October 2009

Thursday 29th October

Today was a good day to go out again so I went out early and spent about 4 hours with Solly up in the Playfield. This is what we did today:

1) Stick 2 Me:
Walking up to the playfield we do w/t/backups all the way up, seeing if he's listening to me and getting his responses a bit sharper.

2) Friendly game:
He puts his foot on a plastic sack of gravel, I don't ask him to stand on it incase he gets his foot caught but he's very good with putting one foot on it for me ;-)



3) Circling:
He's a bit slow today, no herd members to keep him company so I need to ask for some relaxation and impulsion to start the session off well. SO, circling is a good one for us. I've moved a lot of the obstacles out of the large round pen so we have plenty of room now for circles and we do lots of combinations of transitions on the circles, COD's, sideways on the circles and asking him to move his ribs over. This all goes very well and he starts to lower his head quickly and blow out of his nostrils.

Next we do circles on the move with jumps. All the jumps now are either barrels on their sides or tyres stacked in three's so they're all about 2' 10" high and this helps give Sollly something worth jumping, stretching his back and topline nicely.

Last circles are out of the large arena into the main field and we circle all around the perimeter putting in COD's, cantering up the hill to get his HQ's working better and also doing the log jumps at the bottom of the field from a distance with slack in the rope...yeehaa, he's cooking today! lol.

As things were going so well I put in a sideways over a log jump L&R and he did this quite well today ;-)

4) Liberty:
Into the smaller 50' roundpen we rest for a while and then I ask for some sideways away and then towards from both sides. He does this very well so I don't ask too much, leave it on a good note. Then I ask for some trotting squeeze between me and the fence. Again he's lively and happy to come back to me SO then we go to some circles. I'm on a theme of trying to get his canter more balanced so that he's more encouraged to do it more. I find if I ask at liberty first and more then he's able to find his own balance better as I'm not on his head with the halter and heavy 22' rope. To get him to canter more I ask for a BIG send (straight into canter) and to retain the canter for just one lap I canter in my body BUT today I don't follow him around keeping him in front of me, I canter on the spot asking him to go around me as normal...and he does it!! Only one lap, but they're good laps (L&R) and he really seems to understand it's a good canter lap then a rest. I do it once more and he does it well again so I leave it there ;-)



5) Ridden:
Today I concentrate on getting him relaxed with a nice trot. First we do some Freestlye ride the rail in w/t. I then ask for some serpntines across the arena and he is SO much better with his freestyle today, we've not done any for a while but the time off has obviously given him time to lick and chew about it.

Then I go to Finesse (Confidence Snaffle) and ask for serpentines again, he gives me lovely turns and flows really nicely. Next I put my stirrups up and do 5 of the larger jumps in a row and he just does them. He goes nicely into canter after each jump and isn't pulling or rushing off at all. Fab ;-)

So, with it all going so well I open up the round corral and we venture out into the large field. He's always been a bit hesitant about going around the field (especially on his own) as there can be pheasants about and the stone wall on one side seems to hide beasties BUT today he only stopped once and then moved on from my leg lightly and without having a tantrum. I worked him in Finesse as this is safer going somewhere a bit unfamiliar as he gains confidence with me holding his 'hand' this way. We went around the whole field in w/t with the two wooden jumps thrown in for good measure at the bottom of the field too. On the way to the top of the field we do a neat weave at trot around the cones there and then we went back to the car to untack.

I really enjoyed today, seemed to make unobvious progress with our partnership with going around the field and our jumping is much more fluid now as I don't have to concentrate on whether or not he'll jump things I can now concentrate more on getting my postion neater. Sol really seems to enjoy our time together now and for a reward I let him graze the verge along the track all the way back to the herd's field ;-)

Sol jumping the barrels as part of our cinching

Wednesday 28th October

At last, a day without shooting and mostly without rain...grab coat, hat, saddle and pnh equipment and out the door I go. I take Solly and Holly up to the playfield and PLAY....yeehaa!

Today I stared with the Friendly game and then moved onto yo-yo's which were a bit sticky after 12 days play absence! lol. But as soon as he understood it was a good slow ph1 which was nice. I then went to sideways between cones and made sure I did nothing but energy when it was going well but moved him energetically when he began to not uphold his responsibilites. This worked very well and he was light, slack in the rope and almost straight by the end of the cones both ways.

