January/February/March 2017

After the nail incident last year, my darling Alfie had a happy and healthy 2016. No competitions for us though as my baby horse had 6 months of castration complications. I spent that time either working to pay the vets bills or visiting QT in hospital and Alfie just got cuddled a lot. But now we are both on our way back to fitness woop woop! Fabulous lessons with Ali Cookson (at the TTT) and Damian Hallam who have now kicked our butts firmly back into canter work and I wake up every morning gagging to go get on my pony and do my homework.

I love this before and after photo of Lauren Holloway on her black beauty. Wow, look at the change in skeletal posture and muscular development particularly in the back behind the saddle.
Seriously good job chick!

Jo Billing and Trafalger are reserve champions at the Merrist Regionals with 71.389% in the Novice Silver Freestyle!
Woopety woop woop of the woopy woops!
Thank god I bought that bottle of cava on the way home! They are off to the BD Winter Nationals!

What a fabulous ride from Sophie Watkins at the Merrist BD Regionals. The very beautiful talented Inca (who has grown from 16.1 to 16.3 in the past year!) was a superstar and took everything in her stride. Sophie rode her best test to date and was rewarded with their personal best % to date under the scrutiny of 3 judges. Very very much looking forward to Elementary now once this beautiful mare has the muscle strength to match her ever growing skeletal frame! So pleased they received the "Best under 25 year old award". The future of tomorrow.

Huge Congratulations to the Priory Team Spa and Rehab centre (Abbie Davies and Marie Edwards) for coming 6th at the Wellington Novice Silver Regionals with the very gorgeous Cynorian Jester. Well done!!!

Alfie looking just gorgeous whilst warming up for the Charles De Kunffy clinic in March. He was completely awesome (Charles and Alfie!) and as always felt his best ever on the Lecture Demo after 2 days of fabulous training with Charles

October/November/December 2017

Lauren Holloway is doing such a beautiful job of training her young horse.
I think you can see why I call him Mini Totillas! Here he is at his first competition. 8th out of 25 starters, clever baby pony.

What a gorgeous improvement from Sophie Watkins and Inca. This lovely mare wasn't born with a natural medium trot. Good gymnastic training that Sophie has been doing, progressively engaging the mares hind legs and back resulted in me saying WOW in this months training!

I'm very pleased that Sophie and Inca have qualified for the BD Novice Regionals and will then be moving up the BD ladder to Elementary for spring and Medium by the summer.

So proud of Nicky Reynolds and Indie now achieving 70% at BD Novice!

Ive had great fun with Sam Watson and Jean Smiths Jebeth Beam Me Up. Reserve Champion at Oldencraig unaffiliated Intro champs!

Louise Garland has trained her beautiful young horse D from an absolute bubba to now good enough for 2nd place in the RC Dressage Area Qualifier with a brilliant 69.55%!

So proud of Katie Patrick and Bertie. I've been training Katie since she was a teenager at school and am so delighted with her riding and Dressage results. BE is her first love but some good BD results are also now on her card at Novice and Elementary!

July/August/September 2016

I'm proud to say the "In Hand CharityvDemo" was a huge success and we raised loads of dosh for AAC and SAFE.
I have had a glorious few months teaching in the sun but I took time off so I could watch all the  Olympics! Loved every second of it but it was made incredibly special by my best friend Pippa Hall flying over from Australia and coming to stay for 2 weeks. Love and laughter every day all day. Xxx

April/May/June 2016

Alfie was the best ever on his Charles De Kunffy course at the TTT! Got some tempi changes started and I was so pleased to show Charles Alfie's passage as this didn't exist last visit (September 2015).
But it all went horribly horribly horribly wrong the following week. Alfie had been doing his homework so brilliantly and I had his first Advanced Medium in the diary with plans for PSG at the beginning of summer. He had been working so well in the school I decided to take him for a hack so as not to over do it and Alfie trod on a 4 inch nail hidden in mud. Went straight up through his frog into the plantar cushion. That day I was probably as unlucky as you could get. We rushed him straight into hospital and after a few days of very tense waiting, the outcome was good news and that horrid
rotten rusty nail had not touched his navicular bursar. Took him 2 months to recover but he is now completely 100% !!!

