Last weekend I manage to take Friday and Monday as holidays from work to get in some extra pre-season training with Corky.
 
On Friday we headed through for a lesson with his old owner Olivia Wilmot. Olivia was the one who initially got me interested in eventing when I bought Corky from her in 2013. Since then we have tried to keep visiting her for lessons. She is super busy prepping for the start of her own season and also coaching the U18 Scotland squad but make time to put us through our paces.
 
We met at Thronhill Livery in Stewartson which is about an hour and a half from me. They had a huge outdoor school with lots of room for flatwork and jumping. For our flatwork we concentrated on our canter and transitions, especially trot to halt. Our left canter is greatly improved but things are still not going well with the right canter. Turns out it is due to my injured shoulder – I am hanging onto the left rein really tightly which is causing problems. By shaking my whole arm the contact improved – strange but true! We then moved onto some jumping exercises which Corky thought were way too much fun and bombed about for a while, until he understood they were meant to slow him down and get him working from behind! Lots of fun and lots of homework too!
 

On Monday we headed up to Gleneagles for our first XC schooling session of the year with David Gatherer. Corky was over the moon to be out on the XC again – one happy pony!
 
Arrived and started in their school with three poles on a curve and had to ride it on the inside line. It was 3 strides but I was putting in 4 as had been doing that work with Olivia on getting a shorter bouncier canter. Then I had to open him up for the 3 strides as the middle pole became a jump. David was saying three jumps on a curve is the new thing for course builders as people will run out at the third element, they get to break up the field in a safe way as people will just canter past and limited chance of falls etc. 
 
We then headed out onto the course, I didn’t jump much I hadn’t jumped before as I didn’t want to push things as it was our first XC school of the year. To start with Corky was chipping in as I was messing too much with the speed. I was slowing too much, killing the canter and getting flat. I was told to use my seat to steady the canter and let him jump in his own rhythm. It was hard to relax and let him go when all he wanted to do was fly at the jumps but it seemed to work!
 
We are also going to Hendersyde and Strathearn XC schooling and have entered two local hunter trails before Forgandenny so we have lots of time to put it into practice. I think hunter trials are a great way to make sure your horse is fit enough for the start of the season. We have started some stamina and fast work at home but nothing compares to galloping round a full course of jumps for Corky and me!!
 
Unfortunately for Corky we can’t go XC all the time, so this weekend sees us competing at the BRC Intermediate Dressage Qualifier for the South East Scotland Dressage Group. Fingers crossed for a good score for the team!

Well, the day has finally come when Lucas and Corky went head to head in the same class, only an 85cm @ BS but the pressure was on! Bella came along again to chaperone Corky while I was jumping Lucas. Lucas continued the theme of behaving much better at a competition than at home to jump 2 beautiful double clears. Corky also seemed more relaxed to be at a show with Lucas than previously which was great as he gets so anxious and upset about being separated from him traveling companion. I thought it was because we were at Rockrose and he feels at home there. Unfortunately this calmness did not continue once we got to jumping. He was upset again and not listening. He jumped round the course at super speed taking 4 poles. We went back in HC for a better and calmer round but still had a couple of poles. One was my fault as I didn't have enough canter coming out of the corner, but the other was definitely him :-( I think I might need to accept the fact that corky will not relax and listen to me if I take him with another horse.

On the bright side as the classes were quite small Lucas' DCs actually picked up first place in both classes and a lovely surprise of £25 prize money in the second class.

Back to schooling with Corky this week ahead of the BCR1 dressage team competition in 2 weeks time. We also have come XC schooling to look forward to on Monday at Gleneagles with David Gatherer - great way to kick of the season. We have a few more schooling seasons and HTs planned before our season starts properly in April. Lucas also has a trip to Ingilston planned on Sunday - a venue either of us have been too since before his injury!

I have some lovely photo coming from Jim Hunter from Rockrose so will add them as soon as they arrive.

What a week, on Friday 4 boxes arrived for us from Blue Chip - how exciting! Chloe filmed me opening everything and when my Mum watched it she said I looked like a little girl again on Christmas morning. I was overwhelmed by how much Blue Chip kindly sent up, saddle cloths, rugs, jackets, fleece, polo shirt, cap and headband! Completely spoilt. Corky and Lucas will also be starting on their new concentrate daily balancer and join supplement. I have lots of literature and samples to share too.

The boys have also both been out in action. Last Sunday our super eventing groom (and friend!) Bella stepped in to help me take them both to the BS at Blueridge. Lucas is really getting more confident, another lovely DC in the 70 into class. I'm taking him over to David Harland tomorrow night so start to build up the height a bit.....watch this space for videos of me flying over jumps without Lucas! Corky was a bit of a stress head as he isn't great when another horse comes too - he did settle in the end and jumped a nice round in the 85/95 with only one pole dropping due to getting a bit flat and fast. Lovely photos from Adrian Sinclair photography.

This week saw Corky out at Rockrose both days. One dressage test on Sat and one round of jumping at the arena eventing on Sunday. The dressage was quite good, super warm up and then a slight lose of concentration in the test due to the judge noticing that my flash strap wasn't on properly - oops! She kindly came and fixed it for us but by then we were both out of the zone and Corky wasn't for getting back into it! We still scored a 63.4% for 5th so not a total disaster!

​On Sunday I managed to arrive early, walk the course, chat to friends, oil hoofs, brush out mane and tail......and then almost missed my class! I'm not sure what was going on with my time keeping as I am normally super organised. It meant we only had time for a 5 min warn up so took unfortunately fences in both the SJ and XC phase. Corky was very brave and jumped everything though including the world's skinniest skinny which was causing problems for some of the more experienced horses. One to put down to experience and not dwell on as I know if I had a proper warm up and wasn't rushing it would have gone better.

We only have one arena eventing left before the season starts - it's in March and is out at the Royal Highland Showground which should be exciting. Then it's onto XC schooling, a few HTs then the eventing season starts - woohoo!