Guest blog from Sam and Rabbit

So another month has sped by. Rabbit and I have continued training hard in the last month, and very excitingly have booked our first dressage test for over 12 months! We have managed to qualify for the PetPlan Area Festivals at Elementary level. This is in May, so in preparation for that we have booked three tests in April to try and get rid of our ring rust. I’m quite happy to admit that after a period of not competing my nerves do tend to get the better of me. I’m hoping with a few practice runs beforehand I can get this under control so we can perform our best at Areas.

At home Leonie has been working very hard to try and teach me to refine all of my aids. Rabbit is a very sensitive horse and doesn’t really like it when I kick and pull to get him round movements. I’m learning more and more to ride him from my seat and legs to enable me to do very little with my hands. I didn’t realise doing nothing could be quite this difficult, but very slowly I’m getting the hang of it which is enabling me to lengthen Rabbit’s neck and free up his shoulders.

This in turn has meant we have finally found his medium trot. This was a moment of great celebration! When I bought Rabbit he showed absolutely no signs of a medium trot at all, so to realise he’s actually got one in there is great news.

I’m also very much looking forward to having a clean horse again. Rabbit has four white socks. As we haven’t competed for such a long time, they haven’t had a good wash for quite a while, and now they just seem to blend in with his body. I think it might take a few washes between now and then to get them back to their gleaming best.  I hope you’re all doing well at this crazy time and are now able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I look forward to next month and hopefully being able to give you all a good news competition report, keep your fingers crossed for me.

© Sue Palmer, The Horse Physio, 2021

Treating your horse with care, connection, curiosity and compassion