Next was some circling. We did some transitions of w/t/c using COD's when he changed gait at any time. After about two COD's he kept his responsibilties well. Then we rest for a while.

He does a great stand on the pedastal with two feet and backed off it again nicely ;-)

After this it was time to try out my jumps. I've put most of them down to about 1'-1.5' but have put a few together so that it gives Sol the opportunity to try multiple jumps in one go now. He does them very well and the two closest together he does three nice strides of canter between them and jumps them like a pro. Cool.

I saddle and bridle him and cinch him in three sittings as per normal and then mount from the pedastal. First I did some ride the rail in Freestyle in walk and then trot. Then I started some fluid rein in walk and quickly moved on to doing it in trot. He remembered very quickly how to find relaxation and I stayed with it until I could feel him truly relaxing and raising his back up a bit, once he got it right I slowed it down to a walk for a bit to reward him. We did fluid rein for a few circuits both L&R.

Then I started doing some Finesse and working with transitions from walk to trot and back down again. He does these pretty nicely now so I continue the theme with trot to canter and back down. He has a bit of a problem with the canter, putting his head up a bit and with the ground being a bit slippery from all the rain I don't push it with him but just go back to w/t/w trans. After we've done a good amount of these, putting in some backups now and then I then ask Sol to try doing my small jump course. I have 4 jumps up but in a circle so that we can go round and around if we want to. He has no problem doing multiple jumps and it really helps me to concentrate on my position more doing it this way. Once we get good at this I will make them a bit higher so that Sol can stretch himself a bit more.

I also played with Holly and a young friend of mine, up on holiday at the moment, came over and rode Holly and then Solly too for some fun and instruction. It was a lovely day and I'm so glad I managed to dodge the rain for a day ;-)))

Thursday 22nd October

Well the week has been a combination of having to go out to Blairgowrie for shopping, shoots and dodging the rain which fell so heavily over the last two days that we had to rug all 5 of our horses as they have no real shelter in their field. We kept an eye on the River Shee which runs along the field they're in at the moment to make sure it didn't flood. We have new Winter grazing for them which has a few trees but it's on a hill and we don't want to ruin it with slipping horses before Winter's already come. They, hopefully though, will go into this field on Sunday if there is no more torrential rain. At least with the rain we know there should be a natural water supply in the hill field for them when they get there and it's much closer to the playfield which will encourage me to get out and play with Solly.

So, sorry to have not played with the horses, the next two days are shoot days too and because of the rain our paddock, which is also on a hill, is very wet and slippery SO no playing over the next two days either. I'm going off to see a friend tomorrow to see how she's doing with her horse to make up for not being able to play with our ;-)

Hopefully be back on here on Sunday. Have good weekends ;-)

Friday 16th October

Another shooting day so the horses again are in the small paddock. Again I decide to do something with them whilst the shoot is on. Firstly I groomed them all and Stormy was a little on his toes when the shooting started so I played with him until he calmed down and relaxed. Then I asked Solly to come and catch me which he did nicely.

I first asked him to backup between two barrels, then backup the hill. He struggled a bit with the hill so I put that in my 'to do more of' section in my mind, for later on. Next we did some really nice fig 8's with me doing very little, he was going around the barrels really nicely and changing direction with just a point of my finger. Cool ;-)

I then went to the small hill in the paddock and positioned myself half way up it and asked Sol to circle in trot. He trotted okay until he started going down hill then he'd slow to a walk and trot again once on the flat before going up again. I just kept with it and got him to do a COD when he wasn't trying enough and soon enough he trotted a few laps L&R without changing gait. Fab.

Next I decided I would do some fig 8's and sideways with the saddle and bridle on, so I saddled and bridled and played the games. By this time the shooting was a couple of fields away and so far Solly hadn't batted an eyelid. I just kept on playing the games and then mounted him from a large stone in the field.

