After a really successful start to 2015 with Rocky, things have taken a dramatic turn of luck.

During a run around his paddock one morning, he slipped and fell heavily on his side. When he got up and trotted off it was clear he wasn't 100% right to me. I checked him over and found nothing apparently "wrong" but gut instinct said there was, so I gave him a few days to recover and see if anything materialized.

Over the course of a few days there was noticable stiffening in the hindquarters and some swelling/heat, so the vet was called.

Nicola (the Vet) watched him move and agreed with my initial thoughts, the fall had indeed done something, what, we didnt know. So after 10 days on Bute and steroids, Nicola asked my excellent Physio Alex came to see him and see if she could see or feel anything. Alex was also with our thoughts, further investigations were indeed required, so a referral to Liphook Hospital is currently underway to investigate further.

Poor Rocky, he didn't deserve this, and I shall do everything within my power to get him back on track! In the meantime he has received lots of fuss, carrots and even get well soon messages!!

Watch this space for updates...

 I was (lucky?!) to see this happen as I had the benefit of knowing what was wrong when I came to w

Rocky Dressage Castle Farm, 23/8/15, Prelim 4.

It was wet, VERY wet! It was a Prelim, not intro! It was, well, a late decision and entry, but OMG what a morning we had!

Rocky has had a relaxed time of late, ticking over but nothing special, so as I had a day off (very rare!) I entered us for a Prelim at Castle Farm, having done Intro’s up till now (barring the one attempt at P1 when, for want of a better phrase, our Intro went **** up!! And I needed to get back in the school again) and having some good results, Intro’s were starting to become more like a freestyle for Rocky, clearly bored with them, he thought he would introduce some more moves! Hmm, not exactly what we want eh Rocky?!

So I made the decision to ditch Intro and go for Prelim where he was a bit more brain challenged!

On arrival the rain was heaving and to be honest I did question my sanity! However, I managed to tack up in the box and kept dry to begin with, last year I purchased a Shires Rain Sheet, and today it proved invaluable! As Rocky was now tacked up, Sheet applied, Tara my long suffering daughter and number 1 groom took Rocky off for a wander while I got ready.

By now you may have realised it was raining, so there were……. Umbrellas! OMG what are these things hovering over the human body, so said rocky! Especially the one that was heading over to us as they were parked next to us, arghhhhhh it is a monster…. Erm, no Rocky, that is an umbrella which you will not be eaten by!

Anyway, umbrella incident now over, we are mounted and off to the warm up.

In the warm up I applied my usual plan of achieve focus and submission, focussing on asking Rocky to listen to me, rather than his counterparts in the arena! This was going really well until one horse in the field lost its rug over its back, obviously took a dislike to a wet bum and headed off down the field at mac9!! This in turn caused a yeehaa and a 360 in a nano second! Ok, no harm done and within a few seconds we were back on track.

I thought that was enough warm up, minus the little blip, and we had 3 minutes till our time, so we departed the arena and headed down to the indoor (hurrah for an indoor!!)

The test was good, a few mistakes, mainly the changes in the canter work right, but as he has just learnt these at home, I simply rebalanced and corrected him, which he accepted, and carried on.

There are always the “oh if id only done… and that could have been better” moments at the end, but I came away with a massive smile on my face, a very happy horse and one who felt like he could have done more, so for me, that is what it is all about, a happy athlete.

The mistakes were just those, mistakes, not naughtiness, not “I do not want to” or anything like that, in fact it was Rocky actually trying too hard!

We went back to the box and sorted Rocky out, then I went off to find my sheet, having also had a few of my clients there we met up and reviewed their progress too (all of who were also placed) and waited.

Then the time came for our test sheets and …. Not only had we got a ribbon, we WON!!

OMG my baby horse who has only ever competed once at Prelim had won!

Getting wet to the skin, having wet tack/boots/rugs etc all hanging up drying out and was worth it.

This was the weather on route….

This was us just out of the warm up… WET!

This is Rocky proudly showing off his ribbon