September 2009

Wednesday 30th September

Well where did September go? lol. Seems I only just got back from Stoneleigh and I look around and the next month has gone. eek!

I've been playing with a flag on a flagpole with Tara the couple of days, she's very sceptical of things like this so it was good to start her off on a good footing with desensitization to it. Today was Sollys turn so out I go to play.

1) Friendly game with the plastic bag on a CS. This went well and he wasn't worried by it at all today. After a good session I placed the CS/bag on the floor and asked him to step on it with one foot. He took a few tries but did it nicely.

2) Play with some obstacles. Over the tarp in walk and trot, over poles and onto the pedastal without any problem today.


3) Circling at trot and a bit of canter, but canter was slippery today due to yesterdays rain so I don't ask for canter again. He pops a couple of jumps very well though and we rest on that good note.


4) Friendly with the large Scottish flag on a very long pole. He didn't worry about touching it with his nose but when I started moving it about he was sceptical BUT not as sceptical as I thought he was going to be. I think all that work with the PNH ball has really paid off ;-) I managed to sweep it up and over from left to right from Z1 and then Z3 over his body too without too much worry and without him going introverted.

5) Back into the arena and I do some one rein driving from Z5 around the weave pattern. He only takes once around the pattern to 'get it' and I do a few more to make sure it's done nicely.

6) Then do some longreining. I start with just forwards and back with RtR at walk and then put in some trot too. We then go over some obstacles: the tarp, a jump and two feet on the pedastal ;-) Yeehaa! After this we do a few weave patterns at walk and it goes well, trying not to use much rein, body energy and dynamics first.


7) Riding Freestlye today I do lots of RtR at trot. He has the confidence snaffle in with finesse reins but I don't use the reins much at all, do most of it with CS riding and it gives him time to relax and get into a better trot. I've decided that we need to get out trot FANTASTIC so really spent a lot of time doing rising trot with this pattern.

8) Riding with the Fluid Rein. It was a good day to do LOTS this as we needed to find that relaxation with the bit in the mouth again. He did very well, tried a few things and snatched at the bit a couple of times but he 'got it' well going to the left and to the right. His head and neck were lovely and low, his back was working well with his back feet coming under him more and he was SO relaxed. I let him rest for a long time after he got this and we finished the day with him doing some fig 8 patterns with his head 'hoovering' the ground in this relaxed manner. I was holding the reins very lightly at the centre and he circled very nicely ;-)

Sunday 27th September

It was quite windy today but we went out and played (me and Solly, Mark and Holly) for quite a while. Mark played a bit then moved on to trailer loading again. This is what Solly and I did:

1) forgot my halter and 22' line but had my hackamore so we played with that. Lots of the usual games getting our rapport, respect, obedience and impulsion in place.

2) Circling with some sideways to help with relaxation and also w/t/c transitions (even on just the hackamore 12' lead! cool)

3) Jumps to check impulsion more which went very well.

4) Driving from Z3 around the weave to start to prepare for long reins again. This took quite a while but I just stuck with the pattern and really focussed on where my eyes, belly button, shoulders and feet were pointing and eventually he got much easier to turn. As l0ng as I FOCUS he does well! should have known that! lol.

5) Ball play. We followed the small ball and I had it up on his back, bouncing it off his shoulders and under his belly. He started by sniffing it and then pawing at it and gently kicking it away. Great stuff as we've not played with a ball for ages.

6) Saddle, cinch and mount and do some Ride the Rail with transitions of w/t then h/t, t/c/t and also some halt and backups in for good measure. I'm just taking the RtR with canter slowly, he and I are very unbalanced with the freestyle reins so slow and right beats fast and wrong ;-)

7) Jumps with shorter stirrups. Felt much better today and I just need to continue practising, my stirrups could probably be even shorter but I'd have to wrap them around the iron for that.

8) Ride over the tarp with lots of ridden trotting poles. He did quite well with the poles but needs to find better rhythm and it was the first time ridden over the tarp which was fab.

9) Hack out. Well today we decided to do yesterdays hack out in reverse order, so out of the grazing field back gateway, to and through the river and up to the road BUT just under the 'tunnel' of trees Mark galloped off and I was just ready to follow him and a couple of things happened (apart from the wind which was still blowing) Sol slipped a back foot in some horse poop on the small bridge and then three dogs started barking crazily at the house whose garden is way above the pathway making it like they're mountain lions on a hillside! Poor Solly was startled, luckily I had concentrated reins so managed to keep him straight but slipping in the poo at exactly the same time seemed to have a strange effect on him. He started trying to run forwards and his back legs were doing like bunny hops (small bucks) like he was trying to get something off his back feet.

