Quick Pick Equine Poo Picking Tool Review; Speeding up your mucking out time!

Quick Pick Poo Picking Tool Review

With the lack of daylight hours over winter being a real problem with riders trying to cram in all their chores and keeping their horse ridden and fit with the few hours of sunlight we get a day (especially those that work full time and go to work in practical darkness and leave in darkness I don't get a lot of time in natural daylight to look after Erik!) why not use something that can save you time and effort?

The new, recently launched, Quick Pick mucker is the tool for you! 

First Impressions

I got sent a beautiful Red Quick Pick by Gary and his team and to say it's beautiful, for a mucker, is accurate because it's so well designed and very sleek; you can tell a lot of thought has gone in to the design.
One of the first things to strike me was just how different they look to a 'normal' mucker that have been around for years; obviously they still have the same overall shape but the little things that bug you about the old style muckers have been added or taken away.

Another wonderful thing to note is that the Quick Pick is fully recyclable so years down the line and your trusty Quick Pick finally gives out after years of use, you can put it in the recycling knowing that it can be broken down and will be used for something else. As someone who is very plastic conscious I love this this! 

Design

I love that those little things that aren't quite right or annoying with the old styling poo picking muckers have been thought of and removed or improved here. For example there is no more bending over at 90 degrees to scrape up the poo nuggets with a not very efficient rake. The Quick Pick has been designed so that you can stand with one leg either side of the muckers bucket, put your feet on strategically placed foot holds that keep the bucket in place, so that you can stand upright and with the normal length rake can scope the poop in to the mucker. 
Brilliant for back injuries or just not putting undue stress on the muscles and joints round the lumber area of the back. It's also good for your core as, as when you're scooping the poop you're pulling them in to the back and thus 'engaging' your core and giving it a work out which is even better for your riding. Who knew doing a chore could help your riding?! 

No stooping or bending to pick up!

Photo by Quick Pick

Securely place your feet either side and then scoop 

Little things like a clip on the handle (pictured above) so you can easily keep your rake and Quick Pick together so they don't get lost or separated from each other. Doesn't seem like a big problem but when it's dark and you're searching around in your store room at 6am for the rake because it wasn't kept together and now you can't find it would be a total pain in the bottom.

Use

Another part that I love about the Quick Pick is that you can pick up and tip out it's contents without having to strain your wrists. The handle tips on a pivot and has a hand slot at the back so you can easily tip out the contents of the mucker bucket without having to awkwardly twist anything in your wrist, arm, shoulder or back! In the photo below it's so easy to see how it tips!

Plus as the mucker bucket pivots the poo and other junk in the mucker bucket falls to the back so you're far far less likely to drop or spill anything while carrying the Quick Pick back to your wheel barrow or muck heap! 

I think this ergonomic design is my favourite feature overall, as some will know that when I broke my wrist I have had some problems since with broken tendons and pain so by not having to twist the mucker to put the contents away I won't be hurting my already compromised wrist. This is a big plus for me because I cannot be 'off my game' when riding!

No twisting, an easy handle on the back and the main handle pivoting the bucket for easy emptying! 

Photo by Quick Pick

While the Quick Pick is certainly made for field poo picking I've also found it's dramatically reduced the amount of time it takes me to muck Erik's stable each morning! When you're on a tight schedule like me with trying to get mucked out and the yard clean before work it's been a wonder with picking up so much more muck! 
As the bucket is quite a size larger than traditional muckers you can fit in 3 poos in instead of the normal 1 or 2, meaning less stopping and walking over to the wheel barrow! And as I mentioned above, with the tipping of the bucket, is that you don't drop any muck and find stray nuggets all over the stable later! 

Regularly readers will also know that we teamed up with HorseDialog a few weeks ago to highlight the importants of Spring Summer #SSTimeItRight which is their campaign to time the worming of your horse at the right to reduce the risk of picking up worm eggs in the summer months so horses didn't head in to winter with a worm burden and now we're in to the winter months its time for #ESRWTimeItRight which is the Encysted Small Red Worm which affects horses in the autumn and winter months as the worms become encysted in the gut wall and then come spring they mass emerge after winter.  By regularly picking up droppings in your paddocks you'll significantly reduce the likelihood of your horse(s) getting worms and other parasites that can be transmitted by the grass they eat in their paddocks. It's something I am very conscious of so with the proper worming cycle worming and paddock poo picking you'll help in keeping your horse healthy and happy! Therefore anything to make poo picking in your paddock easier and therefore something you're more likely to do, the better for your horse! 

