August 2010

Monday 30th August

Today the sun shone beautifully all day and it was a lovely opportunity to get out and play/ride like we were going to do yesterday but the wind was too high yesterday, SO off Mark and I go to see the horses and play/ride. Today was very special as today Mark rode his Holly in walk and trot and this is the first time since his hip operation that he's sat on her and the first time in over a year to be on her without any pain ;-)

So instead of writing about it all, like yesterday I shall put it in pictures:

Asking for relaxation and impulsion w/Stormy and circles

Stormy: The Power House ;)

Stormy doing a fabulously light sideways towards over the barrel ;-)

Working on Stormy's sidle up to be mounted/restarting...
and my confidence after my fall from him 3 months ago

Mark back on Holly only 6 weeks since hip operation ;-) Yeehaa

Z5 driving on the right w/Solly

Tossing rope over head from Z5 whilst driving ;-)

Z5 driving from left

Jumping nicely

Asking Solly to 'not take the bit' (reverse psychology)...

...oh okay then, take the bit ;-)

Solly sidepassing the barrel quickly with confidence ;-)

Solly doing a nice confident soft Lateral Flexion

Solly and working some fig 8's in finesse

Working on finesse and Solly's impulsion

Finesse w/light plastic french link bit!
No impulsion but mouth stayed closed more!

Finesse w/Parelli Confidence Snaffle (french link w/lozenge)..
not sure which one works better?
Mouth opened more often but impulsion better!

Working on arcing on a circle with the suspension rein

Small fig 8's asking for the 'ribs over' for a good arc in the circle

Short bursts of canter, my position is getting better ;-)

Nice canter, focussed, calm, relaxed
and my position getting better each time ;-)

Sunday 29th August

Today was VERY VERY WINDY to the point where my wishes to play with lots of horses and then ride and hopefully do some video'ing were totally squashed as I could only just think in the weather, the horses were a bit spooky about being in the play area which has a forest on one side of it and the wind was making our ears go blue!! eek ;-(

SO, we just went out and played with the two white boys today and did as much as we could without being blown away.

Mark played with Stormy first today which was great. Storm was a bit sceptical of the forest but Mark did a good job of playing as many games as he could whilst keeping him relaxed and obedient. I played firstly with Solly and he was quite relaxed when he came to catch me and we did some general play with most of the 7 games to make sure he was willing, light, relaxed, focussed and happy.

I then went and played with Stormy and then returned to playing with Solly, I did quite a few things with both of them to help them both get more relaxed and focussed in the windy weather but instead of writing about it I'll put piccie's up as Mark took some great ones today, here they are:

Stormy jumps on circles, squeeze and fig 8's too ;-)

Teaching Stormy how to move his ribs over to relax into the circle

Stormy free and off to catch the herd ;-)

Solly doing a very light ph1 sideways porcupine

Teaching Solly to stop over a jump so that we can sidepass over it...

...Yeah, he managed a fab stop over the jump...

...giving sidepass a purpose for Solly...

...final step off the jump! really pleased he's getting sidepass over things now ;-)

Solly trying hard over the 3' barrels...

...not quite high enough but he doesn't panic when the middle topples over...

...2nd time around he jumps it with better focus...

...and then does a great, focussed jump the other way too ;-))

Circle at liberty in walk...when I let him go he wanted to stay with me ;-)

Circling well

He's such a good boy ;-)

Wednesday 25th August

Managed to get down to the horses field about 3.30pm today, the day was nice, bright and warm and I just wanted to do some riding today to make sure me and Sol's bond is there before I have a few days off again.

Firstly I ask Solly to catch me...not a problem. Straight onto the 45' line and we start with some friendly game for relaxation. Then some yo-yo and sideways for willing obedience. All the games go well, he even sideways'd and backed up over the tarp today and it was all scrunched up too ;-)

For our next bit I wanted to see some impulsion (whoa=go) and used some moving circle transitions and multiple jumps with lots of changes of direction thrown in for good measure. He was a bit sluggish to start with but the COD's and jumps get his life up a bit and when he manages to jump the 3' upright barrels I stop and let him rest.