With the ridden play we did backup's, transitions, trot and walk up the hill and down, fig 8's in w/t and sideways between the barrels L&R. With the hill he was reluctant to go down it, he was very much on his FQ's so I decided to make a game of this. Go up the hill in walk (good for his muscles) and then walk down it with me putting in some halts and a couple of steps backup for him to learn how to get his weight on his HQ's. By the end of doing this about 8 times he was much more confident about going down the hill ;-)

Just before the shooting stopped I challenged myself and Sol to do something with the ditch in the paddock. Firstly we went very slowly to it and he walked down into the ditch and up the other side and then we jumped it 4 times! yeehaa. First time for jumping ditches today ;-))) He tackled them very well, I'm so proud of his growing confidence and my confidence in learning how to present new things to him.

Hill working, needs to get those HQ's more underneath him

Some nice finesse riding, he seems to really like the Confidence bit

Jumping the ditch. I must learn to keep my elbows in! lol.

Thursday 15th October

Managed to get out before it started raining today, someone is definitely watching over me when it comes to the weather up here ;-) I decided this morning that if things go well that I would pursue canter more mainly with Online and Finesse stuff. Here is what we did today:

1) Friendly:
started with grooming at liberty. Then w/the halter and 22' line I played friendly from Z5 tossing the rope over Sol's head back and fro.

2) Porcupine:
Backing up from the tail, using less phases now.

3) Driving:
Standing in Z5 I ask for a HQ yield until he's facing me and then a FQ yield so that he's basically doing a slow spin from Z5 and ending up with me back in Z5 again. Did this a few times to the L&R and he did it so well, very cool ;-)

4) Stick 2 Me:
w/t/backup transitions, asking for responsiveness and willing obedience. He does very well with these. I then go to doing just t/bkup/t trans' to get his impulsion better.

5) Sideways:
Away from 22' away and then I try asking him to sideways towards me from that distance but it's too far so I go in closer but he comes over to me before I get really close so that is progress.

6) Circling:
Getting good sends and asking for more circling at canter, when he changes down to a trot it's okay and I ask him up to canter again trying to encourage him to give me more canter which he tries. When he goes down to a walk I put in a COD and this helps him keep the trot at least. Canter circles are something we're working on and it has to be him that gives them to me so I am trying to keep it interesting and rewarding him with lots of rests when he gives me more and I do less ;-)

7) Riding Freestyle:
Today, after saddling, bridling and cinching, I ride him with the Fluid Rein to help him find relaxation with the bit and me riding. He lowers his head quickly and it's lovely to feel his back moving underneath me with a relaxed swing to it. I have to remember to move my body like this too so that I don't hinder his quite large movement.

8) Riding Finesse:
This is what I wanted to work on more today so it's nice to get here with a relaxed, calm horse. Firstly I ride some weave and fig 8's and they go really well. When he gets a bit stiff I put in a circle and ask him to move sideways on the circle as this really helps him relax and move his body in an arc more. When these are going well I move onto doing some w/t/c transtitions.

Our canter trans' are awful and he puts me out of balance (on the FQ) a lot so I really try to concentrate on sitting down and putting my weight in my butt more. Once when I had to use a ph4 with my SS on my wrist he puts in a buck (I think dominance again) so I stop him immediately and put him into a backup until he's listening to me again. He doesn't try to buck again! phew.

Slowy our transitions are feeling a bit smoother (a long way to go for them to be good though!) so I change the game and start to do some trans' with the sepentine pattern. I make our serpentines large and do them in trot changing down to walk for the turns on one side of the field to keep it interesting. This is fun and he gets nicely relaxed doing this.

After a rest I decide it's time to tackle the canter more SO I ask him to do some large fig 8's (I have some polypoles in the grazing field for our focus with these patterns) and I ask him to try to give me canter with the circling bits and to transition down at X for a SLC before asking him to canter the other fig 8 circle. We were very unbalanced and ugly at the start but he started to 'get' what I was asking of him and I stopped on a good note which was him trying his heart out to get most of the circle's in canter (he'd do half the circle and then I'd ask him to try the other half for me before the X) and he'd come down a trans' at X neater too. I couldn't ask more of him, I want him to go away and think about what we've done today now so I give him a good groom down and some treats before leaving him to graze and mull it all over in his mind ;-) I feels good to be tackling a challenge that's been on my mind for a while. I've seen so many people do this pattern nicely and wished that I could do SLC's with the fig 8 but realise that I have to start somewhere and by avoiding it I wasn't going to improve.

