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The first time Archie shot his ears flat back at a fence, I nearly wrote it off as a bad mood. We were schooling a simple vertical at the local agistment in…

The alarm went off at 4:15am, which is normal for a horse show weekend. Archie had been clipped, plaited, and loaded by half past four, and we were on the M1…

Packing my overnight bag for a horse trial with no on-site lodging is a small operation in itself. Archie may have the float, hay, water, tack room and a…

With Archie, warming up is never a ritual I repeat without thought. The work we do before a dressage test has a different purpose from the work we do before a…

The minutes before a cross-country round can feel strangely longer than the whole course. I can walk the track, study every fence, check my stirrups and have a…

The fall happened at a water jump during an eventing competition, and it changed the way I thought about confidence. Archie and I had schooled through water…

Eventing boots work hard. They collect arena dust, wet grass, sweat, mud, and the fine grit that gets thrown up on a cross-country course. If they are put…

When Archie first started jumping in an open field, his speed changed every time the fence line changed. He could produce a sensible canter in the arena, then…

Cross-country is the phase where I want Archie to feel confident, balanced, and completely free through his shoulders. The course may include water, banks,…

A horse that loads beautifully at home can behave very differently after a full day at an event. By the time we have finished dressage, show jumping and…