I try to have a good flowing session to get my 4 stages of savvy right, the last one being flexibility. To get this I ask for some close up circling with some leg-yields thrown in so that he moves away in a nice arc on the L&R. For a bit of fun at the end here I ask Sol to try to jump one low jump and make sure my energy is just long enough to just make it his front legs over.....he does it and I show him a GREAT reason for being able to sidepass over things and he sidepasses over the half jump he did. This is a FIRST for this half jump today and it really had me working on my energy through my core as I had to ask enough for him to jump but not too much that he went over it completely....fab. He looked at me as if to say, 'AAHH, now I know why you'd sidepass over something, it never really made sense before'....method in my madness ;-)

I take him next into the arena, groom him, bridle him and saddle him and after a warm up and cinching session I mount and do some nice freestyle work: transitions w/t/h/bkups and then fig 8's and serpentines. When I feel he is responding to my cues nicely I start taking up the reins with the bit/bridle. He was a bit resistent today so I just go to the 'fluid rein' and he settles and 'gets it' quickly and so then I ask for him to do some transitions, fig 8's and serpentines with a contact. All going very well and he's very light and responsive.

I decide that I'll work on transitions today to help him work on the bit more and to see where it leads us. His lower trans' are good and his trot to canter transitions, using the corners to help the transition, are much better, my body position seems much quieter and more balanced so I decide to work on something new. Today I decide that we are going to do backup/trot transitions and do them in the corners SO I trot towards a corner, backup before the corner and then go back to a trot transition into and out the other side of the corner. He does these well and I up the challenge to see what will happen. I come into the first corner in trot, backup before the corner and then ask for a canter transition out of the corner. I'm amazed that his energy is up there for me, he doesn't canter the whole side, goes back to trot BUT the fact that he's trying his heart out to do the backup/canter transitions is fab. I get 4 of these with the last one being pretty great so I stop and let him walk around the arena to cool down before getting off and giving him a HUGE HUG ;-))

When I let him go he does some liberty stick 2 me in trot and jumps 4 jumps at liberty next to me for his handful of treats. Great session and not too taxing for either of us, things are beginning to come together in our relationship and our finesse is a good guide of where we are in our journey.

Solly and Stormy after my session....Stormy heard I was handing treats out! lol

Tuesday 24th August

Home from a few days away teaching and it's good to see Mark, dogs and horses again. It rains in the am but by about 3pm the rain has gone and I get the opportunity to go and see the horses and play with Solly ;-)

When I go down to the field some fencing has been taken down (by Stormy I presume! lol) so I fix that first. This is a good strategy as it takes my energy away from the horses and they get curious about what I'm doing and come and say hello to me. Solly stays close and so I halter him and he walks the fence line with me whilst I fix the last bit.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with Sol today so I first of all go and sit on the wooden pedastal and just groom him with my hands. He's been rolling in mud against the flies and it's nice and dry and a great opportunity to get our bond back whilst getting him cleaner. I use my 'grooming' game on him. This is where I sit as if not able to move from the waist down and move him about as much as I can to get to all his body. He does very well moving just a step forward each time I ask so that I can touch all over his body. He lowers his head and stays there for me to do his head, neck and mane and also picks up all 4 feet from one side for me too. He also stands still whilst I toss the 45' rope over his head so that I can gently and slowly ask him to do a spin...one step at a time so that I can clean his flanks and tail. He doesn't stop totally with Z5 to me but does very well and I get to most parts on him. This was fun and we now have our playful bond back ;-)

I then ask him to stick 2 me (w/t/h/bkup) to the jumping area where we do some 45' long yo-yo's in walk. We've not done this often and he needed just 3 higher phases to get him out to the end of the line and that wasn't bad at all, will try to impove on this as the rest of the backup was with a nice ph1. I did some porcupine sideways and this was fab...never tried it before but just put fingers on girth then behind it for the sideways and he did it SO well, phase 1.5 and then very light and no forward movement, total amazement on my part. lol

Next I worked on his impulsion and asked him to w/t/c on the 45' line and pop some jumps, often multiples. He did all that I asked and kept his canter up for quite a while too. He really is getting to be more and more fun.

After a short break I put the 45' line to longreins and did some of this. Firstly just some transitions on a straight line (w/t/h/bkup) and that went very well so then I went and did some fig 8's with me walking behind him and then me standing still. Finally I put in some great trot weaving and Solly showed that he's getting lighter and working more from lower phases and my energy more and more.

For a final bit of fun I took him to the new 50' roundpen I set up last time. I put 6 polyposts in it for a circle weave and had some fun with stick 2 me doing weave on a circle. Then I asked him to pop in a couple of fig 8's at close range and then to do some liberty circling. His circling was cool, he stayed close to me until I pushed some energy at Z3 to ask him to move to the rail and he did this. He did some transitions on the circle and some COD's too...not as precise as I want it for L4 but definitely getting better each time we do this and it's been a while since doing any roundpen liberty so I was very happy with his efforts today ;-)

He walked with me to the gate and I popped into the car for a few treats for him, I then told him he could go back to the herd and he cantered off, I walked away only to hear him cantering BACK to me!!! SO COOL...I think Solly's developing a sense of humour! lol. Gave him a couple more treats and then said he could really go and he rejoined the herd. Love this boy.

