Bonnie Fishburn – Getting geared up for 2016

We catch up with Bonnie Fishburn who is already up and running with her 2016 season

“I can’t quite believe that it is already the end of February and all being well with the weather I have my first event in only 5 days time. The start of this year has flown by and I’ve been busy getting the horses geared up for the 2016 season.”

“Florence has already been to 3 British Dressage competitions, the British Dressage North West Regional Final, 3 Arena Eventing competitions and cross country schooling. She has been doing so well with her dressage scoring percentages between 66% and 70% and picking up plenty of high placings including 1st in the Bronze section and 2nd overall in her first ever Elementary test on a 66.5%. I really felt like we were ready for the Regionals but unfortunately we had a nightmare in the warmup where there were 13 horses in a tight area, which really isn’t good for a horse that isn’t that brave working with other horses. It was just so annoying as some of the horses being worked in the arena weren’t even competing at the show, let alone in the class. When she went into the test she almost let off a sigh of relief and did a foot perfect test but unfortunately I was worried she may be tense like she had been in the warm up and just let her relax a bit too much and let her frame go long and its not what the judges were after and we scored our worst percent ever for a 63.9%, despite doing a very accurate test.”

“She has thoroughly enjoyed her Arena Eventing though and apart from a little blip on her first outing, she been jumping consistent double clears and loving it. She was 3rd at Field House for their British Eventing qualifier, but don’t tell her it was her brother Percy that just beat her to 2nd.  Percy has done the same 3 Arena Eventing outings and jumped 3 out of 3 double clear.”

“I’ve also just started work on my 3 (coming 4) year old again. I backed him in December and once he’d been ridden for a few weeks I turned him away for a break. After 6 weeks off I got him back into work and have been doing little bits of flat work, pole work and hacking. Today I took him for his first outing in the lorry. He had only ever travelled once and that was when I picked him up when I first bought him, but he loaded straight up and we drove 6 miles down the road to my friends place and went for a hack about the lanes and across some fields. He was an absolute saint and didn’t put a foot wrong. He even waited patiently on the lorry while I had tea and flapjack with my friend. He has such a great attitude to life and has so much trust. I really am excited by his future.”

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“Another exciting trip we had was a mid-February up to Cumbria to meet up with the rest of the Horslyx Team and have a tour round the factory where they make Horslyx. It was almost like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but without the Umpa Lumpas!!! We had some talks off the people who are the brains behind Horslyx, which were fantastic and I think we all came away having learnt so much about the product. We were put up for the evening in a lovely hotel just a few miles from the factory and were treated like royalty from the time we arrived. It was so lovely to meet all the Horslyx Team and other Ambassadors, some who had travelled miles to be there. I thought I had travelled a long way at 175 miles, but others had flown from as far as Ireland and Dorset or driven from Pembrokeshire. So I was almost a local!!”

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