Thursday 29th April
Been just hugging and hand grooming the horses as not much time whilst house move going on. Missing them all a great deal but can't do everything ;-( BUT today we moved the horses to another field at their present home as there is more grazing in the top field and it's clean since we wormed them in the old field last week. The full grazing move to our new home will happen on Bank Holiday Monday and we're really looking forward to that...for now though I got to ride Tara whilst moving them to the top field and this felt really good ;-)
Wednesday 21st April
Been spending time away instructing and the rest of the time packing the house things up ready fro our move SO today I found some time to put our playfield things in a pile ready to move and then go and groom all our horses. Spending grooming time with the herd is always fun and they all appreciated getting some more moulting hair from their coats ;-) I took my time and really spent some quality time with each one and although they all ended up looking much better I ended up with horse hair on my face, in my clothes, up my nose and in my mouth! lol. Good that they look better though ;-)
Might not be able to do much with the horses before we move, they are going to be moved on Monday 3rd May and we move in on the 4th, but willl try to just be with them as much as possible.
Thursday 15th April
Went out today with the thought that Holly needs to start being ridden more as she is going to be ridden to our new home/grazing which is about a 4 hour hack away SO some stamina building is in order ;-) So out I went and she caught me easily...she's a very cooperative horsey, was a RBext but is more a LBext now and is a lovely horse, great companion and very much a people horse.
I haltered her and played some yo-yo's and then some circling game to make sure she was attentive, obedient and with equal draw/drive. I then took her to the car, groomed and saddled her and mounted up. I went on the 'dog walk' hack like I'm doing with Solly, she knows the route very well and we had some nice walk/trot all the way up the hill and back down again. She has a tendency to want to canter/gallop about up the hill but that is only because Mark loves doing it and it's a bit of a habit now, she trotted very nicely for me up the hill once she knew that was what I wanted. I don't want her cantering around, I want to build muscle and stamina in the lower gaits. Lovely ride out and she seemed to really enjoy it too ;-)
When I put Holly back Solly came and caught me and I haltered him and then took him up to the playfield for some play. I start with driving from Z4 up to the field w/transitions of w/t/bkup. Next came a good groom which he loved, found all his itchy spots ;-) Then I put him on the 45' line and worked him over the trotting poles from a distance, this is going well, he used to try to dodge out of the pattern but now he stays on the poles and trots over then nicely. I then ask him to try to walk in/out of the large tractor tyre and he actually does it ;-) first time for that!!
After a short break and some more scratches I ask him to jump a single barrel, it takes a few times for him to understand what I'm asking for but then he does it well and I end on a good note and let him graze for a bit. While he's grazing I arrange the tyre jump from 3 high to 4 high, not quite as high as the upright barrel but a good way to get to that height. He jumps it without a problem, front legs tucked nicely up and a great stretch over his topline ;-)
Again he had a rest/graze and then I put him over the small white barrel sideways L&R and then moving circles in w/t/c and he stays in canter much much more now which is fab. End at the car where I saddle him and take him to the arena. We do pretty much the same as yesterday, transitions RtR, clover leaf in trot L&R and canter, today we almost got a whole circuit both ways so our progress is going well ;-))
For our finale I took him out on the hack again that we did yesterday, exactly the same direction etc and I only had to walk a short way to start the ride out, he was a bit more attentive to everything today as the wind was up BUT I kept his focus on me and we had a lovely ride out.
Wednesday 14th April
Beautiful sunshine today and I have a day off from work so off out I go to play with Solly and then Stormy.
Solly:
Groom for the friendly game and then play around with some games on the 45' line. First we play over jumps/squeeze game and then put that into some travelling circles in trot and canter. His canter circles are much better now, balanced and calm and not changing gait. I then ask him to go over the trotting poles from a distance L&R which is great.
