Where... Part 2

I feel that my previous post explaining where I was a couple of years ago needs a follow up of where I am now. I ended it with my final big outing of 2011, Hickstead CDI in July. But since, a lot has changed!

As a lot of you know, the time between August and January is usually the time that things settle down and you rest the horses. That did happen of course, but a lot of adjustments were made during that time. Always an Aussie girl at heart, I have an obsession with my horses being able to go in the field. As it was coming in to winter, I had to act fast to make sure I had the horses at a yard where all-weather turnout was possible.

Julius enjoying the last of summer days at Cheltenham Dressage...
No, we never jumped those XC jumps :P

So in August 2011 after the big competition season was over and during my summer break at college, I moved the boys to Cheltenham Dressage in Newent, Gloucestershire. Having done many riding exams (BHS and German FN) and taken in many expert training theologies, I am also aware of the benefits of cross-training (jumping, hills, hacking, poles) and really wanted to integrate that into Seb and Julius's training programme over winter. Six more months of indoor school training would have driven all of us crazy! Cheltenham Dressage had a great outdoor jumping arena, some big hills to canter up, and miles of hacking to enjoy.

However, the downside to all these great new facilities was that the dressage school was also outdoor - no luxury of having an indoor! For those who knew my routine in 2011, I would be riding until 8-9pm because of lectures at college during the day. It soon became obvious as the days got shorter and the weather got colder, that it wouldn't be possible to ride at my usual time whilst going to college.

Pointless biology practicals in my
kitchen... hours spent on experiements
that NEVER worked!!

So, I did what any career-driven, horse-obsessed rider would do. I gave up school. Well, not entirely... As I do consider myself quite academic, I kept going with A-level biology and studied it by distance learning. This only worked out for a little bit, as even as a distance learner I was expected to do 6 hours of study a day, and had hardly any support. Also, what on earth was I going to do with biology???

I'll tell you what I have done with biology actually - breezed through my BHS Stage 3, and now finding the anatomy and physiology section of my new equine course very simple to understand! Which brings me on to my current situation....

My new college folder :D

Still needing to be engaging my brain in something else other than riding and furthering my career, I enrolled myself in a BTEC Higher National Certificate in Equine Business Management at The Open College of Equine Studies, which is by distance learning. I've just recieved my course folder and it looks really interesting, got my teeth sunk into it yesterday and realised all the things I learnt about cells, respiration, haemoglobin and enzymes at Hartpury were actually extremely useful. I covered most of this scientific stuff in my BHS Stage 3 as well, so thankfully its all a bit of revision, but made interesting because I'm relating everything to horses!


On the riding side of things, with the competition season approaching I needed to find myself a trainer, and quick! This was quite a stressful time for me, as any competition rider who is on squads and gets funding really should have a trainer by their side! I was lucky that the horses were having an easy time, but especially with making the move up to Young Riders and into Prix St Georges and Inter I, the game had to be upped very soon. I was looking around a lot and had a few in mind, and then I went to a Young Rider squad training session in January which had Sandy Phillips as the judge and trainer for the day. I thought she was amazing, and managed to have a few lessons with her over the next couple of weeks. After Seb changed into a different horse after only three lessons, I knew that her yard at Aston Farm was the place for me to be. Luckily they could free up two stables for Julius and Seb, and I've been there for about a month now and enjoying every second of it! They also have amazing facilities, which have been described in my most recent posts, and most importantly and excitingly - HOT WATER!!! I feel like I have finally found my place, and having learnt from previous yards what I do and don't want, the move has gone perfectly smoothly and the boys are super happy in their supersized bedrooms!

Getting settled in our new lodgings at Aston Farm :)

So summary of where all this whole journey stands at the moment:
Trainer: Sandy Phillips
Yard: Aston Farm
Education: BTEC Higher National Certificate in Equine Business Management at The Open College of Equine Studies.
Horses: Seigneur (Seb), Julius, Chad
Supporting squads/teams/programmes: GBR Young Rider Prime Squad, Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme, BEF Excel Talent Programme.

Sure, it's frustrating and stressful having so many things change in such a short period of time, but one of the rules I live by is "why do anything if it doesn't bring you any benefit or enjoyment". I don't believe in silent suffering, if something isn't working for me, it goes out the window. Whimsical, yes, but I wouldn't be where I am now if I didn't have that mentality. When I was little, I found out that my name, "Casey" meant "brave". Ever since, I have been living up to that definition, adding a bit of faith-leaping and risk-taking to it. However, there has definitely been a fair share of heartache and wild emotions in that mix. But a little more of that in my next post....
So keep an eye out for my next part... WHO am I? This one is going to be a little more personal than usual, so a rare edition of the Teen Dressage Dream! ;) Always feel free to leave comments, I love reading them and recieving feedback - I always answer! :)

Seb having a good old gallop at Aston Farm :)

Where, Who and What now, and Where next? Part 1...

