Sitting in a tent when it's minus 5 outside in the middle of summer with friends vomitting around you from altitude sickness at 10,000 feet. Long way from home.
With Dell having a mini mid season break I got offered a place on a budget expedition to Morocco - well I could hardly say no!... After stocking up on supplies in Marrakech we were off into the Atlas mountains to find a guide and pack ponies; leaving England, eventing and civilisation far far behind. We trekked from north to south over the Atlas mountains via Jebel M'Goun, one of the highest peaks in Africa and various gorges that wind their way through the mountains. The trip was totally accident free untill about 30 seconds passed in one of the gorges. We decided it would be alright to copy the Berber guides when they were diving head first into a waterfall pool. Albeit we didn't dive but we hadn't realised quite how shallow it would be, two near broken hands later and a twisted knee we just about got away with it. The second near miss was walking along an incredibly narrow path across a scree slope - think very large nasty looking cliffs below. A friend decided to look behind them and slipped, very nearly setting them off on the way down a kind of deadly playground slide.
After driving out of the mountains in a minibus that made a bus from slough on a saturday night look appealing we headed down to the Sahara. Now the trouble is in 50 degrees with no air conditioning is that you have to open the windows. This works fine until a sand storm passes through and you're in the window seat. Imagine 50 hairdryers on your face with sand being fired at you and you imagine what it felt like hiding under a roll mat wrapped round your face.... Upon arriving at the edge of the Sahara we managed to get a hotel room for the 13 of us without air conditioning - this is actually just a large scale frying pan. The plus side that cancelled any issues was that there was a pool. I'll never forget the look on a group of german sun bather's faces when 13 of us who hadn't washed for over a week dived in. The most common line was: "Where are you from?", "England", "Oh" as the nose turns up, they turn on their heel, flick the dirt and strut away. As if it was a crime to be English - Hey, God save the queen etc!
Morocco is something you'll never see anywhere else. In the mountains the scenery changes round every corner from plateus' at 10,000 feet to waterfalls falling from cliffs. The culture spills out totally unconfined full of colour and vibrancy. From the friendy Berber people in the mountains to the nomads of the dessert right through to the people of Maracesh who are slightly corrupted by western influence there's a plethora of stories and language. Language is an interesting one. Most of the guides speak 7 languages. That said, my Spanish and French from GCSE combined with some arabic picked up from the guides meant I could communicate in a very round about way but it's surprising how much meaning you can get across with sentences of 4 languages (plus a bit of acting)!
Landing in England was a strange sensation. Being able to drink the tap water, speak one language, see greenery and not have to guard against pick pockets constantly was bizarre. I'd hadn't forgotten home I'd just remembered the bits that mattered. Eventing, friends, school, windsurfing and a few other things mattered but it makes you realise that somethings aren't that important - who cares whether we have to walk a 100m to get a drink, does it really matter? It also made me see how much I love England, I'm not sure what it is but I love it and despite current issues like the recession I'm not going anywhere. Of course within a few hours of hitting the tarmac I was back in the saddle and grinning as I realised things were really beginning to look quite bright. Check out thehome page of my website and you can read all about my new sponsor, equishopping. Plus, check out this weeks Horse and Hound (12 August 2010) p76 as I'm into the final six of the Dodson and Horrell bursary. Next stop is Chilham Castle where they've got a stunning new novice track which should be fabulous - big bold and technical - right up my street!
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Kerry Graw keeps us updated on the boys' progress!
As for the two boys they are still on the road to recovery. Biggles as you know has been touch and go as to whether he will come back to compete again but he started to look really good when he had another relapse and tweaked his front suspensory, aarrgghh. We think its due to the fact we have solved the original problem but he had been putting stress on other areas to compensate previously which made them weak. This is now the 3rd thing to go wrong so am hoping that means all our bad luck has been used up now... so after yet more time off, shock wave treatment and far too many vet vists for my liking I am back on board and so far we have made it to trot work, will we make it to canter?
Ze is still being treated for his sacrilliac injury and is on limited turnout and walking exercise in straight lines - this week we have started short bursts of trot and have a visit from the chiropractor for him later in the week. We think it will be six more weeks of walk and trot before we can start back to some normality with light schooling then if all goes well we might be out and about competing before Christmas.... fingers crossed!!!
