It goes without saying that no two universities offer the same courses and, most importantly, the same student life. Writtle is rather unique in this sense, and offers a rather niche range of courses considered in the forefront of their individual industry. Therefore I thought it might be interesting to some to gain an insight into my day-to-day life at Writtle. Juggling my academic studies and a horse. Not the most common juggle seeing as admittedly most of my other friends at University spend their time juggling how late they can stay out drinking, and still get up for lectures the next day!

Heres a schedule of my typical Monday in my 2nd year of Equine Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation:

6:00am – My daily alarm tends to go blaring off at this time, I’ll get ready, get dressed and I’m out the door by around 6:30am.

6:45am – I arrive at the yard on a good day when my car doesn’t need ice scraping (hopefully this delay is gradually becoming less of an occurrence). As I step onto the yard Cinders is straight away demanding her breakfast (what can I say she’s food orientated like her Mother).

6:50am – Begins the daily chore of putting Cinders on our wonderful walker at Writtle which not only changes direction by itself, but can even cool down your horse when you want it too. Whilst she’s busy stretching her legs I begin mucking out (thankfully Cinders is a rather tidy horse compared to some).

8:00am – By this time I’m usually done at the yard and Cinders is happily out in her sand pen.

8:15am – I arrive back at my room. Hopefully with some time to pack my bag ready for a day of lectures.

9:00am – My first lecture begins. This semester I have Extrinsic Factors.

11am – My first lecture of the day is done.

12pm – I grab a quick-lunch at The Garden Room before my afternoon lecture begins.

2pm – Rehabilitation and Performance begins in the Main Building.

4pm – Lectures for the day are done! By this time my brain is probably whizzing with questions and new things I’ve learnt that day.

4:30pm- Back to the yard I go this time to ride and put Cinders to bed. We’re really lucky at Writtle to have two wonderful indoor arenas. This means no matter the weather, or time of day, we can always manage to ride (and not get wet in the process, a real luxury!!)

6pm – Cinders has her evening feed (her second favourite time of the day!). At the moment she is being fed from a newly developed slow feeder as part of a 3rd years dissertation testing. It’s really great having this opportunity to get involved in new research going on at University.

6:30pm – I arrive back at Campus with just enough time to spare to get dinner, again at The Garden Room.

7pm – At this time of day I aim to get a couple of hours done of writing up notes from lectures and assignment writing.

9pm – I wind down for bed, usually with some Netflix… ready to do it all again the next day.

It goes without saying that having a horse at University takes a lot of dedication and careful time planning. However, I can say without a doubt its the best experience I’ve had. I can’t say thank you to Writtle University College enough for all these amazing opportunities!

Recently, I was lucky enough to have Briony back out again to assess Cinders and her current diet. This is just one of the amazing bits of the support we receive from Writtle University College as part of the Academy Team! Some may ask why I look forward to these meetings as much as I do the physical training on Cinders with Jane. Well… the answer is that I’m a big believer that nutrition is often a forgotten, or underestimated, component of our horses management. Yet it can have a big influence on not just how well our horses look, for example how shiny their coat is, but also how much energy (or in some cases how much excess energy our horses have!). Briony is not only a brilliant lecturer at Writtle but she really is like a complete book/anthology on nutrition so I really enjoy being able to pick her brain (Luckily she doesn’t mind a Q&A session!)

As I expected Cinder’s weight hasn’t fluctuated much since her last appointment, which is great because it means what she is currently being fed is working! However I was able to discuss with Briony how she has been feeling recently in her training. I expressed to her how I had been feeling that Cinders was lacking a bit of stamina. Which isn’t shocking as she’s in full work and surviving well on just a balancer and fibre. Unsurprisingly, Briony instantly had about 5 ideas to resolve this issue and left it down to me to decide which option works best for Cinders and I. As a result I’ve begun adding a high oil feed into her diet, in the form of Baileys Outshine. Currently she can just have a handful a day to acclimatise her gut to the new feed. However, I have the option to increase this when I feel she needs more energy ie. when I’m at a competition.

Feel free to scroll back through my blog to find my post on my original Nutritional Meeting!

 

After a very indulgent, and enjoyable time, at home for Christmas and the New Year Cinders and I are now settled back into our life at Writtle ready for semester B of the year. It was lovely to have a nice couple of weeks at home. Especially with cinders being out in the field 24/7, meaning my alarm for 6am admittedly hasn’t been used as much for the past 4 weeks. But here I am dusting it off for another semester, ready to give it my all and ready for a brilliant summer putting all I learn with Cinders into practice at competitions.