Thoughts 
Overall I've been using the Quick Pick Equine poo mucker for around 3 weeks and I genuinely love it! With everything in my life whether equine or otherwise I like tools and items to reduce the workload/time/stress of having to do a chore and I have really found that the Quick Pick has certainly done that for me. 
I also love it when the annoying little things that make a chore more difficult or problematic to have had real thought put in to them and the design to reflect the overcoming of those problems and this I have also found with the Quick Pick, it's been designed to speed up the amount of time doing a chore so you can spend more time riding your horse, it's also been designed to put less physical stress on joints and the body which is great! Repetitive strain is a real issue so to make steps to reduce that is a great and a real plus point in my thought process if I was buying one of these.

I can find nothing, if not very little, to fault the Quick Pick in that maybe with the foot slots make it a little too wide for some slimmer wheel barrows to go in face down but nothing that turning it on it's side or at a side angle wouldn't fix. They really are fabulous!

Cost 
You can buy all of the items separately or in a bundle all together so you're not locking in to buying part of the Quick Pick if you already have something similar.
To buy the Quick Pick bucket and Quick Rake together it's £49.99. To buy the Quick Pick only is £35 and the Quick Rake only is £25.
Some may scoff at the prices but these items are so hardy and well made. No thin plastic that cracks or splits after only a few uses or if you drop it. I've actually dropped the Quick Pick a couple of times from my wheelbarrow on to concrete and it's not even put a scratch on it!
They're extremely well made and are actually manufactured here in the United Kingdom, which I absolutely love! It's supporting local business and our economy, so none of the cheap imports!

You can buy a Quick Pick online via their website (which is easy to navigate and use, plus it looks beautiful too) https://quickpickequine.co.uk/ or if you're heading over to Olympia in December then they will be at stand H287 so if you'd prefer to 'Try Before You Buy' then head over to their stand and have a go scooping in their 'poo potatoes' and get it from them directly! 

Would I recommend the Quick Pick.... a resounding yes, very much so!




*If you read this blog and think you'd like me to try out a product and give it a rigorous test then drop me a message https://www.facebook.com/horsiness

High-Viz Safety this Winter!

Now the clocks have gone back and autumn is most definitely here meaning that the sun is both a lot lower in the sky and that we have a lot less daylight so riders are having to ride early in the mornings and evenings when the sun is just coming up or going down. So I came up with , fellow horse riders, to do the following things -

Always wear high visibility jackets, tabbards, vests etc with reflective strips when out riding! No matter the time of day but especially important at dusk and dawn when the sun is at it's lowest and most dazzling! High Viz can be picked up really rather reasonably and you cannot put a price on your life!

If riding when it's still dark or getting dark then adding a head torch or cycling lights to your helmet or jacket is always a good idea. Anything extra to help you be seen!

Here is my head torch which also has red flashing lights 

If you can kit your horse out with high viz, reflective strips or lights then even better! The brighter you are the more likely you are to be seen quicker!

Car lights; Something I've noticed a lot of recently is mismatched car headlight brightness with one bulb being significantly brighter than the other! Definitely worth doing a light check that your main headlights are both working and are equal in brightness. Getting dazzled by other road users is never fun and not safe to boot!

Lorries; are your head lights working as well, are they equal in brightness? Are your back lights on and working? Does your brake light work when the peddle is pressed? Does your reversing light work? Is it bright enough? 

Nothing worse than being at an event and the sun is going down only to realise your reversing light is out and you can’t see! Or getting to an early morning event and realising you can't see to reverse in to a tight spot!

Cyclists, for the love of all that is holy please don’t ride about with no lights on, in the dark at 6am!  Lycra road cyclists, I know you like your snazzy training kit but on country roads when the sun is low like it is at the moment please make yourself seen by putting high viz on! The near misses I’ve seen recently I tell you! Just like horse riders you are also vulnerable road users and we all need to stick together to remain safe on the roads and be seen. Like I've written above, you can buy very reasonably prices high viz kit from Wiggle!

