Friday, 18 December 2009

Let It Snow!


Normal service has been suspended due to the snow! We have had a fair amount, which made it easy to say ‘no work’ for a couple of days and to get the horsewalker doing the work for me! Unfortunately, it meant no one else could get in to work, so Penny and I were left with 20 stables to do. Its amazing how a bit of snow can turn everyone into big kids – I’m not sure who was quicker out of us and the kids to get out the door into a snowball fight! Coming from Australia, it is still a bit of a shock to the system and I go out rugged up in every conceivable layer of clothing!

It does mean that I am going to miss my dressage lesson with Rhegan White, who trained with Conrad Shumacher. I watched Moorlands Totilas at Olympia on TV this week and was once again blown away by what the top dressage riders and horses do – very inspirational stuff. I am getting an increasing amount of dressage horses to break in, particularly colts, so it is only right that I learn more about it all.

I had a bit of an education last week with one of my homebred horses that I just started working on. Her mother, Little Miss Muffett, was one of the smartest (and hottest) horses I have ever sat on and she won a lot of awards in polocrosse. I remember Penny telling me that the first name she was given in new Zealand (where she was bred) was Gold Digger as she got so hot when she was ridden she used to dig holes with her fore legs! Her first two progeny were lovely to start and did nothing too outrageous, but this one… He has tried everything in his power to outwit me, it is like playing a game of Russian Roulette, but you never know when he’s going to pull the trigger! Then on Thursday, he started reproducing Muffett’s digging trick… an amazing example of personality traits being passed down through the generations... Here’s hoping he’s going to be as talented as her!

I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year and a fantastic 2010!

Sunday, 8 November 2009

BBC!!!


We had the excitement of the BBC on the yard last week – one of their sports presenters, Mike Bushell, tries out ‘unusual’ sports and he decided to give polocrosse a try! On Wednesday morning, we had an unusually high number of people ‘dropping in’ who just happened to ‘be passing by’! The things people will do to get on TV…

It was a really fun morning and Mike was great even though he hadn’t ridden much before. We gave him a lovely mare called Imperiosa to ride, who belongs to Sophie Harding, one of our liveries. She was on her best behaviour – almost too good as she decided that walking really was the best and only option. The only way to get her to trot was if I run up her backside on Diesel! We all sat watching ‘Breakfast News’ on Saturday morning with baited breath but it was all over in a matter of a couple of minutes! Of course, they cut out all my intelligent comments about the sport and the horsemanship involved, but I guess you can’t argue with over a million people being introduced to the wonderful world of polocrosse! Penny was just glad that they cut the bit of her interview when she said the best thing about the sport was the fact she found a husband through it… Perhaps we should try marketing it through the Lonely Hearts columns!

It’s definitely all guns blazing as far as promoting polocrosse goes as we are demonstrating the sport in the Main Arena at Your Horse Live next weekend. So this week will probably see some frantic clipping of horses and scrubbing of whites to look presentable. We are also taking Diesel as part of the Breeds Display to promote the Australian Stock Horse in the UK, so I am sure he is looking forward to showing off in front of the crowds… I’ll let you know how it all goes, hopefully he won’t make to big a fool out of me!

Friday, 9 October 2009

My rain dance has worked!

My rain dance has worked! The farm was starting to resemble the Aussie outback – no grass and an increasing amount of dust! Whilst the ‘Indian Summer’ that we have been experiencing in the south east has been great for most, it has been a bit of a nightmare for the farming and agricultural community. However, now it hasn’t stopped raining for 48 hours and you can almost see the grass growing. Answers on a postcard as to how long it takes before I start moaning about the miserable English weather though!

Grass is a top priority at the moment and I am turning slightly obsessive about it! We have between 45-50 horses on our 100 acre farm at any one time and it is imperative that the fields and horses are managed properly. At this time of year, with the polocrosse season over, our own playing horses and broodmares are turned out for about five months… hence my obsession with grass – the more there is, the later we can get away with introducing hay and hard feed, which as you know, costs a small fortune! I tend to rotate our young horses so they each get two ‘spells’ of work over the winter – I have four to start, and four others to continue with their education – a couple will probably go hunting with us a few times too!