It was strange as Linda Parelli's voice came into my head and said ''and when do you get off when your're worried about something....as soon as the thought is in your head" and I did a very quick emergency dismount, got my leadrope untied from the saddle and proceeded to calm my boy down. He was VERY tense, neck all big, bulging and high headed and he was trying to get up the pathway to Mark and Holly thereby putting his big shoulder in my face. The hackamore doesn't have the heavy metal snap on it so I had to really make my prescence felt to him before he decided to run to them.

I managed to get his attention and then proceeded to walk back down the pathway doing LOTS of backup as we went. I got to the spot where he was having trouble and did some 'sniff this' game with the bridge edges and then backing him up a bit to keep his attention. He was very concerned about the hill and the dogs were still wandering about so he could see shadows etc. BUT we got it together and I calmly walked him up the pathway putting in backups every few steps. At the top he grazed and then I got on again with him calm and attentive. This was a good test of our relationship and he came back to me very quickly today ;-)

Going back to the scary spot to make sure it doesn't stay scary

Worried by the dogs in their garden up the hillside

So it all went well and I wasn't worried but I was concerned that after this event I could 'hear' how the horse hears as all I could hear was the wind. I had difficulty reading the countryside or hearing cars on the road etc SO by the time we got back to the estate road I just wanted to go home. I thought, as Solly was very aware of everything and not totally relaxed, that going over the 'pheasant hill' and to the river field could be a mistake. SO, we rode home and got them back safely to their field. I think it was a good decision ;-)

7) Back at the field I did a lap of RtR outside the play area but Sol wasn't paying attention as Mark was letting Holly back into the grazing field SO I put Solly onto a fig 8 pattern to get his attention back. He was doing ovals rather than circles at each end of the fig 8 so I used a suspension rein to move him over sideways whilst circling to keep the fig 8's neat. This worked very well. I then went back into the play area and Solly followed my lead and stood with two feet on the Pedastal and then all 4 feet too. What a clever boy, amazing what 24 hours of him thinking on his own will do for his imagination ;-) lol.

Two feet...

...and then 4 feet ;-)

8) After that we did a couple of jumps one after the other and finished on a very good note. All confidences in tact and some fun had too.

Jumping with more confidence

Saturday 26th September

Well I didn't manage to do anything on Thursday or Friday with Solly as I decided to rest up on Thursday after the osteopath (didn't want all his fab work going to nothing) and on Friday I went over to a friends place to help her progress with some L2 stuff.

So, it's Sat again and today we took quite some time playing and I helped Mark do some trailer loading with his girl Holly.

This is the play we did today:

Xtreme Friendly, yo-yo to get some willing obedience, circling to get some impulsion going, canter squeezes between me and a fence, trot and canter fig 8's w/some FLC's, friendly with the tarp and then our challenge was to get onto the new green pedastal that Mark has made for us out of three pallets. Now I know it's pretty sturdy as my heavy weight Tara has been on it with all four feet but Solly is a sceptic at heart so we took our time with it.

Mr Sceptic, really having a good ole' think about the pedastal ;-)


... Sniff it...

... One foot on it

Yeehaa, has no problem jumping it! lol

I decide to give the ped a rest after that as Mark was doing some trailer loading and then we were going out for a hack. The hack out we did was EXACTLY the same as last week but I managed to ride it all today. The ride down to the 'pheasant lane' was good, a couple of pheasants in the distance made a noise and flew up but he didn't jump (again keeping concentrated reins with the hackamore). We got into the pretty field and we walked and trotted around it following Mark and Holly. He did very well, didn't get impulsive or worry about anything. I so like that there are no pheasants down here. Next we rode down to the river and went into it!! So proud of him for doing this as he was sinking a bit in the river bed but he didn't seem worried by that!

Playing in the River Shee

Calmly coming out of the River Shee

After the nice field we trotted and cantered up the hill which was nice. I felt he was going to get a bit impulsive following Holly so I brought him down to a trot again around a corner and then a bit later on let him have his head a bit for another canter. He is always nice about coming down a gait and I don't struggle with him which is lovely. We then come down off the hill where I know there are thousands of pheasants along the track but they all stay at bay and he slightly jumps once but wiht the security of concentrated reins he doesnt stay there long adn we stay confident together.

At the bottom of the 'pheasant hill'

It's been a good ride and the last stretch is very good too. Along the road, down the track to the back end of the horses field where we have to step into the River again, he is calm, attentive and obedient....another good ride out ;-) Both of us slowly building up more and more confidence in each other.

