Showing Tag: "british" (Show all posts)

Easter Holiday Update

Posted by A O'Neill on Sunday, April 3, 2016, In : Day to day 
So my Easter holiday has been a bit of a non event this year. I've got so much uni work to do (looking at you masters project...) that I'm still only coming home at the weekends. I did manage a few days at home over the Easter Weekend which was lovely and we had a great drive out on Jasper.
With the clocks going forward we've now switched the ponies routine over so they are now going out at night (although still with rugs on as the weather is so changeable) and they're in during the day. I lo...
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New Goals for 2016

Posted by A O'Neill on Monday, February 29, 2016, In : Day to day 

Hang on a moment, its nearly March, isn't it too late to be setting goals? Not according to psychologists and I reckon better late than never. This probably isn't an extensive list but these are my medium term goals for this year.

1. Get better at clipping Jasper's legs.
I'm going to confess this has always been my Mums job. The only time they get clipped is before a competition so they have to look good and there's no room for me to practice and have a go.
I realised at the weekend if I want ...
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The fitness programme begins!

Posted by A O'Neill on Friday, July 17, 2015, In : Day to day 

Hello everyone!
I'm sorry its been a while since my last post. I've been super busy working like crazy and I've just come back from a fabulous 2 week trip to Crete (excuse the bragging).
Now that I'm actually home properly and not jetting off an fabulous holidays (which you can read about on my lifestyle blog if you're interested) its time to start getting Jasper fit again so we can tackle a few outdoor events this summer.
Have to say I am seriously excited about this!
While our plans are not...
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Weekend at home driving

Posted by A O'Neill on Tuesday, May 26, 2015, In : Day to day 

Hi guys :) I've been so bad at writing this blog that many of my readers probably don't know that I've actually got myself a job. This is pretty tough to balance alongside uni and driving Jasper in fact I wrote about it on my Lifestyle Blog because it can be hard at times. My job involves shift work and this weekend saw me getting up at 5am on both days. Not an easy feat when: a) you are meant to be revising for 3rd year exams and b) you sure as hell aren't a morning person.

While I was at sc...
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'Horses shouldn't be on the road'

Posted by A O'Neill on Friday, May 22, 2015, In : Day to day 

I'm sure there are many people who agree with that statement. After all roads are for cars not horses. Horse riders do not pay tax to be on the road. What possible right do they have to be there?

I've just read an article on Horse and Country about this issue and it absolutely enraged me. So much so that I have taken to my long neglected blog to write about it. The article is about the results of a poll on road users who feel that Horse Riders should have to take a test in order to ride on th...
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BCA Indoors

Posted by E O'Neill on Tuesday, December 30, 2014, In : Indoor Driving 
Hello again!
I'm kicking off my New Years resolution off early and starting this blog back up again. 2014 has been a difficult year for Jasper and I and we have faced many setbacks (mostly my degree getting in the way!).
After well over a year off from the carriage driving scene Jasper and I were back on Sunday for our first competition in what felt like forever.
Despite not knowing my test very well and feeling like I was just driving about randomly we were 4th after the dressage. Jasper then ...
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July 21st 1st Place at Lyvers Farm ODE

Posted by A O'Neill on Sunday, July 21, 2013, In : Outdoors 
Today Jasper and I headed off to Lyvers Farm near Salisbury for a ODE run by the WHHC. After 3 seasons of pretty much exclusively doing Nationals taking a step back down to club level was rather weird and for me remembering everything in 1 day was very challenging (must be getting old!). I had another chance to practice the test I am doing this season and we had a great score of 50.04 with just one ball down in the cones. This was slightly frustrating as Jasper and I were cantering along nice...
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July 18th Horse Quencher Delivery

Posted by A O'Neill on Thursday, July 18, 2013, In : Sponsorship 
Nice big parcel has arrived of Horse Quencher and the weather here in Wiltshire is scorching as we are gripped in the heatwave. Jasper now has plenty of his favorite drink to help him stay hydrated and in top condition. It will definitely be coming with us to Lyvers Farm ODE this weekend. Also new pictures from Sandringham in the Gallery page.

