Does anyone else feel as though 2021 has utterly flown by? I can’t believe this will be my very last ‘monthly musings’ of the year and it feels like just yesterday that I was taking down my decorations and facing up to another lockdown. That lockdown proved to be the toughest yet for many people I know, with short, cold January days and long, boring evenings trapped indoors. Thankfully, we used the extra time positively, working hard to bring on a host of our homebred youngsters. This extra time invested in their development meant that the 2021 babies are even more special than normal (and we’re always over the moon with results our youngstock get!) and we can’t wait to see what they go on to achieve.

I’m delighted to share these snaps from our very first coffee and cake club here at Team Chapman Equestrian and share the dates for the months ahead for those keen to book on! Our coffee and cake clubs combine a 1-hour group lesson with me for 2 or 3 riders and then a natter over some coffee and homemade cake in our new clubhouse afterwards.

I can’t quite believe it’s already the middle of October as I write this! The summer quite simply flew by, and autumn so far hasn’t seen us slowing down. It’s been a whirlwind of competitions (thankfully with lots of very successful outings), working with our young horses and teaching. I can safely say on behalf of the whole team how grateful we all are for the indoor school as the weather starts to take a cooler and damper turn. I know once the deepest, darkest days of winter arrive it will be a godsend. Horses are always eminently rewarding to work with, but I find it does help if you can stay warm and dry while you work towards those goals!

When we last penned a blog, we said the ‘summer madness’ was underway - well it really hasn’t stopped since! We have had a very busy and extremely successful summer here at Team Chapman Equestrian, which is exactly how we like it. Having said that, at one show in August Mel rode a whopping 11 tests on 6 different horses in 4.5 hours… Perhaps a little less busy might be a good thing?!

Those of you who read my monthly musings will know that one of the silver linings of the lockdowns (both in March 2020 and in January of this year) was the time it gave us to focus on our young horses. While our more established horses had a break from competition, we spent the extra hours that gave us really getting to know our young horses and figuring out what makes them tick. The results have been amazing, and our current crop of home bred sports horses are really exciting… one in particular.

The summer madness is now well under way for us, but you won’t hear any complaints from Team Chapman Equestrian! After so much worry and uncertainty in the winter it is just wonderful to be back on the circuit and seeing fellow competitors, coaches and owners again. It even makes the busiest of days seem a lot easier to manage! We’re delighted to report that as we move into the second half of the summer season, TCE is enjoying lots of success in young horse classes. One of the few highlights to come out of being locked down in Spring 2020 and again at the start of this year was the extra time it gave us to focus on the young horses. While we were never in any doubt that it was hugely beneficial for them, it’s fantastic to see that confirmed with competition results!

We seem to have a lot to celebrate here at Team Chapman Equestrian as we kick off the summer. We have our dreamy new indoor school; our camps have started up (it is just wonderful seeing so many happy faces as our pupils make progress with their horses) and the sun is finally shining! What a long, wet spring that was after a long, cold winter. And all that good news is before we’ve even updated you on our adventures at the regional dressage championships and other events over the past month or so. It’s been a busy time!

We have some very exciting news for followers of Team Chapman Equestrian - our shiny new indoor school is nearly finished, and it is AMAZING! We’ve been waiting a long time for it, but it seems to have been able to have been ridden in at just the right moment... After a very dry early spring the rain has well and truly arrived in North Yorkshire. We’ve had torrential downpours and gale-force wind to contend with and it must be said that we were feeling very happy and smug indeed to be riding indoors and listening to all that going on outside!