graham recently is remarkable and makes me even more excited to see what next year brings.....

SG Eventing

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Keep Calm & Canter On

After a great day out competing last Wednesday (30-10-13) with both Roxie and Milli.....for more details from the day click here....Blog. Anyway back to last Thursday (31-10-13) when the Global Herbs team came to spend the day on the yard with us. It was great to finally meet the Global Herbs team after using their products for the last 6+ years and being sponsored by them for the past two seasons :) They met all the horses and watched my have lessons with Jan Breeze on them both too. We also did some videos talking about the products and the FANTASTIC results I've had from every product that I have used! Keep checking back too see the videos soon......

As well as Global Herbs being on the yard all day we had Carly from WOW Saddles with us. We were holding a demo day for a few people to try the saddles out and see, but more importantly feel the improvements these saddles make to their horses. We all had lessons with Jan Breeze once the saddles had been fitted to each horse / pony and everybody was amazed at the change in their horses way of going and the improvement in their flatwork / jumping technique.

After the HUGE improvements of Milli and her way of going in her new WOW Dressage Saddle I couldn't wait to try her in a jump saddle! I tried her in the flat seat event saddle, in fact it was one of Kitty Kings old saddles that has been round Badminton! The improvement in Milli's jump was incredibly. Milli has a very good natural way of jumping anyway but with a WOW saddle on she had a lot more jump to her stride making it more ground covering too. Her jump improved a lot too and she was basculing beautifully and using her back so much more and lowering her head right down. For the first few jumps she was unsure herself as to how much 'jump' she now had and just kept improving jump after jump after jump. She was so much neater in front and happier to get closer to the bottom of the fence allowing her to make the spread much easier etc. We are out at Blue Barn for their first BS show next Wednesday (13-11-13) and WOW will be there with us so come over to ask any questions you may have or just to say 'Hi' :)

Then it was Roxie's turn for her dressage lesson and I am very lucky because she is a very similar shape to Milli saddle wise so I have been schooling her in Milli's after WOW had a look at it on her and suggested I put a pro-lite pad underneath. For her lesson I had one fitted to Roxie and she felt great! It has taken her a while to get used to me being so much closer to her as there is a very strong bond between us anyway and to start with, where she was so much looser and had more movement in her shoulder there was the odd stride where she felt a little unbalanced which upset her a bit and interrupted the rhythm slightly but in my lesson she really got the hang of it and her work was incredible, especially her medium and extended trot!!! Roll on the next few competitions with Roxie in her WOW saddle :)

One of my Clients, Kim was very keen to try her mare in a WOW jump saddle after riding in a WOW dressage saddle during the dressage competition at Blue Barn where she noticed a huge improvement in her mares way of going. They got the same result from the jump saddle and the mare was much more settled on her approach to the fence as she can get a bit rushed and over excited. Everybody that tried the WOW saddle loved the improvements it made in theirs horses way of going both on the flat and whilst jumping and have now put WOW saddles at the top of their Christmas lists!! Jan was also very impressed with the improvements the saddles made to the horses and ponies that tried them for the lessons.

So all in all a very good and productive day at the SG Eventing headquarters despite the slight dampness the weather provided....takes a lot more to dampen our spirits!!! #gohardorgohome!

Until next time,

SG Eventing
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Keep Calm & Canter On

After over a month off jumping after her last event Milli was very excited to jump at home last week and she jumped so well i decided to pop over to Saddlesdane last sunday (27-10-13) for their first BS show of the winter season. Seeing as she hadn't jumped out for a while I thought i'd do the 95cm as a bit of a warm up and then the discovery. She jumped really well in both classes finishing in 2nd place in both, which resulted in her winning back the exact amount it cost me to enter the two classes which was a good result :)

We have had our WOW dressage saddle for 3 weeks now and the difference in Milli has been amazing! She has been working so well I thought , although she is still only 5, it was time to have a go at our first British Dressage Novice test. We have been working on our medium trot recently and some more advanced movements which she has thoroughly enjoyed! Well, it's safe to say the WOW saddle has transformed her as she won the Novice 28 with a super score of 72.08%!!! WOW, literally! She then went on to come second in Novice 39 with 66.89%!

Then it was time for Roxie's turn and to say she was a bit excited to be out was a bit of an understatement!!! She hasn't been out to a competition since Eridge Horse Trials in July after her being a prat in the field! She just about managed to maintain her excitement to score 65.51% in Elementary 43. She added in a few extra movements herself so we could have easily broken the 70% barrier. WOW were at Blue Barn with us for the day so I got to ride Roxie in one too and there was huge improvements in her way of going too! With both the horses improving so much with just a change of saddle, after a winter of dressage and SJ i can't wait for the start of the 2014 season :)

Another Blog to come soon after we had a very busy day on Thursday with both WOW and Global Herbs visiting the yard for the day.......

SG Eventing
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Keep Calm & Canter On