Ashley Harrison’s Blog: The holiday is definitely over!

Ashley Harrison has had a storming start to 2015! Her (and, most significantly) her horses’ holiday is definitey over, and the hard work is in full flow. Find out about the four first places she and Zeb have notched up already!

“Well what can I say, the horses and I have had a great start to 2015 and we hope the success will continue into the eventing season which starts this week! I started 2015 off with a huge achievement passing my pony club AH test on the 2nd January. It was a great way to start the year and was so good to see all my hard work pay off and to gain the orange felt to go under my pony club badge!”

“Since then both horses have been feeling great and have been very busy with several dressage, showjumping and indoor cross country competitions to get ready for the season to start. Zebedee and I have been working very hard since he came off his holiday in December and it is paying off with already four 1st places under our belt and its only March! Zeb and I have come first at a showjumping competition, an eventers challenge and then my pony club team came 1st in both classes we did. This has really been a great start and I have even won 3 sashes, which I have wanted to win a sash since I got my first pony 9 years ago!”

“Zeb and I also qualified for the BE JAS finals at Hartpury for the open class which was just incredible as I had really wanted to qualify but didn’t think I would manage it especially at open level! Our style wasn’t great at the qualifier but we still managed a qualification so I was determined to improve my style before the final only a week later. So I read the comments and watched the videos back and set myself the task of improving my position over the jumps as that was where I was losing my marks. My position still needs a lot of improving but it is much better and my style mark at the final was better and they were marking harshly so I was very pleased and I think it has really helped Zeb as we have had 3 double clears in a row now defying our 50% average from last year! We jumped double clear at the finals and were one of only 5 to jump double clear out of over 40 competitors which has really set us up for the season and was a great achievement.”

“Ria has also been going very well and has done some showjumping and an eventers challenge so far this year and she is being so brave and jumping everything I ask of her. She even won some team rosettes at the pony club team showjumping which was great as she keeps jumping double clear but just often a second too slow for a rosette! She also went cross country schooling for the first time recently and jumped everything first time including water, ditches, steps up and down and we have our first hunter trial in a couple of weeks which will be very exciting.As well as all the riding I have been doing I have been going to Pilates weekly to try and build up my core strength and improve my position. It definitely is helping and I would recommend anyone who rides to give it a go.”

“Both horses have also been enjoying their Horslyx licks and love getting orange everywhere! I look forward to keeping you all up to date and can’t wait for the season to start with Zebedee and for Ria’s first event in April.”