The countdown for the eventing season is well and truly on! There’s just a few days to go before our first event of 2017. This will be Moreton where I will have Smartie (Aberdare Lady) and Balou (True Blue Too) in the BE100. All the horses are really beginning to feel on tip top form and I am very excited to get them back out.
We have been doing lots of training with Emma Fisher and Hannah Biggs and I couldn’t be happier with where the horses are at this stage of the season.
I have also just been away training with Angela Tucker for the week with the big guys, Ruby (Rubabell Cruise), Archie (Arise Cavalier) and Effie (Augusta Firefly). I must say a huge thank you to my owner, Nick Engert, for setting this up for me. The horses and I worked very hard and it was great to get Angela’s expert eyes on us. There was lots to take away and work on for the season ahead. Also shout out to Matt Glentworth, who is based with Angela, for looking after me and feeding me like a queen!
January and February are a particularly busy couple of months on the yard as the eventers all come back in while we still have the hunters up and running too. This cross-over makes it quite hectic so I also have to say a big thank you to our super grooms Bridget Fox and Charlotte Lines who have been working very hard!
I had a very interesting evening at performance psychologist Charlie Unwin’s talk, “Winning the mind game in training” held at Millfield. It was very thought provoking and I came away with lots of notes and things to think about. I must recommend that if you haven’t been to one of these talks yet then you really should get booked onto one. Charlie has been doing them up and down the country and they have been very well received.
The babies of the yard, Leo (Sportsfield Global Warrior), Casper (Lismakeera Global Emperor) and Nova (Global Supernova) all enjoyed their first spin cross-country schooling on grass last week at Downlands Equestrian, where there is a fantastic selection of jumps for the young horses on the most perfect going for this time of year. They were all exceptionally well behaved and took everything in their stride.
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The star of the show was Casper (pictured), who for a four-year-old, was an exceedingly cool customer! I can’t wait to get them all out to some Burghley Young Event Horses (BYEH) classes later on in the season. A big thank you to Chris Hunt of Global Event Horses for sourcing these super young horses.
I’m looking forward to taking the big horses out for their first cross-country schools this week and then we are all systems go for the start of the season!
Rosie
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Rosie Fry has been blogging for Horse & Hound since shortly after she left university to concentrate on eventing full time in July 2013. She is the sister of National Hunt trainer Harry Fry and helps school and exercise his horses when time allows.