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July 12th Home from Majorca

Posted by A O'Neill on Friday, July 12, 2013, In : Day to day 
Home today from our first family holiday in 8 years. We've had a fantastic time in Majorca with plenty of sun, sea and sand. Now tanned beyond all recognition having enjoyed some well earned R&R. Glad to be home though and Jasper was certainly pleased to see us :) Shame we missed Catton but it was certainly worth it!

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June 30th 1st in Intermediate Pony

Posted by A O'Neill on Sunday, June 30, 2013, In : Outdoors 
Jasper was a star today with a fantastic clear in the cones to win our class. With less than 5 penalties in hand when we went in our cones round was rather nerve wracking as the competitor in 2nd place is extremely good at cones, so any mistake I made could be costly. She then had 2 cones down, allowing me to relax and we had a fab round with just the tiniest amount of time penalties. I think I am going to have to spend some time practising the faster cones speed I have to make in Intermediat...
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June 29th Marathon day

Posted by A O'Neill on Sunday, June 30, 2013, In : Outdoors 
Today the rain has finally let up and we've had glorious sunshine. Our marathon time was really early at 8.30am and it was freezing at that time of the morning. My teeth were chattering the whole way round the marathon! Today Mum is back on the backstep but she has hurt her foot and can't walk that well so I was really nervous as I knew it was completely down to me to remember where we were going. However I remembered it fine and we had a good round. Jasper was extremely lively this morning a...
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June 28th Dressage

Posted by A O'Neill on Sunday, June 30, 2013, In : Outdoors 
Today's dresaage test has had its fair share of drama. After coming down the centre line the judge beeped the horn and said I was doing the wrong test! This caused a fair bit of panic amongst the Intermediate Pony Class as we had all learnt the same test I had but as the first competitor in it was fairly stressful to be told you had learnt the wrong test. Eventually it turned out what had been printed in the shedule was not what the judge had been told to mark and I was allowed to restart. I ...
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June 27th off to Sandringham

Posted by A O'Neill on Sunday, June 30, 2013, In : Outdoors 
After 5 hours of driving we have finally arrived at Sandringham National. An hour of that was spent stuck in traffic on the M25 (no suprise there!). We are set up and its been raining since we arrived. Fingers crossed it brightens up for Dressage tomorrow!

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May 5th Cones Day

Posted by A O'Neill on Saturday, June 1, 2013, In : Outdoors 
We came 2nd! Not bad for our first attempt at Intermediate level! With 1 ball down and a few time penalties we held our place to come 2nd overall. Its been an amazing weekend with glorious sunshine the entire time. Now for the long trek home and back to uni to start actually doing some work as my exams are rapidly approaching!

Thanks to all my sponsors for their support.

Secondhand Tack Online

Blue Chip Feeds

Horse Quencher UK

Mr & Mrs J Young
Barleycroft Farm


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May 4th Marathon

Posted by A O'Neill on Saturday, June 1, 2013, In : Outdoors 
Best marathon of my life today :D so proud of our little pony! He flew round the marathon to move up a place to 2nd with great times. I am particularly proud of our last obstacle which we had similar times to Advanced Pony Pair!
He was raring to go round the marathon and had a nice low heart rate of 57 at the halt. He drank his Horse Quencher and electrolytes and the sun shone. Great day, looking forward to cones tomorrow.

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May 3rd Dressage

Posted by A O'Neill on Saturday, June 1, 2013, In : Outdoors 
After a hectic early start with lots of rushing around the stressage is done! Picture is of Jasper chilling in the sunshine before our test. Thanks to Kate for plaiting him for me.
Jasper warmed up beautifully and then decided to impersonate a steam train in his test and proceeded to yank my arms out. Not sure what that was all about but we still had a good score of 57.07 so we have already nearly hit our season target of a low 50's dressage score now we have moved up a level. Currently lying ...
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May 2nd Off to Ashfields National

Posted by A O'Neill on Thursday, May 2, 2013, In : Outdoors 
Today we are off to Essex for our first event of the year, Ashfields National. This is one of my favorite events and I'm really excited. This also our first event at Intermediate level and the forecast looks excellent so should be a really good weekend!

