I was lucky enough to be chosen to participate in an XC masterclass with Lucy Wiergsma which was held at Winkleigh by HORSE magazine on Tuesday.
We trundled along arriving nice and early as there was no way I wanted to be late! We met the other pupil and then the journalist, photographer and lastly of course Lucy. The lesson was to be one big photoshoot as well as it will at some point be used as a magzine feature, so look out for us in print sometime soon.
I really was unsure how Fleur would behave, we had been to Winkleigh once before several years ago for a ODE but that wasn’t exactly our most sucessful outing! As the other horse was also novicey (he was allowed though being 5, Fleur on the otherhand has no excuse at 10 this year!) we started small and simple and worked our way up in height and technicality as the lesson went on.
I wanted to work mainly on downward steps and water as this is where previously Fleur had shown to have a lack of confidence. Other than a very enthusiastic leap down the steps the first time when to be honest I was very lucky to stay on board, she just grew and grew in confidence without putting a step wrong. I learnt some great techniques and came away from the day brimming with new found confidence in Fleur’s XC ability, and also so happy that she actually enjoyed herself, such a change from the horse who a fews years previously had to be forced to go anywhere near an XC fence!!
Originally the plan this year was to maybe go out and do a few unaffiliated ODEs but I was given a large kick up the behind and told to get affiliated to BritishEventing and to go out and have some fun, oh and we are not allowed to go in at 80T its got to be straight in at Intro for us!!!
So watch this space, me and Fleur will be coming to a BE event near us soon!!
