Holding it together

The Showjumpingshire has now got a full retirement ahead of her.  The shoes are off the woolly mammoth look is in and she is looking nowhere near as sad as me about not being ridden!  It's been a tough year coming to terms with my horse of a lifetime having to stop work as I always thought we'd have time to enjoy riding out for a few more years before full retirement but at least she is still full of life and happy being a field pet (I dread to think of the next tough decision hopefully many years away).  I still wonder if she's having me on when I'm avoiding getting leapt on as she's showing her agility on the way in from the field (albeit less extravagent than her early days thank goodness).

Socks is progressing very nicely and becoming a super little competition horse (at times), we still have moments where she struggles to hold it together and explodes at inappropriate moments but they are getting less and less.  She had her first mention in horse and hound, well her name was in print in the results section but she still made it into the magazine :)

So far we have found out that Socks dislikes indoor schools that are dimly lit and dressage judges that are not behind glass!  Galleries, umbrellas and mirrors are no problem but monsters hiding in corners and judges that are not safely behind glass are very traumatic for a young Socks.  Even with some eventful outings where we struggled to get round the arena we have somehow managed to score well enough to achieve our three qualifying %'s for the Petplan area festivals.  I think this year we will be happy that we achieved this and not attempt to attend an area festival as Socks needs to gain a bit more arena practise and get better at containing her excitement so we continue to finish our tests without a disobedience - they are very costly!!! So on with the training and a winter of scary indoor schools :)