It’s been a busy couple of months for me with a lot of travelling and teaching, but at last I have time to put pen to paper, or in this case my two fingers to keypad.
After the excitement of the Olympic Games there was a chance that the following few weeks would probably feel a bit empty. I suppose this was the case to some extent but given the amount of work I had booked I did not have a lot of time to dwell on it.
The beginning of September I found myself at the All England Show Jumping Course at Hickstead helping some clients. This was really interesting and very enlightening. Looking around I was trying to see where the recession had hit the show jumping world. The 1 metre class had over 100 starters and all the other classes up to the 1.30 classes had entries of over 80 starters. I think that the Bunn familiy showed great foresight in running a National show at Hickstead allowing riders to qualify to ride on the hallowed turf of the International arena. For many years riders had tried in vain to persuade Duggie Bunn to run such a show but he stubbornly dug in his heels and refused to allow it to happen. This is one of the most important things to have happened to BS in the last decade. Opening up the International Arena has given so many second, third and even fourth division riders something to aspire to. It has always been a difficult task to get into this great arena and the experience it gives both young horses and riders, not to mention less experienced riders is priceless. I can remember as if it was yesterday the first time I rode into that amazing venue, scary? Yes, exciting? Very, satisfactory outcome? Err, no! At least not the first time, but it gave me a huge ambition and gave so many riders like myself a realistic achievable goal. Well done Hickstead.
Finding horses that suit riders is always an interesting job but this month it was a particular pleasure. I had a very good friend of mine who had had a couple of pretty bad experiences in owning horses in the past, resulting in some broken limbs and a huge loss of confidence, so much so that she gave up riding for some time. She called me out of the blue to say that she was in the market for a new horse and gave me her wish list. Good looking, reliable, traffic proof, good natured in the stable, well trained, easy to jump, quiet to clip, shoe, travel etc etc. It seemed like a tall order until another of my clients suggested that she would be selling her horse which had all of the above qualities but just was not ambitious enough for her daughter. I put both parties together and the deal was done. The nervous lady is over the moon and I got to sell the other client a horse with more scope to suit her adventurous daughter. Plus I received a very special bottle of malt whiskey which did not survive for very long. Matching horses with people is a great job which I do a lot, and from which I really get a great deal of satisfaction, particularly if I am going to continue to coach them on their new purchase.
The beginning of October found me on a plane heading for New York and then Texas. As you can imagine the weather was a great deal more clement than back here in the UK. It was a very busy clinic in NY and on some of the days I was teaching up to 16 lessons on one day without any breaks, just an endless supply of strong coffee. I had a great time in ‘Dunkin Doughnuts’ trying to explain to a Mexican server that I wanted a strong coffee. My request was, 2 shots of espresso in a tall cup topped up with hot water and a drop of milk. The poor guy looked totally mesmerised by the order and by my slightly Liverpool accented English, he had to call his manager to help him out. After about 20 minutes I left with my strong coffee. After that I was sending different people to the same place for my coffee which the struggling server decided to call it the ‘English’ coffee! Many thanks to Christine Digger and the staff of Chickory Meadows Farm for their great organisation and many thanks to her parents for putting me up in their home.
The kids I teach in NY are really great, the all try hard and have great manners. The only drawback is that some of them have far more talent than their horses, something I would love to be able to change.
I travelled to Texas by a domestic flight on AA (American Airlines) Hmm, what can I say? Well my horses travel in more comfort and with more consideration and the in flight service just does not really exist. The first stage of the journey I was in an aisle seat with a very large 20 stone (280 lb) very sweaty business man sitting in the ridiculously narrow seat beside me, yup, he fell asleep and used me as a cushion. At last that lap was over and things could only get better, couldn’t they, naa. This time I was in a window seat and the big guys twin brother plonked himself down beside me and proceeded to spread himself out as comfortable as he could which meant I had to spend the 2 hour journey with my nose pushed up against the window and the scent of his not to sweet smelling armpits assailing my sensitive senses, oh how I longed to be travelling BA or Virgin.
Texas was great, 90 (40c) degrees, blue skies, warm breeze and very good clients. I did find myself riding almost as much as I was coaching so that was great. Some times on these long trips I feel like I am getting a bit out of shape so the more riding I do the better. I also jumped a couple of really nice horses so I could keep my eye in as well. I am frequently asked what the riders are like in Texas, to be perfectly honest, they really do ride well. They listen, try hard, ask a lot of questions and what is really cool, they all call me SIR. Seriously, the Texas kids are brought up really well, to respect their elders and to respect their tutors and coaches. It is really a breath of good old fashioned fresh air. I have to thank Kate O’Keefe for her great support and for one of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in and to Lee and Misty Johnston for their great scheduling at their barn Crossroads Sport Horses.