Stay safe on the roads everyone, we all have to share them. Can you really put a price on your safety instead of paying a few quid for something to make you nice and bright? 

Sophie x

We Had Our First Jumping Lesson

Morning everyone, Brrrrr winter really is here isn't it? We've had such a mild start to the winter months I personally have really felt the drop in temperature this week! 

Over the weekend it was a mild 12 degrees in the day and with a busy Saturday of mucking out, riding early so I could be back to mine to gather up and clean all my equipment ready for hosting RoR lessons at Palace House in Newmarket with the wonder Delphine Tay before I went off to the Retraining of Racehorses End of Season Party all the way up in Doncaster! It was some drive and Chantal and I didn't get home til 2.30am so when I got a phone call from one of the clients booked in for the lessons telling me she had to cancel last minute and had a slot booked for later on that day I had to rush to get my riding kit ready, hitch up the trailer and get Erik in from the field and clean ready to fill the slot!

After only 5 hours of sleep I was finding my nerves giving me jelly legs and the tiredness only exasperating that when I was on and warming up but once I started my less and I had done some trotting poles but nerves gave way and I was able to be more focused at the task in hand!
For those of you who don't know this jumping lesson was our very first one and only our 4th time jumping over fences. In the summer I had asked Georgie if she'd give me some pointers on Erik and I's first time popping over a fence. He was of course very good and didn't mind popping over a small cross pole, then made in to an upright and then very boldly over an upright with a barrel underneath it. I personally wasn't a fan of the barrel and when Erik jumped it so big I lost a stirrup it definitely knocked my confidence a bit and I began to 'psych myself out' as they say and get worried after previous accidents. It seems these accidents can affect you mentally more than you think!
Since then I had popped a couple of small other jumps at home when playing around in the school but not actually had anyone give me official guidance.

Delphine was of course great and noticed right away I was still a little nervous, as when I came to my fences I seemed to hold my breath. I must have been subconsciously trying to focus so much that I felt breathing came second to jumping, and I was looking down in to the bottom of the fence! A big no no, but when you're as rusty as I am and on a horse you hadn't really jumped yet the urge to look down to make sure you're going to get the right stride is hard to ignore!

I soon started putting in to action the helpful comments and improvement suggestions and we were popping fences easy peasy and I was remembering to breath, ride more forward and the strides were easier to see and feel. It seems Erik, being a big horse, much prefers to stand off a fence than to get close to it and for me that suits! 

By the end of the lesson we were both quite tired but apparently from the look on both of our faces it was clearly we both absolutely loved it! Seeing Erik to happy and excited to be somewhere and doing something different was lovely. He's such a smart horse so a stimulated brain is a happy brain!

I am looking forward to our next lesson and doing even more. It isn't about the height of the fence but about the technique of jumping the fence. 

He's such a cutie right! So proud of him and of myself too, I got some real courage and didn't feel frightened at all. In fact we drove home afterwards with me grinning like a Cheshire cat! 

Love this big horse!

Sophie x

Semer Team Chase with the RoR Beasts from the East!

Poor Erik, he has been a little neglected this week, what with me doing the hospitality for Juddmonte Monday to Wednesday for the Horses in Training Tattersalls Sales and then with the dark evenings he hasn't been as busy of late but he did get some lovely long rides out Friday evening (half in the dusk light and was such a good boy considering I haven't ridden him in such low light before) and Saturday and Sunday where he got some fast work to keep his fitness up. We will look at some competitions and training over the winter, I promise Erik!

The mighty Bean has been on flying form of late coming 2nd in the Horseheath Unaffiliated 3ft open a couple of weeks ago  as well as winning the 3 ft 2" eventer trial at Keysoe a couple of weeks before that  so with this weekend being the Essex & Suffolk Team Chase at Semer the Retraining of Racehorses East Anglian team consisted of Georgie Shepherd, Hetty Keyes, Pip Davis and Ginny Fellows and as coordinator for the region I provided the RoR kit. 
An early set off time of 7.15am meant all hands on deck and speedy shoes on to get all rugged up, out in their field, mucked out and ready to go but we managed it with time for me to feed a friends dogs and have a tupperware of cereal at the yard before leaving. We took a different route to where we've gone before which was much less twisty and turny so we got to the event just after we expected to and met up with team mates to go and walk the course while I babysat B who gets so excited we cannot tie him to the trailer. 
Lot's of walking from both and me G later the course had been walked and horses were tacked up and ready to go and jockeys dressed and safe in their back protectors. The team really did look so smart in their kit! 

