Chateau Rimmer hits the road

From Chateau Rimmer to soggy Chard, it’s been quite a month for Jess Rimmer, with laughs, qualifiers and falling in love with a little Ippo

April has been a really busy, fun month for Team Rimmer. We’ve been out every weekend and have been driving all over the place, which I absolutely love – helped by the fact I don’t yet have my HGV licence so I am able to catch up on some extra ‘admin’ cough sleep! As I’m writing this I think we’re somewhere on the M1, on our way to Osberton International (sorry mum, I’m being terrible company!).
I quite enjoy the Passenger Princess lifestyle, but at the start of the month I had to dust off my driving boots and take the little 3.5T lorry up to Norfolk to compete at Burnham Market International horse trials. Mum was coaching in a South West U18 camp that weekend, but Basil needed to run in the 3*S to pick up another qualification for our summer plans. So Adela and I rammed just about enough kit to last us through an apocalypse into our little silver box, and off we set!
We ended up having the most hilarious week. Chateau Rimmer, as we called it, was quite a sight to behold – possibly only beaten by the sight of us trying to put it all together! Whose idea was it to send two girls in their early 20s to Norfolk without adult supervision?
Lots of laughs aside, we worked really hard and Basil performed superbly, adding another double clear to the cards.

In addition to Burnham Market, we’ve also been to Larkhill, Chard and Cirencester Park. At Larkhill Jimmy picked up 7th place in the Novice – as enthusiastic as ever – and Max (Mr. Mister) absolutely flew round Cirencester Park: he’s improving all the time.

Lovely Ippo
And then there was Chard. I was looking forward to it, being one of our most local events where they put in a huge amount of effort to host us all.
POOR Chard – it’s barely rained all month, and the one day we are at their BE event the conditions were absolutely awful. I mean, dripping-wet-underwear-within-half-an-hour awful. Yuck!
At Chard, I had a new ride – Ippon, known to his friends as Ippo (yes, like Hippo without the H!). And he is just the happiest, perkiest little horse who always has a smile on his face.
Ippo, would you like to go out in the horizontal rain to do a dressage test at Chard? “Ooh! Yes please!”… Ippo, would you like to jump in it too? “Ooh! Yes, yes I would please!”… and how about some Cross Country? “THAT’S THE BEST PART!”. His enthusiasm is totally endearing, and he is such a pleasure to work with – the only thing I have to do is remind him to stop trying quite so hard, and to just take a breath (I don’t know if I should say this, but if he was a human I’d tell him to sit down and have a cigarette…).
Considering it was our first competition together, he listened to me beautifully and finished in 3rd place following a 28 dressage, double clear. I’m only temporarily in the saddle while his owner, Emily, focuses on her A-Levels, but I’m so enjoying him and looking forward to getting stuck in over the next couple of months (sorry, Emily, you’re gonna have to fight to get this one back!).

Give me a happy worker
While getting to know a new horse, whether with the short or the long term in mind, it’s so important to take time to understand them as an individual, their attitude to work and to really figure out what makes them tick. Talking from a dressage perspective, all the horses have a slightly different outlook on their work and it’s our responsibility to learn what works best for them. Our horses always go hacking before each training session, which is not only physically important to loosen up their muscles but also gives them a mental break, time to relax into their ride and gives them some variety in their daily routine. Once we’ve been hacking, we are so lucky to have a choice as to where we ride next: the outdoor school – brilliant to really get stuck into exercises or for when the ground is too soft/firm on the grass – or the indoor, which is brilliant for arena work and also has mirrors to check our position/how the horse looks. And we also have the top field, which is fantastic as it allows the horse to gain confidence on grass, simulating a competition environment without the added excitement!

Ippo, being the happy horse that he is, absolutely loves schooling, regardless of location. I chose to take him in the field this week, to run through a few basic test movements. Emily rides him exceptionally well on the flat and produces a lovely test, so I need to practice with him to learn all the buttons she has so excellently taught him. His eager attitude makes this easy to do, too, since I can repeat the same exercises a few times and all he does is improve. Some horses can start to predict the exercises and overthink, and some go the other way, getting bored and adding their own moves, freestyle. It’s so nice to ride a “worker” like Ippo, who just concentrates and tries hard!
The trouble (or the beauty?!) with dressage is that it will never be perfect, and there will always be room for improvement. While I’m on my warm-up hack I like to think through where each horse is at with their training, and set a few adaptable goals for the session ahead. Ippo achieved all of his goals during this ride, and I think both he and I enjoyed it!
Next stop for Ippo is Aston, where he runs in the Novice alongside Basil in the Intermediate. Max and Jimmy are competing at Tweseldown next Sunday, and Max hopefully makes his International debut at the end of the month! Fingers crossed this sunshine keeps up – although the ground could do with a bit of rain, and my shoulders maybe need a bit more sun cream…