India Thomson - Winter work

Mr B at Burnham Market a the end of last season[/caption]   It's been a little while since my last blog as it's been fairly quiet on the competition front. All of the horses have enjoyed a holiday and having a few easier weeks. We've been doing plenty of roadwork for the last couple of months and that's always character building this time of year! My brilliant groom Tilly and I have developed lots of coping strategies to plodding round the roads in the pouring rain and howling wind on half fit fresh horses, mainly trying to imagine the noise of the rain hammering down is in fact the gentle sound of waves lapping up the beach in a gorgeous hot country.....Usually the promise of our village shops amazing brownies at the end of the day does more to lift our spirits however! We've had some fairly exciting rides over the past few weeks as they're all getting fit enough to feel very well but not quite fit enough to do enough work to keep them on the straight and narrow. Spider has been on particularly good form, having picked up a minor injury in the field last autumn his return to work has been fairly exciting, he's certainly retained his sense of humour. It became clear fairly quickly that restricted exercise was best carried out on board, his kind attempts to hug and high five you were less than gratefully received from the ground! After a few weeks of neck strap moments he is looking better than ever and feeling fantastic, he is due to have his first jump this week (cue more next strap moments!) and I can't wait to get him out again, I've always been very fond of him and it will be great to get him to an event again. We have two very exciting new horses in the shape of 'Pop' owned by Martha Craggs who is very aptly named as she really is the most incredible jumper. I have the job of doing her first few events whilst Martha concentrates on her last season on Ponies before she takes on Pop to contest juniors, she is a very exciting horse and I'm really looking forward to watching them progress together, fingers crossed they will have an exciting future together. 'Cairo' is a lovely young horse rising five this time who looks to have all the makings of a very smart horse, He will aim for some Burghley young event horse classes and BE100s. He has a big frame to fill and plenty of developing still to do but I think could be a really smart prospect and one I'm really looking forward to. I have a new ride in Caroline Parker's 'Adamstown Rebel', he has come through my good friend Jo Williams who has a very good BE100 record with him. He is a lovely horse, quite sensitive but a real trier. I've been hunting him to help develop a good partnership with him where he gives an amazing feel of power and boldness. I'm keeping my fingers crossed this transfers to him trusting me at an event, he is blessed with plenty of talent but lacks confidence so we shall see. Plans are fairly fluid with him at the moment having not done an event with him before but I'd hope he'd progress and get established at Novice level fairly quickly. Mr B is getting back in the swing of things now and enjoyed his long holiday, I wanted to give him plenty of time to let down so he comes back physically and mentally fresh this season. So far he's feeling good, though still sporting the hairy feral look, the frosty weather has put us a few canters behind schedule which is frustrating but being an ex racehorse he maintains a base level fitness better than the other horses anyway so I'm not too concerned. I always makes plans A, B, C and D with Mr B as you never quite know how he's going to come out but I hope to build on his good form last year and aim for a 2* this season. I would love to take him back to Houghton Hall as he went so well there last year but it will come quite early in the season and everything in plan A will have to go well in order to get qualified and go there on form so we'll take it event by event and keep our fingers and toes crossed! Dora is having a great time at home with her owner hunting and show jumping. I took her for her first days hunting and I can honestly say I've never sat on such an impeccably behaved lovely hunter as her, she was just a joy to have out. The whole field could canter off in front of her and she wouldn't move a muscle until you said so, they don't come along like that very often! I've had a couple of days on her since she's gone home and it's doing her the world of good. There is nowhere better than the hunting field to teach horses to think for themselves and give them confidence. I'd planned to have a few quiet weeks during the off season but it hasn't quite worked out having had 10 in work for quite a few of the 'quiet weeks'! I did however manage to escape the winter for a few days in Italy which was lovely and have tried to make time to go and visit a few friends over the winter. Whilst staying with a friend in Lambourn last week I got talked into riding out in the morning, having borrowed some kit I ended up riding out first lot for Charlie Hills on a three year old filly named 'Hundi'. I look forward to following her progress as everyone in the yard spoke very highly of her. It was really fun to do something different and when they said "we're just cantering" I forgot I was sitting on a flat racehorse, they go jolly fast when they're "just cantering"!! Now all energies and focus lead to March and Isleham where we will hopefully start the 2015 season. You spend the winter dreaming of what might be next season, now I can't wait to crack on and make it as good as we possibly can, fingers crossed! [caption id="attachment_1601" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Mr B having a snooze[/caption]