KHAL'S 5 YEAR TRANSFORMATION

Hey guys and welcome to today's video. This is a really really special one guys. So this is some clips of my horse Cal when he was just a baby. He's actually our first home-bred horse. He is by the stallion Ustinov and his mother is my horse Fiona who is by Clover Flush. But as you can see in these videos he isn't with Fiona, he's actually with a foster mare because Fiona rejected him when he was born. But it didn't stop him, as you can see he was loving life. He is just happy as a little foal, he was so friendly. You can see here he loves his scratches and he was obviously completely spoiled. You know he was our first little baby foal, we loved him so much. So here he is growing up, getting a little bit bigger. At one point he was almost bigger than the foster mare and it was really funny when he was trying to drink from the mum, he was like reaching down so far. So here he is now a yearling, bold as you can see, annoying Jack so much. So when he was weaned he went out with Jack, Jack was his buddy and Jack taught him a few lessons. But he is just the cheekiest little foal or well yearling I suppose at this stage. He wouldn't stop messing and playing and also it's so nice to look back on these videos. So here he is now as a two-year-old and we gave him one little loose jump that was it and we were a little bit excited to see how he would progress. This is him now as a three-year-old, this is his first time having a bridle and saddle on. I backed him on myself obviously but he was just the biggest angel, he never put one single foot wrong, he never acted up when we were riding or anything like that. This is us loose jumping him as a three-year-old and that video there, the screenshot from that just made me so excited to jump him and we had big dreams for him obviously. So this is me now riding him for the first few times in the arena. Again as I was saying he was a complete angel, he never bucked, he never threw me off, he never really did anything, he was so quiet I suppose he just had so much trust in people so he never really thought anything bad was going to happen to him. And here's just more clips of me doing flat work. Obviously he's only three so he only did a walk and trot in the arena and then he went on a break. Apologies for my voice also, I actually have a cold so that's why I sound so daisily. So you can see it's all just very chill, loose rain, trotting around, happy out. Then he went on a break for a month and a half and he came back in that winter. You'll see from these videos that everything is really choppy and changey, he goes out on breaks, he comes in for a little bit and that's because I'm at college so I can only ride him like certain times of the year. So he never really got a solid amount of time in work but I suppose that's not too bad either, it means he never got really overworked, he never got pushed too much. That there I think was actually my first canter on him which was very exciting. So he's just again, he's only three here, just kind of cantering around, loose rain, you can see how chill he is there, nothing ever really bothered him too much, he's a sweetheart. Now just working over some polls, preparing him for his career in show jumping and this is the first time we ever jumped him and it's so funny looking back on these videos because it was so underwhelming. We were so disappointed, we were expecting this big extravagant jump and he just kind of was kind of jumping over them very averagely and we put up a little oxer and he just kind of, yeah he looks useless to be honest and it's just funny looking back now and knowing that he actually isn't useless anymore. Here he was a little bit more confident to these jumps, so yeah again it's just very average. I just would jump lots of very little fences because he used to be really unconfident jumping, so I would jump loads and loads of little cavaletti type jumps, getting his confidence, getting him thinking about where using his feet. As you can see, you know when you look at these videos of four-year-olds and jumping and they're so extravagant and they're over jumping everything and it looks so amazing, like that's what I thought he would be and I was definitely disappointed because this isn't the reality of young horses which I learned from him. Most horses don't over jump everything and are really extravagant. This here, him running out, he was really unconfident. He became fine at single fences but then the minute I put up a distance it was like, oh my god, I don't know what this is and we worked on that obviously here, doing lots of now distances but very small jumps, getting him used to it. This here is, I think, maybe a little course or no, I jumped this single fence. This was the biggest jump I jumped on him at the time and I was very excited and it was all great and you can see I jump around a little kind of course here. Again, really, really tiny but just working on his confidence and really just bringing him really, really slowly because I knew I wasn't going to do any young horse classes or anything on him because I was at college and he definitely wouldn't have been ready for it anyway but it just meant I could go really, really slowly with him and there was never any rush to jump bigger or anything like that. Honestly, I was just happy to get him over those fillers because I couldn't find any videos of it but he used to be absolutely terrified and he wouldn't be able to go past them or definitely not over them so this was a great success for me to jump over this little course and I think we have a little distance here. He jumps great and then in a vertical he jumps rubbish over so it's all just not very exciting at the moment but this clip is just to show how quiet he really was. I just rode him with no bridle because there was no hope of him doing anything at all. If anything, he's quite a lazy horse so I nearly would have been excited if he'd run off on me. Here's more clips of me schooling over fillers because again he was a little bit spooky at them but he got very, very good. This is his first time coming over these white ones and you can see he was a little bit of an over jump but he was a very good boy to go over it and then just a double which he was a good boy for. Now we're on to his first time schooling off property. I love this day because we go from this clip which he wouldn't even go into the arena for me, terrified, to jumping some nice fences. I think it's just so exciting how young horses can improve so quickly even in just one day. Here you can see he nearly wouldn't go over this little cross pull and then the next clip he's a little bit more confident and he's happy to go over the rainbows and then this last clip was our last jump of the day and he pops down this distance very confidently and then over this vertical which I was actually really scared to jump but my dad made me and I was so happy because he jumped it really well. So it's just exciting to see how they improve. Now reality hits again and we go to our very first show and this is the 80 centimetre and