H: Never measure progress using someone else’s ruler

So it’s easy in the horse world to compare yourself to others, and to the norm... break at 3/4, riding away by 5, established by 6 and doing a proper job for certain by 7! Now as you’ve probably gathered from my previous posts, Drift hasn’t been the most straightforward horse.

So I desperately wanted to event, but I had bought Drifter because I found his terror of life so endearing! So I think I’d accepted at an early age that perhaps this was a bit of a pipe dream- far from being bold, Drift would shy at changes in the colour of grass! So we started my crazy appy and to all of our surprise he had a beautiful jumping technique, so since dressage was out the window (we are both rubbish because I’m not patient enough) I decided to give show jumping a shot with him.

Drift jumping 1m20 at home no problem!! 

Nope, it didn’t go entirely to plan. I would hire places and Drift would be fantastic, but at a show he was so terrified of the other horses, the speakers, the people, the timers, just the atmosphere. I have attempted to get Drift competing show jumping several times a year from when he was about 7-12 and although I would hire places regularly he genuinely got stage freight. He would jump the fences at 1m10 if we’d hired somewhere, and the same fences come show day he would stop at every one at 65cm and would refuse to canter!!! 

And I used to hear - “maybe it’s because you’re nervous, he’s feeding off you” etc. We’ve all heard it!! Now a course of 65cm jumps does not frighten me- competition or not, and competing didn’t matter enough for me to get anxious over it. So one day in March last year I decided to take Drift to the local show- we’d hired it the week previous and he’d jumped like a stag! We arrived and he was an absolute nightmare, the point Kate couldn’t even hold in the working in whilst I was walking the course! She could feel my pain!!!

The week previous to the show- jumping the same fences but much bigger!!

It went badly, he stopped at nearly every fence and refused to go out of trot and into canter! I was so deflated, again I just thought what’s the point, I can’t put him through this and it’s just too embarrassing. 

And then. Jol came. And she changed our world. Now I can’t explain it and I wouldn’t even begin to try. Maybe it’s the herd environment, maybe it’s because he’s so content at home, and maybe it’s because he’s a jealous nut and can’t bear for anyone else to be number one! 

But I took him to the exact same show 3 months later- nothing else in his training regime changed. And he went in the 65cm and jumped double clear! I was absolutely dumbfounded! Never have I been so proud of him, the work in was hard for him, but in the arena away from the other Horses he found his mojo and got into gear. And that was the start, he’d finally overcome his stage freight!

Since then Kate and I have taken him to several unaffiliated shows and he’s jumped from 75cm to 85cm, then fences and the height had never been his problem. He’s brought home four first rosettes and I couldn’t be more proud of him.

I’m so excited for this year and what the future holds.  He is finally able to use his talent and step up the ring! And guess what, he’s going to be 13 in August. Who cares that it’s taken me all of 10 years to get him to where he is now. He’s here and that’s all that matters. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, or how far you are from you’re goal- you’re still further than someone who isn’t even trying! 

KH:: Holland; The final countdown....

We were homeward bound.

Now, who to choose?

The roulette mare we saw: a very correct mare, beautiful, but such a standard movement, we came to the conclusion she wasn’t right.

“What about the zhirocco? He had so much heart”

“Hayl, he was a cart horse”

“But he loved jumping”

“Hayl, he was a cart horse”

“He had quite a bit of scope”

“Hayls.... he was a cart horse”

“True. Imagine him on the gallops, you’d never have anyone in front of you, it would sound like bombs dropping if he was galloping up behind you” *laughing away*

“Hayl.”

“Yeah”

“You just said bomb on a plane”

“Shit, I did, I just said dropping bombs”

“Omg, we need to stop saying bombs!”

The poor girl crying in the seat who was terrified of flying didn’t see the funny side of it!!

So what about the black mare. “She was incredible.”

 “I agree.” 

“She’s a definite?”

“100%” 

“Movement to die for a such a lovely temperament”

“So we’re bringing her home”

“Looks like it!”

We both adored her and knew she was right!

And then there was the baloubet. 

“Kate, we can’t come home without her”

“Hayl, she’s huge, and unhandled”

“She’ll come round”

“But she may kill us the process”

“True..”

Now, because she was so terrified and quite intimidating when she was tearing round the arena, of course we saw a challenge. And because Hayls is a sucker for punishment, she was the one that gave the butterflies!!

“Kate. We can’t leave the most talented sj we saw there and bring back something half hearted, we’ll get her right and someone will buy her”

“I know... okay let’s do this!”

And so our two Dutch babies were heading to the UK.

Our head shy black mare, with a hind leg and movement to die for, who desperately needed some food and some love; to us she’s known as Lia. And our unhandled, terrified, but powerful bay mare; Joli! 

 

KH:: So we went to Holland... need we say anymore!!! Part 1

As you may have noticed from our numerous blog posts Kate and I spend A LOT of time together and A LOT of time with the four leggeds. During these times we chat about a myriad of subjects, Horses, life, Horses, gin, Horses, politics, Horses, work. You get the idea. Being out the house for 12 hours a day when you have 4 beautiful neds in the barn is no easy feat. So one day, we got this amazingly bright idea...

Wait for it...

Famous last words...

Let’s make money out of Horses!!!!!

So we had this thought that since we’re both obsessed with Horses maybe we should go and buy two from Holland, that had all the breeding that just ain’t around in the UK and then... sell them. 

