Team KA Update - February 2018
Hello Everybody and welcome to the first Team KA Update of 2018. Like a lot of you, we've had a bit of a quiet winter with our horses but we're back at it and a couple of our team members have some news to share in this month's update. We also have a video from our first training session of the year for you too. Hope you enjoy!
BETHANY POWERS
Tia and I have definitely had an interesting time since Christmas! Just before Christmas, I had a bad fall off of Tia which landed me in A&E with a concussion. This knocked my confidence quite significantly, and as a result I had a small break from riding.
About a week or so after the accident, I rode Tia again and something was just off with her. After that, I tried to lunge her and she was, to put it frankly, a nightmare! Broncing, rearing, trying to take off, etc. This behaviour is so unlike Tia, who’s usually the most chilled out horse ever! It really made me rethink our relationship and my future with Tia. However, after a couple of weeks of lunging and turnout everyday to burn energy, Tia is completely back to normal! She’s been ridden twice and was perfect on both occasions in all three paces.
Although she’s a bit rusty in her outline (which is understandable due to lack of ridden work!), it’s the best feeling in the world to be able to ride her again and have fun without having a constant worry about her behaving. Although the snow has been a little annoying, what with not being able to ride, but it’s given me plenty of time to just bond with Tia and hang out with her, which is just as important as actually riding! Horses are animals and not robots, and this experience has definitely taught me that!
Everyone has setbacks and doubts, even professionals have off days, but working through those issues will undoubtedly improve your bond with your horse. As for my plans and goals for 2018 with Tia, I’m aiming to focus on showing and dressage this year. Hopefully, with the help of Karen, we can really get into dressage and put in some good work and get more experience throughout 2018!
I look forward to continuing to share me and Tia’s journey on social media, if you’re interested in seeing more of us I’m on Instagram, @brp.equestrian ! And I’ll be featured on our Team KA Facebook page as well.
FEARNE NELSON
So over the Christmas period Harry has some time off competing but on Saturday he was back to work!!
As for preparing for a competition I have my weekly lessons with Karen and team Ka training. This helps a lot as Karen’s knows exactly what Harry and I need to work on and what I would like to achieve. We work on different exercises depending on the day, ( how harry is feeling etc ) and nearer to the competition we will run through the tests and work on my position as well as Harry.
Also I like to mix it up , Harry can get bored after schooling everyday in the arena and can become a bit nappy. To avoid this I make sure that I hack and lunge etc as well as schooling. I made sure I was organised, tack and boots cleaned, Harry clean! This helps on the day as you don’t want to be running around trying to find things.
We did 2 classes both of which were unaffiliated as it was his first comp of the year. We did prelim 1 and prelim 14, he was a good boy and scored 71% in the first class. And in the 2nd class he scored 68%, I am very pleased with his results for his first competition in a while. Harry can be a bit nervous out competing but never bad! But as for Saturday he was pretty chilled, (of course he had a few nervous poos!) but all in all working forward and on the aids which I am pleased with.
My goal for the next wee while is to get him registered BD and start to get him out regularly.
ABBIE WATSON
I am Abbie and I own a 15.3hh Irish sports horse called Tyler. Ty is quite a hot, excitable horse which makes schooling and hacking quite a challenge. Over the past few months he has begun to start rearing whenever he gets excited or gets unhappy that I don’t allow him to gallop. Out on hacks, this made me quite nervous as he either reared into a fence, another horse or in front of a car, which ultimately made me feel very unsafe. Whenever he reared or tried to take off, I got stressed, angry and annoyed at him which didn’t help any problems. I make the decision to keep him off the road for a few weeks and just let him hack around the fields at KA. In the space of a few weeks, he has gone from rearing and taking off constantly, to being relaxed enough to be on the buckle. By doing lots of walk work and transitions, it really helped to get him thinking and stop focusing on ‘its grass, let’s gallop’. When I began to feel a bit more confident that he wouldn’t jump in front of a car, i took him out on the road and he was perfect. Although he still jogs and does Bunny hop, I have found that just letting him go for a trot helps this a lot. He is half a ton of horse, no matter how hard I try, I will never win a battle against him and that’s definitely something I have to remember. In the school, he gets very strong and leans a lot which causes me to get quite frustrated as it never feels like I am getting anywhere with him. I have learned that the best thing to do when he gets tense and excited is to just give him the rein, walk him around for a bit then re pick him up and start again. This relaxes him, but also allows me to take a breather. This winter has definitely been a learning curve for me. Each horse is different, and I think every rider needs to remember that. What works for one horse, might not work for others. These are just a few simple things that have been working for Ty and I. If you are interested in seeing me of Ty, I am on instagram @my_coloured_eventer