The RoR Beasts from the East were listed as the last to go in their section and it seems the course had been proving a little difficult with it being very twisty and turnie but when the group set off they had two front members to lead and with Georgie starting, Pip taking over for a short while before G and B took the leading position they all flew round in a nice safe clear and speedy it seems too!
The optimum time being 5 minutes 52 seconds and the Beasts completing the course in 5 minutes and 32 they were too fast but for their first event to get round with everyone safe and clear is awesome. Plus if they did the speed class they'd have come 3rd so maybe the class to do next year? These ex racehorses really do cover the ground quicker than you think!

Georgie was able to wear her GoPro and capture the footage, so have a watch to feel like you were right there with her! P.S sorry about the clicking it's Georgie's back protector zip tapping the GoPro, we'll make sure it doesn't happen again

I was on course taking pictures and despite the low light they came out quite well! Not too shabby for an amateur photographer!

It seems B and his team really do have wings! I am so proud of Georgie and how her and B have been getting on, he really is a testiment to ex racehorses and how they can thrive after being retrained! 
Erik and I will soon be jumping once I get my saddle back from being fixed. I did some dressage writing at Horseheath British Eventing one day event last weekend and earned myself a schooling voucher for the course which I plan to use in the spring once I've got some more confidence back and got to know E's jumping style more. 
Erik's owner Grayznor is coming to give me a flat work lesson this Sunday so I am looking forward to having Erik strut his stuff and me learn some more. Blog etc to follow with how we got on.

Over and Out,

Sophie x

Absolutely Flying - Georgie & B tackle Horseheath 3ft Open

Sorry it's been a bit quiet, as some of you will know I went on holiday! Woop, first holiday abroad in 6 years and it was absolutely joyous. I got sun, sea and sand.. oh and a nice tan too! 
The lovely ladies over at Pinks Pet Sitters  looked after Erik brilliantly, highly recommend them for your pet and horse sitting needs..

Any way, I got back at 3am on Saturday morning but with that in mind and not having jumped any cross country fences yet (my jump saddle is being fixed) I thought better of taking Erik to Horseheath unaffiliated hunter trial cross country but with B an old pro now Georgie and I got him ready and loaded up in a flash on Saturday afternoon.

With no official times to go by it's always hard to know when to get to an event so while we brushed and got B ready we had a text to say only 25 people left to go in the class before. I said to G get herself pretty much completely ready while I put boots etc on B and loaded him in the trainer. As fast as safely we could go we travelled to Horseheath in good time so while G went and had her hat and back protector checked I tacked up B. It's safe to say he absolutely knew what he was there to to and was a little tinker being walked around but in no time at all G was back and with a quick girth tighten and a leg up she was on!

G certainly had his game face on in the warm up and looked every bit an eventer, or so I'm told from kind strangers who walked passed and said how awesome he looked! As it was a non BE or pony club event I had got permission for Georgie to wear her hat cam and we certainly got some cool footage.

Read on for how they got on and to view the footage below!

At the start Georgie was in the start box and ready to go so I ran off on to the course with my DSLR to get some photos! I'd got it all charged up, long lens on and ready go so while they made their way round I clicked away excited to see my photos! 
Georgie and B really do have the best partnership and he's so confident with jumping they were absolutely flying round making easy work of the full up 3 foot course of ditches, hedges, combinations and tight turns! G unfortunately caught up to the starter before her some way towards the latter part of the course as they had multiple stops so when it came to the water complex Georgie went as wide as possible hoping the ladies horse would pop straight in. Sadly it refused at the jump in to the water and when Georgie came through to jump it was impeeded by this rider! B jumped in and over the brush fence at the last and whizzed through the finish but we were all a bit disheartened at their round being interrupted with a rider experiencing problems.

Having got back to the trailer we washed off and chatted of how B's round had been so awesome any way and how such a good boy he was, as he hadn't done any cross country over the summer (before he did the eventer trial a couple of weeks ago of course) and he's flown round still! He's a real jumping machine that horse!

