Recently I received my very first package from Just Togs, as a brand ambassador I have already made an unboxing video explaining my first impressions on the items that I received. However I have now had a bit of time to wear the items and see how they fair in everyday life. So I thought I would write a blog post explaining my opinion on each item and how I have found wearing them over the past couple of weeks! Mayfair Quilted Jacket- As it has been so hot recently I haven’t had that many chances to get out and wear this jacket, however my first impressions still stand. It is a lovely lightweight jacket that has a very soft and silky texture. I have had a couple of opportunities to wear it, once at 5:30 in the morning as I was getting ready to head to a show and again at around 10:00at night when we go out and do final checks on the horses. On both these occasions there has been a slight chill in the air and all I needed was a jacket to keep the cool air off. I ran straight to my Mayfair quilted jacket, and it was PERFECT! It kept me just at the right temperature! You can find the Mayfair quilted jacket online at- http://justtogs.co.uk/womenswear/jackets/mayfair-quilted/ Aircool Sports Top- Again as it has been so hot recently I haven’t been able to ride in this top as of yet however I am still very impressed by the quality of this top. The 4 way stretch fabric means that it moves with you and doesn’t restrict any movement. I love the colour combination of the dark grey, light grey and pink. This top is very smart to wear as leisure wear but also perfect to ride in. As I said I haven’t ridden in this top yet as apparently I keep choosing to ride at the hottest part of the day however I’m very excited to test it out! You can find the Aircool sports top online at- http://justtogs.co.uk/womenswear/tops/aircool-sports/# Sloane Socks- I have however been able to ride multiple times in my Sloane Socks! They are incredibly cushioned and offer a lot of support which is very important for me as I have damaged both my ankles multiple times. As the socks are quite thick and cushioned I was dubious about their breathable qualities and their ability to keep me cool. However after riding in the multiple times I can confirm that they are very breathable and don’t make your feet cook! I love the pattern and colour of these socks, it adds colour and personality to any riding outfit. You can find the Sloane Socks online at- http://justtogs.co.uk/footwear/socks/sloane-sock/ Islington T-shirt- I have been loving this top over the past couple of weeks! It really is the perfect top for any occasion; I have ridden in it as well as been on work experience wearing it. It is a very lightweight material meaning it was perfect to ride and do jobs in around the horses; however it is also very stylish and smart to wear as an everyday t-shirt. If I’m completely honest I am not the biggest fan of diamantes, however I think it is very subtly used on this t-shirt and just gives it that something extra! Also something a little weird to point out, but I think the sleeves are a perfect length, they aren’t too long that the t-shirt doesn’t look feminine but not too short so your shoulders are covered when riding in the sun. You can find the Islington T-shirt online at- http://justtogs.co.uk/womenswear/tops/islington-t-shirt/ Camden short boots- I love these boots! They really are the perfect short boot. The Camden boots include loads of small features at mean when you first put them on the fell like you have been wearing them for years, that’s how I felt anyway! These boots are extremely cushioned and padded, with a comfy sole as well as padding and elastic around the ankle. The leather is extremely soft, meaning these boots hardly need any wear until they feel like you have been wearing them for years. My favourite feature of these boots is the cushioned piece of material that sits just behind the zip. This offers even more comfort and also means that the zip will never dig in. You can find the Camden short boots online at- http://justtogs.co.uk/footwear/short/camden-boot/ I have also made an unboxing video showing my very first impressions of all the items I received and can be found using this link- https://youtu.be/-dNdKc_h6QU
I am extremely grateful to Just Togs for being so generous and welcoming me onto their team!
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On the 12th of May, Seb and I attended a BE training day at Laughton Manor. It was quite straightforward to get to and Seb travelled quite well in the lorry.