As this is my first blog post for 2019 I thought it was rather fitting to share my new goals for this upcoming year:

1. More emphasis on my own fitness and strength. This an area I really want to educate myself on, in order to improve my own riding, and also something I want to be more aware off when I’m out practising in the industry.
2. The year to leave my nerves at the sideline or in this case in the warm up ring! I really want to make a conscious effort to get Cinders out to as many competitions as I can over the summer.
3. Make time for myself. As much as I love spending time with my horse smelling like the muck heap and studying at University. I really want to make a conscious effort to make more time for myself. Whether that be just a face mask every once in a while or a complete evening just to myself. Theres nothing wrong with being selfish every once in a while I suppose.

Just the other day I and the other members of the equine Academy took part in some fitness testing aided by the third year students on the Equine Performance and Behaviour course. The fitness testing itself was based on some jockey tests, involving counting our maximum reps on a series of exercises, including the plank and wall squats (to name a few). Although exercise isn’t necessarily my favourite thing to do (like most horse riders I’d rather spend all my time in the saddle!), the whole experience really highlighted to me the importance of exercise as a way of actually improving my performance in the saddle. It’s been really easy for me to get court up in improving Cinders fitness, but not giving myself a second thought. But how can I expect to ride my horse to its best abilities if I’m quite literally not in a fit state too? So I’ve now made a promise to myself to make sure I get myself into the gym a couple of times a week. Now I’ve written it down I’ve got to go through with it!!

We also had the opportunity to ride MJ (a mechanical horse at Writtle) with a pressure mat under our saddles. It was really interesting to analyse how I ride and my position in the saddle more objectively. There was nowhere to hide. Let’s just say we all had plenty to take away from the experience and work on in the future. Mainly relating to our symmetry and balance in the saddle. So here’s to making improvements to not only my equine partner Cinders but also to myself!!

 

Cinders and I are all settled back into uni after a lovely week back at home in Oxford. It was nice to have some relaxation time after a busy first 5 weeks of my second year at Writtle. It was also extremely nice to have some much-needed home cooked meals again, and my washing all lovingly done for me. I can also confirm that Cinders thoroughly enjoyed her time out in the field 24/7 getting up to all sorts of mischief. As well as enjoying the last of the sun before winter and the dark nights really do set in for good! It was also really good for Cinders to have an ‘easy’ week after all the exciting training we’ve been having recently with Jane Hart, as part of the Academy. Unfortunately, Cinders had a week or two of feeling a tad sore before our mini holiday, all part in parcel of the change in lifestyle and routine shes experienced. However, after having a great treatment from Sue and Phil before the holiday she is hopefully raring to go again. Let’s just hope that’s more figuratively then literally!

It’s easy to forget, but regular treatments from a qualified veterinary physiotherapist or equine sports therapist are essential to keep a performance horse feeling and performing at their best. However, from this experience, I’ve gained loads of great advice and hopefully, we now have a plan in place to make sure Cinders is always feeling her best. Which fortunately for Cinders does involve plenty of carrot stretches, as recommended by Sue and Phil themselves.

Nutrition and more simply what we actually put into our horses can have not just an effect on their general health, but also their performance. For example, if we’re plying them with starch and sugars we can’t really be surprised when they’re jumping up the walls. Similarly, if we’re feeding a horse a diet with a much higher energy input then output, we’re likely to end up with a horse who’s overweight. This can end up affecting your horse’s overall performance.

Recently, Cinders was fortunate enough as part of the Equine Academy at Writtle to receive a nutrition consultantion from Briony Witherow. Who happens to actually be one of the fanatastic lecteruers at Writtle University College as well. The consultation itself was very thorough with Briony asking me numerous questions about her lifestyle, health, and any concerns or things I might want to target. Briony then went on to condition score Cinders in her current state looking at both weight and also muscle.

We then wanted to find out Cinders actual weight. Firstly, by using a weigh tape. This gives more of an estimate and can vary depending on the weigh tape being used and the person doing it. Therefore it’s always recommended that the same person does it each time and that you use the same tape each time. Although it is not accurate it can be a handy and quick tool to gauge whether your horse is losing or gaining weight over time. However, we are extremely lucky on the campus yard to have a weighbridge which can accurately tell us the weight of a horse. Even luckier we managed to successfully coax Cinders on it with hardly an issue (something I was quite surprised about!).

Lastly, but not least, Briony took a look at what I’m currently feeding Cinders to see whether any improvements need to be made to the quantity or the actual feed itself. I’m rather proud to say though that Cinders gets a rather simple feed and mainly survives off a consistent supply of forage, as nature intended. To top this up though she has one cup of Topspec Orginal Feed Balancer and a handful of Dengie Alfa-a Orginal, day and night, to keep her in tip-top condition.

