Posts

Eventing asks a horse to move with precision, power, balance, and confidence, often across very different surfaces in a single weekend. Archie may begin with…

Dressage tests look wonderfully orderly from the outside. The arena is rectangular, the letters are fixed, and every movement has a place. Yet that neat…

Winter competition has a particular atmosphere that outdoor shows never quite reproduce. The cold follows you from the lorry park to the warm-up ring, coats…

At home, Archie can usually be tacked up, mounted, and ridden away without much fuss. At a competition, however, the same horse arrives in a completely…

Eventing asks a great deal from a rider’s calendar. A single competition can involve dressage schooling, show jumping practice, cross-country fitness work,…

A sharp turn on a cross-country course can arrive quickly: a flagged corner after a hedge, a jump that sends you toward a narrow line, or a change of direction…

My rider safety vest is part of my competition kit now, just like my boots, gloves, and number bib. Before I started eventing with Archie, I thought of a vest…

Archie has never been the sort of horse who arrives at a competition wearing the same expression every time. Some mornings he is bright-eyed and busy, looking…

A dressage arena can feel very different when the judge is positioned at C, especially if most of your schooling has taken place with a trainer standing at the…

Eventing gives me three different tests of horse and rider, and each phase tells a slightly different story. Dressage reflects accuracy, suppleness, rhythm,…