THE MONTHLY MUSTER
January Newsletter

Hello, and welcome back to the blog for the January Monthly Muster; the first Muster of the year! It’s been a month full of changes again for me but I am hoping fervently that this will start to calm down; I’d love to be in more of a flow state in my life.

Personal Updates

This month, I started in my new teaching position so that has been another challenge to contend with. It’s been a better transition to the job this year in comparison to last but as usual, the start of the year has me in a twist because I’ve been getting to know another new school, more new staff, new students and trying to work in a slightly longer commute. I’m very much just testing out what routines are going to work for me at the moment.

Training updates

I managed to make a start on bringing Harry back into work, that is until I got the dentist out to him. She told me that he had hooks on the top and bottom and his incisors were uneven. Harry has a parrot mouth and a misaligned jaw, which means the way he grinds when he eats creates all sorts of sharp points in his mouth. The dentist did what she could and said I’d need to get the vet out to do the rest because it would require sedation. So… I stopped working him until the vet came out the following week. After yet ANOTHER vet visit, she managed to sort his mouth out so he is more comfortable but it took a double dose of sedation to get all of the work done. The vet was so helpful in explaining it all to me. I since given him some more time off to recover as I didn’t want to bring him back too soon with his mouth healing. I did try the other day but he seemed uncomfortable in his mouth so it wasn’t exactly what I hoped for.

We also had an appointment on the 29th to check up on Harry’s fungal eye infection. Thankfully, the vet said there was still a tiny amount of infection there but I could wean him off the medication and try going without for the next few weeks. He’s then to go back at the end of February for another check up.

Before all of that, Harry was doing well with his training. The main focus of our sessions was lightness on aids and exercises to help with muscle building and fitness. So, we were doing lots of long and low, slowly building up the amount of time spent in trot as well as lots of pole work to help with his topline. We also had some fun playing in all the giant puddles which were left behind with all the storms we had earlier in the month. Harry was a little skeptical about walking into water but soon got the hang of it!

Goals for February

Now that the dentist has been, we can get back on track so in February I’d like to:

• stick to my ‘riding appointments’

• get up to cantering again

• continue to focus on topline and fitness building in my riding sessions

Recommendations

Master Dressage: The Basics by Peter Dove and Mary Wanless

This is a tiny little book but it’s so full of great advice about the very basics of riding. I’ve recently dove back into it to refresh my mind on my riding as I’d really like to be improving. I feel like I’ve lost a lot since I haven’t rode consistently so I’m hoping to gain it back and this book has really inspired and helped me.