“Eventing is a game of snakes and ladders”

The Eventing season is now well and truly underway and we are currently building up to Bramham next week with candy (OBOS Impressive), having done a good test bar two silly blips and a great Show Jumping performance. Under the conditions, I decided to withdraw from the Cross Country at Chatsworth due to the ground conditions.

It’s a hard call when you only have one horse at the level, but my main priority is to make sure I can keep her going for as many years as possible and sometimes you have to make the decision to look after them no matter how much you want to run. Luckily I had already entered Bishop Burton as a back up in case anything went wrong at Chatsworth. She did a lovely test and jumped well and to say she was keen to go Cross Country was an understatement (having not run for 7 weeks!), so we had to have a few reminders as to who was supposed to be in control and therefore added 12 time faults to our dressage to finish 9th in a competitive OI section.

She has had a flat session with Chris Bartle last week and we are going for a quick tune up over some jumps next Tuesday before we are off to Bramham!

The young horses have had a few runs…some good…some not so good!

My mum always says Eventing is a game of snakes and ladders. One minute you’re on the ladder up and everything is going well and the next minute it all goes wrong and your back at the bottom trying to work out what happened and if you should give up and get an office job! Luckily, those days don’t happen too often but Warwick hall was one of those events. One horse pulled up on the Cross Country as he didn’t like the hard ground, then Snip has his first run of the year and was foot perfect until the Cross Country where the sand on take off was just all too much and he thought it was sinking sand and had to check a few times before he got going! However the next weekend at Bishop Burton he was a super star and finished on his dressage score to come 3rd.

So my advice to anyone is that if you have a bad day just get back on, work hard and next time out it will hopefully be better!

Noble Outfitters Ladies Balance Riding Tights

I have to say that I was so pleased to be selected to be part of the #Millbryhillrider team once again! Millbry Hill is a fabulous company and stock pretty much everything you could need for horse and rider.

I was luckily enough to be asked by Millbry Hill to “test ride” the Noble Outfitters riding tights!

If I’m totally honest before they arrived I wasn’t that convinced I would like them, I have tried tights in the past and they have been slippy when you ride in them and rather unflattering! However, upon arrival I admit I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and the fit of them, and love the phone pocket on the leg (my iPhone fit perfectly). I was given the grey tights but there are range of colours to choose from, and if you look at the range you can get matching tops to go with them!

I really like the flexibility and movement the tights give you, you could almost use them in the gym as well as riding and they are comfortable enough to lounge around in too! All in all I would really recommend them as a riding tight, especially in the warmer weather we have been having as they are more lightweight and breathable than jodhpurs and breeches.

The post Tanya Buckingham: A Game Of Snakes And Ladders appeared first on The Millbry Hill Blog: Life in the Country.