At the end of the ride, after untacking and grooming I take Solly to see the Pedastal again. I wondered if he'd had time to think about it whilst out and it seems he has. He manages to put two feet on it this time, pretty quickly too. I give him a secret treat from my pocket and his whole face lights up ;-)

Two feet on the Ped

I ask for a little more but without him jumping it again and he manages to pop up on it with all four feet but get off it the other side pretty quickly. He gets another treat and we leave it all on a very good note.

All four feet...

...and off again whilst licking and chewing about the whole thing. lol

Tuesday 22nd September

Today was the day that I took my trailer down to the play area and did my 30 minute Parelli Instructor Audition dvd with Tara. It was a LOT of fun and we played in three Savvy's, Online, Liberty and Freestyle. I now have to get it edited and put some nice music over it and send it off to the PNH USA office. Fingers crossed it will be accepted ;-)

Tomorrow I'm off to the osteopath to sort out some back pain (from ragworting and poo picking!) and hopefully on Thursday I can play/ride Solly.

Sunday 20th September

Today we decided to go for a hack out, Mark has been investigating a small field by the river a few mins away from our normal hack out and he says it is beautiful, got a small section where we can get to the river, long grass but without any pheasants in it! Sounds perfect to go and have some fun in SO today we head for there after a play session.

I play with Solly for about fifteen minutes, making sure we have some willing obedience, some impulsion (not impulsiveness) and a definite stop button. lol. Everything goes well, fig 8's t/c, circling w/jumps, backing up over a pole and then backing up onto the tarp. He's really paying attention and doing well.

Backing up onto the tarp

As Mark is ready with Holly we then go to the house, groom and saddle up. The first bit of the hack is down the track where there can be LOTS of pheasants so I decide to do my cinching up down this road, doing some stick 2 me in walk and trot and stopping plenty of times for Solly to see where he's going and for me to make sure he's not gone introverted. Funnily enough we don't see or hear ONE bird down the track and near the bottom of it I mount up after checking my cinch again and trot a short distance to the down hill slope to the pretty field.

Riding the last part of the first track

We get off at the top of the hill slope as this is a very very stony track, it's almost a dried up river bed and we can see that the Winter rain runs off down here to the River Shee.

Walking down the start of the stony track

Next we enter the field and it's beautiful. There is long grass and a lovely track that fishermen have made with their cars (thank you fishermen! lol) and where we can see where we're going and not worry about rabbit holes or birds hiding. Mark gets on Holly and does a w/t/c to the river but I do the Savvy thing, having never been in this field before with Solly, and dismount and play some games with him. I mostly do circles on the move and he does beautifully. Again attentive and calm.

Travelling circles

When I feel he's happy, calm and obedient I mount and we do some finesse w/t along the track back from where we came and to the river again. He is very good and even stays in his nice even trot when Holly and Mark fly by at a canter.

LF by the river after our trot

I then dismount and we all go along the edge of the field as Mark shows us where a small beach is. We play the squeeze game into and out the other side of the water and then I go into the river and he follows without a worry.

Sol follows me into the river

We're all having a lot of fun and I feel a very good connection with Solly.After playing in the river I mount up again (my mounting from the ground is getting better now! lol) and we follow the circular track around the whole field. Solly gives me a wonderfully calm trot and Mark canters around us again ;-) Great desensitization.

Walking the field

So after this fun we dismount and go back up the stony track and then decide to follow the forest track that we often hack out on normally. Up a hill in trot and some canter, down the other side being aware of any pheasants that are there (Sol does fab), then up to the main road, down that and come back on ourselves to the sheltered track that opens up to the back of our horses field. To get into the field though, first we have to do go around the fence through the river and Solly not only does this once but because Mark thinks he's missed me doing it with the camera he makes us go back and do it again and Solly does it without missing a step. He's truly being a partner today ;-)

Back around the fence, through the river the 2nd time...

...and towards Mark and the camera again! lol

We then head for home and have a nice trot through the horses field back to where the rest of the herd are grazing, unsaddle and leave them too mosey about. I have had a wonderful ride out, calm, confident and safe and feel very good about where Solly and I are going together.

Saturday 19th September

Today I took Solly & Tara to Fife for a Parelli Playday, the theme was 'Cowboy Race'. I got up early, walked the dogs and then played with Solly and Tara before grooming and loading them up to go. I think Solly was very happy about having another horse to share the trailer with ;-) The journey went very well even though there were some traffic jams in Cupar.

