Daft o'clock. Got up before the birds to get my taxi through to Sheffield. Still asleep as I hadn't got in from the clinic the night before until midnight.
7.30am. It's p'ing it down with rain and the herd is right at the top of our 45 acre field! Needless to say Saffy wasn't overly excited about being brought in early!
Got her back to the yard and she obviously knew that SOMETHING was going on because she wouldn't eat her feed.
She was cleaned up as best we could, plaited her mane and forelock, travel boots on, rug on, tail guard on and ready to go.
8.15am. Lorry arrives with a ramp that is akin to scaling Mount Everest. This was no 'edge them slowly up the ramp' job, this was total commitment. Not the best kind of ramp for a first load!
8.20am. Tack etc is on the lorry so time to get Saff on. She stands at the bottom of the ramp obviously rather confused as to what she needed to do. She's not naughty but isn't quite sure about it. You want me to climb up THERE? ? ? ? ? ?
8.45am. She decides to be a big brave girl, stands on her back legs and plonks her front feet 3/4 the way up the ramp. Back legs follow and she's on
9.20am. Arrive at Smeltings. She's travelled well and apart from being a bit sweaty, rubbing her tail guard off and poohing her pants she's fine. She walked off the lorry rather nicely rather than leaping or running :) Damian took her into her stable where she neighed at her new friends and tucked into her haynet.
After she'd had a while to pee and eat we tacked her up and took her into the lunge pen. I stayed outside as there were 2 horses in the school next to the pen and adding a strange place into the equation we expected an explosion.
Apart from neighing at the new horses she was a complete darling. She even lowered her head and offered long and low. What a good girl :)
10am. Show time She came in and had a look around but was remarkably calm. She took a bit longer to settle but wasn't particularly spooked by the indoor school (we only have an outdoor), the cows in the field outside, the gelding in the field outside or the row of faces looking at her in the arena.
We don't have fencing up to the sides of the school at home so she did jump a bit when she wiped her rider (I still can't ride after my accident) up the side of the boards!
Once she'd settled she went quite nicely. She was a bit unsteady in her head and had a few short 'episodes' but she wasn't particularly 'naughty' overall.
I was really proud at how well behaved she was for her first time out, I really expected fireworks and spooks galore.
I had promised everyone that she would be 'entertaining' at the very least and she didn't disappoint! She literally EXPLODED into canter and once she found that this caused people to laugh she demonstrated it again ... several times!
Once actually in canter though she was a good girl :)
I'm so proud off my little moo cow.It was a good lesson and our rider did really well to sit so well on what is, effectively, an unexploded bomb.
I just wish that Heather was nearer but at least we've got two excellent EE teachers in the vicinity.
Heather did comment on her ability to transform from Dobbin to Dressage pone :)
We're hoping that it will work to our advantage once we start competing by lulling the others into a false sense of security and the difference between resting Saff and working Saff being SO noticeable that she'll really stand out.
I really enjoyed the clinic (and the demo the evening before). Heather is such a good teacher and so positive even when she's giving corrections. I'd definitely do it again, it was a great experience.
Having done herself proud it was time for her to go home. She wanted to stay at Smeltings but they needed the stable.
Loading up to go home she did the same thing again and stood at the bottom of the ramp just looking at it. 25 minutes later (that's obviously the magic number!) she jumped on again and went home. Bless her, she was SUCH a good girl, we were very proud of how she behaved.
It was her first time out and must have been stressful because of breaking her routine (getting her in early), loading, travelling, new place, new horses, new work place, lots of people watching. But she was a little star, we couldn't have asked more from her at all.
I have to say a HUGE thank you to Heather who was absolutely fantastic and made everyone feel more positive about themselves and really improved the horse and rider by the end of the session.
Vicky and Damian from Smeltings were brilliant. They were fantastic hosts and must have put a lot of work into setting it all up.
Thank you also to everyone at Smeltings who was involved in getting it all together. Smeltings is a beautiful place and a great venue as it was so calm and friendly.It was a great couple of days and very inspiring. Probably the best demo that I've been to in a long, long time.
