Just as we got going with our new saddles, the snow hit – disaster! Firstly Area 12 dressage was cancelled, then both the BD competitions I had entered, plus all the BSJA in the area, and whilst Boysie had great fun out in the snow, as it melted he did a trash job on his rug leaning over the fence to pick at emerging grass. Oh well, everyone is in the same boat I suppose! It got me fit anyway as I ended up cycling the 12 mile round trip to the yard.
Just as the snow melted, I had some sad news which involved me being away for the week due to the death of my stepfather. I abandoned Boysie and raced down to Dorset to support my mum, canceling lessons as I drove!
Finally, I got back on a week ago, and we’ve been out for a couple of jumping lessons and had Tessa Thorne over to help with our flatwork. I held off entering anything as me doing so seems to precipitate either extreme weather events or family tragedy, so lessons seemed the safest bet for the time being.
However, I have just put my entry in for Aston le Walls unaffiliated, and whilst I’d love to say the preparation has started in earnest, in fact I am manically busy catching up with all the work I had to put off due to the snow, and packing for my holiday in the first week of February!
With any luck, we’ll actually get going properly next month, and all these false starts will be over.
Just before I sign off, I must give you an update on the Organic Horse products I’ve been trying. I’ve been feeding Boysie the Joint Powder, Gut Powder and Coat Powder. Firstly, I have to congratulate Organic Horse on such an easy to feed way of packaging supplements – though I suspect if you have large hands getting them into the pouches may be tricky as you get to the bottom of each pack. I particularly like the fact that each pouch minimizes packaging, and if refills could be sold in a paper bag which I could recycle, that would be even better for the environment. I don’t think I’ve ridden enough to give any honest feedback on the joint supplement yet, but I can say that Boysie’s feed smells great and he loves the herb powders – so far so good. He’s feeling very well, and there have been no recurrence of any gut problems, so feeding the gut powder gives me a bit of peace of mind that I am doing all I can to support his systems. I’m really pleased with the coat powder – after all the drugs he’d been on, he had developed a bit of a scurfy coat, but a month of feeding this and he’s looking very glossy again, which is wonderful. I’m hoping it will mean less elbow grease for me in the summer when I need to get him smart for shows too, you never know your luck!
