With August being the school holidays this year Sam organised the diary so that I either ran courses from the yard or worked locally so that I got time to spend with the boys doing boy stuff. One of the areas I have worked a lot on this year is that If you don’t have ‘go’ then you don’t have ‘whoa’, its been a revelation to many riders that are nervous and don’t want their horses to be forward but want control, that if there is no forward then control won’t exist.
William had a four day show at Towerlands Park at the beginning of August. Some of the dads had the complete brainwave and suggested playing golf one afternoon. Jack our youngest son asked if he could come, so with another young boy and one small set of golf clubs between them, they came with us. Well all I can say is that I think that Jack has found his "thing". 
He had great hand eye co-ordination. He has now got a small set of his own and is going to join the junior golfers at our local club.
Every August Sam and I run a camp at Cold-Blow Equestrian Centre (great place for camps and clinics as they have bunkhouse accommodation, a communal kitchen area and a cross country course). We had 15 ladies with their horses. I have to mention Gilly and Bob as they towed their horse Harli over two days from Glasgow to Kent so that they could take part, and as Bob was the only other male I was very grateful.
The camp is a fun week where I try and get the riders to do something out of their comfort zone…on the first night round the table, 90% of the camp said that there was NO WAY that they were leaving the ground so flatwork and groundwork only please. So the first day I worked a lot with the groups on using trot and canter poles to improve their flat work, to create straightness and lift, think about speed and control of the horse’s feet. Once they got the hang of it I then raised the poles. For many of the riders the use of poles was totally alien, but they loved it and I could see they were buzzing, the next day we did more and before they knew what was happening I had slipped in a cross-pole. By the end of the week I had them all jumping a small course of fences and round a mini cross country course. Not leaving the floor…..my arse!!
It’s a great week, all the boys and Sam come too so it’s a real family event. William takes the ponies and joins in the sessions, he thinks it’s really cool to ride with the grownups and generally likes to show off and do everything much bigger and better. Then in the evenings they join in, playing card games or doing a bit of a song and dance.
The camp finished on Thursday and we had a two day junior jumping show on the Friday and Saturday, so it was a flying visit up the motorway to drop one horse off and pick up pony, clean undies and off to Forest Edge in Thetford Forest. We had a fab’ show and William qualified Nibbs in the scope 128cm debut. We were thrilled to bits as it’s the largest course he has jumped and we didn’t expect him to jump clear in the first round let alone come second.
Next week we are off to the North West working, but Sam’s sister lives there so we are all going together again. It will be such a treat to work and then come home to the boys on in the evening! Then I am off to Worcestershire to do a photo shoot with Your Horse working with an event horse that doesn’t like water fences. I’ll let you know how it goes. Hope you have all had a good summer and achieved goals that you weren’t expecting to achieve.