Life has been rather busy as I have bought a gorgeous 3 year old Westphalian gelding to follow in Alfie's footsteps.

Missing my best friend Cathy Ling (Turner) like crazy so I started to prepare for my next charity fundraiser -  "In Hand Dressage Demo for Action Against Cancer". Very very very time consuming but very very very worth it. The Saving Abandoned Flygrazing Equines Charity had also pulled at my heart strings with the Coppid Beach Killing Fields so I will split the proceeds between the two charities AAC and SAFE

I teach a lovely young lass called Charlotte Pedley on her gorgeous pony Jazzie. It is such a pleasure watching them improve and both become more ambidextrous as they climb up the BD ladder!

Nicky Reynolds had a fantastic time at the Chiltern and Thanes Rider Winter Champinshios winning the Prelim Championship with the best % of the show and Reserve Champiin in the Novice Championship AND Reserve in the Novice Freestyle! How completely inspirational is that!!!

Jan/Feb/March 2016

I just love this photo of Katherine Davies (from Irish Horse Imports) suspended in the air, floating around the dressage arena. Kate is such a lovely horsewoman, brilliant at riding all horses but I'm most impressed by the magic she works with the more sensitive/sharp ones. She gets their confidence, softly asks them to accept her leg, seat and rein, backs off for a few seconds when it's all too much for them, then starts the conversation again when she feels they are ready to let her in again. Kate has super timing and super feeling which is essential plus no fear and a balance with the horse that allows her to stay - erm - ON! 
99% of the young horses that she imports are ready to go off to their new homes quite quickly after arrival, but Kate keeps those extra special ones that need a little more of her expertise and time, until the right person comes along for a perfect match.

Sophie Watkins is on the road to a very successful dressage career with her gorgeous mare Inca Spirit. I have a huge soft spot for both these young ladies. Inca is one of the loveliest mares I've had the pleasure to work with. She is a sensitive, intelligent, forward thinking, energetic, powerful young horse, which doesn't always make things easy in wintery conditions when she is also still growing but she does have a huge desire to please and I think she is a star in the making.
Sophie and I have been training together for a while with her previous horse Davidoff so she is already a well educated dressage rider but it's been interesting working and learning together in all the 'other areas' that are vital and to getting super dressage scores  
- horse box loading (you gotta be in it to win it!)
- equine foot balance (no foot no horse!)
- puddle practice (you never know when there's gonna be one in your dressage test!)
- judges car in the arena practice (so you can get large round dressage arena especially when judge has put her windscreen wipers on!) 
- getting to know Incas body so we can all see/feel when something has changed for the better or the worse.
-  correct saddle fit and good saddle balance
- equine massage, physiology and bio mechanics
- ground work, in hand lateral work, lunging and long line training. 
Phew. We are pooped!  
It's not just the 30 mins your in the saddle doing your warm at the comp and the 6 minutes your in the ring, it's also all the vital behind the scenes work that is part of getting and improving those %'s.
Thankfully Sophie's dad is absolutely brilliant to work with and we have all shared so much fun whilst learning  - inbetween the tears of frustration particularly whilst being battered by the weather.
It is all going to be worth it when Sophie gets a Union Jack on that jacket and Inca one on her numnah!

Nicky Reynolds (on her gorgeous bay mare Indie) is someone that has my total respect. You would never know it when you meet this young lady, but she wasn't given the best pair of lungs and very sadly the medication she has to take to keep her alive has some pretty horrific and painful side affects. But she refuses to let this stop her and even in winter is out there dancing her socks off. I love the BD judge for letting Nicky ride with a scarf covering her mouth so she didn't inhale the freezing cold air whilst riding Novice 24 at Checkendon. 

