Exciting times ahead!
This week 2 years ago a little unbacked 6 year old broodmare (who’s last foal was weaned two weeks previously) called Tilly crossed the border into Scotland to come and live with me. Unbelievably exactly 2 years to the day later and she will be crossing the border again on her way down south to the PetPlan championships as she has qualified for the elementary and elementary freestyle.
I never imagined two years ago when she arrived that we would be where we are at now. She was only backed at the start of last year and she did her first somewhat wobbely BD prelims last June.
As I am reflecting upon her progress I can clearly see her path up the training spiral, both on a daily basis but also in our longer term plans (monthly and yearly spirals).
For example for quite a while I have been accepting of her lack of engagement ‘carrying power’ as we were still at the stage of developing her pushing power and her strength was still not there enough to ask her to  engage any more than she was, but over the last few weeks we have begun to make the switch to focusing on her carrying power and she is now beginning to hit a new level again. This systematic and sympathetic approach combined with clear communication and feedback to the horse has certainly proved to work well for us.
This progress has been reflected in the judges comments as over the summer we’ve had consistent comments about nice harmony just needs more engagement. However at our last outing (at the Scottish Dressage Champs) we didn’t have a single comment about needing more engagement, albeit the medium trots were at times still a bit hurried.
We are not expecting miracles at the Pet Plan Champs but are going to take it all in, try our best and hope it will be a good learning experience for us both.
Huge thanks to all the team, as you will know there is always a strong support crew involved with horses, special thanks goes to Sara Stevens, Gina Peasnall and of course Andy for holding down the fort while I’m gone.
Thank you Tilly for being a wi superstar !