We are lucky enough to have the best liveries in the world! Not only are they all lovely, but most of them are connected with polocrosse and their horses are very ‘fuss-free’! The majority live out in the winter so we divide up five ten acre paddocks between the liveries and our horses and it is really interesting to see them revert back to the herd animal instincts (although not so great when you have to catch the tricky ones!). I really believe horses need some down time, and although ours have a bit of an extended holiday compared to other disciplines, we look to have them coming out of winter happy, rested, in good condition and ready to go again.

I then have between 10 and 15 ‘Trainers’ on the yard that are in to be started or have some behavioural problem worked on. These horses receive the royal treatment with individual turnout, stabling and lots of attention lavished on them by the girls! I am very fortunate to have incredible staff so I can literally go from horse to horse… it is a tricky feat to fit in 15 horses in the winter days… I still can’t get used to the fact that it is dark more than it is light! I am really enjoying my work this month – I have five lovely colts in amongst them, three of whom I think will be exceptional dressage horses… its times like this I feel very privileged to do what I do! I’ll get some photos of them for the next blog!

Monday, 21 September 2009

What a trip...

A trip of a lifetime? I think I could describe my week in Zimbabwe as that! The Zimbabwe Open is the only ‘professional’ polocrosse tournament in the world… by professional, I mean we don’t get to win money but we get flights and everything else paid for and get to be treated very well for a week! The competition has four teams, sponsored by a company and ‘patron’ like in polo. On the Wednesday evening, a ball is held where four ‘wildcard’ players are auctioned off to the highest bidders to form the final teams. The teams play each other on Friday and Saturday with the highest two teams playing in Sunday’s final. Along with my UK teammates, Guy Robertson and Greg Sargeant, we formed the ‘northern hemisphere’ invitees!

Flying into Zimbabwe I was really keen to catch up with old friends and see the country I last knew back in 1996 when I spent eight of the best months of my life there playing polocrosse, skydiving, watching elephants and hippos in the back yard… just enjoying everyday African life! After seeing the terrible scenes of devastation on the news and hearing of the country’s demise through friends, I was apprehensive to see for myself what state the country was in. To be honest, it was hard to gain a true picture as we stayed in the capital, Harare, for the duration. Although the country had been bought to its knees, and I saw terrible poverty in parts, there was an air of cautious optimism that improvements were happening – shops were well stocked and fuel was becoming more freely available. A stark contrast to last year, I was told.

On the party front, nothing much had changed, with beers thrust into our hands from the moment we stepped onto the tarmac to set the tone for the first half of the week! The worldwide polocrosse community is very sociable, with the Zimbabweans surely taking first prize! The Ball on Wednesday evening attracted 500 people and the bidding for the ‘wildcard’ players was fierce, with an Australian player, Lance Anderson, going for a staggering US$11,000! My team, Renaissance Capital, bid for another Australian, Beau Moore, who coincidently worked for me two years ago. At just 18 years of age, Beau is a truly talented sports and horseman and it was great to have him in our team. My other team mates included an old Kent Target (my UK club) team mate in South African, Andy Heynes… the most competitive man on earth and one who you want playing with you rather than against you!

Each team had a pool of 12 horses, and I was fairly confident that I could get a decent game out of my allocated horses. Our first game was up against Capicol, full of world class players. We had a dream game and beat them by 9 goals… However, our next game was up against the favourites, Koala Park, so named as it was stacked with top Aussie players! We didn’t fare as well, but we were confident we would go through to the finals. However, our fate was sealed as we watched in amazement as Capicol scored an incredible 9-0 chukka to overcome Koala Park in the last chukka of the game. With a target of 36 goals in our last game against Millers to get to the finals on a ‘goals for’ countback, we ourselves put in a pretty good 7-0 effort in our last chukka to score an agonising 35 goals! Still it meant we could kick back and watch a hard-fought final, won by Koala Park.

It was a really special way to end the polocrosse season for me. Now, back to work and normality for a while! I have just spent this pas weekend building an all singing and dancing climbing frame for Jack’s 4th birthday. The thing has taken me 10 hours to build (my DIY skills are a little hazy) and taken up our entire garden… still it was worth it to see the excitement on his face!

Monday, 7 September 2009

To Heathrow and Back!

To Heathrow and Back! Just returned from a 5am journey to Heathrow to realise that I am flying to Zimbabwe tonight not this morning! Penny has taken the blame for not looking at the tickets properly though so I am off the hook… at least I haven’t missed the flight! Will spend the rest of today doing banking and accounts… fun stuff!