Loaded up ready to go

I took Tara for my friend Christine and she took her out of the trailer and played with her beautiflly and I concentrated on Solly. Last time we were here with Tara he whinneyed the whole time and became very dominant trying to get back to wherever she was. I was nicely surprised and proud that today he was calm and obedient ;-) He played with all the obstacles well and listened to what I was asking him to do. He looked out for Tara but our relationship is strong so he concentrated on what we were doing more which was lovely.

Online, walking over a wooden bridge (saw the rope get caught on the edge but he just stopped and waited for me to untangle it, xcellent)

The obstacle course was good, not too daunting, there were things like: car wash with flapping plastic, strings of baloons we could go underneath, a gate, hills to go up and down, figure of 8's around barrels, weaving with cones, three log jumps together with just a bounce inbetween, 4 tyres set up as a 'box' to sideways around, small or larger jumps to jump and back up to and probably other things I've forgotten. I am hoping my friend who took some piccie's will send some to me and then I'll post some on here later on.

Solly played around the course online, saddled for quite a while and then the race began. We just took it in turns to do the couse in a certain order and Elle, our hostess, kept us going 'round with tips and reminding us where to go ;-) Whilst some other horses went on the course I walked Solly around the group waiting, making sure we had LF, DHQ's and that he was able to glean more confidence whilst moving about ridden. He stopped a few times behind Tara and a couple of times he decided that sideways would be a good manoeuver towards her or other horses but I made sure I had my CS with me and just tapped him on the shoulder to remind him to go forwards not sideways and this worked very well.

I went about 4th I think, I had Solly bridled with his Sweet Iron, loose ring, french link bit and I did it the course in Finesse as I knew this would give us both confidence away from the other horses. Actually I couldn't believe how well he went. Having concentrated, soft, reins really helped him go around the course. Fig 8's and weaving went very well, just a soft suspension rein around the corners. He jumped well and up and down the hill too (first one I've really done with him!). I didn't go under the car wash or balloons as I thought this could be a disaster, so went around both of them in sideways as close as I felt he could go and this went very well. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and Solly was perfectly behaved.

After everyone had taken their turns me and Christine, Tara and Sol, rode out together around the course playing Follow the Leader and then everyone wanted to do it so Solly actually led the whole group around doing different things at different obstacles. It was a lot of fun and I was very proud of Solly for being such a good boy ;-)) He jumped well, did as I asked and we had a couple of nice canters too...yeehaaa!!

I then asked a good friend Alison how to improve my jumping as I've been trying to sort out my position and she really helped me by giving me good tips and also making my stirrups MUCH shorter, this really really helped me feel balanced and confident. I realised that I've been doing jumping with way too long a stirrup and that actually when I ride normally I could bring them up one hole too. Thanks Alison, I can now practise my jumping with a better chance of getting it right now.

Friday 18th September

Well today I moved our temporary play area to hopefully a slightly more permenant one, back to where it was over a year ago by the river. It is nice and peaceful here and the ground is much flatter here and it has been grazed down nicely by my friends horses. She has just moved so we have the field back to put our play area in. I have also put Tara in here outside the large play area making it a nice 'paddock paradise' area for her where she won't eat too much.

So, after playing with Tara in this area I ask Sol to catch me...well the herd have found some nice grazing since my friends horses have gone and he didn't really want to come to me SO I just went to the herd leader, Holly, and fussed her a lot. Sol just couldn't help himself but come on over to grab my attention...after all, I'm his person! ;-)

So, I found his itchy spots and then swung the CS/SS over his neck and asked him to stick to me into the play area field. He did this most willingly and with a nice expression on his face. This is what we got up to in our session today:

ONLINE:

1) Friendly game:
Played extreme friendly with him, making sure the new environment doesn't have his attention.

2) Driving & Porcupine:
I start with the basic's, D&P the HQ's, FQ's, backup and move back from the tail.

3) Fig 8's:
I have two cones about 10 steps apart right near the gateway so I start with this. I ask for walk and am very particular about not moving much, I want him to hold up his responsibility now of knowing the pattern and not changing gait. He does very well. When the walk is good I move it up to trot and then canter. He does a couple of really nice FLC's.

4) Obstacles:
I take him into the large playpen area (like a small paddock, I've made it from electric fencing and made sure the corners are rounded so I can RtR lots). I ask him to take a look at the tarp which he hasn't seen for a few months now and takes it totally in his stride, walks over it and then squeezes back the other way over it. Next I ask him to back up over a pole, then do some jumps. Then he does a 'L' shape forwards and beautifully backwards too ;-) This is the first time we've tried this shape and he does really well with it. Our communication is definitely getting better now.