September should be a busy month and will hopefully have lots to report back and also the boys may be doing a bit more than walking in straight lines!
Polly Tucker updates us on a busy and successful month
What a month….. since my last post I have been very busy right to the very last day of July, what started as a very successful month also ended in one. Mr Winky has found a new home not too far from his home with us, when I was told the news of the sale of Winks I was delighted however what Mum didn’t tell me is I had been asked to break him in! I had my doubts as to how he would behave but he seemed to take to lunging and riding like a duck to water, after a couple of days he decided he had got the hang of it and wanted to trot off on his own but soon realised he wasn’t going to get to far with a rider on top.
Blue has been the highlight to the month proving us all wrong and lapping up and loving every minuet of being back in full time work. Previously he had been a lazy toad who much preferred jumping to stressage, this time around however he is a changed boy who is putting Dressage horse Percy to shame. After much deliberating we decided to take Blue to his first competition in two years! We pottered up to West Wilts for a combined training, the dressage (normally being our bug bearer) went smoothly and we awaited our turn to jump. I was shocked when the scores went up and Blue was in the lead, the pressure was on. Having not jumped competitively for two years we wondered how he would react, yet again Blue performed amazingly just knocking one fence to move us to second in a strong 20 competitor class. We have been so encouraged by his first competition we are prepping him in mind to enter our first BE 100open this year with him, Bicton looks a likely contender but we will let you know in the next blog where we aim to head next with him.
The last success of the month actually came on the first day of August, so I’m cheating a bit here. We took Wally to West Buckland For a BE100 open, this fielded a small amount of entries however lots of very classy and amazing horses were entered up. Wally was more chilled at this event posting a very good score for the test we performed, there was some odd marking and some fantastic moving horses had scores well behind me. Warming up for SJ Wally seemed a little tired than normal but we had done a lot with him in a short space of time up to the event, once in the arena he perked right up to post a fab clear even helping his rider out after completely missing a stride to the triple bar. The cross country course this year was much tougher than first looked at this year, last year it ran clock wise how ever this year it ran anti clock wise with some very substantial jumps for a BE100 open. Wally loved the course, maintaining a good pace all the way around the course. He really seemed to be enjoying himself, there were a few sque wiff moments but nothing to worry about. We posted a double clear inside the time, this meant we finished in top ten in 7th place. After this great run he is having a couple of weeks rest with light work before we attack a ON in September.
On wards and up wards.
Blue has been the highlight to the month proving us all wrong and lapping up and loving every minuet of being back in full time work. Previously he had been a lazy toad who much preferred jumping to stressage, this time around however he is a changed boy who is putting Dressage horse Percy to shame. After much deliberating we decided to take Blue to his first competition in two years! We pottered up to West Wilts for a combined training, the dressage (normally being our bug bearer) went smoothly and we awaited our turn to jump. I was shocked when the scores went up and Blue was in the lead, the pressure was on. Having not jumped competitively for two years we wondered how he would react, yet again Blue performed amazingly just knocking one fence to move us to second in a strong 20 competitor class. We have been so encouraged by his first competition we are prepping him in mind to enter our first BE 100open this year with him, Bicton looks a likely contender but we will let you know in the next blog where we aim to head next with him.
The last success of the month actually came on the first day of August, so I’m cheating a bit here. We took Wally to West Buckland For a BE100 open, this fielded a small amount of entries however lots of very classy and amazing horses were entered up. Wally was more chilled at this event posting a very good score for the test we performed, there was some odd marking and some fantastic moving horses had scores well behind me. Warming up for SJ Wally seemed a little tired than normal but we had done a lot with him in a short space of time up to the event, once in the arena he perked right up to post a fab clear even helping his rider out after completely missing a stride to the triple bar. The cross country course this year was much tougher than first looked at this year, last year it ran clock wise how ever this year it ran anti clock wise with some very substantial jumps for a BE100 open. Wally loved the course, maintaining a good pace all the way around the course. He really seemed to be enjoying himself, there were a few sque wiff moments but nothing to worry about. We posted a double clear inside the time, this meant we finished in top ten in 7th place. After this great run he is having a couple of weeks rest with light work before we attack a ON in September.