Lately I've been reflecting a lot on where I am, who I am, what I'm doing and where I'm going. It's pretty important to know the answers to these questions when achieving goals. If any of the answers don't fit in to the equation where the product is success, it must be changed! With so much in my mind to answer these questions with, I'll cover each one in a series of posts...

Where am I?
This is a big one... Obviously in relation to how close you are to a goal, I am miles and miles away from where I was when I first arrived in the UK two years ago. I can only just make out that little dot on the horizon which is the little 16 year-old, open-minded and terribly naiive to the real world of the sport and in fact, life in general!

My possessions in January 2010... who would have
 though I could be minimalistic!

For the old time readers, you would know I settled myself at the Talland School of Equitation in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, for the first year. I still consider Talland my second home and Pammy Hutton FBHS my second mother, who I enjoy taking a visit to every now and then to watch her lessons and always leaving with my inspiration fuel tank full.

It difficult being a foreigner (or a "convict" as some people may say :P). It took me 7 months to realise that when people asked me 'You alright?' it translated into 'How are you?' and not 'What's wrong? You look upset'... I couldn't figure out why people thought I looked so sad! I was fascinated by the normality of waffles being made out of potato, eaten with tomato sauce and eggs, and not a pastry that you put in the toaster and eat with maple syrup! The "Heart" radio station was the only station I knew existed for a year, I quickly figured out that English TV was utter rubbish, Galaxy chocolate became my new best friend and I started to drink tea like I breathed air. Much to my old Australian friends' horror, I had started putting "well" in front of words like "good", described things as being "proper" and if something was nice, it was "lush". By the end of my first year, I was definitely well-conditioned to live in England and not look out of place!

It's those small things that I look back on and think "wow", but the real shock is when I look back on my career, starting out so very small at 16 and now blooming into something I admittedly was not prepared for so soon. I had one horse, the wonderful Julius, who was my first ever horse after moving on from ponies that came over with me from Australia. I was just going to chip away at him and find my feet, though it was only a matter of weeks before I was given the ride on a gorgeous grey Andalusion stallion, Blue. This was a huge milestone in itself because 1) a stallion? I have to ride a stallion?! Is that allowed?? In England, of course it is. And 2) it was amazing that someone thought that this little foreigner was good enough and trustworthy enough to give their horse to.

The beautiful "Blue"

At this point I had no idea about Juniors or Young Riders, the process of squadding, the system to qualify for regionals and nationals. I remember being sent out to my first competition on Blue to do an Advanced/Medium (the highest level I had ever ridden in competition) with only the very helpful and supportive Emma, the secretary from Talland. If there was one thing that conquered my nerves in competition like no other, this was definitely it. It was a serious case of "Just do it" - Nike were definitely on to something. It's like when spooky horses are surrounded by so many scary things they just don't know what to look at so knuckle down and work... I had far too much to stress about that it went past the point of knowing what to stress about! And now, I take pride in my extremely cool, calm and collected approach to competing!

I ended up getting 66% in that first competition, and went on to qualify for Addington Regionals in which I came 8th - Amazing! At this point I still didn't know anything about Juniors/Young Riders in Britain... As far as I was concerned I only wanted to get to the FEI Young Rider World Cup in Frankfurt to compete for Australia on Julius. That all changed once I got Sebastian...

The excitement when I recieved my jacket in
the post was unreal!

I bought Seb when I moved to Adam Kemp's yard after starting my A-levels at Hartpury. It has been the best thing that has happened to me in my life, and I can't ever thank my parents enough for supporting me and my dream by agreeing to let me own this amazing horse. Adam and Matt (Frost) were unbelievably helpful and supportive to getting my goals on track with him and giving me the confidence to ride and manage him. After changing nationality to British, they led me into the Juniors scene for the British team, starting with being invited to a squad viewing day in January 2011 after scoring two 72%'s in Advanced/Medium in my first competition with him. Still naiive and unaware of the importance of squad training, I didn't even know who the people watching me in the box next to the arena were... The whole test I wondered if they were important. Yes, Casey, they were the selectors. Thankfully that too started out well, with a 67% from Judy Harvey in my first ever Junior Team test trial run.

