Tilly Tillbrook faces more snow, jump homework and a busy month in preparation for the season...

Finally the snow has passed us by and we are able to get back on track. Life was very busy for me in February – the demands of work and my life outside of horses hit for the first couple of weeks, although I can’t complain too much since it did involve a week of rock climbing in sunny Spain. Now I don’t know who ordered the weather on that trip, but by the end of the week it was snowing, not what we had hoped for, and I feel like the white stuff is trying to scupper all my plans at the moment.

However, back to base, and it really was time to crack on with our preperation for the eventing season. After a week of hacking and schooling, we had a very busy few days. First up on the Friday was a clinic with Nick Gauntlett at Stockland Lovell Manor in Somerset. This was supposed to be show jumping in the morning and then a session out on the XC course in the afternoon – of course the weather put paid to that! Luckily, Stockland Lovell is a super facility and has an enormous outdoor arena, and they had some portable XC fences out on it for us.

Our show jumping session was very useful, with Nick noticing that I tend to create a great canter round the corner then chase it to the fence meaning everything is rather rushed. So I have to learn to sit and wait a bit more these days, which is not easy! Lots of homework there…..

The XC session was a really good session – we worked over corners and on some tricky angles and curving lines, and all in all had a great afternoon, leaving me feeling like we’d had a really useful tune-up for the start of the season.

On Saturday, we headed down to Dovecote Stables in Chard for a dressage lesson. Sam was very pleased with the progress Boysie has made in his canter work, and we are now asking for some canter-walk transitions and doing a lot of work on collecting the paces whilst keeping the hind leg quick. My schooling at home is really concentrating on this, and we have almost nailed the canter-walk now – I’ll update in March! I am very glad that I have him on the Joint Power now that we are asking him to work harder and take more weight behind – it gives me peace of mind.

Then Sunday we headed down to Pontispool for the Area 12 Riding Club dressage qualifiers. Our RC had 4 teams entered, so there was a real sense of camaraderie on the day, and we all looked super-smart in our team saddlecloths. I felt Boysie did a super first test, perhaps not quite forwards enough, but very relaxed, accurate, swinging and soft. The judge sadly did not agree and we got 56% - our worst score since 2007! After a pep-talk from a friend, we went in to do our team qualifying test, N25. This time I had him more forwards but I felt we sacrificed some softness over the topline, and that he didn’t feel quite so supple. However a much better mark and placing resulted – 66.8% and 8th in the section with lots below us as opposed to 3rd from last in the first test! I have never had such a disparity in my marks before, so have emailed the videos to my dressage trainer Sam, and will let you know what he thinks next time.

Finally, the following Thursday we headed over the Severn Bridge for a clinic with Kenneth Clawson. I feel very privileged to be able to train with Kenneth, and the sessions always give me lots to work on. Again I was chastised for chasing to the fences – I really need to break that habit, so I think lots of show jumping is on the cards for us now. However, Boysie rose to the challenge of the tight turns and angles admirably, and I came away feeling like I know what needs the work.

It’s now just a week until the first event of the season, and after all that hard work we went for a nice pipe-opener in Ashton Court Estate – a huge country park with virtually no access restrictions which is in hacking distance – bliss. With all this hard work, the Gut Power is really essential to maintaining his digestive health and keeping those ulcers at bay. I am also extremely pleased with the Coat Powder – everyone keeps commenting on what a super shiny coat Boysie has!

So now it is down to last minute tune-ups before Aston le Walls – until next time, happy tack-cleaning (that’s what I’ll be mostly doing!).