We first started with flatwork. We were able to use the outdoor arena with the new surface, which was really nice to ride on. Instead of working in the arena we worked mostly around the sides, meaning straightness was a key principle. With coach Sam York we worked on a technique that Carl Hester uses, which is where you really collect the pace getting them to work quite hard and then ask them to move forward for a few strides and then back again. This really helps Seb engage his hindquarters and work all the way across his back. We also used this in the canter along with some leg yield and shoulder in. Another exercise used was on the long side picking up correct canter then making a trot transition and picking up the wrong canter lead, or counter canter for a few strides, trotting and picking up correct canter again. This is an exercise both Seb and I really struggled with in early winter; however it was amazing how easy we both found it. It’s incredible to see the difference in quality of his work. We then had to opportunity to run through a test with Sam videoing it and commentating what she was seeing over the top. I decided to work on a certain element of my test as it was a movement I always seem to struggle with. After my one to one session I gave Seb a good walk off as he had work very hard. We then had an hour or two to relax and get some food. Seb needed to be washed off he was that sweaty! We gave Seb a hay net a bit of food and did some on the ground stretches while his muscles were still warm. I then got myself some lunch and cooled off. Once again we tacked up, but this time for show jumping. There was a small course set up that asked some questions. We warmed up and then jumped the whole course. My first round was definitely not polished, however Seb still jumped nicely. We jumped the course again, trying to improve upon our round from before. Sam then changed one of the interesting lines from two uprights to and upright leading to a spread. We discussed how just simply adding a back rail to the second upright changed the whole dynamic of the question being asked. As a group we discussed how to approach the new question and fed back to Sam. We then rode the line, which rode much better than it looked. Finally we popped the horses over a simpler question to ensure they went back to the lorries happy and confident. This weekend Seb, Mum and I travelled up to Richmond to compete in the BE100. This was our first time at Richmond and I was amazed by the quality of the ground, it was almost perfect going! The journey for us was around 2hours and 15minutes and was quite straight forward to get to. First I walked the cross country course, it was the most testing course I have walked to be ridden this season, however it offered lots of galloping time as well as some more straightforward fences. When I got back to the lorry, I got changed and went to warm-up for dressage. Unlike Norton Disney, we allowed ample time to warm-up thoroughly! My warm-up included lots work to relax him and ensure he was completely listening to me. He started a little on the forehand, however after a bit of canter work he really started to work across his back and through the base of his neck. In my dressage lessons recently we have focussed on getting him to work from the outside hand and leg, I included this within my warm-up by leg yielding away from my imaginary long side of the arena, meaning he works away from my outside aids. We started the test very relaxed, however when we were just about to turn off the centre line at C, I pushed with my inside leg to ask his inside hind leg to come under and he took this as a signal to canter… We quickly regained focus and relaxation to then finish the test error free. I came out of the arena a little disappointed as I knew that we would be marked down for our first error, however Mum reassured me that it was a nice test! I then went to go walk the show jumping course, and if anyone has been to Richmond, they will know the walk to the show jumping arena! I was not aware of the walk although I had heard a lot of talk about the walk and even the lady that finished her dressage test before mine said she was dreading it…! I wasn’t really sure where it was, so decided to follow all the horses that weren’t either heading in the direction of dressage or cross country. In reality the walk wasn’t that far, but when you have all your riding stuff on as well as 20°C heat it felt like a long way! I walked the show jumping course, it was a sizeable course, as they always are when they are on a surface as you don’t have the undulations of the ground to contend with. I then made the walk back to the lorry park, however while I was walking back I noticed a TV screen which had the live dressage scores on, of course I had a quick look and saw that I had scored 25.3%!! Once I got back to the lorry park we tacked up Seb and headed back to the arena. It was quite hot so I decided not to over jump Seb; we finished our warm-up and then headed into the arena. We jumped a lovely clear, making all the distances perfectly. Now it was onto the cross country… Again I decided not to do too much with Seb in the warm-up. So we were called to the start box and immediately Seb knew exactly where he was and got quite excited! He then went and jumped a super clear, tackling all the fences I put in front of him. It wasn’t the easiest ride, as he made me work for it, however after a bit of growling I’m not sure he wanted to disagree with me! Seb normally skips around the cross country, so it was actually quite nice to put him in front of a few fences he wasn’t quite sure about, it also meant that I wasn’t complacent and didn’t take his usual straight forward attitude for granted. We finished the day on our dressage score of 25.3% to finish a credible 8th along with 4 foundation points! This weekend Seb and I competed at our home pony club one day event at Norton Disney in the PC100.