Later on that night after doing evening stables and getting home Georgie text me to say that she had in fact come second and that the jump judge hadn't indeed marked Georgie clear and that her being impeded hadn't affected her marks! We we re of course over the moon and B has been on flying form and clearly very happy with himself recently. 

Also, you know I mentioned about my camera and my awesome pictures I got, it turns out my brain was clearly half asleep from my holiday as I forgot to put my memory card back in  my camera, so alas, no pictures! Absolutely gutted and I am a very silly sausage.

However Georgie's GoPro footage came out well (despite being on her hat instead of her normal chest mount) so I edited it; I removed the stop and impediment from the rider in front as I don't want to embarrass anyone) and put it on Youtube - 

Hopefully I'll get my saddle back from being fixed next week and Erik and I can start doing some proper jumping and training over the winter!
Sadly the clocks go back this weekend so it's going to be a lot darker in the evenings which means I will be doing a lot more schooling under flood lights and a lot less hacking. Boo, hiss!

This weekend I am dressage writing at Horseheath British Eventing Horse Trials which I have never done me before so wish me luck and if you see me there, say hi and give me a wave!

Sophie x

Soggy Side Saddle and Eventer Trials

Why is it that in the week when we're stuck at work in the office that it's glorious sunshine and warm and then come the weekend it's wet and cold? Oh that's because it's sods law of course, and because it's autumn too!

We've had a beautiful couple of weeks with dry warm weather but Saturday came and the forecast showed as a thoroughly miserable day of basically rain all day with it only getting more rainy as the day progressed. Great, just what I wanted for hosting beautiful elegant side saddle lessons with the regions RoR's and Georgie had an eventer trial at Keysoe! 

I started the day dry with the Side Saddle lessons and can say they went fantastically! I had never ridden side saddle nor had I hosted these lessons before so was nervous but excited for the day. We were all in the extremely knowledgeable hands of Clare Simper, Side Saddle Association certified instructor. Having ridden side saddle for 25 years and having just got her own RoR to introduce to side saddle I was confident she was the best person for the job and it seems that I was very much correct, phew!

Our lessons were for a full hour and included Clare fitting the side saddles to fit the range of sizes and shapes of RoR's who attended and they ranged from 5 to 21 years old which is absolutely awesome. Sadly as the day went on the weather man was indeed correct and the rain became heavier and more 'driving' in it's deluge so that anyone stood outside for more than 5 minutes became positively drenched. Everyone however soldered on like troopers and absolutely aced their lessons and their horses did too! 
Each of them took it completely in their stride and didn't bat an eye lid at their riders all now sitting to their left and not straight ahead like they're used to!

Clare taught each person individually and watched them warm in astride to see what she'd need to teach them on and I can say she was absolutely fabulous. All riders said how much they enjoyed it and I was thoroughly impressed with all of the RoR's in how they coped so easily like it was any other lesson. I will certainly be holding another date in the future soon. 

After getting thoroughly soaked I made my way down the yard to make sure my horse was all tucked up in bed out of the rain, all the while Georgie was at Keysoe getting equally if not more soaked!

As readers of last weeks blog will know we were showing in the beautiful sunshine so this was not only a stark contrast to that with not only the weather but jumping and big jumps too!
Georgie had booked in to do the 100cm open class at Keysoe before I had announced the side saddle lessons which meant I was sadly unable to attend both but Mum and Georgie loaded up B and made their way there. From what I understand it was an extremely busy competition and Georgie was given her time for her round as 4.30pm! Upon arrival Georgie went to walk the course of both the show jumping and cross country and from what Georgie said it was a very full up 100cm course for both disciplines. In her words "I got out the car and saw the show jumping course and gulped" so while Georgie went off and walked the course Mum looked after Beanie in the rain, what a wonderful Mum we have!

With her start time fast approaching Georgie was dressed and ready for her class. In the warm up B had had some silly poles down in the collecting ring so they bother made their way in to the ring hoping the knocked poles stayed in the collecting ring. The show jumping course had been a cause of problems for many all afternoon it's poles and stops aplenty but Georgie said B got going and positively sailed round the course clear! She breathed a small sigh of relief after landing and making her way on to the course for the full up and technical cross country faze but in true style B whizzed round it with no problem at all and Georgie crossed the finishing line on a superb double clear. 
I rang and checked in not long after and Georgie was absolutely over the moon with how he went so I was extremely stoked for Georgie to call and tell me later that evening that she had won! 

