A new addition to Jo Barry's string of horses and snow puts pay to riding!

5 inches of snow has put pay to any riding over the last 5 days. The horses are quite happy though with the impromptu break and enjoying the chance to go in the field and play in the snow! So far so good though and only one shoe has been lost during their frolics.

It has been another busy month, the website has brought in a couple of new full liveries. I am really pleased with the response that it has generated and next year looks to be starting off well.
The Scottish area of British Dressage held an Awards Dinner and Ceilidh at the end of November. It was a really fun night and Freddie was awarded a trophy for being the highest placed Scottish horse at the National Championships.

Freddie and I headed down to Cheshire for two days training with Stephen Clarke at the beginning of December. Stephen worked on getting Freddie to sit and take more weight on his hindlegs and start to develop the head and neck carriage required for a Grand Prix horse. I find the balance between Carl and Stephen's training very good, they concentrate on different aspects of his way of going from which I can reach a balance between the two to find optimum power, submission and expression that suits Freddie and I.

Rafa has had a confidence building month being a guinea pig on two courses. The first was a BD Trainee Judges course taken by Andrew Gardiner and the second was a SEA/SportScotland Level 3 Coaches Course. He was especially good at the coaches course. He had to work for a long time the first day and I thought he would come out the next day saying he did not want to play..if anything he was more game and worked very well! Usually I come home feeling frustrated thinking 'Oh Rafa!!!' and it was lovely to come home and tell everyone how great he had been!

The BIG news is I have a BIG new horse..huge Hugo arrived last week!! He is a lovely elegant looking horse but is only 3 years old (rising 4) and 17hh already. He was bred in Germany and is a hanoverian by Royal Blend (Rotspon), he also had Lauries Crusador and Akzent II in his breeding. He had been broken for just over a month but due to the snow I haven't been able to start work with him yet.

Hoping for a quiet Christmas and looking forward to an exciting 2010!