Hi everyone,
I’m Ollie and you may have read about me in last month’s Boys Ride Too Magazine.
BRT magazine wanted to know more about my riding life and competing at British Showjumping (BS) competitions, so here’s a short update about what we got up to during February.
At the beginning of the month we visited Victoria de Sousa in Newmarket with my horse Lucky in preparation for the British Showjumping (BS) Spring Summer Season which runs from April to September. We tried our hand at some 1.05m and 1.10m jumps. Lucky worked really well clearing the heights and didn’t seem fazed or worried. I feel happy with our progress and am looking to seeing what happens at our next competition.
Training paid off!! We competed at Barleylands Equestrian Centre. Lucky went double clear (DC) coming 3rd in the BS Discovery Open (90cm) class and DC finishing 2nd in a full up to height Newcomers (1 meter) class. Not many of the riders were clear, which shows what a good job Lucky is doing.
If you are wondering what ‘full up to height’ means? It’s that some of the jumps for example an Oxer are not just 1m high but 1m wide and some of the jumps within the course could be 1.05m or even 1.10m. Striding within the related distances needs to be ridden accurately to make sure all runs smoothly.
Amy from Equine Products visited my yard to advise on the best supplements for the
coming season. We may be jumping 2 or 3 rounds in one day therefore Lucky needs to have the energy to do this as well as being competition fit. We have:
Haemavite B Plus for healthy blood levels. This is fed before competitions and will give Lucky a bit of a spark! MSM, fed daily is good for his joints and ligaments.
Restore Lyte – fed daily this will replace all the salts he uses. We also treated Lucky to Relax Coolmix – for the stay away shows. It’s a cooling clay you put on their tendons after hard work to cool them down. We have a pair of ice boots which are kept in the freezer but our lorry freezer is small and we are unable to refreeze after the first use so the Relax Coolmix is great for this. We also brought him a Epona April Power Shower sponge – because Lucky loves getting himself muddy just before shows and it will work with the 2020Equine shampoo. I also got a free Equine Products jacket and gilet and Amy gave us a Banner for the arena!
At the end of the month I had a lesson with former Irish international showjumper Tom
Vance. We worked on some uprights, canter strides riding the set distances between poles, then a medium size jump. It took me a couple of tries before we rode the correct distance
of 4 strides. Tom then built a Swedish Oxer which is ideal if you don’t have a large arena to
work in or a full course of jumps. The poles are offset by one hole on each side which makes it look wonky but means it can be jumped from both directions. Lucky enjoyed working this and we built it up to 1.05m. Let’s hope the work pays off at our next competition!
You can follow me and my ponies on Instagram olliejudge07
