An Evening with Sam Griffiths

Thursday 21^st February we made our way down to Kingston Maurward College for an educational, yet fun evening with Sponsored Rider Sam Griffiths.

Organised by the colleges Level 3 students , the event was extremely well run, and all in aid of St John’s Ambulance Service – who were there to demonstrate the good and necessary work that they do.

The evening started with Sam bringing in the one and only, Paulank Brockagh – AKA Brocks, for a bit of flat work. Very smartly turned out in her white Stretch & Flex Exercise Bandages, Brocks showed us all the moves required at the higher levels of eventing. Of course we’re not all at that level though, so it was interesting to find out how Sam warms up, how he starts to ‘pick’ his horses up and also how he works through common problems that come up during training and at competition too.

Next in was Annie to do some pole work. Debuting the brand new Tri-Zone Impact Sports Boots in Flame Red, she initially found the arena a little bit scary – and poles required more of a jump than they should. However with calm consistent riding, she settled down and showed us some lovely work over a variety of pole exercises that we could take home and try for ourselves!

Half Time! 

Time for an interval next! We must have handed out over 100 free goody bags to all attendees and met some lovely people too. It was a great opportunity to see our new Tri-Zone Impact Sports Boots, Equilibrium Therapy Hind & Hock Magnetic Chaps and French Navy Stretch & Flex in the flesh. The organisers had managed to put together a massive raffle to raise even more money for St John’s too!

Before long, Sam was back in the arena, this time with jumps set up for show jumping, as well as simulated cross country! While we got to watch some super jumping, Sam also went over different techniques when training a horse if they rush before, or after a fence, as well as how to address the situation if they stop at a fence too. We’ve all run into one of those problems at some point, if not all of them – so it was full of a lot of useful advice and homework!! He also covered simulating skinny fences at home, as well as corners, making these gradually more and more difficult so that the horse can understand the job, and grow in confidence as fences get even more narrow, and corners get wider.

All in all, if you’re interested in learning and training your horse, it was the place to be! If you missed out, keep a look out on the Sam Griffiths Eventing Team Facebook page to stay up to date and be notified of anymore demos.

You can catch us, get a goody bag and see our new products at Hartpury College on the 21^st March for an evening with William Fox-Pitt – 50 Not Out! We look forward to seeing you there!