Frankly January and February are a nightmare – eventing is fast approaching, the days are short, the weather is bad and you’ve got loads to do. Added to that there is a feeling within our little community, that any day now we are going to be allowed to get back to the sport we love – it’s like the dawning of time, or the start of summer – excitement is just around the corner.
For me, at 45 years old the feeling is more to do with anticipation, January and February are quite tough months, this year we plan to take my lovely horse Cooley Rorkes Drift to Badminton, as such February particularly and into March are going to be the main ‘work’ months for both horse and rider fitness.
CRD or Art to his friends is in fantastic form, he seems since his 9th place at the Rio Olympics to have even more belief in himself, technically he has progressed really well, the improvement to the connection in the trot work is becoming more and more obvious and his strength seems superb. Dressage trainer Gareth Hughes even commented the other day (use your best mild Australian twang to read this quote) “Sh** mate, you look like you know what you’re doing.”