I had a super weekend training with Charles de Kunffy at the TTT in March. Alfie was off colour over winter, not really sure with what as all the blood tests kept coming back saying he was fine, but he was just flat and i know my pony is always bursting with enthusiasm, so i just kept him gently ticking over. I was then dreadfully ill with a virus in January so it took us until February to start getting our act together. 
I'm so proud of the passage he has now found (Thankyou to Andrew Murphy and Sara Jane Lanning for helping us get there). SO MUCH FUN - BOING BOING BOING!
And our homework is the tempi changes! 

October/November/December 2015

Often I will sit on a horse or pony to either show the rider something or to give the horse a better feel for what we are asking. This can really help the rider get the 'conversation' going when they get back up as the horse will feel upgraded in the connection and engagement. The horse and rider can then get a better feel/taster for what the next stage is.
I have to be very very careful which horses I sit on as I have a bad joint degenerative condition which is incredibly painful when jolted so only 'safe' type horses. I have a team of event/sj riders that help me with any naughty, cheeky or unknown ones!

Correct posture. As the horses training advances, slowly through the
 lateral work and transitions the haunches are taught to lower,
thereby resulting in an ever increasing raising of the withers, poll
and lightening of the forehand, known as an uphill frame.

Look familiar!? Phoebe and Rosie now in internally correct posture

I sat on this gorgeous little pony Rosie about 5 months ago. Great fun, forward thinking, super jumper. But very very hollow, huge underneath neck muscle and so stuck in right banana I was actually a little concerned and thought 'well we can just nibble away gently and see where we get'.

The owner/rider is the most lovely 11 year old girl, Phoebe Murray. What a talented young lady and so mature for her young years. Phoebe takes this very seriously. She wants to be good and is going to be very very very good. First lesson I sculpted her into the dressage position and over the next few monthly lessons her homework was to get her strength up in a more functionally correct position and teaching Rosie how to move away from her left leg so we could start to supple her and straighten her. I sat on Rosie last week and I could not believe the difference. So much more equal and supple in both directions, so much more understanding of how her abdominals could round her back up thereby rounding her neck. At pony club it has been suggested to Phoebe that you round a horse by moving the bit from side to side. This is how you artificially round the HEAD and NECK. In times of dire need/emergency like getting past a black bin on a road of course I will momentarily 'put my horses down' so hes's looking at the floor not the bin, there and then for safety. But it's not dressage, its just artificial get your head down horse riding and it is certainly very uncomfortable for the horse to be forced there. Sadly, many people think this is 'it'. Its not. The elasticy in the contact comes from the elbow joint and of course the fingers can have movement, but if that's just to 'get the horses head down' then its going wrong. We need to ride the whole horse not just its head and neck. Look at Rosie above, can you see her internal Pessoa connecting the two ends together. Yes Phoebe is talented, but she is only 11! |If she can do it so beautifully at that tender age, you can do it too!

I cannot tell you how proud I am of Phoebe and Rosie as the photos show the complete correct internal biomechanics, skeletally and musculatory. All done by an 11 year old girl with a super little pony but who was hollow and upside down 5 months ago. WELL DONE PHOEBE AND ROSIE.

Alfie at Pachesham

Alfie at Pachesham

What a lovely week with my pony. We haven't been out to compete since last March (as I have been rather busy trying to make all my clients dreams come true) So was rather surprised to win both Mediums outright especially when Alfie was piaffing through all the collected walks and squealing with excitement in the walk piris! Then two fabulous days training with Herwig Radnetter from the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. Herwig sat on Alfie the second day and OMG the more I train the more I realise how much more I need to learn! What a seat and back and legs he has got and oh boy the timing. Alf felt like he had a car tyre pump put up his bum when I got back on he was so inflated! Wowzer.  Couple of days off for his lordship then gently back into it.

