Chantal and Bee Bee

“Why do you need riding lessons? You’ve been riding for years and must know how to do it!”

That’s what a friend said when I told her I’d started having regular lessons on Bee Bee, the mare I’d had for nearly a year, in May 2008.

When I started having ‘lessons’ with Debbie I soon realised that they weren’t lessons. Debbie wasn’t teaching me to ride – she was training me to train Bee. When we started, my 11 year old TB mare was unfit, unsupple and unbalanced – so much so that after my first session I thought I’d broken her! But it was just that she’d used muscles she didn’t know she had. As an ex-racehorse, she’d been used to pulling herself along from the front for years. Now she was learning to do things differently.

Debbie’s system of training is progressive. We started by concentrating on Bee’s balance and the more we did, the more confident she became, as she realised that she could carry herself. We did a lot of work with Bee in a long, low outline – something that Debbie said would be fine for a Prelim dressage test, but that she’d need to be stronger and able to carry her pole higher if I wanted to ride Novice tests. She was already encouraging me to think ahead. Up until then, all the comments we’d had on dressage sheets told me that Bee was on the forehand, but after a couple of months, of training with Debbie – just an hour every 2-3 weeks and lots of homework in between – she encouraged me to have another go. To my utter amazement and delight we won the next two Prelim tests we entered! “Fluke,” said Debbie. “That won’t always happen.” In the next five tests we had three firsts, a second and a third! We were still working in quite a low outline, but Bee was comfortable with it – she’d found her balance which meant she was wonderfully consistent throughout the tests. The overall relaxed picture (and if she’s relaxed, so am I!) helped us to gain marks.

At every training session, Debbie picks up on where we were last time, what we’ve been working on since and helps us to move onto the next stage. As Bee and I develop together, Debbie gives us more exercises and different homework to do. The only place I have to school Bee at home is an uneven, sometimes too wet, sometimes too frozen field, so she’s given me ideas on how to school Bee while hacking. (If anyone knows anywhere near Compton, where I can school her on a better surface, I’d be really grateful!)

With Debbie’s help, we’re planning to compete at Novice and Elementary this year (I’ll tell you another time about how Jack has been helping us to jump bigger fences than ever before!) This is something I never dreamt I would be doing when I first got Bee, originally on loan while her owner had a baby. She’s now completely mine – I decided I didn’t want t give her back – and I’m looking forward to a great year with her!

Chantal Cornelius