I am off to Zimbabwe to play in the prestigious Zimbabwe Open – a competition of four sponsored polocrosse teams with players from predominantly Zimbabwe and South Africa, but also from Australia, New Zealand and the UK. I had the time of my life out there 13 years ago when I played a season of polocrosse there. It is an incredibly beautiful country with wonderful people. After everything it has been through (and still going through), it will be interesting to compare it to the country I once knew… I hope it’s not too harrowing.

It will be a great way to finish off the polocrosse season after a slightly disastrous National Championships for our team. We lost our first game heavily to Arden and although we managed to draw 15-15 in an exciting game against the favourites, Highlanders, it never felt like we were play to our potential. I rode a friend’s mare, Loreal Lee, who went brilliantly… it’s a shame I didn’t really do her justice!

On my return, I am really excited to get stuck into work again. I have got some lovely horses coming into the yard for starting… lots of big, posh dressage horses who I get vertigo on! I also have to get round to finding time to start my homebred two year olds. I tend to only give them about four weeks at this stage of their lives then leave them to mature for anther 8 months or so. They are so much easier to break-in at this age… I tend to worry slightly when clients drop off 5 year old colts for starting – they certainly know their own strength by then!

Talk to you when I get back from Zim, with some good pictures hopefully!

Thursday, 20 August 2009

A Successul couple of weeks!

Could life get much crazier…? I feel like I haven’t had a sit down in weeks! It has got to the business end of the polocrosse season, with just the National Club Championships left to go on the 28th-30th August at Ashfields Polocrosse Club in Essex. We had an excellent ‘dry run’ at the Midlands Tournament with our club, Kent Target winning the A, B and E divisions. It’ll be a different story come the Nationals, with all the clubs sending out their best sides and no doubt the Highlanders Club, with 5 out of 6 players representing the UK this Summer, will be favourites to take the A Division title. It was also a great party on Saturday night – a wonderful trait of the hosts, Arden Polocrosse Club… shame I managed to fall off the stage after attempting to dance on a speaker. I’m still sore from it!

In my last blog I was stressing about my top horse being out of action with a suspensory injury and that I was going to have to rely on my young horses… well my four year old, Banjo, won Champion Horse! I couldn’t have been more pleased and excited about it. He feels really impressive and now it is all about teaching him the game… Penny is going to play him in the lower divisions and give him a nice time so I can get on him and go hard next year!

This weekend just gone, we held our annual Open Day at the yard. Everyone put in so much effort into making the place look amazing – I was really proud of all the staff. Over 220 people came along and my poor mother-in-law was swamped on the Tea and Cakes stand! I did a series of demos from loading a yearling to starting a young horse and getting a breaker used to traffic. Everything went well, except Diesel, my colt, decided to have different ideas to me when I was doing some ‘at liberty’ groundwork! Still, he worked well in the end and I got what I deserve as I just haven’t had the time to put the work in that he needs… that’s the thing about horses, you never stop learning from them!

Thursday, 6 August 2009

Ups and Downs!

Well, I guess I’ve got over the disappointments of losing to South Africa by now! But, the worst thing to come out of it was that Honey, my top mare, has strained her suspensory ligament in her near fore and needs at least six months off… still at least I have a great excuse to breed a foal or two out of her – she is still young enough to bring back into work after that! I have decided to send her down to a young Argentine stallion called Open Maestro, standing at the Beaufort Embryo Transfer Centre. His breeding has really captured my interest as I feel she needs a good dose of Thoroughbred to put a bit more size into her foals… I am sure my stallion, Diesel, will get his chance later on in her breeding career!

Polocrosse differs to polo as you are only allowed to play on one horse for the duration of a weekend competition – this could mean up to nine 6 minute chukkas over a weekend. These horses have to be incredibly fit and tough and we have to look after them like gold dust! Having sold some older horses this year and now losing Honey for the season, I have had to look to the future. Our breeding programme that we started when I moved to England permanently in 2002 is starting to come to fruition… I have a couple of young’uns by Diesel who I am seriously excited about, and I am full of hope for my Australian import, Banjo, who at 4 years old is showing all the talent you could wish for… I am just hoping that they all live up to their promise!