I then circle him and put him to three standing up barrels but this was just too high for him so we go and do some sideways over the small barrel L&R. Going well so far ;-)
We then play with some fig 8's and more walking canter circles around the playfield back to the car. I then saddle him and go into the large oval arena where I mount. I'm using the Wintec Wide saddle with the XXW gullet (this is one size larger than he measures) and put just one wither shim to help balance it for me. I am also using the stirrups one hole shorter so some changes happening with the saddle and our balance and I hope this is going to help us with our canter transitions now.
So, the saddle feels good and Solly is certainly fine with it so we do some work to see how it goes. First I ask for some RtR w/t/bkup trans to work on his impulsion and obedience, I work with concentrated reins but let them go loose every so often to reward good behaviour. Then I play with some trotting cloverleaf to the L&R and he does really really well. Finally I work on his canter and he goes into canter easily and well, without any swishing tail or trial bucks which is great, much much smoother (so the larger gullet on the saddle could have been affecting that before!) He manages to so a good half of the large arena and the next time we try it when I feel him almost going slower into trot I ask gently for him to continue in canter and he does a great 3/4 of the arena in a good, controlled canter....yeehaaa! ;-)
I am so pleased with his progress that I decide to take Solly out for his first hack of the year and it goes really well, walk him the first bit as this has always been a problem with trees overhanging, a wall on the other side and LOTS of shadows etc. Then I remount and ride w/t all the way up and down the hill back to the grazing field. Fab time, he was alert, attentive but calm and listening to my requests. When he felt a bit tense I asked him to leg yield from one side of the path/road to the other and this really helped, I also tried out some shoulder in as this kept him focussed on me too ;-)
Stormy:
Friendly game first as always and he's really moulting BIG time. I then sit on my mounting block and ask him to play some yo-yo's with me and he's very good at this so I move quickly onto some circle transitions w/t/c with some great COD's in there. He really has those COD's down well and I just have to lead the rope and turn my body, push my hip at him and boom he's done a COD...fab. He was very cool, listening to me, obedient, attentive and with good impulsion.
So, today was Stormy's first day back to some longreining. I start with one 22' line working along the rail making sure I can work from Zones 2/3/4/5 and working also with the line either on the inside or outside of Stormy and having control still. Once this is going well I work with the one rein still in Z5 but letting Stormy walk where he wants and I just work on friendly game in Z5 tossing the rope over his head whilst he's still walking so that I can work on either side of him. He's great with the friendly game of tossing the rope from Z5 as I've done quite a lot of this with him in preperation for harness work.
After we've done a bit of this and we've had a nice relaxing break I put two 22' reins on him and work on walk/backups and then w/t/bkups and fig 8's and letting Stormy get more and more comfortable with it all ;-)
I then get on him bareback and ride him back to the grazing field which he does fabulously well, calmly and attentive.
Monday 12th April
An absolutely georgous sunny day and I have time to play with my dear Solly today. First I get him to catch me in the grazing field and then we play stick 2 me going up the road to the playfield. I then let him loose for a bit and re-arrange my 20x40m arena. I decided that to help Solly in our quest to get a balanced canter I needed to put a very large round or oval pen up so that there aren't any corners to 'stop' him flowing. So that is what I did, changed the rectangular pen to a very large ovalish pen. Cool ;-)
Then I invited Solly into the pen and we played a bit at liberty for fun. I first asked him to stand still while I groomed him quickly and then moved on to some simple moves of the HQ's and FQ's, doing it in one very fluid movement....move HQ's, get Sol to move fast and give me opposite eye, then move FQ's, stand still and friendly. Then do other side too ;-)
I then asked Sol to try some liberty spins and these went very well ;-) Next was some liberty sideways w/out a fence and then moved swiftly onto some liberty driving from Z4. This sort of started out as Sol's idea and I just moulded it into follow the rail at liberty with some walk, halt, backups thrown in. He didn't work down transitions on my energy to start with but my energy and then holding his tail to put a small amount of pressure there worked and after a short while he was listening and working on my energy which was good.