One great thing was that the estate started to shoot clay pigeons two fields away whilst I was riding and Solly didn't bat an eyelid, no scared spook, no silly behaviour, just full concentration on what we were doing together....FAB ;-))

Tuesday 13th October

We live on a shooting estate (ducks and pheasants) and yesterday was the first day of the shooting season here. For the horses this is their third shooting season. They always come into the small 1 acre paddock by our house when shoots are on as their other fields are part of the shoots. Usually I go out and sit on a large stone either singing or hanging out with them, making sure they see that I'm calm around all the shooters and their dogs. Last year I walked among them and played the friendly game with the CS/SS on them all and they really started to calm down.

First day of shooting can often be the hardest as they've had the rest of the year in peace and tranquility so I was a bit worried for yesterday but I needn't have been. They were all wonderfully calm, no running around. Heads high, yes, but no panic, no dashing around, no stampeding.

Today they were even calmer. I went out and they didn't actually move once from their original spots and the shoot this morning changed drives three times. They actually seem more concerned about why there are SO many people and dogs on their grazing fields but they only looked and watched, again high headed, but calm and not moving their feet. SO, I thought it may be the right opportunity to see if I could actually play with Solly whilst the shooting was going on! I'm glad I did this, he was very very calm, very focussed on me and a good boy ;-)

Played circling, fig 8's at trot (bit muddy and wet for canter), yo-yo'ing through two barrels and back, sideways with me in Z1 and then Z3, sideways over a barrel and jumping barrels. I played all the games a few times to reinforce calmness and relaxation and he did SO well. The shooting didn't seem to bother him at all.

Jumping barrels from a standstill


Sideways over a barrel

Yo-yo's between barrels

Sunday 11th October

Well today I went out with the intention of playing/riding Solly but Tara came up to me and kept following me about everywhere so as she choose me I took her out for a change. We went up to the top playfield again with Mark and Holly and it was mostly to give Mark some tuition on Freestyle riding today so that he can prepare more for his L2 audition. So, we got up there and I let Tara free to graze whilst I tutored Mark and Holly.

Then he needed a break so I asked Tara to come to me to be mounted bareback and bridleless and she sideled up to the pedastal beautifully. Today I wanted to practise some 2xCS riding as I've done very very little of this and my thought was that if I get really really got at it on Tara then I'll be prepared to do it then with Solly ;-) So off we went, did some clover leaf in w/t and then RtR in w/t/c. It was a lot of fun.

Me and Tara, CS riding the Clover Leaf

2xCS riding

Then I went back to tutoring Mark a bit more (but I stayed riding Tara w/2xCS's whilst teaching him) with the Clover leaf and weave patterns. Holly is a quick learner so it went pretty well. With the lesson over Mark asks if I would ride his Holly (love riding his horse, she's very special) so I grabbed the chance to do that. First I asked for all the pre-flight tests and then went onto some jumps. She was very calm and coordinated with these which was lovely, she suffered a broken right hip as a youngster (before us) so jumping was always a bit of a worry for her but she seems to have got much stronger over the years we've had her...she's now 10yrs old.

Jumping Holly

And then Mark asked if I would do some CS riding/Freestyle with her so that he could see more of what he has to practice so I did some clover leaf and she really tried her best for me ;-) It is nice to ride her now as being innately a RBext/RBint horse she really lives in LB land more now and it's a credit to PNH and Mark for keeping with the program over the years.