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April 21st Carriage Fair

Posted by A O'Neill on Thursday, May 2, 2013, In : British Young Drivers 
Today the British Young Drivers were out in force to run our trade stand and display in the South of England Carriage Fair. This is generally considered the 'start of season party' and is a great chance to catch up with everyone. We raised over £200 and although the display didn't quite go to plan it was still a good laugh. Thank you to all our volunteers and everyone who helped raise the money. Thank you to the BC committee who have given me one of our new gilets to wear, its gorgeous!

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March 15th Wiltshire Life Awards

Posted by A O'Neill on Saturday, March 16, 2013, In : Day to day 
Last night was incredible! My Mum and I spent an excellent evening at the Wiltshire Life Awards Ceremony, enjoying the delicious food and entertainment. My category had been shortlisted to four people with extremely strong candidates so I thought I had no chance and decided to just relax and enjoy the free champagne. We were the penultimate award so had an agonizing wait for the result but eventually it was our turn, where I was announced the Young Achiever of the Year! I was very suprised to...
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March 9th Next lesson...

Posted by A O'Neill on Saturday, March 9, 2013, In : Day to day 
Today Jasper has been a star! After a lethargic start Jude jumped on for 5 minutes and we then had an awesome lesson. Much improved with his medium work and rein back. Although he does reins back well in harness he has suddenly decided he doesn't know what rein back is under saddle, which is odd as that is where he orginally learnt to rein back. Very pleased with him. Spent the rest of the day getting ready for our competion tomorrow. Thank you to my sister Kiera for cleaning my carriage in e...
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February 2nd BYD Committee Meeting

Posted by A O'Neill on Sunday, February 10, 2013, In : British Young Drivers 
Been up to Stow again today for a BYD Committee meeting that was extremely productive, with lots discussed and plenty of plans made.
A summary of the meeting can be found here.
Its the furthest I have driven in quite a long time so I am really tired now, but it was worth it. Watch this space to see these plans being put into action.

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January 24th Exams are finished :)

Posted by A O'Neill on Thursday, January 24, 2013, In : Day to day 
Finally my exams are over! As they have stretched over nearly three weeks so far the return to uni has not been much fun. To be honest quite sick of being locked up in my bedroom staring at notes so finally freedom! Refreshers starts next week and we have been reliving the fun of our Freshers week today when I found my camera with loads of pictures on it that I had forgotten about.
Can't say my exams have gone brilliantly but I have done my best and worked hard so there's not much more I can ...
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January 19th Driving in the Snow

Posted by A O'Neill on Sunday, January 20, 2013, In : Day to day 

Great drive with Jasper in the snow today, he was not very impressed! You can see a video of our drive here
The other picture is Jasper galloping up the field today as he was desperate to come in and out of the cold.
He is such a wuss! I have done some revision today as I have yet more exams next week which was a lot less fun but I do at least feel productive.


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January 18th SNOW DAY!

Posted by A O'Neill on Sunday, January 20, 2013, In : Day to day 
Woke up this morning to about 4 inches of snow! This was all incredibly exciting but... I had an exam in the afternoon so spent all morning cooped up indoors revising :(
But at 12pm we were told the uni was shut, exams were cancelled and we escaped outside to freedom and a massive snowball fight! Amazing fun!
The bad news is that obviously I still have to do the exam but they have postponed it to a Saturday that I am away competing on. Not sure what happens now but hopefully it can be sorted ou...
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January 6th Win at Sparsholt

Posted by A O'Neill on Saturday, January 12, 2013, In : Indoor Driving 
Today we headed back to Sparsholt to compete at in the Wessex Regions January event.
After being in second place after dressage, we then had a clear round in the cones with several time penalties to be 2nd place in the phase and then remain in second place after dressage and cones. Knowing we had to make up ten penalties to win (and the person in front of us is renowned for being speedy) we were hoping to hang onto our second place. However, Jasper thought otherwise and we had the fastest obst...
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December 30th Hat Trick at BCA!

