Katie Duxbury, based in Darwen in Lancashire, is a familiar face on the
county show circuit and has qualified and ridden at HOYS. She fits in home producing her native ponies and
coloureds around her work for BAE Systems as an aircraft engineer. Katie says
of her showing, ‘I’m showing-mad and I love preparing, taking part, watching and learning from others.’
When Katie found her latest project
in December – the young Fell mare Greenholme Caitlin – she was almost untouched and Supreme Products
and The Showing Journal decided to follow their progress in the form of this
monthly diary…. The Showing Journal diary will focus on Caitlin’s training,
whereas our diary will focus on how Katie has trained and prepared Caitlin for
her showing career, detailing the products that Katie has been using.
‘I bought my new project, Caitlin, from
John Potter of the Greenholme Stud in December. She is a five-year-old 13.1hh Fell pony
by the fantastic stallion Greenholme Look At Me.
‘When I first saw her out on the fell
at the stud she stood out a mile to me. I
think she’s an extremely good example of the breed, with a lovely action – she just
had to come home with us! She had spent her life thus far running on the fell,
having only been kept indoors as a weaned foal, but she has the sweetest
temperament. Naturally, she was a little wary of us at first!
‘When she arrived, we let her settle
in and then spent a week or two getting her used to being handled – simple things
like grooming, leading and practising picking her feet up ready for the
farrier. We also wormed, vaccinated and had her teeth checked.
Her mane and
tail were quite dry and untended when she first arrived and understandably she was very woolly, so in the first weeks
we are focusing on getting her settled and improving the condition of the coat,
mane and tail and improving her overall appearance.
‘In week three, once she had settled
in, we pampered her with a nice hot bath where we used High Shine Shampoo to
break down the dust and dirt in the coat. We found that this gave her a really
deep clean and left a smooth, shiny and conditioned coat. We also got her
rugged up so we could start to bring her coat on.
One of the areas that needed
attention was her mane as it was matted in places. We used a couple of
different products and her mane has already shown great improvement.
We started with Detangle and Shine
and just sprayed this on to the mane and tail and left it on. Where possible we
ran fingers through and started to de-mat as well as remove the tangles. We did
this daily over 3 or 4 days and on day 4 we were able to really loosen some of the tangles and start brushing her
mane and tail through.
Caitlin does have a few thinner
patches on her mane. She has good length in her mane and luckily there are no
bald or rubbed patches but we would like to see some thickening in places, so
we are using Mane and Tail Builder on a daily basis. We massage it in and
leave it on.
The third product used to focus on
the hair is Moisturise and Condition. Caitlin has always been out on the fell
and her mane was a little dry and brittle in places. Once again, this is a ‘spray
and leave on’ product and so we have applied this daily to improve the overall
condition. We’ve started to see and feel the beneficial effects of this product
very quickly and the mane is already less brittle and flows much better, much
more in tune with her breed type.
After all her pampering, Caitlin was
then bitted and we started lungeing her in the school. She has taken to it all very
well, with her sweet temperament showing through.
‘It’s now week four and we have just
started long-reining Caitlin down the quiet lanes and so far she has taken everything in her stride! The benefits of long-reining her at this stage are to develop straightness and obedience; helping to create and keep a soft topline and develop her confidence as well as the bond between us and get her working through from behind.
I hope to have her out to some shows
in-hand once she has grown her mane and feather back as she was bog-burnt from
the rain and mud on the fell. Ultimately, my aim for her is to qualify her for the
Picton final at the NPS Summer Champs and hopefully gain a place there!
‘I will tell you more next month when,
hopefully, I’ve been able to sit on board and begin the next chapter of her
career.’
For more information, visit :
www.theshowingjournal.co.uk
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us on info@supremeproducts.co.uk
Our office number is not just for people wanting to buy products – if you have a question or would like some advice on how best to use our products or what would be the best product to use in certain situations, then please call us on 01377 229050 – we will be happy to help where we can!
Best wishes,
Sarah
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