I arrived home early in the morning to be greeted at the airport by a very excited little Eleanor running through the crowd to dive into my arms, wrapping her little arms and legs around me and telling me how much she had missed me. A couple of minutes later she was asking me which bag her presents were in including her different horses that she requested.
A couple of days after I arrived home I was off to Wales for a two day clinic. In that couple of days at home I caught Eleanor’s cold and it just got into its full swing on the first day of the clinic. By the afternoon of the second day my voice went, yes my voice disappeared completely. If any of you have ever heard my voice you will know what a loss that was. I was whispering my lessons and the riders ended up whispering back, it was the first time I have ever lost my voice and it is a bizarre feeling. Back from Wales to Surrey, very little voice but plenty of rain, then up the North Yorkshire. The thought of 16 lessons in 1 day with hardly any voice and a bunged up nose and a hearty cough filled me with dread, but I survived.
We had a fantastic clinic at Twin Oaks, Mursley. This is my home base where I livery my horses. Trudy and Nigel Johnson really go to town keeping the place immaculate and I know that all the riders really enjoyed the day. Aileen’s chicken and sweet potato Thai soup was just right for a crisp sunny early winter’s day. If you have never tried one of our one day clinics you should. Great fun and I would like to think that the riders go home with something the can work on.
So an interesting couple of months, the cold is still hanging on but it is much less to cope with.
Keep an eye on my diary page to see when I am at Littleton Manor, Reigate in Surrey. Parwood near Guildford also in Surrey. Inverness, Kinross, Northallerton and Wales. Plus I will be doing some more clinics at Twin Oaks, Mursley Buck’s
I have completed some more videos for the Horse Hero website which have received some very good revues so do try them out. The subscriptions are very small so go to www.horsehero.com and give it a test drive.
Christmas is coming so don’t forget my book, ‘The Complete Showjumper’, would make a great gift, or a set of my precision reins, or even a gift token of a lesson or two. There, I have solved some of your gift dilemmas.
Well that’s enough rant for now so happy show jumping and I will try to put pen to paper a little more frequently in the future.
After the excitement of the Olympic Games there was a chance that the following few weeks would probably feel a bit empty. I suppose this was the case to some extent but given the amount of work I had booked I did not have a lot of time to dwell on it.
The beginning of September I found myself at the All England Show Jumping Course at Hickstead helping some clients. This was really interesting and very enlightening. Looking around I was trying to see where the recession had hit the show jumping world. The 1 metre class had over 100 starters and all the other classes up to the 1.30 classes had entries of over 80 starters. I think that the Bunn familiy showed great foresight in running a National show at Hickstead allowing riders to qualify to ride on the hallowed turf of the International arena. For many years riders had tried in vain to persuade Duggie Bunn to run such a show but he stubbornly dug in his heels and refused to allow it to happen. This is one of the most important things to have happened to BS in the last decade. Opening up the International Arena has given so many second, third and even fourth division riders something to aspire to. It has always been a difficult task to get into this great arena and the experience it gives both young horses and riders, not to mention less experienced riders is priceless. I can remember as if it was yesterday the first time I rode into that amazing venue, scary? Yes, exciting? Very, satisfactory outcome? Err, no! At least not the first time, but it gave me a huge ambition and gave so many riders like myself a realistic achievable goal. Well done Hickstead.
Finding horses that suit riders is always an interesting job but this month it was a particular pleasure. I had a very good friend of mine who had had a couple of pretty bad experiences in owning horses in the past, resulting in some broken limbs and a huge loss of confidence, so much so that she gave up riding for some time. She called me out of the blue to say that she was in the market for a new horse and gave me her wish list. Good looking, reliable, traffic proof, good natured in the stable, well trained, easy to jump, quiet to clip, shoe, travel etc etc. It seemed like a tall order until another of my clients suggested that she would be selling her horse which had all of the above qualities but just was not ambitious enough for her daughter. I put both parties together and the deal was done. The nervous lady is over the moon and I got to sell the other client a horse with more scope to suit her adventurous daughter. Plus I received a very special bottle of malt whiskey which did not survive for very long. Matching horses with people is a great job which I do a lot, and from which I really get a great deal of satisfaction, particularly if I am going to continue to coach them on their new purchase.
