It’s Rumour Week! NAJYRC is ON! Plus, more fascinating grammar from FEI and WEF press releases, Madonna’s keenly felt presence in Wellington, as well as an update on what Mariette has been up to lately. My dressage freestyle design work puts me in regular contact with a number of Juniors and Young Riders. They have […]

I’m getting a bit of a late start into this year, having taken a rather long but overdue holiday over Christmas – and well into the new year. Lost in the wilds of Portugal with my husband Jan and Dachshund Chorizo (whom some of my ruder friends refer to as my two wieners), I was […]

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog, and for those of you who have read my blogs in the past, welcome to the blog’s new home. And just to set the record straight, lest the rumour mill start grinding away (just one peek at the CoTH Forum will confirm that the horse world is not immune […]

Happy New Year everyone! Solo has had an unexpected hiccup in his training since boxing day. We had a huge downpour of rain and ever since then we seem to have ice growing out the ground! As a result, Solo has only made it to the arena once since Christmas Day. This is an unheard of situation here […]

All is going well with Solo at the moment. His aggressive winter schooling schedule seems to be helping him grow up. He has a softer look in his eye at the moment and doesn’t seem to be arguing over things any more. The worst thing is still the spooking. It’s such a game with him, he does it […]

We have had Solo on his ‘no mercy’ work schedule for a couple of weeks now and I THINK I might see just the tiniest improvement.  He is certainly a lot softer and calmer in his eye. We changed a lot of things so it’s hard to tell what is helping and what is not.  […]

Well Solo appears to be thriving on his present regime. He is not in full ridden work since this is meant to be his downtime before Florida, but he is in regular work. Last week he did his three consecutive days of serious overtracking on the lunge, an energetic form of exercise for me if not him. He […]

Well Oakhurst was not exactly an unqualified success. I was not there to see the disaster myself, but it would seem that on cross country Solo was well behind the leg and convinced that there were spooky beings, under or behind every fence. He stopped on cross country, grumpy and unfocused as he came to a corner. […]

Well I have a lot of catching up to do, but life is slowly returning to normal for Solo, Selena, Colombo and the rest of the gang. The Olympics were wonderful.  I was in Hong Kong and watched Selena and Colombo, it was an amazing experience and I was very proud of the whole Canadian […]

Selena has been gone for most of the month of July and Solo and I are surviving.  Actually, it’s going a lot better than expected and I am thoroughly enjoying the ride on the flat.  I am not going to be jumping him and I am not going to be hacking him.  I have injured […]