5) Circling:
These go pretty well in w/t/c. I'm really trying in my body to get more canter now and today he did very well. All that new grazing must be helping. lol

LIBERTY:

1) Stick 2 Me:
I take the halter off and he sticks 2 me well. Walk and trot going well, backup very smooth now and he goes over some obstacles with me. The tarp, jumps and trotting poles. Then I go to play stick 2 me at t/c and he stays with me going to the left around the arena (him on my right) but decides the other way is much too much fun and canters off around the arena. I just laugh at his antics and he stops at the bottom and looks at me with that 'butter wouldn't melt in my mouth' look of his ;-)

When I get closer to him he starts coming towards me and then takes a slight diversion, his ears are forward and he keeps looking at me asking questions and I say 'YES' go ahead with what you want to do. Well this is what he wanted to do...

Stand on the tarp on his own...how cool ;-)


Walking over the tarp on his own

He then joins up with me and we relax together in the centre of the arena

2) Squeeze:
I then take him to a couple of jumps and ask if he'll squeeze over them for me and he does so from almost a standstill. I do love Liberty with him, it's a lot of fun.

Tomorrow Sol, Tara and I are off to Fife for a Parelli Playday, the theme is 'Cowboy Race'. It's not really a race but it is a fun play around with some interesting things like: going over twigs, over a bridge, through a car wash, standing on pedastals, sidewaysing over a pole/log, dragging objects and other imaginative things all in a row, one person at a time (online or ridden). Last year I took Tara and Stormy and dressed up but I couldn't find an outfit this year. Tara is going to be used by a good friend so I'm glad I've been slimming her down and getting her fitter ;-) It should be a fun day out with good friends, I'll write about it tomorrow or Sunday depending on when I get home. Have a good weekend.

Tuesday 15th September

Today with Solly I am still trying to get our basic foundation better. It seems to me since being at Stoneleigh Sol's confidence isn't a strong as it was, it could be that he's allowing me to be the leader and that is a strange place for him to find himself. Anyway, all I really know is that a lot of things that I thought were in place in his foundation are now not as good as they were SO I'm just going back and retracing steps in the program and hopefully this will make our start a lot better so that our middle will be fab. Here's what I did with him today:

1) Liberty:
Catch me then follow me to the large roundpen/play area. I groom him and play friendly game and then do some liberty games. DHQ's and move the FQ's around, aiming for more of a pivot now. Backing up from the tail goes very well. I then play 'peek a boo' from Z5 and ask for him to DHQ's from Z5 so that he's facing me again, this went very well. Next I ask him to sideways around a log and then very gently I ask him to put one front foot over a pole and then one hindfoot over the pole so that he's sidling it and he did very very well with this. I think this is the first time I've asked him to do this ;-) After this I asked for some squeeze game over a pole to the L&R and then squeeze game over a jump L&R.

Front left foot over pole

Back left foot over pole

2) Online:

We get some nice fig 8's at trot today and then I ask for some circling. I start at trot both ways, using the porcupine stops to create some impulsion. I next ask for some trot/canter transitions and finally I ask for him to canter on a shortish rope one full lap. He manages this to the L&R and hopefully this will help him to learn to maintain gait with canter on a longer rope later on ;-)

3) Freestyle:

After saddling, cinching and mounting I ask Sol to start our session with riding the rail. I discover that he doesn't understand my stop/backup seat connection today SO I go back to doing just that until he's gets it. Starting with walk, stop, backup transitions we do that until good. Next I ask for walk, trot, stop, backup transitions. When these are going well and he's listening to my retarding seat for the stop and backup we got to some trot, canter, stop transitions. We do it all to the L&R and I stop when things are going well.

Next I ask for turns on the HQ's going to the right (did the left yesterday) and once he gets this nicely we start to do some Clover Leaf patterns in w/t to the L&R. The pattern seems to be coming easier for him and I'm really turning my body better now and making sure my inside shoulder is back rather than my outside shoulder just forward!

Then we start working on the Fig 8's. Again I start on just getting the L and then R circles good and finally put them together in a fig 8 pattern. If a circle starts to loose it's shape I stay on that circle and only change when it's going better.

