Finally!! After 6 weeks of shelter at my brother’s yard in Germany, I am OVER THE MOON to be at home and even more happy about the fact that I once again have Wi-Fi, a bath, my own bed and that I don’t everagain have to try to get the neighbours to understand that I don’t speak German! The lack of Wi-Fi has nearly killed me (not really, I quite enjoyed the social media break but it just made blogging impossible) and the heat and humidity have made riding and training unmanageable on the worst days.
So here is a quick round up of how the horses are doing ⤵️
Basse has spent the last 6 weeks recovering from various ailments, which include lymphangitis, an infection on his front leg as well as a cough from dust allergies which has meant that I’ve ridden about ten times. Aside from those days, he’s spent his days being turned out in the mornings, going on the horse walker on the afternoons and being lunged to keep his fitness up, without making him work too hard or aggravating the cough. It’s a shame that I wasn’t able to ride him more, but on the super-hot days I was glad to be doing less riding with having 3 other horses to ride every day! The vet got to know mother and I well as he was looking at one of the horses at least each week…
All I can think of to say about Vallu in Germany is that he was fabulous. Although I had to give him lots of breaks (easier days) between the hard training days, it has meant that his legs look surprisingly good! I was incredibly worried about riding him more and training more often, but he’s done really well. It was incredible to be able to ride Vallu at the same time as Ville was riding the other horses so that he was able to help me out with a few things and really push Vallu and I back on track. If his legs stay good, there’s no reason why I couldn’t be able to properly train and compete him now that his fitness levels are back to optimal again.
I’ve been so fortunate to get lots of help from Ville with Erkki too. When we arrived there, it felt like I couldn’t ride him properly on most days, but now after 6 weeks I feel like most of the time I have at least some idea of what I’m meant to do! Even better, Ville ended up riding him twice so that I could really SEE what I am meant to do to get him going properly, which is mostly just super sharp transitions to get his long legs working and getting him thinking forwards. It’s all about making sure that he doesn’t mentally switch off because then you have to start the process all over again, but this is something I hadn’t realised until I had help from Ville. Having not travelled as well as the boys, Melisse ended up tying up two weeks after we’d arrived and therefore ended up with a 3 week holiday to let her muscles recover. For the last two weeks, I’ve been able to ride her more and more, which has been great as I can really feel her coming back to her full strength and her feeling happy in herself again, but it’s such a shame that I had such a golden opportunity to have lessons with her for training! But that’s horses for you!
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