Tuesday, 2 March 2010

What A Week!

I know I haven't posted here in a while but things have gotten very hectic lately that my relaxing things like writing on this blog have been put on hold.

To top it off, my tack room got broken into last Tuesday and although I do not keep anything valuable down at my stable (ESPECIALLY NOT my saddles!!), the thieves along with causing considerable damage to my tackroom door, stole my Charles Owen Pro II silver riding helmet (the one I'm wearing in the photo), my black leather bridle with white diamante trim on the noseband and browband that I use for lunging and my Herm Sprenger KK bit.

Luckily my horses and chickens were not harmed and the idiots ended up dumping my helmet cover and my KK bit near the gate to my neighbour's stables! I'm not too bothered about my bridle as I only paid £5 as it was a used cheap Indian leather bridle but I am annoyed that my helmet is gone as it was my favorite hat and can't afford to replace it with a new one (I'm having to use my velvet show hat now for everything).

Oh well, the tack room door has now been fixed and I hope the thieves get a rash from my helmet (it used to give me rashes!)!!

Looking at the photo of Hattie and I, I realized that it has been exactly one year since I first put my side saddle on Hattie. She never had one on her before and has really taken to it. We've had a bit of a hiatus with side saddling since Christmas due to the bad weather and not being able to ride, but I have decided that we are going to start side saddling again in April and start the season again with doing the Intro A dressage test side saddle.

I have been schooling astride these past few weeks as the weather has gotten better and have started working on her left rein canter. It still needs work but it is getting there. Once it's solid astride, then I will attempt it side saddle. I've got a hard Intro B dressage test this Sunday that we are doing astride. There are lots of bends, stretching, circles in it so this is what we have been working on- that and getting us back into shape for riding again!

So this year we'll keep working on the basics with side saddle (my position and Hattie's way of going) with an aim at doing the Pony Club D dressage test and the Novice Equitation class at the Side Saddle Association Show in June along with astride training with cantering. Hopefully if we really work on the basics this year, we'll start doing some Prelim dressage tests in 2011!


  1. Oh I'm sorry to hear about your tack room being broken into! Good thing you didn't keep your saddles in there. Another lady I know that rides SS in England had her trailer stolen this year and everything taken out of it including her saddle and attire. Then they bought another trailer and someone set it on fire! Sounds like there's a lot of that going around this past year.

  2. Yeah, there is a real problem over here with tack rooms getting broken into and property on farms being taken or vandalized.

    It's the whole culture clash over here as if you have horses, you are seen as being "posh" and rich and so fair game even though most people who have horses here in the UK aren't rich and work VERY hard for them, including myself!

    My friend who works as a cleaner, had her daughter's three saddles stolen the same night. She is a mile down the lane from my stables so it was obviously the same people.

  3. I hope somebody catches the people that are doing it! How frustrating. I can see how people might think you're "rich" because you have horses but that's not always the case.