On wards and up wards.
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Jo Barry on training with Carl and Stephen and getting engaged!
Yikes the year is fast disappearing!?! Regionals are approaching and the Winter Championships seem a distant memory.
Rafa made a quick start into qualifiers after the Winter Championships before having a few weeks off. He won his first two qualifiers and so gained qualification by the end of April. He was asked to step in last minute when a guinea pig had to drop out from the Jennie Loriston Clarke demonstration that was held at Gleneagles at the beginning of May. Freddie was already going to perform his Elementary and Medium freestyle tests, so Rafa enjoyed a relaxed outing having to show what was looked for in a young horse. Freddie as ever enjoyed his 'public performance', it was his last for a while as I had decided to concentrate on his training.
I took Freddie and Hugo down to see Carl mid-May, it was Hugo's first ever training with Carl and the first time he was to see Carl's yard which even to older horses can be scary! I rode with my skull and body protector on each day hoping people would notice and give me a wide berth...not a chance! Hugo was fantastic he arrived a toddler and although he wasn't a man when he left he was certainly in his late teens! I rode him indoors and out, with horses arriving and leaving the arena, lorries going past, people appearing from nowhere dogs running round the school, the peacocks, guinea fowl and hens scrapping in the hedges and we survived! Freddie continued work on his changes, canter pirouettes, piaffe and passage. Carl concluded after the few days that I shouldn't concentrate solely on the changes but try to improve collection and ride the changes using the collection I could achieve. I then took Freddie back down to see Stephen Clarke for two days at the end of May. Stephen came to the same conclusion as Carl had and so I felt confident to carry on with my set homework.
In mid-June we took Hugo and Rafa to Ingliston Equestrian Centre for a competition. Rafa did the Elementary freestyle using the same music that I had used for his Novice freestyle but with a new floor plan. He won and qualified for the freestyle semi-final which will be held in February 2011. Hugo behaved brilliantly. He didn't qualify but I was thrilled that he didn't look at the boards, flowers or worry about anything. I have to admit that seeing him spend 2hrs bucking in the stable we had hired had made me slightly apprehensive!!
At the end of June I travelled down to the Hartpury Dressage Extravaganza. I had been asked to ride in the Pro/Am competition and it was something that I had always wanted to take part in from my days of watching the Medium Elite class that used to be held at the Winter Championships. The amateur rider rides their own horse through a medium test and then the professional has 10 minutes to get to know the horse before having to ride the same test themselves. The professional riders names are put in a hat and a draw is done to pair riders with horses, so fingers are kept crossed that you get a nice one! I did thankfully, a lovely bay owned and ridden by Charlotte Holes. Charlotte had already ridden a good test in the morning to place her 2nd so the pressure was on!Raff was very nice to ride, responsive and well trained...I hope Charlotte was happy with what I was able to produce! I managed to improve her already good score by 1% and we maintained our 2nd placing.
I have just returned from training with Stephen, this time taking Freddie and Rafa. I had hit a stumbling block with the changes with Freddie and had to return to the drawing board. He did not cope well with riding the changes with a large amount of collection being involved...he could make an attempt at one or the other but not both at the same time. He had got strong and tense and it was tending to made me ride backwards. The horse that had never got anything wrong or found anything difficult couldn't understand why he was making mistakes and could not do what was being asked...mentally I think his head was in a spin. While working on my own I had a 'light bulb' moment and remembered how I had taught him any new movements previously. I had always started through riding him deep...it kept him open in his body and mind as he felt he had somewhere to move to when asked something new. I played with this idea with the changes and could see a big improvement BUT I wasn't sure how a trainer would view my thought process and see an improvement! Stephen thankfully was very pleased with what I had done and that I was well on my way to my goal...phew! Rafa went with the Regionals in mind, I hoped for confirmation that what I was feeling was what was being seen. Stephen was very impressed with Rafa's development and couldn't believe the change in him from when he had last seen him just over a year ago.
So...the Regionals are next. Hopes lie with Rafa to keep the flag flying. He has the Novice and Elementary Open classes to contest and if he goes like he has been the last few weeks I will be happy...if the judges agree that will be brilliant!!
