Golly, we've had such a busy weekend with lot's going on and all very excited!
On Saturday we had a long and busy day at Keysoe Equestrian Centre for the Horse & Hound Festival of Eventing sponsored by KBIS. A week or so before Georgie was asked by a friend if she'd like to be a demo rider for a jumping deomstration taking part on the Saturday night. She of course jumped at the chance and after everything was confirmed we were super excited to attend. Earlier in the day Georgie had a lesson with the wonderful Thoroughbred Dressage at Palace House Arena as a preparation for Suffolk County Show coming up this week. B went well and relaxed even in the hot sun and we had a nice time, even asking Louise to ride B and put him through his paces; which she did beautifully.
We then waited at Palace House and plaited B up ready to go to Keysoe. He was such a good boy enjoying the sun on his back while being brushed and plaited and before long we were ready to set off.
We arrived at Keysoe with about 45 minutes before Georgie needed to get on, so while she went to the rider pep talk I got B ready and tacked him up. It was still very much a hot evening at 6.30pm!
Georgie, Andrea and Jackie warmed up and got prepared while competitors streamed in to the viewing gallery to while I prayed that my camera battery would last the 30 minute demo. Annoyingly I'd left it on the entire journey from Palace house so when I picked it out the car it had the battery warning light flashing! iPhone camera would have to do for a while!
We met with the wonderful eventer Alice Pearson who was to be the trainer for the evening and gave her a run down about all 3 horses and what experience level they were on.
Georgie and Andrea were then invited in to the arena ready for the demo. They did look ever so smart don't they!
B and Lola were very much on form and making Alice's exercises look easy. Alice had set up a couple of jumps with only a stride or two from the wall to jump either towards the wall or away from it and both horses jumped it without a hitch. All the while Alice explaining the reason behind setting up a jump like this on an angle and asking the horses to adapt to different situations and strides.
This was then combined by a cross pole and later heightened to an upright in the middle on the angled planks at the walls to ask the horses to jump a series of jumps on a curve. Both of which were expertly completed by both Lola and B.
As the lesson was focused on 'straightness' in to jumps and getting the correct line at each fence a large oxer was put up along the opposite side of the school with an A frame from poles on to guide the horses on. B being an absolutely legend popped it first go, while baby Lola found that a little more spooky and required a look, but at only 7 that is very fair enough!
Both horses finished the lesson confident and feeling happy we all felt they were good ambassadors to show schooling does really count! Plus B was a star and didn't even touch a pole, not once! Alice proceeded to call him Mr Perfect and we were both of course extremely proud!
Big thank you to Andrea for thinking of us when it came to picking riders, thank you to both Horse & Hound and KBIS for the wonderful invitation and to KBIS for the numnah; it's absolutely lovely!
Overall a very long Saturday but absolutely worth it as B was just flawless and Georgie rode incredibly all day!
Hopefully the flatwork and the jumping schooling will have been great prep for Suffolk Show as we're doing both the flat class and the challenge jumping class! Fingers crossed!
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