I can’t believe a year has gone by, its true what they say , the greyer you get the quicker time goes!!

What a year it has been, the head injury I suffered this time last year has now completely healed, but I was surprised how long that took. It gave me time to reflect on a lot of things and I think that as a horseman I am coming full circle, heading back to my traditional routes but incorporating all the natural horsemanship that I have learnt, it is proving to be powerful stuff and my own horses are coming into their own.

My news resolution this year was to learn something new and to do something for myself, I managed to do both of these things by going off and spending time with other horseman. For myself and my horses I spent time with Heather Moffatt from Enlightened Equitation

Heather would be the first to say that she can be controversial and can often speak without thinking, but if you get past all that she is an amazing teacher, I have improved hugely which in turn has improved my horses, the Spanish walk and piaffe has improved Jo’s jump 10 fold. He has become so much more agile in his shoulders and the piaffe has made his backend so powerful that we are now jumping 130cm regularly at home. We are now registered BSJA and have had a few outings, but I have been sensible and started back at discovery.

My other big learning experience this year was my trip out to John Lyons in Colorado, I went on a weeks ridden course, it was largely based around western riding but I learnt a couple of things that blew me away and are also playing a huge part in my horses success, however I am still perfecting that and when the time is right I will show it off. The next set of demos are going to be very interesting and I am feeling very excited about the future.

The first was Trigo a Lusso stallion that I had been working with, his owner Karen Simpson saw what a good relationship we had and kindly gave him to me, I couldn’t believe it I did come over all emotional. I took him to the Working Equitation Championships in August and we did really well and it is definitely an area I am gong to pursue.

The second addition was a mare called Vogue, she is 5yr old KPWN but I have known her for about 3 years and have always liked her, she is by Orame an amazing stallion now competing in the states. www.ranchodeloro.com and out of a Wellington mare, and by jove she can jump, its difficult to not get excited but we are just taking things slowly with her and she will spend the winter doing trail blazers and the affiliate her in the new year.

The third addition happened quite by accident. Joey is the daughter of the owner of Vogue, she had just left college and spent a lot of time at the yard, she knew vogue was for sale but I think she hoped that no-one would want her. I arrived on the yard the day after I had ridden Vogue and Joey was crying, so to cheer her up I asked her if she would like to ride Trigo. Trigo is not easy as he is quite hot, but she rode him beautifully. I then watched her work over the weekend and thought I would be mad not to employ her to ride my horses for me, so when Vogue was dropped off Joey came too with her suitcase and moved into the lorry for a few weeks until we had moved house. She has now become a valuable member of the team.

James and Jack don’t want to ride but they still like being part of the whole thing and I don’t want to pressurise them.

I can only hope that 2008 is as successful and fulfilling as 2007.

Happy New year to you.

Richard Maxwell