We take a good rest after the Fig 8's and then I start on some Point 2 Points. I did a bit of this before in the top playfield but now the environment has changed and I want to establish P2P's better. He has a bit of trouble at first and I realise I keep looking at his ears! duh. SO, once my focus is better he really starts to get it better. One of the points is a log and he manages to stop well at it and also jump it really slowly from a standstill to the next point, pretty cool! He has a few quick dives away from some pieces of the field he's not confident with but I stay in there with a loose rein and it all starts to go much better. In the end because of his unconfidence I stay with just one barrel and one cone as my focus for a long time until he's got the pattern and is relaxing.

Our P2P barrel

4) Finesse:

Our final session is to do three jumps well and to trot to the house to untack and relax.

I think things went well today and one of the things I changed which may have helped was that I took my stirrups up one hole. I was beginning to think they were a bit too long and often when going into canter I would loose my stirrup on one foot or another so I've gone back to having them a little shorter and see how this goes. It felt okay today so hopefully that may help my balance.

Monday 14th September

Today I went out with the intention of just trying to reinforce the patterns we've been working on, especially ridden Clover Leaf and ridden fig 8's. This was our play session today:

1) Online/Clover Leaf:
Driving from Z3. I thought this was a good way to represent me riding him. I also made sure that I did the turns from the outside, so going on a left turn I was on the right using the CS to make the turns and visa versa for the other side. This worked out very well and when we'd done a good circuit or two going one way we relaxed for a while in the centre and then changed the rein.

2) Ridden/Turns on the HQ's:
I did these to the left as I wanted to really go back a notch in Solly's education and put the foundation for turning back in our session. I did 'eye, bellybutton, leg, rein' and still had to reinforce the manoeuver with the CS on his right shoulder to help him understand to move over from pressure from my leg. It took quite a few times for him to get this and it made sense to me now that our turns haven't been as good as they could be.

3) Ridden/Clover Leaf:
I did this Freestyle going to the left firstly in walk and then in trot. I think the online play and turns on the HQ's worked very well and I seemed to be making fewer corrections.

4) Ridden/Ride the Rail:
We did this to the L&R and first in trot and then in canter. It's getting a bit smoother and he managed a full canter around the arena on both reins which was cool.

5) Ridden/Fig 8's:
I start this pattern from the beginning too just so that we really get to grips with circling. I start by asking Sol to circle in walk to the left and I let him rest at X. Then I do a bit more and ask him to circle to the left and only stop at X when it's a good circle or he's relaxing more. It works really well and soon we take it to trot and the circling is nice, relaxed and calm. SO I then start on circles to the right and work on it the same way, bringing it up to trot once things are looking good at walk. I will bring these two circles together to make the Fig 8 tomorrow but for today he was relaxed, head down, blowing nicely and so I leave it on a good note.

Saturday 12th September

Well I got up early today and did my morning chores, had breakfast and then went out and played with Solly just after 9am. I basically checked all the games, his impulsion and responsiveness. He went well with backing up, circling in w/t/c, moving FQ's, DHQ's and stick to me w/t/bkup's.

I then brought him to the house and groomed him and then wet groomed him to get him really cleaned up. I put mane & tail conditioner in his mane and tail and he was generally looking clean and tidy (which for him is good ;-)

Next was loading into the trailer, now this is the first trip away since Stoneleigh so I can imagine him thinking it was going to be a big trip again, so taking him to a local show with a very short trip was going to be a good thing for him. He took a couple of times of asking to go in but that's pretty normal. Once loaded we headed off straight away. The trip was about 30 mins which was good.

Parked up in my friends yard it was good to see about 10 other cars/trailers so it really is a small local show and a few people I know are there so the atmosphere is nice and cheery.

I get Solly out of the trailer and play a few games with him, stick to me, checking out some of the field, circling and sideways. The only thing that got his head up was a few sheep in the corner of the field we were in! lol. He doesn't whinny or fuss about and I saddle and bridle easily, without him shuffling about which is nice.

I then get on him and do some walk/trot fig 8's and circling. I use the transitions to get a mental connection with him and he's fine doing this even though there are a couple of other people doing the same thing. We seem to have a nice connection. The other people start heading for the warm up area and I decide it would be best to follow but just at that moment Mark drives up and I direct Solly to his car. Sol whinny's at the other horses going off but he is easy to turn and he see's Mark and relaxes and goes up to him for a treat ;-)

So, we then head for the warm up area and Solly seems relaxed and enjoying himself.

Sol looking relaxed and attentive

So the next thing I do is follow some other people around the edges of the warm up field (follow the rail/person! lol) and he does well with this. We do some w/t/w transitions and things are going well. I keep my stirrups long as I really don't think about the warm up jumps, I just want to do some relaxation games and see how it goes. Anyway, things are okay whilst people are moving about BUT when they all gather up the end to wait for their turn to jump Solly just won't go anywhere away from the 'herd/crowd'.