Posted by A O'Neill on Monday, December 31, 2012, In : Indoor Driving 
Jasper and I scored a hat trick today without third consecutive win in Novice Pony in the Thames Valley Region.
After an early start we arrived and did a nice dressage test to put us in 2nd place. I was particularly pleased with Jasper's attempt at lengthening today, as I thought he really tried. We then had an easy clear in what looked like a very challenging cones course but it actually drove fine. Jasper was then amazing in the obstacles and we had the fastest times in our class to win the...
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December 25th Feeling Festive!

Posted by A O'Neill on Tuesday, December 25, 2012, In : Day to day 

ITS CHRISTMAS! No matter how old I get I still have exactly the same, child like attitude towards Christmas and get stupidly excited about it. Today Jasper and I dressed up as Father Christmas and went to spread some Christmas cheer around our Village. Jasper was keen to be out and was trotting along proudly, which was probably to do with the fact his blinkers prevented him from seeing quite how silly I looked! Jasper is a bit of a poser and if he was human, would have been embarrassed to be ...
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December 14th Home from Uni

Posted by A O'Neill on Tuesday, December 25, 2012, In : Day to day 
I can hardly believe my first term at uni is over! I have enjoyed it so much but I am definitely ready to come home to recharge my batteries. My holidays look set to be busy as usual with competitions and work to do to as well as the usual commitments of family and uni work.
In truth right now I am very tired and just looking forward to a nice lie in as well as to driving Jasper.

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November 11th BYD On Foot

Posted by A O'Neill on Monday, November 19, 2012, In : British Young Drivers 
Its been a long day for me today!
After yesterdays early start the discussions then continued late into the night last night so an extra hour or two in bed this morning was greatly appreciated. The theme of the day was Review and Planning with most of the talks being given by fellow National Young Drivers (including me!) at The Unicorn Trust. I also got a chance to talk to the BYD Sports Psychologist, Nichola today which was fantastic as my life is going through so many changes at the minute w...
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November 10th BCA Indoors 1st again!!

Posted by A O'Neill on Monday, November 19, 2012, In : Indoor Driving 
It only seems like a few minutes ago we were last at Berkshire College of Agriculture but we are back again today to defend our win in Novice Pony with our usual team firmly back in place. After a dressage of 30 we were in joint 4th but then had the worlds luckiest clear in the cones to move us up to 2nd place. My Mum confessed as she thought Jasper was looking a bit 'lethargic' she had been oating him up all week. Yes I know, clearly Jasper thought this was brilliant and decided to do an alm...
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June 14th Horse Quencher delivery

Posted by A O'Neill on Friday, June 15, 2012, In : Sponsorship 
Had a huge parcel arrive this morning! I never get any post normally, and if I do its only boring things like bank statements. I was quite ridiculously excited when I opened it and realised it was all my Horse Quencher!
Big thanks to Lucinda for also sending me a window sticker and a HUGE banner as well as generously providing some Horse Quencher for the team travelling to Austria. Now I don't have to worry about running out of that before we leave either!