Mum and I started the day by setting up Hykeham PCSO for them to microchip people’s tack; from the sound of the feedback they tagged quite a few saddles! It is a great initiative, that will hopefully deter anyone from stealing tack or if it is stolen it will definitely help to return it to its rightful owner. We then walked the course which was beautifully presented and made me very excited to get back later for the real thing! We then went back home, plaited and loaded the lorry ,had some lunch and set off. On arrival mum and I set to our jobs, she gets Seb out the back and starts to tack up, while I go get my number and get myself ready. Surprisingly to us we were quite short on time, meaning that my warm up for dressage wasn’t the longest, however Seb felt very loose and relaxed. We went into our test relatively calm and produced some nice movements. Unfortunately Seb got slightly distracted at the sight of some sheep in the field next to our arena (sheep are his worst nightmare!!). This meant he went slightly tense resulting in our marks dropping, however I was still pleased with a score of 33.8%. Show jumping was a nice course; it included one interesting line which I had been watching throughout the day as well as a couple of places where time could be lost. When I walked the course I found a lovely stride pattern which would mean that I would meet this weird line on a really nice stride. Seb warmed up really nicely, meeting most fences spot on. Over the winter a lot of trainers have been telling me that I really need to get him into a forward canter before I start my round, with this in mind I tried to move his canter up a gear and still try to keep him contained as he hasn’t really jumped since Lincoln in March. Seb jumped foot perfectly through the whole course! He was really adjustable and took me into every fence; it was a great moment where both me and Seb were 100% on the same wavelength, allowing each other to work effectively allowing us to achieve a clear with no time penalties. Cross country, as always he was a machine taking every fence in his stride and literally skipping around the course! He made absolutely nothing of every fence even though his last run and look at a cross country fence was over a month ago! We made it home clear, within the time to finish on our dressage score to place a fabulous 4th and 2nd best Blankney! Very proud of Seb and I this weekend, yet again he shows what a class little horse he is! A couple of weeks ago I met up with my sponsor Victoria at Sports Massage and Injury Treatments to go over some exercises that I can start doing to improve my strength and flexibility for riding. If you are anything like me then we tend to spend most of our time looking after our horses, ensuring that they get the best possible treatments and forget how we as riders are such major influencers to our horse’s way of going. Many of us are aware that if we are tense then this can travel down the rein to our horses, however we never think about the individual muscle groups that are tense or not as strong, meaning the messages being sent to our horses are blurred and not as clear. This post is about strengthening and engaging the glutes, it also includes exercises to stretch the hip flexors! 1) Bridge- To perform this exercise you lay on your back with both feet on the ground, you then lift your hips in a rolling motion to engage the glutes. This exercise helps strengthen and engage the glutes. For this exercise I do 3 sets of 10 reps and held the position for 5seconds and started increasing the time when I started to find it easier. 2) Reverse Clam- For this exercise you lay on your side with your legs bent, ensuring your heels, hips and shoulders are all inline. You then engage whichever glute is pointing upwards and open the leg. For this exercise I do 3sets of 10 reps each side, holding the position for around 2seconds. When first trying this exercise with Victoria we found that my left glute was quite significantly weaker than my right. To show how this impacts my riding, when riding Seb my younger horse his weakest and most inconsistent rein is his left, sometimes making our left give and retake mark two points lower than the right...! 3) Straight leg flute- This exercise is very similar to the reverse clam, however keeping your legs straight, still engaging the glute pointing upwards. For this exercise I do 3sets of 10reps each side. Again when trying this exercise I found the left glute a lot harder to engage, I found it was really important to think about engaging the muscle and concentrating on keeping the correct position. 4) Hamstring dynamic stretch- This exercise stretches the hamstring, something that I am not very good at...! For this exercise you lay on your back with your legs bent, the best way to describe it is like you are sat on a chair but on its back! You then alternately move each leg in a cycling motion. This exercise is for 30seconds 5) Lunge hold and Lung Oscillate- For this exercise you kneel in the lunge position and engage the glute that is opposite to the knee that is pointing upwards, this is held for 30secs on each leg. To increase to difficulty you can stay in the same position but push into the engagement each time and release, this is done for 30seconds on each leg. 6) Hip flexor and Hip flexor with stretch- This is also in the lunge position but with the front leg extended out slightly meaning you are stretching the hip flexor, you can hold this for 30seconds on each leg and then bend at the knee and hold it to your bottom to increase the stretch, this is held for 30seconds on each leg. In the extended lunge position you can also stretch the opposite arm up and across to the knee that is pointing up to stretch the muscles that runs from under your quadriceps up the side of your body. These are my favourite stretches as afterwards you feel really lose in the hip area. The tightness in this area is caused by the life that most people lead now, hunch up looking at their phones. This position is really not helpful to the extended leg that is needed in dressage. I was able to carry out these exercises correctly with the help of my sponsor Victoria at Sports Massage and Injury Treatments, these exercises are to help the riders position but if you do have an on going injury or pain, book an appointment with Victoria!!
