Author: sophiehulmeeventing

Well I am back in California! It is beautiful and sunny, a bit of a contrast to what I left when I was in England! The horses are well in england and they are being ridden by Nick while I am away. The last month has been a bit of a blur from coming back from Poland, revising for exams, sneaking out to Badminton to watch and then two full weeks of exams before I left for California. I can’t believe how much has happened! It is all a bit exciting and a bit scary with how time is flying. I have finished my second year at University and am getting ready for my dissertation. It is all going to go by so fast I know it! 

My dissertation will hopefully be released and given out to the public this fall if everything goes to plan. I want to look at riders and why they do or do not use therapies for preventative treatments to prevent injury rather than treat it. So this summer I will be in the process of prepping and executing my disssertation so that I can be ahead for data analysis next spring. 

I am so grateful for my degree and what it is teaching me. Everyday I learn something new and as a result I notice more and more details when I am working with horses. It reaffirms to me that this is what I want to do and I am loving every second of it!

I wanted to give a shout out to the Willberry Wonder Pony Charity as I was at Badminton and I was lucky enough to be able to get my very own Berry Pony! This is an incredible charity which I admire and fully support.  Hannah Francis was an inspiration to so many and her strength and passion lives on through this incredible charity and through Willberry. I am honoured to have been able to help and make a donation and as a result I want to get as much exposure for this great cause as I can. I finally picked a name for my Berry Pony before I came out to California. Meet Caliberry I have named her because I am at heart both English and American and I love California so I have named her Cali from California. She will be joining me on numerous adventures and travels. I will keep you updated on where she goes! 

I am very excited for the rest of the season. The horses currently are having a slightly easier time since I had exams and am now in California. They wil start up end of June and will go until the fall. So it doesn’t hurt for them to have a bit of an easy time before the rest of the season kicks off as they had a busy spring. They are athletes and just like us they need time to recuperate and rest before stepping up conditioning and exercise even more. I miss them loads but I am soaking up every bit of sunshine I can while I am in California. I went over and watched the Woodside Horse Trials as well as the Prelim Challenge that they host this last weekend. It was lovely to catch up with everyone and see so many familiar faces. I had forgotten what it was like to be at a West Coast event! I certainly have not missed the dust though… I will say that. I want to say I was covered in it from head to toe the first day. But it is a beautiful show and we were very lucky that it did not get boiling hot like it can! The Woodside horse park does a great job with he event and they all work so hard west coast eventing is very lucky to have them! Now I am off to enjoy some more california sunshine, I will keep this updated on how everything is going both in England and California. 

Until next time!

Here is the second part of the photo shoot with the boys! Fintan aka (Ice Cool Cooley) and Ainle aka (Thomascourt Cooley)! I hope you enjoy! 

Well Badminton was AMAZING!!! I was so lucky to be able to sneak out on Wednesday and Friday in between revision and riding. It was truly awe inspiring to watch these incredible riders from all over the world compete. It just makes me want to train and work harder to achieve my goals having seen how hard they work. Especially having watched Andrew Nicholson after 35 attempts finally win Badminton! There was some truly incredible riding over the four days of Badminton. I had to pinch myself a few times because it is right on my door step from where the horses are based. Now that Badminton, is over its into exams for me now. I have four over the next few weeks so everything will probably be a little quiet until I get to the other side of the tunnel! 

Until next time! 

Two weeks in Sopot, Poland done! So thrilled! It was an amazing two weeks full of learning and incredible experiences! The horses were great and each improved in their own way. With each week we gained more experience. Now to implement what we have learned moving forward for the rest of the season! I am so pleased to say that Annabelle (Gorsehill Belle) and I had our best cross country round to date and show jump round ever at the two star level! Finishing with a double clear show jump! I feel like both the horses and I have grown from this experience in more ways than one. 

I want to thank Nick Gauntlett Eventing for the incredible coaching and support through both weeks and for giving me this incredible opportunity to compete in Poland again. 
Thank you so much to our sponsors as we could not do it without your support and incredible products to keep us competing and training the way we do! 

Finish Line Horse Products UK Multi Radiance Medical Multi Radiance Veterinary Auburn Laboratories HRP Equestrian Neue Schule Ltd 

#eventing #apfpro #multiradiancelaser #wingsaddlepad #nsbits #neueschule #finishlineuk

Well very excited to show some of the photos from the photo shoot we did a couple of weekends ago! Becky Whittingham was kind enough to come out and take some beautiful photos of the horses and I! Please check out her Facebook page and website BW photography!  It was a lovely relaxed environment and the horses did enjoy posing for their photos! After a couple of hours we got most of the shots we wanted! I will post the rest when I get them!  A massive thank you again to Becky! 

The horses and I wish everyone a great Saint Patrick’s Day! I love my Irish ponies! Wishing you all the best! 🍀☘️🍀🎉🍻🇨🇮 

Well I am always talking about this amazing product so I might as well do a post explaining about them further! 

