Yesterday we headed out to a firm favourite in our equine calendar and that show is South Suffolk Agricultural Association / South Suffolk Show. While not as large as a county show it is pretty big, with Royal International qualifiers, BSPS and various other society shows and is always extremely well attended and well organised. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous about going as when I got Fred in to plait he was rather on his toes but luckily he calmed down enough to plait and give a little leg wash before we loaded up him and Millie and made our way to the show.
Upon arrival Fred was pretty sure he was racing again (not far off as it's held at Ampton Point to Point race track) and with the tannoys was like a loaded spring ready to explode. Luckily I had G there to quickly pop in some ear plugs and lung him for me!

Really pleasingly he lunged well and calmed down enough to eat but was still pretty adamant about walking around eating a mouthful of grass before walking off somewhere else!
So to continue our work on standing and patience we made 'walking around dragging our owner' annoying and instead whenever he went to do that he lunged him for a few circles. He soon realised that it was far easier to stand and eat than keep continually walking. 

It seems the message is and was going in!

After a couple of hour wait the ridden ex-racehorse class went into the ring. Fred is absolutely not there in his retraining yet so we took him over to get used to the atmosphere of the rings and get used to the kind of buzzy vibe of being near lot's of other horses

He went into the ring, albeit kind of reluctantly, he much preferred to follow another horse in so we tucked in behind someone experienced and walked round and to my delight he didn't tense up, he walked nicely and even waltzed passed a very loud generator; I was really pleased with him. He trotted beautifully round and was originally pulled in in second place. However he wasn't all that keen on standing and when he did he pored the ground in impatience. So with all that said Fred came last in his class (6th) but do you know what? I don’t care! 

The lovely judge came and saw me to give my rosette and we got some really encouraging feedback and comments about his future once he is fully retrained and has learned the ropes.
I am so pleased with how he coped yesterday on only his second time out and he was soooo much better than his first outing at Worlington, as when he arrived there we had definite legs leaving the floor and a temper! Plus he’s only been out of training 3 months today. 

He’s learning so much from each time out and understanding he’s not racing anymore, so we’re making strides. Plus he looks beautiful as we used the new plaiting wax from Smart Grooming to plait his mane and tail and with the new Haas brushes that I treated myself to from Smart Grooming he looked incredibly beautiful!

Thank you so much to super groom Georgina for all her help with him today and everyday! Thank you also to everyone who said encouraging words or compliments, they mean so much!

Now to spend the summer going to Retraining of Racehorses RoR East Region clinics and having fun with his retraining!

#Horsebloggers #Haynetblog Haynet

CDRC Summer Show!

We've had a lovely long weekend and on Sunday Georgie, the girls and all the family headed out to Cambridge and District Riding Club show at Cottenham, as we do most years!

Rather than take the big horses this year we decided it was ponies only and we had a wonderful day which was a very friendly and well run show with great prizes and beautiful rosettes. The day started with the 55cm showjumping, I think this was Frankie's first proper showjumping competition. She jumped a lovely clear first round but sadly had a pole in the jump off (which was huge and the biggest she's ever jumped!) giving her a third 🥉!
Onto the showing; Ronnie and Frankie performed a foot perfect show in the First Ridden and they were rewarded with a first 🥇 for which she won a beautiful red rosette as well as a bottle of stain remover! Perfect for Ronnie's white socks!
The Veteran class was very hotly contested but again they did brilliantly, cantering round the ring with the other horses (and even coping when a horse lost control and galloped round) and came away with a second. 🥈!
The championship was very competitive and after a really long day Frankie very sensibly decided she was done for the day.

Millie came along and had a lovely time with Frankie jumping a few rounds of the clear round which Millie flew. So proud of Francesca considering Millie is really a lead rein pony but they went off and jumped the round and Frankie was flying! Millie absolutely loved it!
Fenella did her first ever competition age 22 months doing the Fancy Dress lead by her big sister. There were some amazing outfits and lots of competition but she got a very respectable 5th and won a goody bag and promptly devoured the packet of polos in it. Two very tired but happy children who adore their ponies

Thank you to CDRC for a lovely day!

B and G try Side Saddle!

With Easter over it’s meant back to work and less time to spend with Freddie and the gang but we’ve certainly had a nice time. As I work full time and Georgie has more flexibility than me, plus having retrained 3 other ex- racehorses she’s been taking over the reins of riding Fred in the week and do a large chunk of his retraining!
He’s been hacking out regularly both in the week and with me at weekends but this weekend gone by Fred had a relatively quiet one and B and Ron got to go to some parties!
Unfortunately Sunday’s Side Saddle lessons I’d booked in to host back in January clashed with ‘little Tetworth’ so poor Georgie had a busy day sorting out getting Ron and Frankie over to Tetworth to do her clear round and cross country rounds and then back to load up B and bring him to Palace House to have a lesson with Clare Simper SSA side saddle Instructor!
I of course spent the majority of the day at Palace House hosting the side saddle lessons for Retraining of Racehorses and helping out where I could! I only needed to nip home briefly to charge my camera’s battery to keep on taking photos!

I had a lovely day watching everyone have either their first or second go with side saddle being taught by the wonderful Clare Simper, the more lessons I watch and listen to her do the more I want to soak up every word she says; the lady is a genius and clearly knows a lot about the position on a horse, what your body should and shouldn’t do riding, both astride and aside, as generally being a horse riding oracle! First lesson was with Ellie and the cutie Pickering, I really have a soft spot for them and really glad to see him coming on leaps and bounds. I am pretty excited to groom for them at Herts county show in a few weeks!

I also had 2 people from out of ‘my’ RoR East Region to come for the lessons and was so stoked to have them join us, they’d come from Surrey and West Sussex so that was really exciting! I really enjoy meeting new people and their horses, both of which were such characters and made for a fun morning!

Later on in the afternoon and the last lessons slot was my very own sister Georgie and B. The first time I’d hosted side saddle lessons was in October 2018 and sadly it clashed on the same day as Georgie doing to eventer trails at Keysoe so she wasn’t able to attend then but G was excited for this time and I am stoked to say they did really well! 

While B absolutely didn’t mind one bit about having a different type of saddle fitted, it did take him about 10 minutes to really grasp being ridden in a different way and then away absolutely away! Georgie and B romped round the arena and even were able to canter, which from what I am told is quite an achievement for a horse and rider to have never done side saddle before! Towards the end of the lesson Clare suggested a bit of a challenge for B and Georgie to see what they could both do and instructed Georgie on how to ask for an extended trot so along the long side of the Palace House arena Georgie pushed deep into her seat with all her might and wow, B didn’t have realise and motored alone being a trot that had hints of Valegro it was so mega!

It was so cool to watch my sister whizz round aside like her and B had been doing it for a long time, I really was very proud! Now all she’s got to do is get a side saddle and they’d be away I’d say! The smile on her face says it all doesn't it?
Fred will continue his retraining and maybe in a year or so I’d have a go, although seeing ultra-fit Georgie ache the next day I think I’d better up my fitness game!

In a couple of weeks Fred has his next show, where we’ll try and have a nice time at South Suffolk show and hope he isn’t an arse! We’ve been working on some natural horsemanship groundwork so we shall see. We’ve got some new Smart Grooming things to try out so look out for posts on those!

Pettit Shepherd RoR gang, over and out! x