Visit to Carl Hester

So went to Carl's place thanks to BD Central region  organising the trip.

Sat in the car park at 09:35 at Carl's looking out over the outdoor that I have seen on DVD was amazing. It made me realise how as adults we (well me anyway) rarely feel pure excitement and it felt like being a child on Christmas Eve  As adults we tend to have excitement and apprehension/fear/whatever 

Felt like being at school again with Kim M   reminding us of the rules, all it needed was for K to say we were representing the school and to be on our best behaviour and it would have been school all over again. Well other than there was one smelly boy 

So we trooped into the school sat down and Carl was on Uti and Charlotte on Blueberry  they finished a groom took Uti and Carl went into host with the most   mode.

Katie came in on a four year old (by Nero) that was sat on briefly at three then came in again at four and has been in work three weeks. Carl worked this horse very lightly.

Then Charlotte on her own 5yo the one that was at the Convention you could see how he has matured since then 

Then it was ?

Charlotte rode a Breitling W chestnut that Carl described as a naughty wilful toad 'just like Charlotte'   

Then we had Don Archie (Dimaggio) who had been so so difficult then the lovely Nip Tuck and finally ? Golly

I really like Golly and yes he has brought home to me that what you see in 'competition' may be very very different to what you'd see at home. Totally different horse to even day two of the Convention. Relaxed and just lovely.

So other than kissing Blueberry, seeing the yard loo (very nice btw) what did I take away?

1/ Carl is very down to earth and come across as a thoroughly nice human being.

2/ They never throttle forwards, steeper half pass or whatever but no pulling (unless emergency obvs)

3/ They work a lot in canter

4/ Use LY rather than half pass when training.

5/ If I heard correctly he pretty much only uses two head positions either up on the bit or stretched,

Convention Reminder

Was even brave enough to ask a question  I wanted to know how CH's training had changed (assuming it had) since he left Dr B's to date.

Carl thought self carriage was the biggest change, learning what it meant and how to achieve it.

A grand day out