The short lull in polocrosse competitions has allowed me to get stuck back into work with a vengeance! I have twelve clients’ horses in at the moment, mostly for starting but I have a couple of ‘problems’ to sort out too… there was one particularly impressive rodeo performance – I wish I had it on video! I have a stunning Thoroughbred racehorse colt in for starting and a bit of pre-training. He is being syndicated and I must admit, I am sorely tempted… it’s been a little dream of mine to ‘own’ a racehorse over here. My dad breeds racehorses back home and has a scary obsession with bloodlines, so the love of the Thoroughbred is definitely bred in me!

We are also gearing up for our Open Afternoon on 15th August – opening of our new barn and facilities (hmmm, I think we’re going to be up in the middle of the night with a paint brush!), free demos of groundwork (leading and loading), starting a young horse and the Australian Stock Horse. I’m thinking of doing a ‘first ride’ on a breaker in front of everyone… well they do say that fortune favours the brave! See you there?!

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Beaten on Home Soil!

An insight into International Polocrosse...!

Saturday morning, the rain cleared and we were able to focus on the games against South Africa in the afternoon. Not the best preparation – my knee was playing up and I had to spend an hour icing it… not good for the nerves!

The ladies played first – a good, close game and they were very unlucky to go down by two goals… then after all the last minute checks, we rode on to stand for the national anthems. Trying not to look to the crowds, keeping my focus and thinking about the first ball coming into the lineout. Honey, my horse, has felt good all week and now I’m just desperate to get on the field.

Our section is playing the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th (last) chukkas… our first section has a dream start with three quick goals, before the South African teamwork swings into action to even things up at 3-3 as we take to the field.

The ball comes in, I am playing the defensive no.3 position, but something not right… Honey feels flat. Things don’t gel and we come off a couple of goals down. Ross Turnbull, our coach, mixes things up and puts me back to the attacking No.1 position. On for our second chukka and I feel like I am struggling for every ball, the flow isn’t happening and we are getting by on grit and determination to keep us in the game… we’re working our guts out for every goal and I am being hard marked by Nico Van Wyk on a top horse, Cindy Lee.

Halfway through the game and we’re a few goals down before our section had a dream chukka… sometimes a game opens up like that and the ball starts falls your way. My No.3, Jono Keen, is playing his heart out and Honey is finally starting to fire up… the crowd sound like they’re starting to believe we can turn the game around. The 7th chukka continues the theme and we take the field for the final chukka at 18-18… time to finish the game off. I can’t describe how gutted I feel that we went down by two goals for a 20-22 loss… all the work and planning has come to nothing.

We spent Saturday evening going over what went right and wrong and how we could turn things around on Sunday. I find it hard to get over the disappointment of losing the game and how Honey went… she is definitely not herself.

The Ladies game on Sunday was the game of the weekend. My father Doug, was coaching the UK side and he got them so fired up they came out smoking! They had the upper hand throughout the match and they didn’t miss a game the whole match. All of them played outstanding polocrosse and they thoroughly deserved their win by four goals. For me, Sarah Simkin, for the UK, was absolutely brilliant…

Our game was one of those scrappy affairs, and it was hard to keep any flow going. Again, I didn’t feel on top form, things weren’t quite happening and I was having to work hard on Honey to get in goal scoring positions. Our other section kept us in the game with our captain, Guy Robertson, on great form with his mare, Lauren. Down a few goals at half time and the same thing happened, we started to claw our way back… going on for our last chukka we were 5 goals down but I still felt that the game wasn’t lost.

The ball came in to the lineout, a quick goal to us… Honey feels like a different horse – why couldn’t she have gone like this the whole game! Then two more and I could hear the crowd getting worked up… soon we were within two goals of the South Africans – could we really take this match? The next ball in, the South Africans picked it up and scored… time is against us. Another quick goal for the South Africans and the final whistle has gone… a loss by four goals.

Again, the disappointment is hard to take and it is made worse watching Honey being lead away unsound… on closer inspection, her tendon looks suspect and we get the ice packs on her.

Sophie Lodder won best UK Lady Player and I was really pleased to be awarded Best UK Male Player at prizegiving but I would have given it to Guy who had two solid games. I don’t feel I was playing at my best but I must have bought the South African boys enough beers for them to vote for me! Sunday night was a chance to let our hair down after a pretty intense couple of weeks and at the end of the day, it’s what polocrosse is all about – playing hard and partying hard!

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

Getting hectic!!!

Hi,

Have been a bit slack with the website blog... we have been going through a bit of a busy patch the last month or so, not just on the yard, but the polocrosse season is now in full swing, which takes care of my weekends too!