So, I end up doing qutie a bit of ridden falling leaf around the crowd, gaining his trust and keeping him moving. When he gets to a threshold he stops and nothing I do will help him go forward. I know my leadership is not as good ridden and it really shows up here BUT I know that the more I do of this the better it will become SO I keep chipping away at the thresholds and when someone goes out to warm up again I urge Solly to follow them as quickly as he can. This really works for him and the other horses give him some confidence in the strange new field.

It gets worse and then gets better and soon he manages to feel much more relaxed and I turn him to the jumps just to see if he will do them. I think this may be the first time he's done proper show jumps and I'm very proud that he does the warm up jumps nicely for me.

Jump 1


Jump 2

I try to keep it fun and we stop lots of times when he's relaxed. It was fun to also watch the others jumping. My friend urged me to do a 'round' but I decline, for now, one day when we've actually done a round of jumps at home and I know he's more 'with me' when we go out and about it may be fun to pop over a few jumps but I know I need to keep the relationship with Solly today and that's what I do.

We spend about 2 hours at my friends place and by the end of that I can ask Sol to go out around the warm up area without following anybody and he has a nice relaxed frame with a long rein (freestyle). He is really blowing out through his nostrils and 'hovering' the grass....fabulous. This was worth coming out for ;-)

A relaxed Solly in a strange place

Friday 11th September

Another dry day and I go out to be with Solly at about 12 noon. I decide that I really need to work on our ridden patterns so I go through some ground games to make sure we have willing obedience and impulsion (ie. circles in t/c, fig 8's and yo'yo's) and then saddle and cinch up.

He's attentive and even does a pretty good sideways over the barrel today, I only ask one way (left to right) and leave it on a good note. I still have to hold the rope about 12 inches from the snap as he really needs to learn to put his weight on his HQ's before attemtping a sideways...going over this barrel may actually help him to learn this normally as he has a tendency to drift forwards!

Sideways over the barrel

So I manage to cinch well and mount from the ground and my intention is to play with the Clover Leaf pattern, with left turns, until it's a good solid pattern in Sol's mind. It takes forever, he still doesn't 'get it' well and this is mostly, I'm sure, to do with my riding. SO, I go back to basic's and find that if I put the CS out at 90 degrees from his face then he see's it much better, rather than asking with small circles near his face! how interesting. I leave it on a good note where he is managing to do the pattern without thousands of corrections.

I then go and trot about the field (something we never do) and he has a bit of resistence going to certain places but in the end we do some nice trot and canter around the field and come back to doing some figure 8's around cones. This worked really well for his impulsion as when I first got on him he didn't want to go anywhere. It's strange how his horsenality changes even from me being on the ground to when I'm riding!

Anyway, we're taking a day out tomorrow. A good friend is having an unaffiliated mini jumping show at her yard, nice and small and although I don't intend to do any jumping she has allowed me to potter on over in the trailer to get Solly out and play with him (and ride if I want to in the warm up area) to get him used to being in that sort of atmosphere. I will write up how we get on tomorrow, fingerscrossed we just have a nice day out ;-)

*******

After their evening feed (Sol and Tara get very little) I have been riding Tara down to the main field where my play area is and working on the Clover Leaf pattern with her, she does this very well bareback and with the neck string supported with the CS. SO, today I ask Solly to catch me to do the same thing as this is a pattern that we need to do much better. Again he is a bit sluggish in walk and I have huge trouble getting him into trot but the pattern itself is going better. I think maybe he was slow as we were working bareback and maybe that is still very strange for him. It also felt that he had lost a bit of topline off his back so my butt could have been uncomfortable for him ;-)

Wednesday 9th September

Sunshine today, so that means playtime for me and horses. I've taken on riding Tara everyday again now as she is very unfit since I went away and I need her fit again. She's being kept in a very small paddock for the daytime and ridden once or twice a day, not far but with energy and I'll build it up slowly for her.

With Solly today he came and caught me very nicely, the Stoneleigh bond is still strong which is cool. Here is what we got up to today:

1) Friendly game, grooming him and making sure his itches are scratched.

2) Yoyo's, working on getting some attention and then some respect with better responses.

3) Circling, this is all on the 45' so far which is cool, I feel much better about using it since Stoneleigh. He did w/t/c circles with relaxation, blowing and lowering his head nicely.

