Spring has Sprung

With March at its end it feels like we  have really moved up a gear both with training and competitions this past month. We started with a local competition at Pachesham  at the beginning of the month and with the conditions absolutely horrid with truly gale force winds, I was pleased to keep Rhapsody's attention on me! I had my own pre-planned agenda for the day - concentrating on certain aspects of tests that I felt I needed to underpin and was satisfied with our outing in difficult conditions.  We then went over to Andrew J Murphy's for our monthly visit. Andrew was once again blessed with fine weather for his work with Rhaps and the video of some of our training on the last day shows my improvement - and growing confidence - in the 'dreaded' counter canter!  Back home and a routine check up  by Gill Maybury, Chiropractor showed up some soreness in Rhapsody's neck and shoulders resulting in some time off. As luck would have it the weather held and he was able to spend some deserved down time in the field enjoying some spring grass!  This did not help my prep for our next competition however... Ellie Martin, Saddler is coming to check my saddle but in the meantime it did not seem that this was necessarily the immediate cause of his soreness - possibly more likely squeezing him into an old rug - and now that he has muscled up some more with all the strengthening work a call also went in to Pace Equestrian for a new rug! 
The end of March saw us at the first competition of the year at Hickstead and in stark contract to that of last year we enjoyed warm sunshine! With our work at home so much more established now,  my plan - in between the training camps with Andrew - is to get to as many competitions as possible to drill myself in competition riding! It has to feel as normal as riding at home or in the warm up - thats the aim at least! All these competitions and travels to Andrew would not be possible without the tremendous generosity of my good friends Catherine Heilbron, Sally George and Liz Hale who continue to support me with the loan of their horseboxes as transport to competitions and training without which I would be lost! 
Somewhere in between all this was a visit to the TTT and a chance to watch Charles de Kunffy training other riders  - true inspiration which came at a key point at this stage of stepping up the heat. 
And last but not least was the publishing of the first of a series of monthly blogs for Simple System Horse Feeds - aptly entitled 'Year of the Horse' !