Let’s take a break from everything for a moment tonight and visit with lec about her new horse Arthur, who she rescued several months ago. Lec is working to show Arthur the ropes and develop him into an event horse. This process always involves highs and lows, as you will read. I’ll warn our more squeamish readers that there is a picture below that involves some blood. Thanks for writing this lec and thank you for reading.
Arthur and lec are second from the right
Link:
Stemming the bleeding
For me, though this is disappointing, it could not have come at a better time as the weather is still good and we have not really got any mud when he is able to be turned back out in the field. To finish poor Arthurs week off I had the equine dentist out because I had been having issues getting him to accept a steady contact. Arthur has been very fussy about his mouth in the past due to his previous experiences and mistreatment. But he was pretty good and much better than the equine dentist thought he would be. The dentist knows Arthur’s past and saw him when he was a bag of bones when I first got him. The bad news was that Arthur had a wolf tooth. Today Arthur had the works in vaccinations, wolf teeth out, and stitches done. Hopefully he will not need to see a vet again for a while.
Before all the health issues cropped up things had been going really well! I have not done any competing but I have been broadening Arthurs education through fun rides. In the UK we have 10 mile ‘fun rides’ which are over local farms and land that would not normally be open to horses and includes obstacles. The night before one of these rides I realised I had not jumped Arthur for 3 weeks as been working on flatwork and popped him over one or two fences. He was brilliant and finally had the hang of jumping–it was only his 3rd time! Power was coming through from behind and though stylistically I am sure it still looks dreadful he was trying to clear them. The next day we went to Stockland Lovell which is a rather lovely cross country course and the start of the fun ride. I was with a group of 6 (one was a friend on my mothers and my old eventer Rodney was also there). I started Arthur off popping over a ditch which he barely looked at and we moved onto a bigger ditch which he popped straight over. At this point I was rather pleased so we carried on popped over some fences and came to the bank which he did not understand. My friend popped up next to me and Arthur understood the challenge as soon as he watched the other horse and worked out the step and drop. We popped down a sunken road and eventually came to the water where Arthur was a bit resistant but gave in after ten minutes and got his feet wet while having a lead from Jimmy. I discovered that Arthur would go first or last but he lost concentration very easily. He ended up popping a few fences in sequence very sweetly and I was very pleased with how bold he was. At the end of the ride Arthur was very tired.
The following day I had a dressage lesson. I was expecting him to be tired after the fun ride but he came out enthusiastic and willing. My trainer could not believe the changes in him as she had not seen him for 6 weeks. He now wants to go forwards and he has had a big change in musculature. I was a bit fed up with him as he was not going as well as I knew he could but we definitely made progress and my trainer sat on him to experience the contact issues and to work him through them. It was agreed his teeth needed looking at and a change of bit from the Happy Mouth straight bar to a Happy Mouth French link. My trainer said she only really used straight bars on horses she felt were strong in the contact. My homework was given to me of lunging in side reins and to be strict about the contact.
Riding past Badminton house
The next challenge was Badminton – literally! Every year the Badminton Estate holds a charity fun ride round the estate including fences and riding through the famous Badminton lake. We arrived really early as it becomes manic with over 2000 people taking part. It’s better to leave early so there are less people around. We were one of the first to set off and this time there were only 4 of us, including my friend on Jimmy a 20 year old hunter. The estate is amazing and you get shivers up your spine galloping past the house. The grass tracks for next years event look well looked after already and stand out from the rest of the grass. Arthur went straight through the Badminton lake which pleased me after the last weeks small tussle and he was much more switched on about jumping. One of the highlights of the ride is galloping up the large avenue of trees. This used to be the final part of the roads and tracks at Badminton and riders would trot down and see the whole course ahead of them before they arrived at the ten minute box. Arthur kept jumping boldly and was jumping fences of training proportions. I was thrilled with how he went. The final part of the ride took us through Huntsman’s Close and before I knew it the ride was over. We had an amazing time and I would recommend it to anyone as amazing to be riding on that hallowed turf. Fingers crossed Arthur will make it back sometime soon!