Wednesday 18th August

Nice dry, warm day today so get out down to the horses to play/ride Solly ;-) When I got down to the field, around 11am, the horses were dozing in a corner of the field together so instead of disturbing them I decide to build my 50' roundpen, incorporating it onto the existing electric fence that goes around the field so that Stormy won't (hopefully) play with it and destroy it ;-))

After the pen was built the horses had woken up and were grazing together nicely, I went near them and Stormy and then Holly came over to say hello and to get scratches. Then I went and fussed Fortune and Solly came up to me for scratches which I gave him. I then halter him and put him on the 45' line straight away and we walk with some Stick 2 Me (w/t/bkup/halt trans') back to the play area of the field.

I then ask him to touch some cones with his nose from 40' away. He's very good at this game and not bad with the distance either.



I then ask him to touch the pedastal with his nose, then 2 feet, then all 4 feet and although for the 4 feet I have to close the distance to about 30' he does extremely well ;-)




He got some treats and a rest after those good tasks and then I started him out on some moving circles with transitions (w/t/c) and those went very well too, he's becomming more and more responsive to my requests of trot and canter and he tries his hardest to stay in gait more and more ;-)



After some circles we turn our attention to jumping, first the tyre jump, then the 'waterfall' jump and lastly the upright barrels. The first two jumps he does easily and with confidence. The upright barrels is not a jump he does naturally first time, every time so I'm working on it. I think he's a bit worried by it SO instead of asking him to do it straight away I put the barrel closest to me down on it's side and ask him to just jump that one 4 times in a row on a circle. He does two, one, three but not four so I just stay persistent in my passive position and keep the number 4 in my mind until he does it. Eventually he does when he's calm and actually watching where he's going so this was a good lesson in him learning to 'look where he's going' and do what's asked without me pushing him or setting him up in the correct way.

When he'd done the low jump I put the barrel back up and asked him to jump the uprights once in both directions with me a bit closer to the jump (he finds this more confident) and he does it nicely both ways ;-)

So, we go and rest for a long while in the arena area and I groom/scratch him lots. Once he's calm and relaxed I saddle him and also put the bridle on him with a new bit. I like the Parelli Confidence bit as it's really helped him go 'into' the bit and not be frightened of it BUT it's very very heavy and when he's LB he can lean on it a bit SO I changed it to see if this one works for him. It's like a french link but is made of very light plastic and has a swivelling middle lozenge which looks nice to play with. He was a bit sceptical of it at first but he soon relaxed with it. When I mounted I kept the hackamore on and used that first so that he could get used to wearing his new bit without me fiddling with it.




SO, riding today was fun. I decided not to go on a hack to the village as I wanted to work in my new arena with Sol. We started on lots of freestyle and he was very light off my leg today working on circles, fig 8's, RtR and just general changes of direction with a loose rein. It was fun and he was really listening to me today.

When he was ready and going in a nice trot I gently picked up the bridle reins and started working with concentrated reins. He was very light and worked well off the bit/rein and my legs and we did some fabulous 20m fig 8's and serpentines. I also put some transitions in and his halt/backup/trot/halt/backup/trot was light and really engaged ;-) He actually put in a backup/canter transition too which was fabulous and I tried him a couple of times with this and he tried his darndest to do it for me....excellent tries and shows how much more on his HQ's he is nowadays ;-)

I ended on a great note and just let him walk freely on a loose rein around the arena a few times to help him cool down. Very pleased we stayed in the arena today, he did way more than I thought he would ;-))

Monday 16th August

Had a busy day out and about today but I went and fed and fussed the horses at 6ish this evening. They all came up nicely for their dinner but Stormy and Solly (the two greys) were covered in fly yukk...they were swishing their tails but didn't seem too disturbed about it, Mark and I put a ton of Avon SS spray on them (all we had) but the anty things took absolutely no notice of it. lol.

Anyway, I noticed a couple of disturbed polyposts by the stream and went and fixed them (after turning the electric off) but when I checked the power of the line when I turned it back on there was NO charge on it SO I knew there was something 'earthing' the charge. On an inspired thought I went and got Tara to catch me, haltered her up, made the 12' into reins, mounted her from a boulder in the field and rode the rail making sure there was no long grass touching the line. Tara did very well by squeezing and sidewaysing up to the fence for me to snap the tops of long grass that was touching the line. I found nothing else wrong with the fence.

