Posts

Competition days with Archie rarely feel like a single event. They begin with loading in the half-light, continue through motorway miles and stable checks, and…

I left the arena with a score sheet folded in the pocket of my show jacket and a sinking feeling in my stomach. Archie had tried hard, I had remembered the…

A combination fence asks a horse to solve several questions in quick succession. The first element may be an upright, oxer, or cross pole, followed by a second…

Eventing is an expensive sport before entry fees, fuel, lessons, and stabling have even been added to the budget. A used saddle, second-hand pair of jumping…

Show mornings have a particular kind of cold. The air may be still and bright, but the temperature sits low enough to make tacking up feel like a test of…

When Archie and I prepare for an eventing season, I am always tempted to build confidence by putting up a bigger fence. A clear round over a substantial oxer…

The last cross-country schooling day of the season arrived under a sky that could not decide whether to brighten or rain. The trees around the venue had turned…

For a long time, I assumed that a difficult training season meant I needed to work harder. If Archie felt tense in the warm-up, I added another schooling…

Water crossings used to be one of the parts of eventing that made me feel least prepared. Archie could walk through a puddle on a hack without much fuss, yet a…

Competition mornings used to leave me caught between two bad choices: eating too much before riding and feeling sluggish, or eating almost nothing and running…