Last week I packed up me, my pony and what felt like everything but the kitchen sink and headed to camp at Keysoe International.
We arrived Wednesday afternoon and settled Twilight into his stable before sorting out my accommodation for the next couple of nights which was a simple blow up bed in the back of the trailer!!
All food was included within the price and dinner certainly didn’t disappoint…. chicken pasta followed by sticky toffee pudding with ice cream. This was followed by some complimentary prosecco in the champagne bar and a talk from Spillers Horse Feeds.
I was 1st to arrive at the stables Thursday morning, you could tell which of us have horses on DIY!! I mucked out, fed, hayed and gave Twilight a leg stretch and hand grazed him. I was then ready for breakfast and it was a full English no less! I was definitely going home heavier than I arrived!!
My 1st lesson was Cross Country and unfortunately the ground was too hard to do too much. However we did practice jumping in and out of water, steps, skinny’s, houses on hills and he flew! Although it is not the biggest we’ve jumped, it was definitely more technical stuff than we’ve done recently, I was really pleased with him.
Time for lunch which was a bit rushed as I only had an hour until my next lesson. Poor Twilight wasn’t going to know what hit him – 2 lessons in a day! It was a flatwork lesson incorporating some poles, which was great as I love pole work. We did lots of transitions and lateral work which suits him down to the ground and after a couple of minor tweaks to my riding, we got some lovely work.
Another great dinner of chilli con carne and Eaton mess with a fabulous talk from NAF. It was so interesting hearing about the products and the science behind them. All the ingredients are natural and fully traceable. They are also selected to comply with FEI guidelines which is so good to know. My favourite products are the Silky Mane and Tail and the NAF Liquid Magic has really good feedback for those looking for a calmer.
Friday was morning was grid work, we built up from poles, to cross poles in trot, to some fair sized fences, this was exactly what I needed. It was a great confidence building session which set us up nicely for our last lesson of SJ in the main outdoor arena. If you’ve ever jumped here you will know that it is bright, bold and colourful but once again Twilight answered every question! I found my brave pants and we finished off jumping round a decent (well for us anyway) sized course equivalent of BS British Novice!
Everything about this camp exceeding expectations, the food, the people, the lessons. It was definitely money well spent and I really hope they continue to run them!
Don’t forget you can follow Dawn and Twilight on Instagram Whiskers_Twilight to keep up with their shenanigans.