4) Fig 8's, nice ones in trot and some great FLC's in canter. I need to just get these more consistent and with him using more of the length of rope, he has a tendency to come into me and not go out very far on the next circle of the 8'.

5) Long reining, with the 45'. We started on forwards making small turns to the L&R and then I went onto fig 8's with me following him. He did these nicely so I went to doing fig 8's with me standing still between the cones. He really is getting nice with this and I have to up the play by asking for trot more from now on, to be progressive.

6) Jumps, over the barrels, two in a row with some canter/trot inbetween. To make this more progressive I will put the barrels closer so that there is one step between them and then into a bounce double jump ;-)

7) Sideways, he did away and towards and today he went over the barrel L&R without too much hesitation. He still needs me to stand in Z1 and to hold the snap but the hold is very relaxed and he just needs to remember not to come forward and he's got it ;-) This is the first time for this and I'm very pleased with him for his huge try.

8) Riding. Well I saddled and cinched and then Rode the Rail for ages at trot, both ways. Then tried it in canter but he was a bit lethargic and also he hates going through the longer grass in the play area so it's hard for him. BUT we did some nice stuff and then we did a couple of the tyre jumps and called it a day.

Sunday 6th September

Solly and I have had a good week off from playing/riding. I was exhausted from being away and I think Sol appreciated having time to rest too. Yesterday though I accomplished a bet Mark had with me before I went away....'could I stand on Stormy's back?'. Last year was when I conquered my fear of heights enough to stand on my first Level's horse, Tara...she's only 15hh! Stormy is a whopping 18hh (6' at the withers) and it was a BIG challenge. But here's the piccie to prove I did it, actually I did it twice just to prove I could ;-)

So today I was in the mood for playing/riding Solly. I have done a bit with Stormy and also Tara since being home but now it was Sol's turn ;-) I went out with the saddle and went to ask him to catch me BUT the herd had other idea's. lol. They decided that they wanted to play 'running around the field, because they can'. I didn't mind this and it was lovely to see them all cantering around having fun. The boys (Sol and Storm) even put in some rearing.



Seeing this made me decide to ask Tara to catch me first today, some sensible, quiet play would be in order for me today and Tara fits the bill perfectly. She was playing with the herd but came over to catch me when I took all forms of pressure off....

...ahh ;-) So I played around with Tara, some Z5 driving with friendly game whilst walking around the outside of my new play area fence. She was a bit sceptical but I helped her find comfort with the process by really slowing it down for her. She's a special girl and I love her to bits.

So next I let Tara go and Solly comes and catches me...probably wanted me to himself again. There is definitely a better bond between me and Solly since being away and it is lovely to have him want to be with me even more now. So, I play with bits on the ground first, figure 8's at trot, backing over a pole, jumping, circling, yo-yo's etc. He also does a wonderful sideways over two layed down cones and sideways towards back over them! Yeehaa....a first for that today.

He does fine with it all, he is pretty laid back and seems a bit under powered...probably still a bit tired! I will start feeding him more now if I'm going to be playing/riding regularly again.

Sol backing over pole

Then he does that 'stretch' that he's gotten used to doing and instead of trying to stop it I use it! I use my 'bowing' cue to get him to stretch really low...

...and then I friendly game over his back as a 'mount from the ground' technique. He does really well and takes me on his back whilst standing up again. It's pretty cool and I wonder if I can actually teach him to do this more now!

Friendly game to mount bareback!



Sol out of his stretch and standing straight...success ;-)

I hope this can become a 'routine' fun thing to do, only time will tell. The cue for stretching has been going on since we got him, now I need for him to understand to do it on command! Will be interesting to see if it works...either that or he'll not do it again as I've turned his dominant thing into fun for me! lol.

Anyway, after that I saddle him and work on cinching in three cinchings doing lots of games especially circling, sideways and canter w/jumps.

Jumping/Circling

Next I mount and do my pre-flight checks: LF, DHQ, turn on FQ's L&R and BKUP. He does well with all of them, is pretty light and his LF is done mainly with the CS now.

Mounting

The first thing we do today is Ride the Rail (RtR) and we do this both ways in walk and trot. He's cool and does it all very well, calmly and with a lot of blowing out which is a great relaxation sign.

RtR

I make sure he has a comfort spot in the playarea, I use the backup pole for this, putting two feet over it and two feet behind which plays the friendly game under Z3 for him.

Comfort Spot

I decide to leave it there as he's done so well but only after a couple of jumps...just because they're there and I want to see if we're better with jumping since coming home.

Jumping getting smoother and more fun ;-)


FUN ;-)