Wahoo! From prancing round the show ring the weekend before and winning to sailing over big and technical jumps and courses to win the eventer trial, well, I cannot say how proud I am of Georgie! Those two have such a close bond and partnership that really shows. 
What a dream team!!

The rain cleared and we had a nice sunny Sunday so yesterday afternoon I spent some time schooling Erik and am pleased to say he went beautifully and we even had a pop over some little fences! G gave Frankie a little lesson at the same time which was great experience for Erik to realise he has to work around other horses and concentrate and not rush off and try and always be in front. 
A lovely weekend, albeit soggy, before I jet off for a week in the sun! 

Erik will be expertly looked after by Pinks Pet Sitters and my wonderful Mummy!  

I look forward to continuing our training when I get back and hopefully have my new jump saddle back from being repaired so I can get jumping and hopefully/maybe do some jumping competitions with Erik. 

I'm off to go and pack for my holiday

S x

Smart Grooming Review - Smart Mane &Tail thinner, the Multi use tool

It's been rather a long time since I did a smart grooming review, naughty me!

Then again the Tattersalls sales have started and horse aren't going to transport themselves, that's my excuse anyway!

So where was I? Oh yes, my very favourite horsey company Smart Grooming. Georgie and I aren't brand ambassadors for nothing, we genuinely do believe in these unsung heroes and their wonder products. Showing season may have ended but I well remember getting up at 4am to plait, wash and spruce and their wonderful products make it quicker and easier to get your horse show ring ready. 

A little while back they sent me a couple of mane and tail 'Smart Tails'. Sadly I haven't been able to try it on Beanies tail yet but I will - Georgie keeps beating me to it and I'm not there to take any photos. Saying that, in the mean time I have had to thin out his name, so rather than pull his mane (which often makes horses head shy, or reluctant to be plaited because they always think you're going to yank their hair out) I'd see how the Smart Tail worked. 

You what I'm talking about, you're mid-way through the perfect plait, but you have to pull it tight to get it to stay in..only for your horse to have other ideas and shake their head, or fidget. So, I tried to Smart Tail on thinning out his rather thick mane, which has a tendency to get pretty heavy in the middle.

First of all it was given a good wash and shampoo. Then conditioner was put in and that was brushed through, making sure to remove all the tangles. Now it was nice, soft and tangle free it was towel dried to remove most of the water, then I brushed the mane onto the 'wrong side' so the underside of his mane was now on the outside. Then with a Medium thickness Smart Tail I brushed it lightly through the mane to remove some of the thickness.

By doing so I wasn't removing big lumps of hair from the root like I would do if I was pulling the mane, which could leave you with a patchy thin mane. And that is absolutely not what you want! It took out some of the weight and thickness, without taking too much out. That's the beauty of having the different teeth and blade strengths.

Without taking too much hair out, I evened out the entire mane until it was one uniform thickness, thus eliminating a thick middle mane and the subsequent golf ball plaits that would have resulted if I didn't thin it.

All the while not pulling the hair from the root, and not damaging the hair follical - It's all very well in the summer when you horse has lovely thick aerated hair follicals, but come mid-winter when you horse has a neck cover on 24/7 and you've got suffocated hair frolics (making the hair more likely to die and fall out) and rubbed patches, then you'll wish you hadn't pulled it so vigorously all summer!

The result, a nice even thickness, and because you're not hurting your horse it means they're less likely to fidget and pull away from you every time you come to plait, and when you do need to plait up, your plaits are even and uniform in size.

To finish, take your thinning scissors and give the ends a trim to make your mane all one length, without it being dead straight.

The Standard Smart Tails come in course, medium and fine and are £15 each 

I even spotted Smart Tails in my local tack shop - Gibsons Saddlers in Newmarket. Oh and some whisker trimmers too!

The 'yellow handle range' (above) Smart Tails are £22 and come in course, medium, fine and super fine.

Or if you're feeling like splurging then the wooden handle 'professional range' of Smart Tails are £30 and also come in course, medium, fine and super fine.

All can be found in the new Smart Grooming Site - Totallysmart.com

Final Shows of the Season

With Autumn very much upon us it signals the end of the showing season and time for winter! it won't be long until the clippers are out and we're all moaning about having horse hair on every thing so with that in mind Georgie and I had our last shows this weekend.

