Diva’s showing partner, Jackson (Melland Jackson Jive), has been super busy this year with his day job of travelling with Michelle and Paul’s point to pointers. I think he must be a lucky mascot for the horses as both Prairie Town and Give Us a Swig have both had great success on the track.
Jackson travels to the gallops with them and goes to the races when they run. He is always given a leg stretch and pick of grass when at the racecourse and usually gains a bit of a fan club when people see the small black pony walking around near all the thoroughbred racehorses.
Prairie Town was fifth on his first outing of the year and then has since won two races, giving jockey Cian Murphy his first winners at just sixteen years old.
Give Us a Swig was sixth first time out and went on to be beaten into second place by the shortest of distances before getting his win in the PPORA Novice Riders Final.
Training racehorses is such hard work, it is fantastic when it all pays off. It makes taking the horses to the gallops six days per week and all the care in between worthwhile.
Michelle and Paul are always very careful to only run the horses on suitable grounds and to try to pick tracks that will suit them. Sometimes it is hard to miss races when the ground is unsuitable, but I think it is safe to say that they got it right! The horses’ successes means that Michelle and Paul gained the most points and won the PPORA series of races.
The pointers will have a summer holiday out in the field and Jackson will be primped and preened for a return to the show ring. Like the racehorses, he is already a winner this year and so has flown the flag for the team successfully too.
I find this one of the toughest topics in the horse world, as everyone does something different. There are thousands of products on the market – all claiming they can cure everything – and nutritionists are often affiliated with a feed company, making any advice potentially biased.
I can say I’ve been able to tick something off my bucket list now: I managed to mount and ride a camel – a brilliant experience. I had great fun grooming my one, named Baxter, and I think the people running it were happy they had people that were used to dealing with big animals and weren’t afraid to get stuck in.
I thought in this first blog post I ought to tell you a little bit about my horses and me, and give you an insight into what you might see from us going forwards. Firstly, my name is Emma. I’m 29 years old and I’ve been riding for as long as I can even remember.
I am currently lightly backing my three-year-old American Quarter Horse before turning him away for the winter. In my previous post, I explained the setbacks this year, and frustratingly I had to start the process much later in the year than I’d anticipated. But things were going well, too well…