On a personal note July has also been very exciting, I got engaged! My boyfriend, Ross took me to New York for a couple of days and proposed so it hasn't just been Freddie's head that has been spinning of late!!
Rafa made a quick start into qualifiers after the Winter Championships before having a few weeks off. He won his first two qualifiers and so gained qualification by the end of April. He was asked to step in last minute when a guinea pig had to drop out from the Jennie Loriston Clarke demonstration that was held at Gleneagles at the beginning of May. Freddie was already going to perform his Elementary and Medium freestyle tests, so Rafa enjoyed a relaxed outing having to show what was looked for in a young horse. Freddie as ever enjoyed his 'public performance', it was his last for a while as I had decided to concentrate on his training.
I took Freddie and Hugo down to see Carl mid-May, it was Hugo's first ever training with Carl and the first time he was to see Carl's yard which even to older horses can be scary! I rode with my skull and body protector on each day hoping people would notice and give me a wide berth...not a chance! Hugo was fantastic he arrived a toddler and although he wasn't a man when he left he was certainly in his late teens! I rode him indoors and out, with horses arriving and leaving the arena, lorries going past, people appearing from nowhere dogs running round the school, the peacocks, guinea fowl and hens scrapping in the hedges and we survived! Freddie continued work on his changes, canter pirouettes, piaffe and passage. Carl concluded after the few days that I shouldn't concentrate solely on the changes but try to improve collection and ride the changes using the collection I could achieve. I then took Freddie back down to see Stephen Clarke for two days at the end of May. Stephen came to the same conclusion as Carl had and so I felt confident to carry on with my set homework.
In mid-June we took Hugo and Rafa to Ingliston Equestrian Centre for a competition. Rafa did the Elementary freestyle using the same music that I had used for his Novice freestyle but with a new floor plan. He won and qualified for the freestyle semi-final which will be held in February 2011. Hugo behaved brilliantly. He didn't qualify but I was thrilled that he didn't look at the boards, flowers or worry about anything. I have to admit that seeing him spend 2hrs bucking in the stable we had hired had made me slightly apprehensive!!
At the end of June I travelled down to the Hartpury Dressage Extravaganza. I had been asked to ride in the Pro/Am competition and it was something that I had always wanted to take part in from my days of watching the Medium Elite class that used to be held at the Winter Championships. The amateur rider rides their own horse through a medium test and then the professional has 10 minutes to get to know the horse before having to ride the same test themselves. The professional riders names are put in a hat and a draw is done to pair riders with horses, so fingers are kept crossed that you get a nice one! I did thankfully, a lovely bay owned and ridden by Charlotte Holes. Charlotte had already ridden a good test in the morning to place her 2nd so the pressure was on!Raff was very nice to ride, responsive and well trained...I hope Charlotte was happy with what I was able to produce! I managed to improve her already good score by 1% and we maintained our 2nd placing.
I have just returned from training with Stephen, this time taking Freddie and Rafa. I had hit a stumbling block with the changes with Freddie and had to return to the drawing board. He did not cope well with riding the changes with a large amount of collection being involved...he could make an attempt at one or the other but not both at the same time. He had got strong and tense and it was tending to made me ride backwards. The horse that had never got anything wrong or found anything difficult couldn't understand why he was making mistakes and could not do what was being asked...mentally I think his head was in a spin. While working on my own I had a 'light bulb' moment and remembered how I had taught him any new movements previously. I had always started through riding him deep...it kept him open in his body and mind as he felt he had somewhere to move to when asked something new. I played with this idea with the changes and could see a big improvement BUT I wasn't sure how a trainer would view my thought process and see an improvement! Stephen thankfully was very pleased with what I had done and that I was well on my way to my goal...phew! Rafa went with the Regionals in mind, I hoped for confirmation that what I was feeling was what was being seen. Stephen was very impressed with Rafa's development and couldn't believe the change in him from when he had last seen him just over a year ago.
So...the Regionals are next. Hopes lie with Rafa to keep the flag flying. He has the Novice and Elementary Open classes to contest and if he goes like he has been the last few weeks I will be happy...if the judges agree that will be brilliant!!
On a personal note July has also been very exciting, I got engaged! My boyfriend, Ross took me to New York for a couple of days and proposed so it hasn't just been Freddie's head that has been spinning of late!!
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