Sunday afternoon I headed over to Boxted, to capture some of the jumping action on Anne’s clinic. Wendy kindly hosted the event, with some scrummy lemon cake provided by Debs who was taking part! It’s all a bit of a family at these events – if you’ve not seen these clinics pop up before, you can find them on Facebook under Boxted outdoor arena. Anne has a great style of teaching, and invokes everyone’s inner braveheart (you can say No, but it doesn’t always come across…Somehow you find yourself doing it anyway!) They’re great fun, informative, and you’ll come away with a massive smile on your face. If you don’t believe me, check out the images on my Page!
You wouldn’t believe that some of these ladies only started pole work on one of Anne’s clinics a few weeks ago, and when they turned up today, I think if you’d said they’d be jumping 85cm+ by the end of the day, they’d have looked at you like you were crazy. It was such an inspiring afternoon, and had me itching to get back in the saddle so I could join in! On that note, Helen if you’re reading this – I only realised after we left that my riding hat was in the boot of my car! Had I known I’d have gladly swapped Rolo for my camera for a bit!
Debs has signed up to the Wobbleberry challenge with Lolly, so here’s wishing all the best to you both Debs! If today is anything to go by, you’ll be absolutely fab by next October, and won’t have a thing to worry about! Debs also runs a cake making business, Little Barn Cakes which I can highly recommend (most delicious campervan I’ve ever eaten!)
Dilly (Dilbert when he’s naughty) was an absolute gem, and such a character. He wasn’t the fastest out of the gate, but once he got going, he was loving life! Emma has only had him for 3 months, fresh from Ireland and wants to take him out to compete cross country. Between her and Helen, I think they’ll be having a lot of fun on their boys! If I could, I would have stolen both Dilly and Rolo and hidden them in my back pocket for keeps. Next time I see Helen out competing with her little palomino prince, I may just have to steal him!
Henry and Alison are used to competing in dressage, and Alison had warned us that he might stop at the poles. This little guy was having a great time popping the fences, and looked super flashy doing it with all of his feathery goodness!
Wendy and Chico have been working up to this for a little while now, and today we were able to get them over their highest jump to date! I think Wendy may have regretted asking to do it just once more though… They ended up going again another 4 or 5 times after that, to get the whole combination perfect! Onwards and upwards Wendy!
Hayley and Azi were our superheroes of the day today. Hayley has only recently done her first pole clinic with Anne, and from what I heard today, she wasn’t entirely sure about that at the time! She came in today with such a great attitude, and came away from it all with the biggest smile (there’s a few I caught on camera today!) and having jumped higher than she believed possible – we had to confirm that she’d definitely actually jumped it, and we hadn’t put it up after she’d gone over it! Hayley – well done you, and I hope it carries on!
The jumping in the afternoon was made up of two groups of three – Lolly, Dilly & Henry went first, followed by Chico, Azi & Rolo. Anne had them doing all sorts of gymnastics over multiple poles, cross poles & uprights and was a bit of a nightmare for popping the height up when the ladies weren’t looking! (We have come to expect that kind of behaviour though!) By the end, all of them were jumping a little course in the arena, and somehow by the end of the second group, the jumps had made it up to 88cm… Big well done ladies, that involved super brave-pants!
Sadly this was the last of Anne’s clinics for 2016, but they will be back next year, so if you’re interested head over and like the Boxted Arena page on Facebook to stay in the loop! These get booked super fast, so you’ll want to get involved quickly.
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