So we had this conversation whilst having a walk break in between the galloping bits at somerford farm ride and afterwards when we got back we made a catastrophic decision. To have a gin. So of course we booked the flights to Holland for the following Friday and off we went.

Now. I’d love to say it was like clockwork, but when you’re travelling with calamity Jane, it was never going to be a walk in the park!

First off. GET THERE. 

I booked the flights and made a folder with all the locations and horse details. Kate did everything else; the hotel, the car, the contacts, the euros etc. It started well, up at 5, car parked, shuttle to the airport... and so began the comedy of errors.

European flight, we left 45 mins for security. On arrival at the airport,we were of course asked to present our boarding passes. Smugly, I reached inside my bag to reveal the folder (of which I was pretty impressed with...I made a folder :o ) 

Crap. “Where’s the folder, have you got it?”

“No, Hayls you have the folder, you were just looking at it a second ago on the shuttle”

“It’s not here”

“Sorry, what?”

“It’s not here”

“Serious”

“Ye”

“Sort it out!”

*quickly scoots off to ring the shuttle company who said not to worry, the folder was on the bus and he’d bring it back round on his next shuttle, only 20 mins there and back, he’d be with us in 40 mins.

“Noooooo. I need it NOW. Our flight will have taken off. Please, please, please” (commence amateur dramatics, turn on seriously stressed teary/ I will kill you if you don’t come back voice) “PLEASE!!!!!” 

He arrived in about 15 mins, 30 mins for security. Perfect. Phew!  “Sorry doll, bad start, but no worries now, we’ll fly through security, I was in the states a couple of weeks ago, this will be easy.”

And onto the conveyors our bags go. And out Hayls came and was quickly escorted to the search desk by the man wearing gloves. “Crap, what’s in them?” “FFS, mine hasn’t even been put through.”

So commenced the did you pack your bag yourself? The searching revealed several inhalers. Those need to be in a plastic, see through bag. They were removed and back the bag went to be scanned again. At which point Kate’s bag is finally put through, and popped onto the ‘Needs searching desk!’ “Oh dear, I gave you one of my inhalers in case my bag was lost.”

So both are sorted and heading back through, at which point my bag comes out and head back to the ‘Needs searching’ desk again. “WTF” I start wetting myself: “They think I’m a terrorist!” 

“Hayl, you just said the T word!!!!”

It turned out to be a pot of Vaseline in a side pocket I’d missed. We were on our way with about 5 mins to grab a quick coffee and make the flight! An hour later and we landed in Holland, thank god!! So we picked the car up and then we had to start driving on the right hand side of the road.

Now, trotting around Holland, we weren’t completely alone. We had Jane. Our trusty sat nav from 2002, that hadn’t seen an update in her life. Turns out, in Holland, they have changed several of their roads in the last 15 years. 

“Jane, where are you taking us?”

“Jane, this is a field not a road”

“Jane no”

“Where are you taking us Jane”

“Jane?”

“Omg Jane”

“Shut up Jane”

“FFS Jane”

“Jane we will kill you”

Anyway we made it to the first dealer. We were there to see a dressage mare who just wasn’t anything special. But in the stable next to her, stood a jet black mare, with a kind eye, who was nothing but a bag of bones. She’d just come in apparently and we were welcome to have a look at her. We were tentative, she had no neck and looked so thin, but I handed Kate the papers and she said “We simply have to see this mare”. And so we did. The girl let her loose in the school, and we were blown away. This dot of a horse, with a serious lack of condition floated through the air, with an elegance that was simply mesmerising.

Safe to say we left there, with the little black Zhivago/Krack C mare as a firm favourite and a serious contender. We then drove straight to the first jumper we had lined up. This mare, as the dealer told us was pretty green. When Kate first sent me her details she said “this is your kinda horse”. And boy she was right. She was in far better condition when they brought her out he stable, but absolutely terrified. We tried to walk round her to take a look and she was literally sh**ing herself! The whites of her eyes showing, her ears flicking like crazy. We didn’t get close and dealer said it was probably best just to let her loose in the school. And so he did. She was so powerful, Baloubet shining through. When she stood, snorting, tall as she could make herself, she was pretty intimidating. But we watched her jump, and I looked at Kate, “this is a serious horse!”

We then saw a couple of others, a nice sj with a temperament to die for and some gorgeous dressage Horses. No world beaters, but lovely, quality Horses. Our last meeting was with a dealer who got his first horse out and handed Kate a schooling whip and within 30 secs of the horse being in a tiny round pen type arena said “Let’s start the jumping”

We were mortified and he Horses were topping out at the huge heights. But then he brought out a sunning Zhiroccho blue. I had high hopes for this horse. He was shod in front which was weird as an unbroken 3yo. He started to trot and he looked like a cart horse! “Aha, they’ve been driving this, what is going on?”

Bewildered, Kate and I watched in astonishment as this horse with about as much style, as us pair after one too many gin & prosecco cocktails, began to run itself to the jumps, flying them with an almighty power. When trying to change the fences he was still coming and everyone had to take cover! That horse had so much heart, but was not going to be an easy sell at home. After seeing a couple more and nearly being mowed down by an insane stallion, we were shattered and heading back to the hotel!

We ate, drank, chatted and slept. 

We were on the plane home discussing which Horses stood out...TBC