Sarah-Jane Brown January Blog

2019 has come in with a bit of a bang, literally! Last weekend it was gale force winds and Fliss spooked whilst I was getting on, rather than abandon the mounting process, as I only had a foot in the stirrup, I tried to carry on mounting and gave her a hefty boot as I was throwing my right leg over, she then dropped me on the concrete. You know sometimes as you see the floor coming up to meet you think this is going to hurt – well it did! The afternoon was spent in A&E and luckily nothing broken although the muscles around my ribs are hugely painful.

As I write this a week later, I have managed to clamber on Ellie again but realistically I’m not riding just sitting there. I have no core strength and plenty of pain, just being able to walk her out though at least keeps things ticking over and hopefully another week I will feel a bit more able to get going. Things are planned to be busy in March but luckily both girls were fit and ready to start the season so a quiet few weeks will do no harm at all.

We have made some big steps in January with Ellie ticking off one of the goals for 2019 very early having jumped three Newcomers classes in the month a real step up for my pocket rocket pony. A mid-winter outside three day show may not have been the brightest idea but actually we were relatively lucky with the weather and although it was bitterly cold at times we all survived our trip to Chard. It was great to get a few days solid competition practice.

On the first day Fliss won the Discovery, both girls then went on to jump a decent 1.05 class and we had another double clear from Fliss and just a rail down from Ellie when I misjudged a distance. While we had the weekend before jumped a Newcomers at Duchy I was well aware a Single Phase Newcomers at Chard is a different proposition. The course builder Steve Williams always builds well up to height. I walked it and there was a decent treble in the course but brave pants were on and Ellie was entered.

I am over the moon with how well she tackled the course. She actually made it feel easy, yes there were two mistakes but she was by no means out of her depth and she enjoyed her round. If she can jump a Newcomers at Chard then she should be able to jump one anywhere! Very ready for some Novice BE as well.

Video of the Newcomers https://youtu.be/V8bOX95AnpE

Ellie went on to jump another Newcomers as did Fliss who was double clear.

Fliss did some British Dressage and won a couple of novice sections so all in all some decent preparation in the bag.

This week like most places in the country we had snow. Luckily I was still able to get too and from the yard and Ellie was turned out in and had some brilliant fun. Fliss meanwhile was suspicious of the white stuff but did brave an hour in the field

So looking ahead to 2019 what are the goals I have set?

x – Upgrade Ellie to Novice BE this Spring

x – Jump some Newcomers with Ellie by April (Tick done)

x – Start Fliss at BE100 and also upgrade to Novice by Autumn

x – Have one or both ready for 1 star by the season end

x – Run a 10k in less than 1hr5 minutes

x – Find a way to earn more money to support the points above so I don’t need to rob a bank – not sure how to achieve this ideas welcome!

x – Be positive and enjoy the horses

Now just need to get the recovery done and then we will be back on track.