Sue and Eggbut's Diary
By Your Horse
Your news
23 June 2008 16:08
A Your Horse reader and her loaned cob pony spill the beans about their attempts at dressage stardom.
You can see more photos of Sue and Eggbutt in the Schooling for Success feature in issue 309 of Your Horse.
Who is Eggbutt?
A cheeky bay gelding (no white markings, hooray!) with a love of grass and unknown parentage. Until nearly three years ago his working life consisted of riding school work – for those brave enough – but when the school closed he was rejected by the teenagers, “too cheeky”, and by the adults, “too ordinary” or was this just his cunning plan to stay in that field forever?
Who am I?
Sue Beamish, a keen Riding Club member who juggles part-time work and riding with two primary school age children and an un-horsey husband. My previous horse was sold soon after the birth of my son and although, I didn’t stop riding, I missed that unique relationship with one horse. When it was suggested that I might take on Eggbutt, my initial reaction was less than enthusiastic, but how wrong I was. I am still trying to figure out how to channel his energy (and curtail his love of grass) but he seems to love going to “parties” (did I mention my poorly hidden competitive streak?) and having fun.
Saturday
Eight days to go before our Riding Club Area Qualifier and I’m having a run through of my tests with our chef d’equipe, Jane somewhere in Rutland. I say somewhere as, although I was given perfectly good directions, I then left them at home. Of course, when I rang my husband for assistance, he claimed he couldn’t read my writing – nor could I when I tried later that evening – and the last part of the journey took me down a single track, no through road which took a leap of faith on my part as I was towing!
Luckily, it was the right road and the venue was located. I know I’d been told to look for a chicken farm, but stupidly I hadn’t considered the possibility of it being a free range operation…..and there were real chickens outside. Had my Eggie ever seen a chicken? I suspect not – this was going to be interesting. I rejected the first potential mounting block – too close to those chickens – I’ve had recent experience of parting company before I’ve even made contact with the saddle – and chose a less scary option instead.
The run through went much as planned – plenty for me to work on during the coming week and I left to the words of “see you next week – don’t forget your ‘Flu certificate…” (it’s already in my boot bag, don’t worry).