we come to this double and it's going all very well and then he stops in the middle of it. Poor thing, he completely just had no confidence to it and we try to come around again and he stops again and we get eliminated. So that was a great start to his show jumping career. So then that evening we schooled some doubles in the warm-up after the show was finished and then we came the next day and he flew through the double. So this is also him in another show flying through the double. It's great young horses because they're just so open to learning new things and it only took one like really good schooling session of doubles and he realised that doubles weren't scary and he has no problem with them ever since. You can see him going through literally just that one day and he's never had a problem since. So it is really rewarding to ride young horses. So this is him at Mill Street which was an international show that I brought him along to alongside my other horse who was jumping the international class. So you can see it's still a little bit spooky, it was a big atmosphere, lots of jumps but he jumped his first one metre class of this show which is very exciting. Again doubles no problem and he was a very good boy. Unfortunately he had no clears, he had one down every class I think so it was a little bit of a bummer but he wasn't too bad and then we jumped again at Cavan the next month. He had the first fence down in this class and again unfortunately it means we couldn't jump the second round but he was very confident jumping his doubles no problem and just yeah obviously technique wasn't great but we're working on it. So then he got almost a year off because again I was at college and then this summer he came back into work as a five-year-old so this was on my first rides back on him. Just doing some flat work and just popping him around, no kind of rush on him or anything like that and this is him now coming down his first grid. I honestly don't know when the change happens that he starts jumping really well because this again just looks really average to me and like I wouldn't be excited by him at all looking at him and I don't know and then this again him schooling in Mullingar. This was before our first show off this year so we just wanted to get him out and seeing some things but yeah it was again a little bit underwhelming. He wasn't, he was a good boy, he was really brave and jumping everything but he just was never, he wasn't the most careful horse and you can see here he gets a little bit distracted and hits it behind and then jumps the double. He got a little bit of fright after he hit the jump which excuses a little wobble to the double but he still jumped it so we're happy and then he comes around to his next fence and lots of fillers and everything like that. He's jumping all them very very well but yeah again just not the most careful. He knocks this next fence as well which is yeah just him learning I suppose and when I was schooling this day I wanted to jump one big fence and get a really exciting screenshot and I jumped that and that was grand. So this was his 90 centimetres first show of 2019. He was a really really good boy to this in fairness. He, I'm not sure if he was clear, he might have had one down, I can't actually remember but he was great. He was pretty brave, jumped everything, delighted with him. Then I went overseas on to do work experience for college and then when we came back this was one of his first shows when I came back. It was in September and this is the one metre class. Really good, little wobble here but he was great. I may be clear or maybe one down in this. I think maybe one down. So he was great, he was really brave, taking everything on and I felt he was more careful when he came back from this break. I'm not sure how that happened. Then he jumped his first 110 and this is when everything really started to change. He was clear in his first one metre 10. I really think it's just the fences going up. It caught his attention, he started getting really careful, really like excited to jump and just overall we were just so thrilled with him and this really started a trend of lots and lots of clear rounds. Yeah, he was super. I was so happy after this class. After this jump I just like, and I get so excited. So this is me jumping some bigger fences at home now and he's obviously almost like a completely different horse. So brave, taking everything on, really careful, really excited to jump. Look, I never really knew when the change happened in him but looking back on these videos it was just this summer really. He just came back like a completely different horse, so careful, so keen to jump and we started doing some grid work and just his technique improved so much. I was just so pleased with him. Yeah, I'm just over the moon. So this was the 110 league final and as I was saying we had so many clear rounds. He was so consistent over the autumn league so he actually ended up coming joint first in the league which was so exciting. It was my first big win on him. Obviously we did a little photo shoot because I was so proud. We won a sash, a rug. Oh, it was just one of the best days of my life. Just being so proud of him, our first home run and having a big win is just so exciting. Even though it wasn't that big, it was still big to us. This is him jumping around a different venue at the 1m15. Again, so brave, so careful, really really good. Here we are schooling some bigger fences again in preparation for our last show of the year where we will jump our first 120. So you can see this little clip here, it's just me jumping around a little course. These fences are all 120 so we felt like we were in a good place to jump our first 120 at a show. Now here we are in our first 120. We did it at a big three-day show which was a little bit brave of us but it was no problem at all to him. He unfortunately touched the very first fence but then was clear around the rest of the round. Threw a big triple, everything. Just the feeling this horse gives me now is unreal. I've never ridden a horse like him. He's probably the best horse I've ever owned. Well, he's definitely the best horse I've ever owned. He's definitely going to be better than Wellbeck. It's just so exciting that we bred him and how far he's come. I kind of want this to show that even though horses might not be the most exciting or talented at the very start, some of them just need a bit of time and a little bit of experience and confidence and they just turn around. He's a completely different horse to even a few months ago. He's changed so much and I'm so proud of him and I cannot wait to see how far we go in the future. So thanks so much for watching guys. I hope you enjoyed this video. I definitely enjoyed making it. It was so nostalgic looking back on these old clips but I'm just so proud of how far we've come and yeah, I can't stress how much I love this horse. He is just like my heart horse. I love him so much. So yeah, make sure to subscribe and keep following our journey and I will see you in our next video. Bye!