Monday 28th April
Some great liberty play and nice balanced riding today which included some really nice canter ;)
Wednesday 23rd April
Went to horses field to fix fencing today, Mark poo picking and ended up grooming Storm, Sol and Tara and then playing with Sol and riding Tara bareback and bridleless. It was totally impromptu (so appologise for no riding hat and want to say that not wearing one is a silly thing to do...sorry!)
Anyway, it was a fabulous day and here's what I did:
Groomed Stormy whilst standing on a mounting block...this means that he had to move around me carefully and with just one step at a time for me to groom him fully on both sides and front/back
Groomed Solly who was very relieved to get some more winter coat out. Then we played at liberty in one of my v.large round pens. We did S2M w/t/c/h/bkup transitions, then some trot and canter circles with relaxation and blow outs. Then we did a bit of fig 8's in w/t/c with FLC's and for something new-ish we did some fig 8's with turns away from me What a boy, he's super-douper
Last, but by no means least, I groomed the very hairy Tara. She too was very relieved to get more under winter coat off. Then I asked if she was okay for me to ride her bareback (ie. I stood on the mounting block and she came over beautifully at liberty) and we had some nice follow the rail inside the round pen in w/t with changes of direction....all bridleless and no neck rein either Then we came out of the pen and did some large fig 8's in trot by going around the outside of the two big round pens that are right next to each other.....I then trotted her back to the herd and let her go so that they could all get up the hill for dinner time.
Anyway, it was a fabulous day and here's what I did:
Groomed Stormy whilst standing on a mounting block...this means that he had to move around me carefully and with just one step at a time for me to groom him fully on both sides and front/back
Groomed Solly who was very relieved to get some more winter coat out. Then we played at liberty in one of my v.large round pens. We did S2M w/t/c/h/bkup transitions, then some trot and canter circles with relaxation and blow outs. Then we did a bit of fig 8's in w/t/c with FLC's and for something new-ish we did some fig 8's with turns away from me What a boy, he's super-douper
Last, but by no means least, I groomed the very hairy Tara. She too was very relieved to get more under winter coat off. Then I asked if she was okay for me to ride her bareback (ie. I stood on the mounting block and she came over beautifully at liberty) and we had some nice follow the rail inside the round pen in w/t with changes of direction....all bridleless and no neck rein either Then we came out of the pen and did some large fig 8's in trot by going around the outside of the two big round pens that are right next to each other.....I then trotted her back to the herd and let her go so that they could all get up the hill for dinner time.
What a fab day, just love my horses and hanging out with them
Saturday 19th April
What a LOVELY day today...sunshine, breeze, horses and Mark and Me having fun ;)
Circling at trot and looking for relaxation
(shown by horse dropping head, engaging core and blowing out)
Ask for this ridden too ;)
(shown by horse dropping head, engaging core and blowing out)
Ask for this ridden too ;)
Mark and big Stormy ;)
'xcountry' course of 13 jumps....fun
Friday 18th April
Lovely sunny day today. Mark and I both worked on 'relaxation' in all we did and it really helped us both to have relaxed happy riding horses. Solly worked on a loose rein, learning how to go long and low more as we've been doing at liberty/online for a while now. He was very relaxed, his trot had impulsion and strength and I really enjoyed riding him.
To start with Mark poo picked the field and I played at liberty with Solly and the new gate/fence I put up in the HA field.
To start with Mark poo picked the field and I played at liberty with Solly and the new gate/fence I put up in the HA field.
Started my riding freestyle in a round pen, then we rode circles around all the jumps in the field, looking on moving off only after relaxation, co-operation, impulsion and flexibilty around each one...worked very well. Then when Mark started riding Holly we did some follow the leader with each of us taking the lead.
Mark did some fabulously relaxed canter on Holly and Solly and I did some lovely shoulder-in both sides, leg yields across the big school and then jumped all the 13 jumps around the field one after the other...my little xcountry course ;)
It was a truly fab day in wonderful warm weather ;)
Mark did some fabulously relaxed canter on Holly and Solly and I did some lovely shoulder-in both sides, leg yields across the big school and then jumped all the 13 jumps around the field one after the other...my little xcountry course ;)
It was a truly fab day in wonderful warm weather ;)
Monday 14th April
Weekend of 12-13th April
After being away teaching the first week of this month it's been good to get re-connected to the herd. They are all having their Springtime moult so have been enjoying quite a few grooming sessions and slowly but surely the hair is coming out nicely ;)
This weekend though we managed to get out with the horses, do some Liberty Challenges and enjoy the herd so it was a lot of fun.
To see the Liberty Challenge video's go to my other blog, it was LC 3 that we did on Sat: http://horsesavvy1.blogspot.co.uk/
Sunday I played, lunged and rode Solly and was just asking for lightness and to work a bit more from his hq's. The lunge (lunge bungie worked well) went well and ridden work was light, and we did spiraling circles in trot to leg yields out of circle in trot into canter departs ;) worked well and was fun...kept it all light and lots of GOOD BOYS for him to know he's doing the right things ;)
Sat: Mark and Stormy go through the Liberty Challenges
