I have just returned from South Africa where the UK team finished a credible fourth in the Polocrosse World Cup, bringing our world standing up by two places.
I took on the role of player-coach, which certainly had its challenges! However, now the dust has settled, I can look back with great sense of achievement.
All the players on the team stood up to the pressures of international polocrosse, which is all any coach and teammate can ask for. On a personal note, I have learnt so much from coaching at this level and the fact that I played my best polocrosse in years is testament to the faith I had in my teammates and our preparation. South Africa retained their title through playing the best polocrosse I have ever seen; they have certainly taken the game to a new level.
With the UK team
A tricky loader
Now it is back to business and the yard is filling up with horses again. I have also been teaching and going out to clients this week, including loading a horse for eventer Bryony Whittington.
The horse had previously loaded without any issues, but suddenly found a few tricks to avoid going on. I worked with the horse for about an hour, and I hope it will time well spent for both Bryony and her new event prospect.
It is always interesting in cases like these to work out why horses develop problems seemingly out of the blue. In this case, some alterations to the truck were all it took for the horse to take exception to loading. The fact that Bryony called me out to nip the problem in the bud made life a lot easier for me, and her horse!
In this job, you never know what is around the corner and after twenty years of starting horses I have my first twins to work with! Not only that, but they are out of Lucinda Fredericks’ fantastic mare Headley Britannia by Mr Big Cat and conceived through embryo transfer. They are very similar to look at but one is a gelding and one is a filly.
Although were bought up the same, the filly nearly died from a virus but has made an excellent recovery. It will be interesting to see how they both progress and feel their similarities or otherwise. Twins might come from the same genetics but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are going to be the same!
Get online
On another very exciting note, I am delighted to say that my new online training resource, Your Horsemanship, is up and running with over two hundred videos and is being used by our first subscribers!
About three years ago, someone told me that if you’re not moving forward, you are going backwards. I am in the business of helping people and horses so I thought providing online education would be an amazing resource to add to what I offer. In filming for the videos, I also had to take a good look at what I do and what people want and as a result I have got better at teaching and talking to camera. Your Horsemanship also makes business sense as I am not getting any younger and there are only so many horses and people I can physically help in a day! This resource is allowing me to help so many more people and their horses, which is really exciting.
Jason