I then haltered him and put him on the 45' line and we played around with circles at the canter and they were pretty good, light phases, good changes of lead and staying in gait all good ;-)
SO, I saddled, cinched and mounted. Now today I used Mark's Wintec Wide as he has the gullet on the second to largest size (I've been using the largest size with 2 wither shims). I used his saddle with only 0ne shim and it seems to sit better on his back SO this is going to be a good test of whether he canter's unbalanced because his saddle was too wide!!
I start off in walk, then trot and do some clover eaf pattern nicely. I then move into working on canter and it seemed much more balanced, not so choppy and because the school area is now a large oval he can just canter and not worry about corners. I was very pleased with his progress and now will put my Wintec Wide saddle to the same gullet size and work on the canter knowing that this is better for him as the larger gullet may have been bouncing around and down on his withers/back area when in canter. I will experiment more and keep a record of how it all goes ;-)
I was very happy to be with Solly today, he was happy, calm and obedient with some nice light phases for our transitions and it feels like it's all coming together more now.
Friday 9th April
Having just been out teaching horsemanship for the last three days in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire it was nice to be able to just go out and relax with our herd today. I decided that I would groom them all as they are all seriously moulting and I knew they would all love it SO off out I went, grooming kit in hand and my halter/rope/cs/ss in case I needed it.
All the horses stood at liberty to be groomed individually, quiet and calm and all thoroughly enjoying the attention. All had LOADS of loose hair and there were huge clumps of hair left in the field after grooming...the birds will have nice soft nests this Spring ;-)
After grooming them all I haltered Stormy for a small play. I first played around with porcupine his head down. I then sat on a large stone and played with yo-yo's back up a hill, circling at w/t on the hill and then I asked him to sideways over a stone at a distance. He did everything really well ;-) After some scratches and a treat I asked him to move away from me (still sitting on the stone) and try to put one foot on a stone. We took a few attempts, he figured out to put his nose on it and then he just put his foot on it and looked at me as if to say 'aren't I a clever boy'.... and he is ;-)
I took his halter off and fussed him a LOT. Then I went and found Solly, Stormy was following me like a puppy which was cute but then I asked him to move away and he did so nicely.
Solly caught me well and I then went over to another stone on a hill and sat down. I asked him to lower his head and back up a bit and then I asked him to yo-yo down a hill which went well. Next I moved him back a bit, moved his forehand away from me until I was in Z4/5 and then I DHQ's so that Sol did a spin. This was pretty cool, he was so light and moved away on my cues beautifully, calmly and with ease. Then, like Stormy, I asked Solly to w/t circles around me whilst I sat. He was very light and responsive and I think he's been missing me whilst I've been away.
I decided to try to 'cue' Solly's 'bow' today and I asked him to backup a bit then gave him the cue....he started to bow and then stopped so I cue'd him a bit more with the cs/ss on his front legs to encourage him to lower himself more and he did it......yeehaa ;-) I'm so proud of him and it is so cool to cue this bow now. Once he was down I jumped on his back and then played friendly game with him, with my body and also by tossing the rope over his head and then I jump off and let him go. He too follows me around which is cute and I hug him and then ask him to move away and he does so.
Finally I ask Tara to catch me and she's cool about that, I halter her (she's so cool to halter and really gives me permission to do it by actually putting her nose into the halter for me ;-)
I take her out of the field and then ride her bareback on the short hack down the road ,trotting down a track, around the fence into the river, canter down the track into our old Summer grazing field and to the house for a treat for Tara....then back to the field to be released with a few treats ;-) I love riding Tara for short hacks like this, it's relaxing and we have a lot of fun doing it together.
Sunday 4th April
Dry day so went out and Holly and Solly caught me nicely. I took both horses up to the playfield. When in the field I let Holly off, she could graze and wait for Mark to come up while I was playing with Solly. He needs more playing before going out for a hack so I make sure I come up early to the playfield before Mark does.
I start the session by giving Solly a thorough groom and scratch his itchy spots which he loves ;-) I then ask him from a distance to try to put his foot into the large tractor tyre or even to walk through it if he's feeling brave. He does put his foot in, actually both front feet and then takes them back which went well. When I ask him again he actually just jumps the whole thing and he does it calmly so I leave it there for that.
