The Equestrian Blog

Fidgit my amazing little mare

Hi this is Fidgit my stunning welch section D cross Arab, she's 15hh and 14 years old.

She's a very pretty elegant mare with a great presence and spirit about her, which I'm often been told by people as she really knows how to show off.

Although she's now 14 she thinks shes about 6, as when i got her she was nearly 10, unbacked and still in the field with her mum, i've now become mum and we've formed an amazing bond and trust between the two of us.

She's an absolute joy to own and i would'nt swap her for the world, i've owned other horses in the past and know what we have together is somthing very special.

We both love hacking out, alone or with lots of friends. She thinks schoolings way too boring unless there's jumps involved, this is were Fidgit really excels herself.

She loves jumping, especially cross country and totally trusts me, never refusers and will have a go at anything. We have the perfect partnership as i love jumping and she defenatly sences this.

As you can see in the picture she has a powerful, big, bold, jump.

The middle photo is Fidgit ( "Welch Diva" show name ) and i after winning the novice show jumping which was Fidgits first ever show.

You can watch Fidgits winning round on this video. It was a very windy day which unfortunatly can be heard on the video (sorry).

Thank you for reading about my super little mare Fidgit. Please let me know what you think of her. Regards Sheila.

Caistor’s cross country course

Caistor Equestrian Centre was somewhere new to me i'd never been before, they were holding a cross country event so thought i'd pop along to have a look.

 Im so glad i did what a fantastic course they have, their fences cater for eveyones ability, can't wait for their next event I'm definitely taking my mare, as well as getting a group of friends together and hiring the course.

The event was really well run and people were very friendly,  i was very impressed by their pedestrian walkways, which kept the public out of the way of competitors.

This is a great idea, as I've noticed a lot of cross country events allow people to walk wherever they like, even if a competitor is approaching a fence.

They have a great water complex on their fab x country course, with lots of  different options to take. Have a look at some photos from their event in the Lincolnshire photo galleries       

Have you been to Caistor's x country?  Then tell us what your experience was like, we'd love to hear from you.                                 

Caistor’s cross country course

Caistor Equestrian Centre was somewhere new to me i'd never been before, they were holding a cross country event so thought i'd pop along to have a look.

 Im so glad i did what a fantastic course they have, their fences cater for eveyones ability, can't wait for their next event I'm definitely taking my mare, as well as getting a group of friends together and hiring the course.

The event was really well run and people were very friendly,  i was very impressed by their pedestrian walkways, which kept the public out of the way of competitors.

This is a great idea, as I've noticed a lot of cross country events allow people to walk wherever they like, even if a competitor is approaching a fence.

They have a great water complex on their fab x country course, with lots of  different options to take. Have a look at some photos from their event in the Lincolnshire photo galleries       

Have you been to Caistor's x country?  Then tell us what your experience was like, we'd love to hear from you.                                 

The Death of Childhood

I came across this post in Yellow Swordfish, while looking for functionality to add to The Equestrian Blog.

"The following is a direct lift from a comment I received today that came from a friend who is a teacher. Read it and weep...... View Here

Just like the writer, I struggled to pull a comment together without the use of expletives. The only thing that kept me in check was the knowledge that not all areas have been completely infiltrated by the PC brigade.

They are trying to regulate, insulate and sanitise the equestrian industry and they are making in-roads. but they'll never get away from the fact that learning to ride and care for horses is a physically demanding and basically dirty job.

No child will ever take care of a horse without gaining in strength and character and it isn't the daily grind that builds the character, it's the care, the bond that builds between child and pony and it's pictures like this that make every cold wet morning in February, every trodden on toe, every bruised bum and every fork full of horse poop worth every minute of it.

They can keep their 10 squillion dollar MP3 players and their outsourced, resourced, individually wrapped and mapped careers and give me a child on a pony any day.

Character is everything and every child raised with a pony will have it in spades.

My Wonderful Winnie

Winnie is my big warmblood thoroughbred cross, who's rising six and standing 16.3hh.

She's the cheekiest, nicest, full of character horse who, because of her size, scares everyone else around her. A real gentle giant.

Winnie loves other horses and is always up for some fun.

She's still just a baby but is coming on really well.

We've done some dressage, some jumping and some showing and Winnie loves to jump, although she also likes to get dressed up.

As you can clearly see she is the most beautiful horse in the whole world.

Like most big horses she loves children and has lots of little friends like Elizabeth who give her far too many treats.

You can see more photos of Winnie in the Lincolnshire Image Gallery where Jodie rides her in the showjumping and I ride her in the showing and dressage classes.

I'd love to know what other riders think of her or what you think she'd be best suited to ?