Last year I met a lovely lady called Julie, and a lovely Welsh Cob called Ynysgerwyn Dylan, Dylan to his friends!

Dylan was a young 3yr old who had been started on the lunge and introduced to wearing his tack when we first met. After a few sessions we had just made progeress when Dylan unexpectedly had to have a fair time off work as he had been kicked in the field, purely accidental but annoying to say the least! So poor Julie had to endure a fair wait before work could commence again. Luckily Dylan made a full recovery.

During this spring Julies yard manager and groom, both very capable riders, had the task of backing Dylan and after only 3 weeks, Dylan was happily hacking out in company.

This is where I come in again, Julie had started Dylan off very well but was now in need of someone with not only a "cob" background but someone who understood the needs of a show cob, as their training differs slightly from conventional training, so as I tick both boxes, I started teaching them both, up to then, 4 weeks ago, Dylans training had just been walking and trotting with a rider, but now only a few weeks on, we are working on the canter, which from the right rein is rather good, as opposed to the left rein which Dylan still has the odd wobble on. As he is a large build horse he is still growing and his shape changed from one week to the next, so the work we do has to be planned carefully at each session.

 

I hope to give regular updates on Dylan and Julies progress and to follow them into their showing debut next season.

 

 

This is me riding Dylan 2 weeks ago, just learning to canter. (sorry about my looking down, a habit i must break!!!)

Well, i suppose im lucky to writting this blog post today!

Yesterday i was booked to school one of my clients lovely horses, an ex racer who lacks balance and is not easy to keep settled, no problem yo may think, well considering that since it is rather a long time since my last ride, about 8 weeks!, im perhaps not as fit in the riding department and i could be!

The session was booked for 10am, however, as we had had temperatures of over 30 degrees the previous day, i decided i would move the session forward to 9am when it should be cooler.

This proved to be a bad move! I duly schooled the horse, who went so well, and after he produced his best work yet, i stopped and spoke with his owner, then suddenly felt really dizzy, so i dismounted and promptly collapsed!

 

It turned out i had overheated and had the onset of heat exhaustion! So, i returned to the owners mothers house and rested in the shade with copious amounts of cold drink and hosed myself down to try and reduce my core temperature, this took a couple of hours!

 

So, i guess i'm lucky, but it could have been much worse, i had no warning signs, felt absolutely fantastic while riding, then it hit me!

 

Please don't let this happen to  you, when the weather is warm, please ensure you have plenty of fluids and don't ride on your own, or tell someone where you are or when you should be back, if i'd been on my own, i dread to think what could have happened.

 

Stay safe and cool!!!