You can like their Facebook page here...
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June 2nd BYD Training

Posted by A O'Neill on Monday, June 4, 2012, In : British Young Drivers 
Today has been a great days training at Fenix Carriages in Devon, with two different groups running alongside each other. One group was trained by Wilf Bowman-Ripley who is a team trainer as this group is headed to Austria and the other group consisting of BYD South West members was trained by Mark Broadbent.
My best friend Ann, who I am traveling out to Austria with as she is on the JWT team stayed round mine Friday night and we were up all night messing about painting our nails with Union J...
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April 15th Carriage Fair

Posted by A O'Neill on Sunday, April 15, 2012, In : British Young Drivers 
We have had a fabulous day out at the South of England Carriage Driving Fair at Merristwood Arena. This brilliant event is organised by the Brockham Harness Club and is generally seen as being the start of season get together. Theres great displays, trade stands and food so Carriage Driving enthusiasts, old and new from all diciplines can meet up together and have a good day out. This year Sarah and I were part of the BYD Jump and Drive Display as part of the Blue Team with my best friend Ann...
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April 11th Day 2

Posted by A O'Neill on Saturday, April 14, 2012, In : British Young Drivers 
Its my last day up in Stow today and its also my friends birthday so Happy Birthday to her :)
Weather is a bit better today as yesterday I had to be hosed down as I was so muddy from standing on a friends backstep as it chucked it down during her lesson. Huge fun today eating lots of birthday cake and helping out. So sad to be going home but I have to try and schedule in some 'normal teenanger time' and see my non horsey friends, one of which is having a house party tonight. Heart wrenching to...
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April 10th BYD Camp Day 1

Posted by A O'Neill on Saturday, April 14, 2012, In : British Young Drivers 
Today is the first proper day of the main British Young Drivers camp. There are lots of new faces, so loads of names to learn. This is even more of a challenge as the final part of the NYD clinic WE are doing the teaching! In groups of three we gave 8 20min sessions on a variety of subjects to all of the BYD camp. Each group of three had a different subject area to discuss during the 20min slot, ours being the Pony and Stable management. We talked about the use of massage, warm up, cooling do...
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April 9th NYD Camp Day 3

Posted by A O'Neill on Saturday, April 14, 2012, In : British Young Drivers 
This morning I was on at 8.30am as I asked to swap with someone else my mum is going home with Jasper today so we wanted lots of time to get packed up. I was up hideously early, hiked up to Jaspers stable to tack up and helped build the cones course for this morning lesson. As you can imagine it threw me a bit when I got to my lesson and the course had changed significantly! After walking it again we had a great lesson driving the (incredibly tricky) course clear several times and playing aro...
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April 8th NYD Camp Day 2

Posted by A O'Neill on Saturday, April 14, 2012, In : British Young Drivers 
Day two has followed in a similar fashion to yesterday with individual lessons. I am enjoying backstepping for my friend and learning a lot in the process. We spent today working on Jaspers lateral work and responsiveness. We were praised for how straight he is which I was thrilled about. Tonight we have a meeting to discuss the future of the British Young Drivers and tomorrow is our last day of lessons :(

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April 7th NYD Camp Day One

Posted by A O'Neill on Saturday, April 14, 2012, In : British Young Drivers 
It is day one of Easter camp and its been a tough day of lessons! My trainer is Sarah Garnett (aka Granny) who is lovely but very strict! Our lessons were individual and very intense, so I am confident we will make a great improvement over the next few days. My sister Kiera has kindly videoed the lessons for me so I can watch them when I get home. We spent today mostly working on transitions and trying to get more expression into Jaspers trot and I was very pleased with him. Our stable is as ...
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January 29th BYD On Foot Meeting

Posted by A O'Neill on Friday, February 10, 2012, In : British Young Drivers 
On January 29th I went to another BYD on foot meeting at Unicorn Trust, Stow-on-the-Wold, for another excellent sports psychology talk with Nicola Kentzer on Team Building, where we learnt several techniques that we will be putting into practice in our upcoming outdoor season. This is particularly relevant as the British Young Drivers are starting the selection process for the Junior World Trophy and for the first time, the FEI Junior Championships will be run alongside it in Austria, July 20...
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Carriage Driver Blog Hi my name is Amber, welcome to my blog! This is where I will record what it is like being a Junior Carriage Driver and what I get up to day to day.

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