Okay... so yes I am writing this when we are 14 days into the new year, however I did try to post previously but I forgot to press the "Publish" button... ooops!
I thought I would start off with a quick round up of the successes of 2016! - 2016 was the first year where I have had both horses out competing without the other being off injured! Seb had an amazing first season of British Eventing, together we finished in the top 10 of 3/5 of our BE90 events. We made the step up to 100cm show jumping and is really starting to understand that dressage is not that stressful! he really stepped up to the plate and has excelled himself! Woody, well... what can I say this pony has now really found his forte, with 6 National Championships finishing in the top 14 in all of them, with our best result being 77.7% and 4th! We also made the step up to Elementary dressage. At the end of 2016 we also managed to secure ourselves a sponsor, something I know will help with the 2017. I'm very excited to say I am now sponsored by Sports Massage & Injury Treatment, you can go check out a little write up did on my "Sponsors" page! I also hopefully will be doing review after I have had my first treatment, so watch out for that! 2017 has started positively with Woody qualifying for Belton Horse Trials at Novice level, as well as carrying over last years qualification at Prelim level. Seb also went out and did some dressage scoring 70.0%, one of our best scores, I also jumped him at home the other day, setting up some more technical fences, with him flying every single one! This year is definitely going to be busy with GCSE's looming and trying to compete two horses, BUT I am going to rise to the challenge as I feel Woody and Seb may be the only ones that can pull me through, just the thought of the long summer ahead, I can't wait! Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the 2016 season and who continues to in 2017! I really am truly grateful for keeping me and my horses in tip top condition and the facilities that have enabled me to progress so much in 2016! 17th July- Haven't done a blog post in absolutely ages... But I'm going to try and start again!! A lot I mean a lot has happened since my last post as I think it was back in Frebruary...!! Oops :/ However both ponies are on fire at the moment with some championships coming up for Woody as we have qualified for 3!! Seb isn't too far behind, really showing everyone that he is more than capable to do 90cm by finishing his first 90 ODE on 33% dressage, 4 show jumping and 0 cross country. A few time faults here and there, but it was one of the toughest 90 courses around even more complex then BE, so we should have no problem!! Coming up he has one 80cm ODE then straight back up to 90!! Definitely looking forward to the future with these two boys!! 18/12/15 - On the 12/12/15 we took Seb to Midlands u18 training. He was extremely well behaved and held his own against some of the bigger flashy ponies! First we had 45mins dressage lesson working on being straight and bends, then 45mins on rider positioning resulting in no stirrups and sitting trot the whole time...! During lunch we had a talk by both instructors on preparing for next season. After lunch was jumping with the first 45mins on positioning at a fence and difficult lines and the second 45mins on a grid ending in us jumping a 100+ spread!! We both had an amazing time and lots of fun, not to mention the extremely inviting instructors that really helped with my confidence! 2/12/15 - Recently where I live it has been extremely wet and boggy making riding and schooling really hard, as during summer we used the field which we are now unable to do... So we have had to hire arenas to go and school, which has been a bit annoying, Seb has had to most attention over the last month as Woody has been on holiday, which he finished yesterday! Seb has been to quite a few training sessions and 1 showjumping competition where we went double clear! One thing we have noticed though, is that he hasn't got a lot of muscle in his hind quarters... So that is my task over winter!! As for Woody, he has just had a nice relax in the field and he is now being brought back into work ready for BYRDS!!
31/10/2015 - Took Woody to his final competition of the season today, Pony Club Winter Dengie Dressage League. We did a fab test for 76.4% winning the class by over 6 points! Meaning we have now qualified for the next rounds!! So very pleased with the score sheet consisting of mostly 8's!!! So with that being Woody's last competition he now has a month off to rest and relax, to then come back fresh and ready for a few winter competitions and fun! As for Seb, he now has lots of training, starting tomorrow!! So very proud of both of my boys this season, we have had a few ups and downs but coming out on top of all of them! Thank you to my mum, dad and partners, family and friends, coach Corrigan, Hannah, farriers, dentists, vet, mctimoney specialist and all the people that have helped and supported me!! THANK YOU!! Here's to a storming 2016!! Xx |