Next I see if he can walk over the trotting poles today without getting worried and he's cool about them so I up the task and ask him to trot the poles whilst circling putting the tyre jump on the other side of the circle. He does this task very well, in a nice manner without trying to avoid anything or getting antsy about it.
After a short break we go over to the barrels and I ask Sol to sidepass over them but he has HUGE trouble today and really can't focus on doing the task so I take him away from it and instead work on his impulsion and see if he needs to run off any energy. I put him on the 45' line and set him off on circles and he goes up into canter easily, does some nice COD's and I start doing walking circles up and down the hill in the field. At the bottom of the field I put him to some fig 8's around the log jumps and then moving back a bit he jumps the jumps whilst still doing the fig 8's ;-)
Back at the top of the field I ask Sol to stand on the pedastal with all 4 feet from Z5, cool. Then from there I drive him from Z5 around cones in the weave pattern....worked very well, very pleased with his response to this ;-) Before a rest I ask Sol to jump the double barrel jumps which has a few trot strides in the centre (or one large canter stride) and he is much more responsive about doing this today, he's calmer, thinking about where his feet are supposed to be and watching out for the second jump. At the end he actually does three jumps in a row with me which is great.
I rest him again and then saddle and cinch him up and mount from the barrel. Keeping in the hackamore I ask Sol to LF and DHQ's as normal and then see how well he weaves in walk around the cones. Then I ask him for some trot, he resists to start with, another little dominant moment but I relax and ask again and he trots nicely. Sometimes not sure if he is worried by something or just being a bolshy teenager? lol
I then ride the outside rail of the arena in trot changing direction by using a small circle around a water barrel and also putting in the cones at weave again. Going well. Then I pop him over the trotting poles both ways and he keeps calm and focussed which is great.
Finally in the playfield I go into the arena and start working towards canter work. First putting in some w/t transitions and trotting 20m and 10m circles. When he feels relaxed I ask for canter and he really tries hard, going off with a very small leg aid which is great BUT he feels tense, his head is high and his stride is very very choppy and short. He can only canter a few strides and it's very frustrating as I want to RtR in canter but he seems very reluctant. I am going to work on trying to find out how to help him, maybe trying a slightly smaller saddle gullet in case that is too wide and pushing on his withers, maybe try setting up a large round arena so he's go no corners to stop his impulsion, or maybe just sit with it and see if he can sort it out himself? ;-)
So, after all that play/riding Mark and I go out for a short hack around the fields, a reverse of where we went yesterday. All goes well, Solly is eager and responsive and he passes lots of new, strange things along the pathways....builders equipment, fallen trees etc BUT when we come to the place where he's had a couple of jumps previously he just cannot face going forwards. Mark and I sit and wait for a very very long time, we use retreat and re-approach but both horses are worried by going up the incline, over the bridge past a small waterfall and stream and up past a driveway which is higher than the road the horses are on...pretty scary. So, in the end I jump off a calm Solly and he follows me up the pathway without hesitation. Going up the pathway I can see a couple of people working on something down near the river so maybe the horses were very perceptive of something unusual going on that we couldn't actually see ;-)
At the top of the pathway I remounted and we carried on with the ride, up onto the road and in trot most of the way up the hill back onto the estate.When we were on the estate road (nice and quiet) I do some transitions, halt, slight feel backwards and into trot/halt, slight feel backwards and into trot. I count 8 trot strides and by the end of the short road Solly was totally counting 8 strides with me and he was stopping on a lighter rein.
Saturday 3rd April
Spent a few days teaching away from home recently and today it was showering regularly and I'm at home ;-( But manage, when the sun shone for a minute, to just go and ask Tara to catch me and go out for a lovely casual, fun ride bareback around the estate here. Mark came bareback on Holly too and it was great to just relax and be with my Tara.
Hopefully if the weather is good tomorrow I will play/ride my georgous Solly ;-)
