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