Friday 31st May
My beautiful boy 'Solly'
Wednesday 29th May
Well, it's my last day here at home for a week, off on the road teaching in Edinburgh, Borders and Northumberland from tomorrow SO last opportunity of a play and ride with dear Solly.
I take the quad bike in again and he's really not too fussed about it, followed me about for a while too but Tara is very sceptical of it so that will be a task for me to sort out when I get home.
Work Solly in the dressage arena at liberty. Work on some S2M h/w/t/c/backups and then ask for some sideways away, then some follow me with me walking backwards asking for shoulders in L&R ;)
We then do some liberty distance S2M where we get the start of some nice BIG TROT along the long sides of the arena and some nice 'Circling in front of me' (rather than around me) in the corners.....this is a new task and he's just getting the hang of it...we're only doing it anti-clockwise so far ;)
Then I saddle, girth in three stages and then mount and do my flight checks. To be honest this session isn't about anything other than the basic's of 'Relaxation, Willing Obedience, Impulsion and Flexibility'.
He does well with the R, WO and F but needs some work with Impulsion...normal for Solly. SO we work on Impulsion (did some at liberty first). To help him what I do is to ask for walk, then ask for trot and it's usually a pretty slow trot, I then ask him to come down to walk for just ONE STEP and than ask immediately back to trot, this really helps him get his legs underneath him and want to go forward rather than me nagging him ;) Soon he is going very nicely so we work on RtR, circles of 20m and 10m, then serpentines, COD across the school, fig 8's and also some shoulder in in w/t ;)
Nice session to end the week on and hopefully I can pick that back up again quickly when I return for next weekend with him...fab ;)
I take the quad bike in again and he's really not too fussed about it, followed me about for a while too but Tara is very sceptical of it so that will be a task for me to sort out when I get home.
Brave Solly went and said 'hi' to the quad ;)
Then managed to find the treat on the back storage box ;)
Work Solly in the dressage arena at liberty. Work on some S2M h/w/t/c/backups and then ask for some sideways away, then some follow me with me walking backwards asking for shoulders in L&R ;)
We then do some liberty distance S2M where we get the start of some nice BIG TROT along the long sides of the arena and some nice 'Circling in front of me' (rather than around me) in the corners.....this is a new task and he's just getting the hang of it...we're only doing it anti-clockwise so far ;)
Then I saddle, girth in three stages and then mount and do my flight checks. To be honest this session isn't about anything other than the basic's of 'Relaxation, Willing Obedience, Impulsion and Flexibility'.
He does well with the R, WO and F but needs some work with Impulsion...normal for Solly. SO we work on Impulsion (did some at liberty first). To help him what I do is to ask for walk, then ask for trot and it's usually a pretty slow trot, I then ask him to come down to walk for just ONE STEP and than ask immediately back to trot, this really helps him get his legs underneath him and want to go forward rather than me nagging him ;) Soon he is going very nicely so we work on RtR, circles of 20m and 10m, then serpentines, COD across the school, fig 8's and also some shoulder in in w/t ;)
Nice session to end the week on and hopefully I can pick that back up again quickly when I return for next weekend with him...fab ;)
Wednesday 29th May
Between weather and working I've not played/ridden this week but today was a good day for an hour and half's fun with my two beauties. This is what we got up to...
Quad bike, off and turned on too ;)
very good today with this unexpected obstacle
(and this done with reins in one hand
and other photographing)
really tried her best for me today
stop and rest by the bike...clever girl ;)
fearful...she went slightly RBint but trusted me to
accept her best and walk her away to safety ;)
Sunday 26th May
Nice day out with horses and Mark today. I play with Solly then trim his feet. Mark trims Tara for me ;)
Then Mark/Holly and me/Stormy play challenge Sunday in the Horse Agility arena...fun ;)
Some FIRSTS for us today, playing with tarps around and on Solly...then again with Stormy and Holly....here's some pics from our fun day...
Sunday 19th May
Wow the sun shone today...hot, Hot, HOT. Got to the field and I put up the Horse Agility obstacles ready for some play this year and Mark thoroughly groomed Holly, Stormy and Tara (Fab job darling ;) Then I groomed Solly and saddled him up, Mark got Stormy and saddled him up and we had a short play session and then out for a walk/hack down the lane to the river.
