Its been a while..

Its been rather quiet on the horse front over the last few weeks. After Aldon Coco had a holiday and Lily was ticking over but just having an easy few weeks. We had to bring Coco back into work sooner than planned as he had decided he didn't want to be a field pony and he wanted to do some work! He is also feeling very very well. He is bouncing round all over the place and is very pleased to be doing something again! 

Lily has also been feeling very well but she has been going better than ever - with a winters work she will be more than ready to crack on next year! Although I have managed to fall off her again - really my fault as we were jumping a bit bigger at home and I didn't ride positively off the corner so she stopped and I went over her head - luckily landing on my feet! A virtual smack of myself and we came round and jumped it beautifully - Doh! Our first outing back was at Felbridge (see picture) in the pouring rain at the end of November. I was keen to get out and doing something and this was just what I needed to get back into the swing of it all. It was just Lily we took, and her round in the Discovery was good, especially seeing as she hadn't been out since Larkhill. She just caught the back rail of a fence in the jump off which was a shame - I just don't think she saw it as I turned up quite tight to it. However in the 1.05 Open she was even better and jumped a really lovely double clear - just missing out on 5th place by 0.1s! However a great confidence giving first outing and she really is great fun to ride.

Then on Sunday (2nd December) we headed off to Royal Leisure with both horses to try out their new surface! I have to say it is fantastic and the horses jumped really well on it! Coco was first to jump in the 1 meter Amatuer class. Although very pleased to be out competing he was delightful! He jumped a really fantastic double clear to finish fourth. He felt like he was jumping better than ever, so hopefully we can get out and jump some bigger tracks ready for next year.

Lily was up next in the 1 meter with a very good round to live up to. However being in a small indoor arena for the first time in nearly two years led to a slight lack of rhythm and me relying on my hand a little too much. She had one fence down and then a stop at the last fence just where I didn't come off the corner positively enough and it had a spooky filler underneath, note to self - don't trust Lily when coming to a spooky fence! After this I decided we needed to get our act together and told mum to enter us into the 1.10m Amateur.  This was my first BS horse class at this height and the first time I had ever jumped 1.10m in the ring. I knew I just had to ride positively and give her a chance to jump the fences. Lily more than rose to the challenge. We didn't have one sticky moment despite some fences off tight turns. She jumped double clear to finish 4th despite the girl in front of us falling off and not being able to catch the horse - not my most ideal preparation to watch someone fall off! But like I said, Lily was fab and I can't wait to get out and do some more now. Next weekend I have got jumping lessons with Ernest. However the weekend after I am hoping to get out jumping again.

Thats all for now

Georgie x

PS. To see my videos from Royal Leisure

        For Lilys - Click Here

       For Cocos - Click Here

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