The beginning of October found me on a plane heading for New York and then Texas. As you can imagine the weather was a great deal more clement than back here in the UK. It was a very busy clinic in NY and on some of the days I was teaching up to 16 lessons on one day without any breaks, just an endless supply of strong coffee. I had a great time in ‘Dunkin Doughnuts’ trying to explain to a Mexican server that I wanted a strong coffee. My request was, 2 shots of espresso in a tall cup topped up with hot water and a drop of milk. The poor guy looked totally mesmerised by the order and by my slightly Liverpool accented English, he had to call his manager to help him out. After about 20 minutes I left with my strong coffee. After that I was sending different people to the same place for my coffee which the struggling server decided to call it the ‘English’ coffee! Many thanks to Christine Digger and the staff of Chickory Meadows Farm for their great organisation and many thanks to her parents for putting me up in their home.
The kids I teach in NY are really great, the all try hard and have great manners. The only drawback is that some of them have far more talent than their horses, something I would love to be able to change.
I travelled to Texas by a domestic flight on AA (American Airlines) Hmm, what can I say? Well my horses travel in more comfort and with more consideration and the in flight service just does not really exist. The first stage of the journey I was in an aisle seat with a very large 20 stone (280 lb) very sweaty business man sitting in the ridiculously narrow seat beside me, yup, he fell asleep and used me as a cushion. At last that lap was over and things could only get better, couldn’t they, naa. This time I was in a window seat and the big guys twin brother plonked himself down beside me and proceeded to spread himself out as comfortable as he could which meant I had to spend the 2 hour journey with my nose pushed up against the window and the scent of his not to sweet smelling armpits assailing my sensitive senses, oh how I longed to be travelling BA or Virgin.
Texas was great, 90 (40c) degrees, blue skies, warm breeze and very good clients. I did find myself riding almost as much as I was coaching so that was great. Some times on these long trips I feel like I am getting a bit out of shape so the more riding I do the better. I also jumped a couple of really nice horses so I could keep my eye in as well. I am frequently asked what the riders are like in Texas, to be perfectly honest, they really do ride well. They listen, try hard, ask a lot of questions and what is really cool, they all call me SIR. Seriously, the Texas kids are brought up really well, to respect their elders and to respect their tutors and coaches. It is really a breath of good old fashioned fresh air. I have to thank Kate O’Keefe for her great support and for one of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in and to Lee and Misty Johnston for their great scheduling at their barn Crossroads Sport Horses.
I arrived home early in the morning to be greeted at the airport by a very excited little Eleanor running through the crowd to dive into my arms, wrapping her little arms and legs around me and telling me how much she had missed me. A couple of minutes later she was asking me which bag her presents were in including her different horses that she requested.
A couple of days after I arrived home I was off to Wales for a two day clinic. In that couple of days at home I caught Eleanor’s cold and it just got into its full swing on the first day of the clinic. By the afternoon of the second day my voice went, yes my voice disappeared completely. If any of you have ever heard my voice you will know what a loss that was. I was whispering my lessons and the riders ended up whispering back, it was the first time I have ever lost my voice and it is a bizarre feeling. Back from Wales to Surrey, very little voice but plenty of rain, then up the North Yorkshire. The thought of 16 lessons in 1 day with hardly any voice and a bunged up nose and a hearty cough filled me with dread, but I survived.
We had a fantastic clinic at Twin Oaks, Mursley. This is my home base where I livery my horses. Trudy and Nigel Johnson really go to town keeping the place immaculate and I know that all the riders really enjoyed the day. Aileen’s chicken and sweet potato Thai soup was just right for a crisp sunny early winter’s day. If you have never tried one of our one day clinics you should. Great fun and I would like to think that the riders go home with something the can work on.
So an interesting couple of months, the cold is still hanging on but it is much less to cope with.
Keep an eye on my diary page to see when I am at Littleton Manor, Reigate in Surrey. Parwood near Guildford also in Surrey. Inverness, Kinross, Northallerton and Wales. Plus I will be doing some more clinics at Twin Oaks, Mursley Buck’s
I have completed some more videos for the Horse Hero website which have received some very good revues so do try them out. The subscriptions are very small so go to www.horsehero.com and give it a test drive.
Christmas is coming so don’t forget my book, ‘The Complete Showjumper’, would make a great gift, or a set of my precision reins, or even a gift token of a lesson or two. There, I have solved some of your gift dilemmas.
Well that’s enough rant for now so happy show jumping and I will try to put pen to paper a little more frequently in the future.