Summer stuff

Haven't done much with the horses recently due to the 40 degree plus temperatures we've had.....and the usual influx of summer visitors. Managed a couple of hacks out.....

....and Ali rode Sorcier, Tanya's thoroughbred, for the first time. He's over 16hh but she doesn't exactly look tiny on him!

She's doing her first dressage competition on Sunday, she knows the test and has practised a lot, but Seraphina is not always too keen on doing it, the other day she tanked off every time she was asked to canter.......

I have done a Practical Horsemanship class with her for Interdressage, it looks a lot calmer than it felt!

She has a training session up at the new club on Saturday afternoon, let's hope she decides to be a good girl and listen.......

Clever babies.......

Sky and Kinna have been at home for a few days so we have had time to do something with them, like wash all the poo out of Sky's tail and take them for walks......

So then yesterday, we decided to try an experiment, which went rather well........

and today, the same with Sky, no problem :-)

Noty going to do this regularly as they are only 3 but it's a good start.......although Ali's legs look a bit long on them, they are both 14.1hh now, let's hope they get a bit bigger!

Medal winning performances?

The Olympic Equestrian events have finished and we have had some great viewing and the sport has reached a wide audience. But sometimes, for me, that viewing had been uncomfortable, some dreadful images are doing the rounds on the internet like this

I still can't believe this woman was rewarded for riding her horse like this with a silver medal.....but the marvellously relaxed combination of Carl Hester and Uthopia were denied a medal. The chairman of the judging panel, Stephen Clarke, was on BBC Breakfast this morning and he actually said that Parzival, the horse pictured above, was crossing his jaw and leaning on his rider's hands. So why such a hight mark then???

The FEI's Facebook page is still being deluged with images like this, they are not only deleting them but denying the posters  access to the page, so much for freedom of expression!!

The showjumping was an undeniably exciting competition to watch, but why do a lot of the riders feel it necessary to shove a load of metalwork in the horse's mouth and strap its head down and its mouth shut? Why do they need to jab them in the mouth so much?

And the cross country took a heavy toll with 15 eliminations due to falls. I cannot imagine ever asking one of my horses to jump down something like this

But it is great viewing, and I have watched as much as possible, and winced at the pulling on horse's mouths, but I decided a long time ago that jumping and cross country and anything more difficult than a walk trot dressage test just isn't for me.....

More dressing up......

As you know, I like a bit of dressing up so don't need much of an excuse. Isabelle at Beaumont asked us to help out with another Medieval Day today so off we went. Had great fun, there were lots of stalls and entertainment, and of course some taking it very seriously, living in a tent, cooking over fires reenactors who pointed out discrepancies in our outfits. Probably wouldn't have approved of our non medieval cups of tea brewed on the gas cooker in the horse trailer either.......

We did the usual parade around the town, the boys found some brightly clad cyclists very interesting, totally ignored the fire for cooking the hog roast, but Gandalf did his customary highly suspicious staring at the water fountains in the centre of town.

The SNO was happy as she got her face painted and got to ride around carrying a weapon and then got to hit someone with said weapon without even getting into trouble!

We were lucky with the weather for the parade, but then the heavens opened and we had to hide under various tents, then got soaked on the way back to the trailer with the boys. Just like being in England, really.......

Stressage....

I have so far been enjoying the coverage of the equestrian events at the London Olympics, until that is the dressage started. I watched so many horses being held on to in front, opening their mouths, breathing heavily, whisking their tails, grinding their teeth, in short, they were generally tense and stressed.

So why do people do it to them? Well, yes, obviously to win, but can't they see how they are affecting their horses?

Lots of controversy this week about these photos of some riders training at the Olympics. Using Rollkur, hyperflexion, whatever you want to call it.

Swedish rider Patrik Kittel

Patrik van der Meer from the Netherlands

Another Dutch rider, Adeline Cornelissen

The Fédération Équestre Internationale, the governing body for Olympic equestrian events has received thousands of complaints about these photos. They issued a statement on thier Facebook page saying "We are aware that there is concern about some training methods, but photographs can be misleading. Rest assured that our stewards are always there, on the ground, monitoring all training sessions. We’re on the case."

But they are so obviously not on the case! Even if those photos were misleading, and I don't believe for one minute that they are, yesterday Adelinde Cornelissen does this before and even during her test in front of the eyes of the world.....

....and gets rewarded with a score of 81%. Quite unbelievable. What kind of example does that set? Horses pulled in at the front, unable to use their backs, with their hocks trailing out behind......

Contrast this with the beautifully relaxed round we were treated to by Carl Hester whose horse  was always in front of the vertical using his back and hindlegs properly.....

......or Richard Davison leaning forward to give his horse a treat after their test.

And of course Charlotte Dujardin's Olympic record breaking score......

Makes you proud to be British.