Fab day out, Mark walk/rode Stormy out and I walked Solly out but rode him back most of the way. The boys were very good and we did transitions (h/bk/w/t) along the track and Solly and I did some shoulder-ins and leg yielding too.
Here are some pics from the day (not in order)
Fab day out, Mark walk/rode Stormy out and I walked Solly out but rode him back most of the way. The boys were very good and we did transitions (h/bk/w/t) along the track and Solly and I did some shoulder-ins and leg yielding too.
Here are some pics from the day (not in order)
Thursday 16th May
Very nice day today, horses in fine fettle ;)
Saturday 4th May
Going on the road for a 9 day teaching session tomorrow so today was my opportunity to get my horsey riding fix before I go. SO, with that in mind Mark and I go out and we get Holly and Solly and bring them down for a really good de-moulting groom...TONS of hair streaming off them today, think the recent rain has helped loosen it more.
With the grooming done I saddled Solly and went to play around the big field. Mostly moving circles with COD's towards and away from me, multiple jumps, w/t/c transitions, sideways and leg yielding with plenty of rests and some motivational treats too ;)
Then we go into one of the round pens where I'd set up two obstacles for some fig 8's and we did something NEW ;) I asked him, at liberty to circle me and the first obstacle a few times in trot, then I asked him to S2M in trot to the other obstacle and circle me there a few times. This involved him doing a turn away to get the fig 8 effect. He did it wonderfully (we'd been working on spins and turns away for awhile now) and we got it on film too....here it is:
With the grooming done I saddled Solly and went to play around the big field. Mostly moving circles with COD's towards and away from me, multiple jumps, w/t/c transitions, sideways and leg yielding with plenty of rests and some motivational treats too ;)
Then we go into one of the round pens where I'd set up two obstacles for some fig 8's and we did something NEW ;) I asked him, at liberty to circle me and the first obstacle a few times in trot, then I asked him to S2M in trot to the other obstacle and circle me there a few times. This involved him doing a turn away to get the fig 8 effect. He did it wonderfully (we'd been working on spins and turns away for awhile now) and we got it on film too....here it is:
I then mounted and worked on some impulsion in the round pen, some fig 8's with X being the sweet spot (where things changed) and then we went out and about in the large field, jumping, leg yields, hq's-in and shoulders-in, and some nice vertical flexion now and then. This was a good test of the Dr Cook's bitless bridle on Solly. I felt he had more 'go' today and a very good 'whoa', he also felt more rounded in his back and happy to be with me. We stopped a few times for rests and for those treats and now that I'm using them when riding we've come to an understanding...he has to do well for a stop/treat but he know's I've got them so he's more willing. Before when I tried this he would not go forward but we've sorted that one out now, he does not get a treat for not going forward! lol.
This was a very nice session and a very good note to go away on. Hope he is as willing, light and eager when I return in 9 days time ;)
This was a very nice session and a very good note to go away on. Hope he is as willing, light and eager when I return in 9 days time ;)
After letting Solly go back to his grazing I saddled and played with Holly. Mark wanted a rest today so I get to play/ride her ;)
Play session was very good, we did moving circles around the field, multiple jumps, some leg yielding and w/t/c transitions on both sides. She was light and willing and her sideways was very good too.
When satisfied that she was in a riding sort of a mood I took her into the round pen and mounted and did some light w/t fig 8's with her. My mission with Holly was to find relaxation through flexing her body left and right so that she could mentally, emotionally and physically unstiffen herself. The fig 8 pattern is perfect for her so after getting some nice licking and chewing in the round pen we head on out of the pen and do fig 8's around the two large round pens.
Same rules applied, looking for relaxation (which shows in her trot when she gets rhythmic and with a lower head set) and if she gets stiff I use and inside rein and inside leg to ask for a partial leg yield to unstiffen whichever side she's having trouble on.
She is an easy horse to ride for me as she's is pretty smooth and very sensitive to my requests but she is higher up on her left side so her saddle slips to the left a lot and when riding her you have to keep very balanced to stop that slipping. All in all though I love riding her and through our fig 8's and leg yields she starts to seem straighter. I realise that if I did this three times a week for say 20 mins she would start to maybe build up the lost muscle on the left side of her back more...SO, my task this year is to do just that if/when I can...to trot her in large fig 8's and serpentines until she feels more flexible and therefore straighter :)
