I’ve made it to Easter holidays! Since my last blog I competed Kaja in her first major competition since last March as part of her preparation for Addington CDI.
Our new warm-up routine seems to be helping Kaja enter the arena in a calmer frame of mind, especially at this time of year which seems to leave many horses tense and prone to losing concentration.
Our test became a game of two halves. Kaja’s trot work was scoring better than last season which was really encouraging however, as we went into the canter work she became a little over-excited which hampered our final score.
Overall I had to be pleased that it was another forward step in Kaja’s rehabilitation.
Florence photoshoot
The day after the competition saw me flying off to Florence for a photoshoot with my sponsors Cavalleria Toscana, which you will see soon as part of their 2015 collection.
This trip became even more involved than normal as I met up with USA junior rider BeBe Davis and Danish Young rider Cathrine Dufour. The real stars of the show though were German Olympic gold medallist and world champion dressage rider Isabell Werth, Olympic silver medallist show jumper Rolf-Göran Bengtsson and Spanish Olympic dressage rider Juan Manuel Munoz Diaz.
It was a great experience to be photographed with horses around the streets of Arezzo and to meet such talented riders who were a pleasure to spend time with, listening to their experiences. As if the photography team working around us wasn’t big enough, we also had Class Horse TV filming and interviewing the whole shoot — what fun we all had!
Continued below…
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Addington CDI
Kaja was really well behaved in the trot-up which couldn’t be said for quite a few of the horses; as I said, it’s that time of year!
Kaja performed consistently across the three-day competition staying in the top six for every class. This is a really pleasing indicator that our development is well on track for the season.
This can now be improved further by quality training and increased turn-out, the main ingredient Kaja really needs to keep her head in the game; after all, she is a horse!
Two companies I work for supported the show and I was delighted to have their support.
The Brightwells auction was a great addition as well as the U25 Grand Prix tests, which filled the evenings. I wanted to sleep, but I couldn’t miss the action!
Since Addington the selectors have chosen me for an extra squad session at Talland and I am working hard on another couple of surprises. My next blog will fill in the detail.
Chloe
