welcome

About me

My name is Gaby Botfield and I’m 19 years old. studying veterinary physiotherapy at writtle university. Joining me on my academy journey is my horse Oscar (or Woodcroft Oscar) his a 5 year old trekehner and is 16.1 hh. I currently compete at novice level with this very talented horse and hope to go up the levels.

settling into new oscars new stable: Oscar has settled in very well to his new home at Writtle and very much enjoying not being in the lovely English weather with the fabulous indoor schools available to us. Already more motivated as well and can’t wait to see how his young horse will improve with more training and facilities avaliable to us.

Update after reading week

After reading week Oscar settled back into university life and was very pleased by the new Birkettlong kit. After a week off on reading week Oscar has been very excitable and enjoyable to ride. In the weeks before reading week I was doing basic work with him and concentrating on working him lower and to stretch his back to then “pick him up” so he works and concentrates more on working on his hindquarters, as he is only five he needs to develop much more muscle and this basic training improved his muscles and trot work. His muscle development in recent weeks after joining the academy has allowed me to work him for longer and has also improved in other movement such as medium trot and leg yielding. Since starting on the academy Oscar has been using more poles (which at first he was a bit scared of) and has become more confident using them and has helped with his training as “poles don’t lie” Jane said, which is very true and has made me realise I need to do more pole work to improve his paces and makes him bounce more and engage his hindquarters more. I’m looking forward to seeing his improvement in the next weeks leading up to Christmas and how I can use more of these training skills I’ve obtained and been taught to see how they are working and improve Oscars training.