For this month's blog post, I thought I'd share Savannah's story with everyone and dedicate it to her. I'm still very much enjoying my new job, but want to focus on Savs this month.
Savannah was a 2013 foal who was bred in Ireland. In 2017 she was taken in by an Irish rescue centre with a very young foal alongside her. In Ireland, if the rescue horses are not re homed within a certain number of days they are sadly PTS due to the high number of cases. Savs and her foal were luckily re homed 4 hours before they were due to be put down by a wonderful lady called Joanna. They were both in a terrible state, but Jo spent a year looking after them making sure they were fed and looked after before they could find a more permanent home.
I bought Savannah in July 2018, I took a bit of a risk as I bought her unseen but it definitely payed off. When she arrived she was very quiet, and to my horror wouldn't eat apples, carrots or Polos! (She eventually came around to apples and carrots, but in the whole time I had her never touched a Polo).
She'd been very lightly backed, but hadn't been sat on for a few months so we completely restarted her. I spent a week or so lunging and long reining her under saddle but was then delayed as I was injured at work. We then lunged her a couple more times, ending each time by sitting up on her. She was super cool about the whole thing and never batted an eyelid, even when I started walking her up the road. I then spent another month just hacking her out, getting her used to the aids and having someone on her.
It was great fun doing all the basics with her as it meant I got to witness all her firsts - 1st jump, 1st XC school etc:
I took her to her first little SJ competition in March 2019, where we won the 80cm and had a great round in the 85cm.
Savannah always struggled to canter properly, and it took the best part of 8 months to even get her to be able to maintain a 3 beat canter. I was originally waiting until we could do it really well to start eventing her, but in the end I just bit the bullet and decided to enter her in her first ODE to give her some more experience. I entered her into the Unaffiliated 80cm at Moreton Equestrian, and have never been so excited for an 80 in my life! I had very few expectations for the day; as long as we stayed in the dressage arena, left at least one SJ fence up and got around the XC I'd be happy. We ended up doing a 40 dressage (not that great on paper, but I would have been happy with 50 so was over the moon 😂) with some really lovely parts including a couple of 7's for her trot work which was a great surprise. I slightly over rode the SJ leading to a couple of rails, but she jumped so well and was very confident so I was thrilled. She then finished the day with a fantastic clear XC round! We both had the biggest smiles on our faces crossing the finish line, and I knew then she'd was going to turn into a cracking little event horse.
We completed 3 UA80 ODE's in which she was super every time before I thought she was ready to step up to 90cm.
She found the step up incredibly easy, and she found an extra gear across country which was an amazing feeling. We ran around West Wilts and I really felt that was the first time that she really took me round properly, looking for the next fence each time.
After a few more UA90's I decided we were both ready for the step up into Affiliated world of eventing! I registered us both with BE, and Savs absolutely smashed her BE debut.
The highlight of our season would have to be our run at Goring Heath BE90 where we finished 8th after a 29 dressage and the most foot perfect double clear.
After the end of a fantastic first season, we had a quiet couple of months at home training before we made the big move to Harry Meade's yard to start my position as a Working Pupil.
Savs gave me the most incredible couple of years and I couldn't have asked for any more from her. I miss her terribly, and adjusting to life without her is one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do.
I'd like to say a massive thank you to every one who has helped me with Savannah, but specifically Joanna for rescuing her in the first place, Sophie Damment who helped me find Savs and gave me so much help with her along the way (and all the incredible people at The Old Rectory who supported us the whole way), Harry Meade who took a chance on us and invited us to join Team Meade and the whole of Team Meade who have been amazing throughout this difficult few weeks. I cannot put into words how grateful I am for all of you, so thank you so much.
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