Cashmore clinic

We picked p a clinic with Grant on the Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. It was a bit of a tough grind with Dad out. I had to be up at 4 the second morning and worked until 12 when I headed off to my mates to meet up with my horses who had stayed overnight and travel to Upper Hutt to ride at Thompsons for the clinic. The surface there isn't as good as it used to be. It shifts alot and after a few jumps you can end up landing on the base. I didn't get to bed until 10.40 :(

The first day was quite good. Grant rode Connie because she was incredibly fussy in the bridle and just not herself. He got some really nice work out of her because she was still very sensitive and very hot which is unlike her. The next day she was better but completely unable to collect and frustratingly not herself at all. Grant was saying that as my trainer sometimes you have to just a sack a horse. I pointed out that at the last of the winter clinics I basically had it and he had been very impressed. When I thought about it, the fussiness in the bridle started the second day at Central Hawkes Bay. So out came the hoof testers, and after testing and palpating and trotting on the lunge and flexioning we (Well Grant really, he has an incredible eye for a horse being off) decided she was jarred up from the hard ground. This happened a bit last season as well. So Connie missed the show this weekend and she gets her shoes re-fitted this coming week and the farrier and I are going to look at options to keep her more comfortable, and get her back in the ring for Taupo. I made Grant revoke his statement about sacking her!

Kate jumped really well. I learned something really key there. When I'm jumping a spooky fence of her I'm throwing my reins at her and in doing so I'm throwing away the connection and scaring her. This is a key point. something simple, but something I lost by trying to ride hard at spooky fences. When I maintain the connection, she isn't scared anymore anyway and jumps more confidently. Had a very hairy moment when my rubber snaffle snapped in half, which panicked Kate and we did a lap around the arena full tilt. I tried to pull her up from her noseband but she wasn't listening. Eventually she stopped and I just burst out adrenaline laughing. Phew it was a little scary though.