back 2 college!

Its our second back today aftern two weeks on holiday. It was really good to have a break and to have time to visit friends and family as i am only home for a few days at the weekend and dont usualy have the time. Although i never got to se my horse for two weeks as he stayed at the college, so i missed him heaps.

During the hollidays i went to Amsterdam from Sunday to Friday, with friends. We done alot of shoppin and alot of sight seeing and went to a few musems. We went to the Anne-Frank musem which was really interseting and got to see where she hadbeen living many years ago-although the place had been renovated and was parts from her diary which she had written. We then went to the Dungeons which was a good laugh and a bit scary!! It was a tour round the dungeons and acters putting on a show which was really interesting then there was a rollercoaste at the end. The rest of the time we just went to restraunts for meals and pubs for entertainment.

first week back

Well what can i say back at collage again . The first day was rubbish , we didn't get to ride we had to lunge :( . To make things worse I was rather rough as I went to the pub the night before not the best idea ever .
In the holidays I didn't do very much , worked with my horse managed to sit on his back a few times so I was quite happy as he is going away on Sunday to get broken .
I'm all out of conversation now so I will say bye .

Back to college

We are just back from our 2 weeks holiday, it was great to have a holiday and get back home so I could see my own horses, family and friends. In the holidays a was out riding my own horse's which a enjoyed. I also went out we friends that a hadn't seen since a I started college which was really good fun.

Some of the horses at the college went home for the hoildays to there owners. Marion the stable manager worked through the hoildays riding some of the horses that need more work than the rest of them.

Its good to be back but missing my horses at home.

Lucinda Green- XC Training at Colliemore..

On Monday the 1st of October the college had organised for the pupils to go down to Colliemore to watch XC training taught by a famous rider Lucinda Green. Lucinda Green is a very experienced and successful horse woman and has won badminton 6 times on 6 different horses. Also she has one gold medals in various riding events.

The clinic was held at Colliemore where there is a large indoor school and a beautiful XC course. The riders were split in to groups of three for practicing fences in the indoor school and split into two groups for doing the XC.

In this lesson Lucinda had said that there are three main things you and your horse must be able to do when taking part in XC, these are water, ditches and drops. The first group of horses and riders were ones who have competed at Intro events and Pre-Novice events. Firstly she took them to do the ditch. She explained different techniques to encourage the more difficult horses over the ditch. Before the ditch she put a skinny jump in front of it and after it, this gave the horses more to think about. Although one of the riders fell off at the ditch , this didnt stop the determination of completing the training. After allot of patience and some work the all the horses confidently jumped it. She also done this with the second group who compete at Pre Novice.

The water was a really interesting jump and was one of my favourites. At first the riders walked the horses down a small bank into the water and out of a small bank. After a few times of doing this they then jumped off a small jump of into the water trotted through the water and again jumped out of it. They then progressed to the bigger jumps at the side. Fortunately there was no falls in the water!!

The last jump which they practiced was the drop jump. Again like the other jumped they done this in walk first and then progressed in to trot and canter. She used lot of techniques to help the riders with their horses.

After they had practised these three jumps, they were then to put them together as a course. The riders and horses all had a successful ride and this was down to the help of Lucinda.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day. I thought it was really interesting and i thoroughly enjoyed the way that she taught. I thought she had allot of patience and also self-experience which helped her put it in a better perspective. The pointers that she gave us will help in future if we were to do this.

Lucinda Green morning classes

On the 01/10/2007 the college took 1,2,3rd year of our equestrian course to Colliemore, Newmore, Invergordon to watch Lucinda Green teach several people how to do cross country this clinic was organised by the bhs scotland. Lucinda Green is one of the most famous cross country riders winning badminton 6 times on 6 different horses won the tony colins trophy and has also competed in the european championships 7 times. At first 4 people came into the large in door arena on their horses these were the intro group so were only just starting to do cross country with there horses so she explained techniques with them and let them show her what they could do, this was so that when they had to go out onto the the cross country courses that they would be safe. All important things like position, where your legs/hands should be and what they should be doing. As this group were only beginners there jumps were not very big but they had to do a point 2 skinnies and a cross pole, then at the end do a strait line stop. Lucinda says that if you don't do that strait line stop it would have been a waste of time doing the whole course as it is one of the main points.

At 11:00 the next group came into the arena there was 3 people this time these were more experienced and are graded at intro - pn (pre novice) there jumps were higher and had to do 6 jumps to do a higher corner, 3 skinnies, the cross pole and a spread. Lucinda asked what their technique was and then just helped them perfect it.

12:00 the most experienced of the groups came in the pn - novice, their jumps were even higher and they had to do the same jumps as the 2nd group, although these were more experienced they had more trouble getting the horses over the jumps, although with Lucinda getting them to change some things at the end they all managed. She said that usually it is the more experience that find trouble doing some things as they are more cocky and don't push there horses on.

The most problems throughout the day were peoples martingales, the riders having them too short so that their horses cannot lift there heads high enough to see the jump and to lift their front legs.

We then went on lunch, after that we were out on the cross country course Hayley-anna will tell you all about that!!!!!

Lucinda Green- XC Training.

On the yard.

There is two stable blocks on the yard, the little one which has 5 stable boxes in it, this also contains the feed room and an area which stores clean straw, paper for beds and tools ie brushes, shovels etc. on this yard the bigger horses are kept such as Hi fi, Woody, Magners and sprite.

The Big yard has 15 stable boxes on it and also has a tack room in it where all the horses bridels ans saddels are kept, the grooming kit like brushes etc any other parts of saddelry you may need such as lunging lines, boots, bits ect are also kept in here. All the horses kept in this yard are only kept in during the day and let out onto the grass at night.



On a daily basis -



Morning - the beds are taken down, hay and water put into stables,

Horses are taken in from the field, rugs off and brushed down.

Then whoever is riding 1st would now get ready to ride and tack up for 10:15.

While the 1st group are in riding between the 1/2/3rd years there be 3 different groups 2 up at the class rooms and 1 on the yard with Marion doing odd jobs like cleaning tack etc.

2nd group should then be ready to ride at 11:15.



lunch will then be at 12:15 until 01:00.



Then another year will be prepareing to ride and the groups in the class room will now change.

After an hour the next group will go into ride and everyone will start to clean up the yard,set fair. Doing the beds putting them up for the night, re-filling the haynets. Once all horses have finished riding they will be fed at the same time then taken back out to the field for the night and released together. Home time!!!!