MARCH
Well the winter is finally over!!!! What feels like it’s been years and years living in the South Pole I’m finally seeing grass peaking through the snow which is finally melting! The water is flowing and no frozen pipes hurray! My Ponies have all wintered really well this year – a bit too well infact!! I turned them out for their break in September and they have lived out all winter super cosy with double duvets on eating as much hay & grass as they possibly can! The first of March comes round and the ponies come in for the very first time in 6 months! They are super fat and hairy and I really have my work cut out with them! I decide to take them back to the polo club where I work on their fitness with my Argentinean groom Toro. This week is make over time, the farrier comes to shoe them and they’ve had a hair cut so they are soon turning into lean mean fit fighting machines!
Today was one of the hottest days we have had this year – and I managed to I stick and ball the ponies today for the first time, I have been practising a lot on the wooden horse, I like to practise before I get on the ponies so that I can hit the ball well to keep the ponies moving and happy so they don’t have to keep stopping and starting, because they get incredibly annoyed with me if I miss the ball! Chalita loves to play polo, she gets excited as soon as she hears the sound of a polo ball being hit which can be quite dangerous is other people are also practising because she isn’t sure which ball to follow! She sets off bucking and bouncing and raring to go but eventually after what felt like a week of trying to stay on she eventually manages to settle down and I stay on! By the time I had got back to the yard, cheeky Roxy had escaped (to this day I have no idea how!) and helped herself into my tack box and had started eating all the treats! She knew she was in trouble the moment I saw her! So she quickly went back in her stable and hid at the back!
I rest Roxy as I was worried she’d stuffed herself with too many treats so I ride Noemi next, as ever at the start of the season she is a little unpredictable, she has the face of an angel but is highly challenging when you first bring her into work, she has the ability to buck and bronc and spin 90 degrees in mid air with her head between her legs and her bottom over her head! So I hold on and manage to stay on also being able to hit the ball every now and then!
Roxy appeared to be fine after treating herself to an early lunch of polo mints and carrots so I ride her next, as I’ve owned her for four years I know her very well now, but never do I have an easy ride, she also tests me and likes to have some, but today she went really well – maybe due to her belly being very full! By the time I had finished it was still lovely and sunny, so I bathed them all, left them to dry and turned them out for the night – first chukkas of the season next week – I’m getting really excited!
This season I decided one of the things I could do to improve my game was to get fit, I’m not one of those people who can run for miles, nor am I one who can go to a gym for hours and hours, so for the past six weeks I’ve started doing kettlebell training which is a small weight with a handle what you use both hands to swing and do different exercises with it’s great fun but we do annoy our instructor Neil at times with our lack of concentration and girlie giggles, it’s really helping my strength and stamina – although after the class the girls and I usually have a glass of wine and a Chinese take away which I know is a little naughty!
I’ve been riding the horses everyday this week to get them fit for the first game of the season next weekend and I must say I am absolutely shattered, my life at the moment is consisting with work, riding, eating and sleeping I just don’t have the energy to do much else!
All my horses have gone really well these last few weeks and are now listening to me so I’m getting excited for next weekend for the first match of the season. I’ll keep you updated! Bye for now Anna x