I’m so excited to see where we’ll be in a years time with this invaluable help. More importantly, Cinders is rather happy that her feed doesn’t need to be decreased!

 

I’m sure by now we have all seen numerous photos and videos plastered over various social media sites depicting horses doing all sorts of fancy polework. In other words, their schools are littered with coloured poles here there and everywhere! So although it’s nice to just watch pretty ponies, why is it a good idea to incorporate polework into our own riding routines with our furry friends? I’m not saying by any measure that we should start spending an additional 30 minutes setting up and striding out 40 odd poles to go over. Because unfortunately, the nights are drawing in meaning every second counts when it comes to getting our horses ridden, and to bed, before its pitch black and gone 11 o’clock. But polework can be a great way to not only add a bit of variety to our horse’s flatwork. It’s also a fantastic way to improve balance, strengthen their muscles, improve straightness and is a great tool for rehab.

Even just simply setting up 4 trot poles on a straight line at 4 1/2 feet apart, (will vary slightly depending on the size of your horse/pony), like that shown in the image below, can have a dramatic effect over time on the way of going of your horse. From this, you can start incorporating numerous different exercises involving going over the series of poles. I would personally always recommend simply trotting over the poles, to begin with. Even reduce the number of poles or just start off with a single pole. Then its nothing too scary for you, or your horse, and simply just gets the horse to start thinking about where it is placing its feet. From here you can go down numerous different routes. If your horse tends to rush over the poles you can start incorporating simple downwards transitions before and after the trot poles, to help get your horse listening to your aids. Building on from this you can start incorporating upwards transitions from trot – canter after the trot poles and downwards transition from canter – trot just before the trot poles. Those who are not faint-hearted can start introducing some simple circles (size can vary depending on your stage of training) before and after the trot poles to work on engagement in the trot and canter work.

 

Good luck and stick around to see future polework exercises on my blog!

It’s official, the four months of glorious summer (and even a heat wave!) have come to an end. Back four months ago it felt like an eternity before University started back up again. Nonetheless, as I sit here behind my laptop currently typing this, its just dawned on me that this time tomorrow I will have finished my first lecture of second year. Naturally I wouldn’t be a true student if I said that I wasn’t slightly disappointed that summer is over. However, despite the hard work beginning tomorrow, I feel confident that it will also bring a lot of fun and enjoyment now that Cinders and I are on the Equine Academy for 2018-19.

So here is me I guess saying goodbye to the long light evenings, homecooked meals and a constantly empty washing basket (thanks to my Mother, not me!!) and hello to dark, chilly nights, endless amounts of pesto pasta and the dreaded word beginning with a ‘w’… work! Undoubtedly, I’ve had an amazing summer full of competiting and training with my beloved horse. But, I’m more than excited to continue with even more training now that we’re fully settled into our new home at Writtle. Although us university students always like to moan I’m actually excited to progress with my studies, learn loads of new exciting things and get myself one step closer to my dream career. Now there aren’t many places out there you could do all of that at the same time, is there?

However, can someone please inform my horse that although the original plan was for her to be a happy horsey out in the field for a bit whilst I was away at University she is indeed going to love all the training.

As I’m sure any horse owner (or even animal owner for that fact!) knows to move your beloved creature from a place you know they’re settled, happy and have friends to one that is unknown, can be just as stressful for the owner as it is the horse if not more so in some cases!

It’s on that note that I can truly say that on the morning of the 9th September 2018 I was full of not only excitement for our new journey together, but I also had flickers of apprehension for what was to come as I placed Cinders travels boots on ready for what was to be a nearly 3 hour drive to Essex. Naturally, I was thrilled when we arrived to find that she was perfectly happy standing in our trailer. Not only that but she had also been so chilled that she had had a good nibble on her hay. Although this wouldn’t surprise anyone who personally knows my horse as she is rather known for having a ‘healthy’ appetite. Now came the important time to introduce her to her new stable. Which may I add has a lovely ‘ensuite’ sand pen (note to self: sand is incredibly hard to brush out when your horse insists on rolling three times a day!). Thankfully she went into her new environment as happy as she is at home. Furthermore, it wasn’t long after having a quick sniff and look at her surroundings that she located her haynet and proceeded to keep eating the contents.

4 days on and I’m happy to report that I still have one very happy pony who not only loves her cosy stable, but is happily rideable in all three amazing arenas that Writtle University College has to offer. After a couple of easier days letting her settle into her new home and rest after a hectic summer of competing, we’re both more than ready to crack on with the help of the Equine Academy at Writtle.

So keep your eyes peeled on here for all the exciting activities we will both be getting up to in the coming weeks as I’m sure there is going to be plenty to share!