Ellie & Maisie

Ellie & Maisie

Ellie Burden is doing such a lovely job with her young horse Maisie. A very talented mare. So much so that if she had auditioned to be at the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, lets just say I am 100% sure they would either paint her white to get her in, or she would be the first bay mare performing high school airs above the ground under the very talented bottom of Herwig Radnetter! Ellie is now at the stage when she can nip most of the caprioles in the bud and can then channel the energy back into tick tock dressage rhythm they were in before the mare thought leaving the floor and flying was a better option. A lovely medium trot has appeared and under the training of KJ Turner from Hall Place the jumping is coming on fab too. Huge respect for this young lady and whenever I say please can I get one of my sj/event riders over to do some work with Maisie (Ellie's safety has to always be my number one priority) Ellie says please can she do it all herself. What a clever brave chick she is, being raised on fabulous principles of if you want something in life, keep working away and with that determination and dedication, your dreams will come true . Clever mum Debbie Burden has worked wonders doing the ground work (lunging stretching and uphill work, lateral work in hand) so its a super team effort. Ellie Burden you are one talented young lady with very sticky bum jodhpurs! Very proud of you.

Jemma & Smirnoff

Jemma & Smirnoff

"Hello Tracey,

Its Jemma, from Hatch Farm, Smirnoff has now safely moved and settled into his new home. I just want to thank you, out of all the many instructors I've had over the years I've never gained so much out of them like I had in the couple of lessons with you. I cannot only continue to train my own horse the way you have taught me, but others. You have taught me a new way to ride. I want to show you how well my boy is doing, he's now very responsive to my leg aids in order to move him across the school.The massive issue I had was overcoming how strong he was and not one instructor told me to keep the Pelham in for schooling apart from you. Here I have attached a few pictures of him in the field! IN A HACKAMORE. Usually I would have no control in a field as it is. especially bit less! Im so so happy with the results from what you've taught me and I will take it on with me for the rest of my riding career to help other people and horses. Jemma Tribe"

This email made me very very happy. Previous to the first lesson, Jemma contacted me and asked what tack I wanted her to ride in. I always like to see people in their 'normal everyday' tack to start. My goal will always be to have you riding in dressage legal tack asap, but we reach this point together once we have worked out why your not in it already. Jemma is a super rider and presented me with a cracking little horse, very attractive, but yes very hollow and very strong in his under neck muscle. He was working front wheel drive not rear wheel drive. We did some in hand leg yielding together and I struggled to ask the front end to wait whilst I asked the back under to catch up, thank goodness he was in a pelham as I would have been in Devon in minutes if I was in a snaffle at that point!

Cracking? Yes. Knew he had any hind legs? No. But Jemma was stuck in that vicious circle of struggling to find them because it is very difficult to put your leg on in a leg yield or shoulder in to gain control of the hind legs, if the horse only goes faster from the leg. This is where the leg yielding along the wall or shoulder out can be brilliant as it provides a barrier until the horse has a light bulb moment that the leg can also mean hind leg step under not just go faster. Jemma did her homework. Leg yielding in hand and under saddle. She found the back end of her horse and therefore transformed him into the stunning horse he is now.

I am over the moon for Jemma, look at those photos of him now in a hackamore! Wow! And I am even more happy for Smirnoff as he is soooo happy now he understands his riders half halt (front end wait, back end catch up) and can now carry his rider in a good comfortable posture with a lifted back and can go show the world how good he was born to be.

I currently have Charles de Kunffy's voice ringing in my ears - 

'The hind legs are your brakes as well as your accelerator'

I currently have Arthur Kottas's voice ringing in my ears - 

'When you have control of the hind legs, you have control of the horse'

July/August/September 2015

Claire Edwards and Bugsy are flying at the moment. I just love the first picture of them cantering around Hickstead after coming 7th in the Sunshine Tour. Then look at the quality of that reins in one hand halt woop woop! The photo of them indoors is whilst doing their first BD Elementary at Merrist Wood. (they also came 3rd in the unaffiliated Elementary at Merrist wood champs. Clever boy)
They have just made a huge leap forward in both of their core strength and Claire's sitting trot is now so improved that she has so much more influence over Bugsy's engagement in all the transitions. Going xc training with Southerly Roberts has helped Bugsy to be so much braver and forward thinking, this has meant we could allow the trot to slow down as he is more mentally forward thinking and the suspension and cadence is now increasing with huge breathtaking medium trots and canters. The shoulder in, travers and half pass are showing Bugsy how to engage to the next level, as well as straightening him and helping him to become more supple as well as preparing him and Claire for BD Medium level dressage.