In my first year at Hartpury I was asked to take part in a study looking at saddle pressure. I was involved in the study on both Annabelle and Fintan. My saddle was put over a sensor with a regular saddle pad and then a second time with the Wing saddle pad. We had to do a  walk trot and canter exercise with both the regular saddle pad and the wing saddle pad. I have to say I got to see the data being recorded and I could already tell before it was looked at and analysed properly that the Wing saddle pads pressure was a lot more different than the regular saddle pad. 

After a few months the results were published and yes the regular square saddle pad does exert pressure on the spinous processes where as with the Wing saddle pad NO pressure is exerted on the spine or lumbar area behind the saddle. Now I know for me when I was first looking at this data that I have never once in my life thought about a saddle pad putting pressure on my horses back while riding. I also thought surely it can’t make too much of a difference to the horses performance and their comfort level. Boy was I wrong, I have been using my WING saddle pads for over a year now and I will never go back to a regular saddle pad. I have felt the benefit with each and every one of my horses. Especially while jumping! Annabelle now has extra springs when she jumps! I can actually feel her engage her back and have a proper bascule over the fence now where as before she would jump big but I would never feel much flexibility in the back and now I most certainly do.

 Also the horses are a lot better about these saddle pads being put on. They don’t flinch or try and bite like they used too, probably because there isn’t any pressure being exerted now to make them uncomfortable. HRP Equestrian currently has two different designs both of which do not exert any pressure on the spine. They have the Mono Wing Saddle Pad which is designed to sit right in the gullet of the saddle and stay off the horses back and then there are the Dual Wing Saddle Pads which are able to have a half pad on if you want the option or they can also be used without, it is preference on the style in that case. Both the Mono and Dual Wings come in dressage, jump and general purpose. Here is the link to their website and they do ship Internationally!!!

HRP Equestrian

 I really couldn’t recommend these saddle pads enough especially if your horses has kissing spines or back problems. Instaead of spending loads of money on special gel pads which in my opinion are not always very beneficial, you could buy a saddle pad that actually relieves pressure from the area where there is pain or have been problems. Even with my horses who I have never (touch wood) had really bad back issues with, majorly benefit from them. Check them out and if you have any questions feel free to ask me or send an email to HRP. 

Until next time! 

Well it has been a busy couple of weeks! I am super excited to announce that I am now sponsored by Neue Schule! They have an incredible range of bits and spurs! My horses go so well in them. I can not recommend them enough! Please check out their website and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask me or send them a note! They can help with bit suggestions! 

Neue Schule

This week I took Feyre, Annabelle and Fintan to Tweseldown. Ainle stayed home as the schedule didn’t work for taking all four. Feyre went on Thursday in the 100 and Fintan and Annabelle went in the Novice on the Friday. Super proud of all of them! They all went really well, and I learned a lot and it helped my riding so much! I forgot how much I missed running cross country! So nice to be back out there and starting our season. We also had really nice weather which was a miracle! I couldn’t believe I was in England on Thursday as there was actual sunshine! Tweseldown also has an amazing facility and did a beautiful job with the course and how well it was run! A big thank you to everyone involved with running the event it amazing! I am now super excited for the next show and the rest of the season! I think the horses are too! 

The next couple of weeks are going to be busy so I will keep posting about everything that is happening with the horses and I. I can’t wait to see what the future holds! 

Until next time! 

Wow! So I am home from Norway and oh my gosh I don’t know where to start! It was such an incredible experience and it is one I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I met so many incredible riders and coaches. 8 nations came together to learn and compete and I believe I can say for all of us friendships where made that will last a lifetime. I have met some people that I will never forget. The format of the competition is really interesting, the 8 nations schools send 2 riders and either 1 or 2 coaches. There are 7 teams and the way the teams are decided are by each competitor and coach drawing numbers from a hat. After the teams are decided then horses are drawn for the teams and finally the theory presentations topics are also drawn. Each team during the first round ride for scores both for the team and individually. Then on the last day of competition each group presents their theory presentation and the results are announced. I am super proud to say that my team and I were able to bring home the gold for the team placing. 

This experience was not only about the competition though. The hosts at Norsk Hestesenter were so welcoming. They really did adopt each and everyone of us that came for the competition. They took us on a carriage ride at night around the property which is very close to the lake so you got a beautiful view of the lake and houses surrounding it. It was a truly special experience. Everyone who took us was so hospitable and happy to chat about what it is like to live in Norway. We had Norwegian delicacies made for us everyday during our stay, and on the final night they gave us a proper send off with a beautiful traditional meal with music and plenty of celebrations. It was beautiful. I think what I will take away most from this trip is not only the memories and competition, but also all of the new friends and contacts I made while I was there. 

I will never forget this experience and I would do it again in a heart beat. I want to thank Victoria Lewis and Jeremy Micheals for selecting me and giving me the opportunity to go as well as supporting me along the way. Also a big thank you you to Hartpury for giving me the opportunity and support to go to Norway. Now on to gearing up for the show season and working on dissertation topics! Until next time! 

Hi! 

The article I sent in about the International Eventing forum is up! Please check it out! 

http://eventingnation.com/classic-eventing-nation/