Victoria Bax Blog – Excitement as 2016 Season Approach’s
Courtesy of Victoria Bax ’s sponsors Aloeride www.aloeride.com & Golly Galoshes www.gollygaloshes.com
Victoria Bax – “My first event entries are in and we are now a couple of weeks away until my first event of the 2016 season and to say I’m excited would be an under statement! I have been looking through photos and videos from last season and mentally prepping myself, so I’m ready to go very soon. On top of that I have recently been to a fabulous workshop run by Charlie Unwin, a performance coach for the British Team. He was hugely inspiring and thought provoking so hopefully I can take away what he has taught and win win win this year!
This season I’m sure will be very exciting with the aim of moving my top horse Crystal Ka up to Advanced and possibly tackling a CIC3* later in the season.I am also excited for my three youngsters too. Alberta’s Rose will start with a refresher run around a BE90 before being quickly moving up to BE100 at her second event and with the aim for this season to move up to Novice and achieve her CIC1* qualification. Alberta’s Elegance will take a little longer to refresh her memory of eventing, so will stick at BE90 for the first few events to regain confidence as she is not as brave and needs some reassurance as she goes along. Her aim will be to comfortably succeed at BE100 level this season.Lastly my youngest, Alberta’s Pride will be starting his journey in the eventing world. I aim to get him out to an unaffiliated event at the end of April with the idea of running in a couple of BE90’s before quickly moving up to BE100 and beyond; I have serious high hopes for this boy! Obviously all these plans are flexible depending on how we get on.
Lessons for my team have been coming thick and fast along with plenty of flat, jump and fitness training. Hopefully the braking combination (The new bit) I have found for Alberta’s Rose will be the one, as it still seems to be working well.
My team have all just completed their pre season MOT’s, having had their teeth and physio checks recently with just a few minor adjustments required between them.The lorry has flown through it plating for another year and Alberta’s Pride has a brand new jump saddle on the way too, all very exciting stuff!
I’ve had more schooling liveries coming and going from my yard over the last month too, all with extremely happy owners when they have got back on, including one that promptly went out scoring her best dressage test to date!
I have a more tricky one in currently who really requires a huge amount of groundwork to be completed with her to build her strength up so this one will be particularly challenging to see how much change I can bring about during her time with me. I really do believe that if you are patient enough to to put the ground work in and allow the horse time to develop top line muscles without the hindrance of the weight of a saddle and rider it will pay dividends in the long run, I just wish more people would realise this and not be over keen to climb aboard and crack on when the horse is not physically ready.
I have my last winter training clinic this weekend and will certainly be going out with a bang following last months hugely successful weekend of Arena cross-country, I am repeating that again with 2 more full days of arena cross-country training, I do love my job!
Good luck everyone for the season ahead and if you do see a vision of pink flying past you at any events this year please do come over and say Hi!”
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.