Victoria Bax Eventing blog October 2017
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Victoria Bax Eventing blog October 2017

Victoria Bax Eventing blog October 2017 talks RIDING CLUB FUN AND SOME DIY EQUESTRIAN STYLE! October was supposed to be filled with final events to wrap our season however, as usual things didn’t quite go to plan.

Firstly, a short while ago my dad was diagnosed as needing an operation, he was told it would be about an 8 week wait, which I originally calculated to be the end of October and I thought would work perfectly. However, this was brought forward and given as 29th September which meant the chances of me making it to Little Downham for the weekend were slim as he was only expected to be in hospital for one or two nights, then coming to stay with me. I didn’t think it was right if he came out for me then to leave him for the day to go eventing, so I withdrew. Fortunately there was still a waiting list so was lucky enough to get a refund, while someone else enjoyed my space!

I had another change of plan with Alberta’s Pride, having done so well in his comeback competition to win in September and feeling so confident cross country I decided he didn’t really need to go to another event this season which would benefit him in any way, plus, I didn’t want to go to one and not win! 🙂

Instead Alberta’s Pride has been working on his showjumping, but proving there is nothing wrong with that by going out and jumping yet another double clear in the British Novice and would have finished 7th out of a huge 40 odd competitors, but he was on a ticket. He will definitely need to move on up to the Discovery next time out. I took Alberta’s Rose showjumping as well on the same day as a new local venue Beechwood arc has just started to run affiliated showjumping. As it was only 20 minutes from me it was extremely easy to get to. She jumped a lovely round just tipping one rail. The plan is to continue to take both of these horses showjumping throughout the winter.

Crystal Ka has now been back in work for a few week following his withdrawal from his last event back in August where he just didn’t feel himself on the day. He was extremely flat but polite in the dressage which really isn’t him and then caused problems in the showjumping warm-up so I made the decision to withdraw him. I am certainly pleased I did as I had my Physio came out to see him the following week and he had torn a gluteal muscle which was obviously causing him a great deal of pain so we turned him away for 6 weeks to have time to repair himself (Aloeride will certainly help this).

Alberta’s Pride was called up for a local riding club team combined training. I like to stay involved with local riding club events and use them for competition experience for my younger horses. However, three days before I was asked if I could bring Crystal Ka along too to fill a space in an elementary team due to a lame horse. There was only a small problem as he had been out of work for the last 6 weeks!
The request was passed down to Alberta’s Rose who had a whistle stop tour of rein back, walk to canter, medium canter to a 10 m circle to a half 10 m circle with simple change which she struggled with to start with but somehow on the day managed to pull it out of the bag and score 65.71% to finish 4th out of about 15 in her class. She was also part of the winning team to qualify for the riding club championships early next year, so not a bad first elementary attempt for her! Alberta’s Pride didn’t disappoint either and scored a great 72% again and jumped a clear round to finish 5th, so a good day with both my horses performing well for the teams, phew!

My winter training clinics are now in full swing, even managing to get one last clinic out on the beautiful course at Horseheath last weekend which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

I have been practising my Blue Peter skills and adding to my jump collection by building some new fillers. With a little help from my local DIY store, nonetheless, I have impressed myself with my skills! My team have since jumped round them all and seem to approve, including Crystal Ka, who last time we tried to jump was extremely uncomfortable because of the torn muscle, but this time was extremely keen! My little puppy Alfie is getting used to yard life as you can see from the picture, helping me bring in Crystal aka from the field! (Set up just for the picture purposes!)

Let’s hope the lovely Autumn weather continues as it certainly makes things more bearable with our outside pastime!

Until next time… Victoria Bax

Header image courtesy of Victoria’s very talented husband Jason Bax.

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