Seb and I at Addington CDI

After countless small competitions with Seb to get my mileage and experience up on him, I eventually went to my first Premier League, Myerscough, in March. That too started well, with 68% and 3rd place. Small competitons and Premier Leagues continued, confidence was growing, and in April, the moment I had lived for happened... I was invited to compete for Great Britain at Addington CDI - my first ever international. I remember the excitement of receiving my red 'Great Britain' jacket, sewing the union jack onto my tailcoat and saddlecloth, and crying when we drove through the gates of Addington when we first arrived there.

After that first international, it's safe to say I was much more aware of what was going on, although I still couldn't fathom the fact that at that time in the previous year I was a completely unknown rider hacking around Talland's fields, jumping in Friday's group lessons and mastering flying changes on school horses.

Finishing my test at Hickstead CDI in the
International arena... Quite surreal!

I was much better prepared for my second international, Dressage at Hickstead, which was lucky as it was definitely the biggest competition I had ever been to! Having grandstand of people watching me do my second ever freestyle in the International arena with flags and banners, being judged my international level judges and having experts commentating through earpieces to the audience was definitely a bit like a reverie. It was at that point when I was with Seb in the prize-giving, with the whole audience standing whilst God Save the Queen played, that I thought "Yep... This little Aussie really has come far".

New boots!!

Christmas has come extremely early this year... My new Konig boots have arrived! My last pair and this pair were measured and ordered by Matthias at Steigbugel Reitsport in Braunschweig, near Hannover, who is extremely helpful and attentive to detail, so a big thank you to Matthias!! :)

They are exactly the same as my old ones, just a bit bigger (come on, I got them 3 years ago! Plus I want to fit THICK socks on underneath to keep my legs toasty). I asked Matthias if they could have lamb's wool in the feet only, not through the whole leg as they lined the inner leg with sheepskin too and I wouldn't have been able to feel the horse very well. All I wanted was warm feet, and as it turns out I can wear them all through the summer without getting sweaty feet and they are extra comfy!!

So I'm just trying to break them in at the moment, I've been told not to walk around in them as you develop the wrong creases and should really break them in by riding in them. But somehow I don't think Seb would appreciate me trying to ride him all stiff-legged, so I though I'd soften them up a little bit at home first. Because of the sheepskin I feel no pain in my feet, the only sore bit is behind my knee but that will go as soon as they drop a bit at the ankle. Needless to say my knees were bandaged up well tonight!

Can't wait to get riding in them :D

Snow and cold, not what I want this week!

Lethally snowy roads!

The boys had their relaxing few days of cross-training, so yesterday and today it was back to work in the school. Their 'schooling' days came around and just the right time too, as it is officially snowing! It snowed all day yesterday and it took mum and I an hour and a half to get home, driving at snail-pace on snow-blanketed roads :/

So although I can say I am well and truly over winter with my cold, and now this snow, on the bright side I had two amazing lessons with Sandy yesterday and the boys are going better than ever. It was Julius's first lesson, so Sandy got on and had a feel and of course got him really up and going, so now we are on track!

The yard by the end of the day... very pretty,
shame I hate the white stuff :/ lol!

Seb and I are working hard this week to be ready for a huge weekend... Christoph Hess clinic on Saturday the 11th of Feb (OMG!!), and the two day Excel Talent training camp on Monday and Tuesday the 13th and 14th of Feb. So we are away from Friday to Tuesday night! Seb is going to be one tired little pony! And I am definitely going to be one tired little rider if I don't start feeling better this week!


I'll just load myself up on vitamin C and keep cracking on!!!

Relaxing couple of days of cross-training :)

The boys have really enjoyed the past couple of day's work! Yesterday I took both of them out onto the gallop track for a good stretch and canter. A perfect post-physio session, as the physio came to look at them the afternoon before. Seb especially enjoyed it, it was like he was saying "YAY mummy, I can canter!!!"

Today I took both of them out on the lanes for a hack with the yard's head girl. It was a gorgeous clear day (although absolutely freezing, -1 degrees!) and the boys really loved getting out to see a bit of the real world. I love walking out on the lanes and roads, it is so good for their tendons and the inclines really work all those 'hard to reach' muscles. Just have to watch out for the cars.... I always pick the quietest possible roads!

I wish I had some pics but I didn't bring my phone out with me :( I did have the perfect day, though I'm still a little tired, still recovering from my cold! Tomorrow I have a lesson on both boys with Sandy so we all better be prepared to work hard!