It was quite impromptu but a lot of fun asking Tara to help me with something that needed to be done...I think this is the best way of putting principles to a purpose with our horses ;-)

Friday 13th August

Today I had to move all the horses up to the house paddock as our farrier was coming to trim them all. Mark drove me the mile to the field and I first haltered and walked back Fortune, Tara and Solly.

Safely to the paddock for the first three beauties ;-)

Then Mark drove me back to the field and I haltered and brought back Holly and Stormy. There were no problems, they were all pretty good, 2nd lot were anxious to be back with the first three but they were easy to handle and it was fun walking them all back to the house.

Holly and Stormy at the house ;-)

Farrier trimming Tara with Fortune waiting ;-)

Holly, Solly and Stormy hanging out with Mark in the paddock

With the trimming done I then took Holly and Stormy back to the grazing field, Mark picked me up again to go home and pick up the other three. Before setting off I saddled Solly so that he was ready for a ride to the village when I'd dropped the other two off ;-)

Again all the horses were fun to walk back to the field, Solly was particularly calm and this is probably due to the good play session we had yesterday. It was good to bring all the horses to the house, the paddocks (3) are going to be properly fenced over the next week and this will be used mostly for winter to keep them close to the house but also for when I want to bring up one or more horses to get them used to moving and being solo sometimes for a few hours! ;-)

So, Solly and I start our hack out, I mount him off a stone wall but he seems anxious. Maybe it's because I just let the other 4 back into the grazing field or maybe it's because it's been a while since we did this hack? Anyway, if he's anxious he makes me unconfidemt and that in turn makes him unconfident SO I dismount and walk all the way to the village. I could have mounted beforehand but I wanted to make sure he was totally okay before doing that and I was enjoying the walk (must have done about 6 miles in all today! ;-)

At the shop I wrap the lead rope around a tree branch and go buy two apples and an ice cream..yum. Solly does very well tied up to the tree whilst I shopped....

Sol looking cute at the village shop ;-)

I sit and give the two apples in bits to Solly and then eat my ice cream...okay I shared a bit with Sol! lol. I then walk him over the village bridge and mount him at the turning where the Cateran Trail starts for home. He goes well all the way home, mostly in walk, over the wooden bridge no problem, trotting nicely with a steady, calm beat when asked and on the penultimate hill home he canters 20 beautiful, slow, calm, relaxed strides. I let him decide when to stop and he comes down to a lovely calm trot before the top of the hill ;-)) A most enjoyable hack out together.

Solly on track home, grazing field straight ahead,
just in the distance before the dark green wood...
he trots this piece beautifully
and at the far corner we canter beautifully too ;-))

Thursday 12th August

Today was very windy and a bit drizzly but I went out on a mission: I wanted to make an arena so that I can work with Tara and Solly more in an enclosed area so that we can get some patterns working for when I do demo's. SO, I decide that my best bet is to take the lower corner and attach the arena electric tape to the existing electric outer field fence which is on a 12v car battery. Hopefully this will stop our Stormy from destroying my arena!! time will tell. lol

It took a good hour to make the arena and I made it 40m x 40m with polyposts down the centre 20m line making a good weave line. The centre line gives me 2 20m x 40m arena's or one large 40m x 40. I can put electric tape on the centre polyposts cutting one off from the other or just use the posts down the centre as a guide line to get 20m circles, fig 8's and a dressage arena. This is a good compromise as I often want to try some dressage maneuvers but often want a bigger arena for faster work and a large follow the rail...I think this will be a good size to do most things with. One side I've kept totally clear, the other side has a tyre jump, the white barrel for sideways and mounting and some cones to give me the centre of the 20x40. I've kept the whole outside rail clear so that I can do RtR ;-)

After a short break I go and ask Solly to catch me, he walks off and so does Tara...they're not so bonded at the moment as we took their two meals a day down to one and only that when I'm here or they've worked! lol. Anyway, I go and talk to Holly and then Fortune who is lying down and Solly can't help himself but be curious as to why I'm not trying to fuss him! lol. He's a jealous boy ;-) I give him some scratches and halter him up.

Today I was going to do the village shop run again w/Solly but I'm tired and so change my plan to one that works on helping Solly become braver. As it's windy my normally tied down tarp is flapping about, held only at one end by two polyposts (Stormy has taken the other two out....cheeky boy ;-). Solly is very wary of wanting to go near it and when I ask him politely to try harder he just jumps it. So for the next few mins I play around with asking him to put a nose then a foot onto it and help him understand that if he does put his foot on it it stops flapping in the wind!! lol.