Kate Matthews has also had such a super season both BE and BD once again on horses she has trained herself from being nice horses, into some really very special ones now!
I am very pleased to report that Kate smiles during her dressage lessons just as much as she smiles during her jumping! We do have a giggle but boy do we get into the nitty gritty of making this lovely lady as good a Dressage Rider as she is Event Rider

Alfie is picking up his strength again after the non riding break whilst his saddle was being made. He is going his absolute best ever.  New muscles being found all the time, new strength, new moves, new suspension, new reach.Yippee!
I have really got learn how to ride better now as this little horse could be really really really good.
Ive had a couple of fab lessons with Sara- Jane Lanning that really helped with us getting more left bend in the ribcage and with me riding with more left leg and loading of Alfies left hind, this in turn has helped Alfie find and cross his right hind more. Kerching!
Some great training with Andrew Murphy has led to a lowering of Alfs haunches in the trot from improving his piaffe and starting on the passage. New super improved medium trots since we found a road to passage. So happy with him, he's loving his dancing and we both snog each other a lot.
A brilliant 4 days training with Charles De Kunffy, plus a great 2 day course with Ali Cookson!
Me? Knackered! And bank balance not looking very healthy after so much training but its what i live for.

Claire Roissetter and Harvey Hooves will always hold a special place in my heart. I started training Claire when she was still in pigtails (sorry Claire!) and when Harvey was just a normal horse. Wow has Claire transformed him. (Please see previous blogs for BE results and 3rd in Badminton Grassroots Champs). I am so pleased to say that although Harvey is now taking life a little more gently, he and Claire are still up there winning BD Novices all over the place and & 7th at the BD Novice Regionals in August.
Very very cool.

Tiana Fogden is a very talented young lady, daughter to Hayley Fogden so she has inherited her talent from her mum. Tianas little pony is cracking, but he used to draw his neck back towards his wither, hollowing his back and going above the contact so it has made it so hard for Tiana to get a feeling for when a horse connects from behind through the back onto the bit. We get some lovely steps in shoulder in and leg yield but Tiana and pony are not yet strong enough to maintain this for long periods so their experience of feeling the connection was intermittent. After long chats with mum, we decide to put a market harborough on for a few weeks. Oooo it was tough for me to do this. I dont use gadgets. I hate gadgets. Only good correct riding will produce a true connection. I argued with myself. Lots. However, whilst wearing it for a short period of a few weeks, it meant we could improve her position, feeling, strength, confidence and timing. I am very pleased to announce that for a very short period of time, it was ok and no animal was hurt in the making of this movie and Tiana can now connect her pony all by herself, from behind through the back to the bit. It reminds me of when I get a feeling from Alfie when I ride him in the double bridle where he bends better, he collects and lengthens better and then I have to work out how I can become a better rider to produce this in his snaffle. If I train him for longer than a few weeks in a double, he starts to get too light in the contact, slightly sucking back and not as truly through and connected from behind into the bit and seeking the bit as I get in the snaffle bridle. So I do both. I learn from the advantages each one gives me and try to get as good as work in the double as I do in the snaffle and vice versa. Not a quick fix. Its a learning curve for both of us as we taste the different feelings. Just like clever Tiana.

Sonya Saville and Charlie are now on and climbing up the BD ladder. I really love this horse. So sweet and beautiful and talented and I am soooooo glad he his owned by Sonya. She will 'take time but not waste time' in producing this lovely horse and the happiness they are going to bring each other is going to be beautiful to watch.

Adam Harvey rode his personal best BE dressage score 18.5, on the very talented Picasso. Adam does a super job with this horse as he does with all his horses and squeezes out of him what the horse feels confident and happy to give so as to keep him mentally on side.
I play the bad cop and convince Adam to ask for a bit more from the horses, but as they are a sensitive bunch, we keep Adam being the good cop so they keep trusting him and wanting to give.

My youngest client is 11. My most mature client is 71. Respect to them both.