On Saturday we went to one of our favourite shows;Gransden and District Agricultural Show. It's help in this small village outside of Cambridge and is a lovely well established show for all varieties of Livestock, I even think they show chickens there! We have been going every year for the last few years and always really enjoy it. It's well organised, has fair judging and a nice atmosphere. Unlike last year  we were not up and plaiting in the dark as we decided that the riding horse class and the Retraining of Racehorses classes are just too far apart with one being early in the morning and the RoR classes being one of the final classes you can spend hours there waiting. Despite leaving later this year and only doing the RoR classes we still waited hours! They never released a rough time table so it's pot luck whether you arrive super early, late and miss your class or arrive when you think it might be and still wait 2 hours. The latter was us, we arrived around 1pm hoping that by 2/2.30pm the classes would start and we'd have plenty of time to work in. 
We got stuck in large amounts of traffic in Gransden village and once we arrived everyone's blood pressure was up and B was a sweat box!

We got him uploaded and cooled off while he relaxed and ate grass and we soon realised that fellow competitors were getting dressed and making their way to the ring, so I got dressed for the In Hand class while Georgie schooled B and got him warmed up and soon made our way down to the ring. We needn't have rushed as it turns out there was so many in the driving classes, followed by a Western Display that we ended up waiting well over an hour! B, bless him, behaved so well and waited patiently and had a sleep but it would seem that long wait was costly. In the warmth of the autumn sun B had got a bit too relaxed so when we did get in the ring he was half asleep. No amount of clicking, clucking or squeaking could wake him up and he didn't have his usual sparkle. I was however pleased to still get a third place and a little bit of prize money! It was cool to do an In Hand, B and I hadn't done one together in years!!

After leaving the ring it was like a formula one pit stop to get B's saddle on and Georgie on board but in no time G was back in the ring for the RoR Amateur Ridden Show Series class and now with a rider on his back was a lot more perky and he had his usual 'sparkle' back! 

Georgie rode him absolutely impeccably and he didn't put a foot wrong in the go round so I was really pleased this had been noticed with him being pulled in the first place spot for preliminary judging. Georgie came out and did a lovely show but annoyingly in his extension B just lost his footing slightly and his back came up. Luckily it didn't interrupt his flow and they finished their show nicely. 
I was so pleased for Georgie to keep her placing and win her class! We've had a hard summer with it being so hot and the extremely high pollen and fly levels really upsetting B (he is a chestnut and from what I understand have much more sensitive skin that other colour horses) and Georgie has had a disappointing showing season so with this final win in the bag she really deserves it.

Sunday morning while mucking out I decided to take Erik to a final show for him after our disappointing Ashwell Show a few weeks ago. We plaited up in near record time and made it to the show in a bit of a rush! 
Frustratingly there wasn't any where for show horses to warm up (the collecting ring was jam packed with ponies cantering around for the show jumping) so with only a small space behind some horse boxes and the call for my first class we made our way in. 
I was astonished to see the ring absolutely rammed with ponies and a few horses; a total of 18 in total! This proved to be a bit of a disaster..

With nowhere near enough room for a trot and only one lap of the ring in walk each competitor had to line up along one side and trot down the long side... which happened to be next to a house building site! As you can imagine Erik had no time to get accustomed to anything and his trot was not on the bridle and very much in front of the vertical! I was therefore not surprised at all to be pulled in right down the bottom. After waiting about 15 minutes we were able to do our show but by this time Erik had got pissed off and didn't go well at all. Unsurprisingly we didn't come anywhere.
Upon leaving the ring it was quite clear Erik was going to be silly and the lack of warm up showed! We went back in to my second and final class without a hope really as he was tense and frustrated and we were pulled in in last place.. no surprise there and I was already regretting my decision to come to the show all together.
He did however do a less rushed show and generally behaved himself and I was relieved to get a kind third place!

I had a lot to work on over the summer with Erik as he gets very anxious and tense when other horses leave or go in another direction without him and he thinks he is being left behind or starts napping! Very odd as it's something he doesn't do at home so we'll see how winter goes.

Shame he gets so upset cause he looks gorgeous! 

Thank you to Chantal for the photos!