Penny and I travelled to Ireland a few weeks ago to play for a Men's and Ladies England side... Penny came back in a great mood as the ladies did well - the men were a bit more inexperienced and weren't so successful... We had the final selections for the teams to play South Africa in two weeks time at Ashfields Polocrosse Club in Essex (www.ashfieldspolocrosse.com) and I have been named in the Men's side, which is exciting. We lost to South Africa by a goal last time we met, so we are all up for the challenge of turning that result around!

Developments at the yard are really exciting! Having said I never wanted a horsewalker, I am now wondering what I did before I had one! We use it to warm up and warm down the horses and for horses in for starting who need to get used to the saddle and bridle... Its going to be a very useful bit of kit! The barn is nearly finished and hope to have it all sparkling by our Open Afternoon on 15th August.

Sarah and I have been joined by Rhona Birkbeck, who is our yard groom. She is proving to be a great addition to the team and by her second day had already learnt all the names of the horses, what they were here for and what they were fed... no mean feat! Islay Young is also with us for the summer, working mainly with the polocrosse and polo ponies. From Victoria, he has played polocrosse all over Australia and spent time with some fantastic horsemen along the way.

Anway, better get going... we've got some pretty interesting horses on the yard at the moment - some colts in for starting who think that they are the bees knees... in fact, one of them is going up for syndicate for racing - he is a fantastic type and am sorely tempted... might not tell penny though!

Cheers, Jason.

Saturday, 30 May 2009

Here Comes the Sun...!

The best time of year in my opinion! The grass is green (something I'm still getting used to after growing up in the Aussie outback!), the sun is out, the horses are reaching good fitness and the polocrosse and polo seasons are just beginning... time to have some fun!

I played in Brightling Polo Club's first tournament of the season, The Spring Cup, and much to my surprise, our slightly makeshift team won! I would like to say it was down to me, but I fear I would be lying somewhat! I did manage to score a few goals though and I played a couple of homebred 4yo's who went very well, which was exciting. Brightling is our local club, just 15 minutes down the road and a really stunning setting for the sport. It is well worth taking a pcinic down there and watching one weekend!

We are holding our Kent Target Polocrosse Tournament next weekend on 6th/7th June here at Risebridge Farm, Goudhurst. Teams of all grades from all over the country will be descending upon us for a weekend of polocrosse and maybe just a couple of beers on Saturday night! The weekdn after sees Penny and I traveling to Ireland to play against the Irish Men and Ladies - again it should be a cracking trip.

It can't all be fun though (although I have to admit my job is pretty good fun too!) and the yard is coming to its busiest time of year. Sarah has done a terrific job organising things so I don't overstretch myself and we are doing our utmost to keep to our ten horse limit for starting and training. In my last blog I was starting a hand reared horse called Bono. I am pleased to say that he has come a long way and has really settled into his work. Hopefully he will be ready to go home to his owner to start his ridden career in the next couple of weeks.

I have been working with a local dressage rider, Sarah Bunch, for a while now. I started her lovely chestnut mare, Belaro, a year ago and she came to me to again in February for rebacking. She originally came from Germany through Christian Heimrich and although she has not been plain sailing for Sarah she has been coming for regular lessons and the mare has really started to work for her. The proof was in the pudding last week as she came 4th in the Potential International Young Dressage Horse class at Stilebridge, and was the 1st placed amateur rider (only 4 points behind international rider Dan Sheriff!). It is fantastic to see all the hard work and patience start to pay off!

If you are interested in coming to clinics with myself, I am holding clinic afternoons on the third Tuesday of the month each month. Hopefully they will develop into small groups for groundwork and ridden work for people who's riding and horses are at similar stages. I am also opening up the yard on the 1st Tuesday of each month for coffee mornings from 11-12.30, where people can watch me work a horse or two, have a chat with myself and Sarah and enjoy a coffee! Please contact Sarah or myself on 0774 9914267 if you are interested in attending.

Well, there's no rest for the wicked, off to take Jack for a little ride on his pony Mr. Jones (who judging from his belly, really needs the exercise!)...

Cheers, Jason.

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

No Rest For The Wicked!

Well, that's my holiday over then! Since I've been back from Australia, I had a couple of days respite, then back into the swing of things!