It takes quite a few tries from my scardycat boy, his attempts are funny, getting close to it, putting a foot on it for a second then back again. At least he's not running away from it and so I just keep being persistent and consistent and then he just puts his foot on it as if he's done it a thousand times. I let him rest like that for a while and then casually move off and give him some release from his tries.

Solly finally putting his foot on the moving tarp ;-)

Next we work on some circling, squeeze and jumps. He manages to do the 'waterfall' jump easily both ways today even though this tarp is moving slightly too. He doesn't rush it or worry and after some fussing I carry on with some moving circles, putting in a COD here and there to keep him motivated and listening to me. I get to the high barrel jump and he misses it twice and then jumps it going to the right. I stop and praise him and we rest for a bit. Then I ask him to do it the other way and he has big trouble with that so I put the barrel closest to me down on it's side and ask him to jump that multiple times. We stop when he's doing it properly, watching for it as he comes around, jumping it carefully and calmly and just doing his circles without any prompting. I then ask him to do the same going the other way and he knocks the middle barrel down too and ends up jumping the centre barrel lengthways...pretty clever boy and he wasn't worried about it being down longways either ;-)

After another rest and some more scratches I move into the new arena to let him get used to being in there. He doesn't seem worried at all so I go and get my big ball out and see if he remembers what to do with it. He has no problem going up to it when asked and nosing it and then kicking it. He doesn't have a huge amount of curiosity about it but I move it about a lot and he's happy to follow it, kick it and do as I ask. He doesn't want to move it when it gets next to the fence but it is an electric fence (turned off) so that's pretty sensible really.

I'll try to do more with the ball as we work in the arena more. So today has been a bravery test and I hope to do 7 more sessions including the moving tarp, high jump and ball stuff. I also need to do 5 more sessions of going to the village shop so that is on the agenda too.

Solly kicking the ball out of his space ;-)

I was going to let him go after this BUT decided to see if he'd sidle up to my mounting block (which he did nicely) and then got on him bareback (after tying my rope into reins) and I sat on him playing the friendly game lots. I then decided to just RtR at walk to get us acclimatised in the arena, we go all around the 40x40 space and then work on some 20m circles and 20m fig 8's on one side of the arena...all in walk. He did very well and after I'd sorted my body into the right shape then he stayed on the circles better. He has a habit of dropping his shoulder in on circles and this is due to me not giving him a good shape with my body, I also use the CS to tap his shoulder back onto the arc of the circle which works well.

Wednesday 11th August

Already way into August and not done much with the horses as been away in London for a week or so. BUT today, even though it's drizzling, I get out there and play/ride Tara and Solly ;-)

First Tara comes and catches me for some scratching, she must have missed me when I was away. lol. I halter her and play some games to make sure she's relaxed, obedient, flexible with some good impulsion. She did some wonderful circling in trot and canter and jumping very well today ;-)

Tara tackling the new 'waterfall ' jump well ;-)

I saddle and cinch and remember that I have to get to the village to do some posting and it's 11am already. The post office closes at 12 noon SO I have a little word in Tara's ear to put the speed on to get to the shop in time and she does me proud and she deserves her apple from the shop today.

On the way home we come across a large puddle and she was a little worried by it so we play around it for about 10 mins and in the end she goes through it very well a few times and we move on. She walks, trots and canters home and the horses whinny at her return.

After a break Solly comes to have his scratches and we get our bond back from our break and I halter him and bring him down to the play area. We work on some respect with yo-yo's and then some obedience with sideways over the small barrel which he does very well L&R today ;-) After some more scratching time we work on some impulsion and flexibility with ciircles in w/t/c, fig 8's and jumping. He does very well with it all, almost like I'd not been away ;-) and he manages to do our new scary 'waterfall' jump and also the three upright barrels from a STANDSTILL! ;-) yeehaa.

Scary 'waterfall' jump ;-)

Sol stops at the barrels this time BUT does them L&R later on

Sol is in good form so I saddle, cinch and mount him and then work on some large fig 8's in trot. After a few of them he starts to get the pattern more so I start expanding on that by circling randomly around obstacles around the field and he tries his hardest to do them by reading my mind and I try my hardest to let him find the right path ;-)

Right near the end I ask for some canter and he does it nicely, willingly and I allow him to go and stop when he wants to which was nice. It was a very good session so I finish on a good note and let him go with some breakfast.