I have had some of the horses I started earlier in the year back for a 'refresher' course and am really pleased with how they are going... maybe even a potential superstar or two amongst them! It is always nice to know how the horses go on in their careers. For example, it was great to read in Horse and Hound (7/14/2009) that "Mildred Hubble" has been winning at Novice Level for dressage rider Anna Levy and owner, Hattie Cripps. I started Millie a couple of years ago and have been back to do some groundwork with her on the odd occasion. Millie is a fantastic example of perserverance and patience from both rider and owner as in Hattie's words, "Millie is a witch and in the wrong hands she'd be horrible, but she's very talented!"

As for horses that are in for starting, I have an interesting case of a hand reared horse called Bono. He is a well put together chestnut gelding and I think he will make a good competition horse. You would have thought that being a hand reared horse would make my job a lot easier but in fact, I prefer to work with unhandled horses. They are more sensitive and react a lot quicker to you, whereas with Bono, it has almost been a case of 'Resensitising' rather than 'Desensitising'! I had to spend the first few days working on basic groundwork principles to change his attitude to me around and after a couple of minor arguments, he now leads without running us over and has actually taken to being ridden well!

As for my own horses, we have about eight in work for polocrosse and polo - a mixture of going horses and young'uns. We also have our liveries' ten polocrosse horses in work, so Sarah, Joey and our band of exercisers are getting pretty bored of doing laps of the fields! Last weekend saw the UK polocrosse season start with a nice multi-horse tournament at Ashfields Polocrosse Club in Essex. I took two homebred four year olds who performed above my expectations and our Kent Target team won the A grade competition, even with me doing my utmost to lose it by missing a goal in the dying minutes of the final against Arden! I will blame it on Jack and Rosie who decided they wouldn't sleep anywhere other than with me and Penny in the luton of our truck... needless to say not much sleep was had with them wriggling about!

The end of May sees me and the family off on a little 'holiday'... traveling up to Lancashire to coach and do demonstrations for the newly formed 'Rustlers' Polocrosse Club before traveling over to the Cheshire Racecourse for a Polocrosse Demonstration at the Cheshire Cup Polo Tournament. Lets hope the kids are used to sleeping in the truck by then...!

Friday, 1 May 2009

Good to be Back!

I have just spent the past 4 weeks in Australia and have come back to what looks like a new yard! Richard Hillier has been project managing the development of the equestrian facilities at Risebridge Farm whilst I have been away and we already have new parking, the foundations for the new Barn, new fencing, repainted stable block, Claydon Horsewalker ready to be set up and all weather tracks! Its amazing what happens when I am out of the way! I am very excited to show all our old, new and future clients what we have been up to and we will be holding an Open Day on Saturday 15th August - put the date in your diary now!

Our new Yard Manager, Sarah Muir, has been doing a fantastic job in researching ways to improve and develop the quality of our facilities and service, for example, she is looking to set up regular Coffee Mornings and Clinic Afternoons. This has led to a slight restructure of the business, for example, putting a limit on the number of horses in for training at any one time to ensure that we are able to get the best results from their stay. We have also set up a liscensed Riding School that operates on Saturdays with Sarah Paxton, BHSAI, teaching on our horses and ponies. It has been a great success so far and will hopefully give lots of children and adults alike to learn to ride in a fun, relaxed atmosphere.

As for my trip to Australia, it was a fantastic experience and a great opportunity to catch up with my family! After gaining British Citizenship, it was the first time I have been able to represent the UK in Polocrosse. We played against New Zealand, South Africa and Australia and it was a case of close but not close enough! The play off for 3rd and 4th between ourselves and South Africa was a nailbiting affair that we lost in extra time... It was a bit of a consolation that myself and teammate Sophie Lodder won Best Male and Lady Player awards for that game and the cracking horse that I was riding won Best Playing Pony. We will be looking for revenge this Summer when South Africa send a Men's and Ladies team across to play against us!

I also managed to spend a bit of time with some amazing horsemen, picking up a few tips along the way... not to mention the best 3yo horse I have ever sat on! Banjo was found as a yearling by my father, Doug, a great judge of a horse, and he will be flying over here this Summer to continue his training.

Please keep an eye on our website (www.australianhorsetraining.co.uk) for any events coming up and details of horses for sale, Coffee Mornings, Clinics etc,. I will be writing a blog every couple of weeks, keeping everyone up to date with what we are up to!

Here's to a great Summer, Jason Webb.

Tuesday, 21 April 2009