Freestyle/CS riding the Clover Leaf

Saturday 10th October

I love the weekends when Mark comes out with me as he always has a camera and I get LOTS of piccie's of the session. Today I went with Solly, Mark and his horse Holly up to the top field where the new play area is. It was a great opportunity to introduce both horses to a new set up and having the two horses together for the first time helped settle them nicely. Because of Mark taking so many pictures, today the session is in piccie format ;-)

Friendly game

Xtreme friendly game...
slowly getting him used to me above Z3 when he's laying down

Up in the playfield
Liberty standing on the pedastal


All 4 feet on the pedastal at liberty ;-)


Jumping at liberty, jumps getting higher now


Jumping with confidence


Jumping...not a problem ;-)


Different jumps aren't a problem either


Long reining, weave at the trot

Long reining, reins over back alternately for the fig 8

Long reining, stand on the ped w/2 feet ;-)

Long reining, backup

Trying out close range circling at liberty w/CS on Z3

Close range circling at liberty

Great draw to me at trot, away from Holly the horsey herd leader!

Bareback, CS/SS riding..LF
(although reins there I didn't use them)

CS/SS riding...DHQ

CS/SS riding...Clover Leaf at trot

Kneeling on his back...one step before standing on his back ;-)

Friendly game in Zones 3/4/5

Friendly game in Zones 4/5

This was a fun session and Solly was just perfect. He did everything with calmness, relaxation and willingness but still had some fun spirit there too as he ran off at liberty a couple of times to stretch his legs and he came back to me with a good look on his face and his ears forward which was lovely. The large arena up here now is rounder than before and large so I hope it will really help us to practise our riding the rail in canter and to do clover leaf and fig 8's in canter with SLC's too.

Thursday 8th October

I did quite a bit of putting up electric fencing today, all inside the field the horses are grazing and also inside the paddock by the house. I did the paddock by the house as the shooting season is upon us once again and the horses will be in the paddock on shoot days, the electric fencing hopefully will stop them enthusiastically trying to graze over the fences as there is not a lot of grass in the paddock and our big boy 'Stormy' is always cheeky about grazing the edge of our garden ;-)

So after all that I managed to take three hours out with Solly. I started out with the friendly game and used my telescopic 'fishing rod/carrot stick' starting with it small (about 15" long) and working up to it's full length which is probably about 6' plus. Sol didn't mind it at all, wasn't worried, licked and chewed and followed it when I walked in front of him ;-)

Sol following the telescopic CS

Next we played a bit of circling and squeezed over three jumps in a row and then we rested in the 80' roundpen before doing some liberty work. In the pen I asked Sol to do some close circles. These went okay, he's a bit hesitant, stops behind me sometimes but he's getting the hang of it. When I asked for a circle not quite so close with a bit more enthusiasm he ran off and cantered around the pen. I stayed in the centre and eventually he trotted and came closer in, off the rail. With him coming in closer I let him come to me with a DHQ. Hopefully this will make an impression with him and he'll 'get' that circling doesn't have to be on the rail!

I put him back online in the roundpen and again ask for circles with most of the 22' line dragging on the floor, this went very well and I asked for a couple of COD's too. After a short rest I went to doing some stick to me at liberty. He does w/t/backup very very well. So asking for some progression I start to ask for some w/t/c/t transitions but he firstly doesn't understand going down from canter but we get that okay after a couple of different tactics. Then he decides it's too much pressure and when we come down from canter to trot or walk he turns behind me and shoots off at a canter around the pen...SO back online we go and we sort out these little things. Hopefully we left it on a good note for him to remember for next time.

So, onto some ridden fun. I start in the roundpen. Having saddled Sol I use the 22' line as reins and mecate line and mount up from the ground and do our pre-flight checks (LF, DHQ, move FQ's, backup). I want to try to get our ride the rail (RtR) better so this is a good place to start, I also want to try to work on CS riding more and more so again the 80' pen is good. We start in walk and go to trot quickly. I use the 'yin yang' pattern to change direction and Sol does these very nicely. I also stop frequently on a good note in the centre so the yin yang works for us as he's always asking questions about whether we change direction, gait or stop at the centre X. Although I have reins I only use the CS and the neck string.

When the trotting is going well I decide to try a bit of canter. Now, I've not done any CS riding canter and my balance isn't perfect but I need to progress with this. I start off by holding the front of the saddle to help my balance but realise soon that this actually doesn't help so I just have to have faith in Sol and I just use the CS for manoeuvering Sol about. It actually goes rather well, okay I have to sort out my relaxation more and Sol's slipping on molehills BUT generally it was a good start. It felt weird but empowering to not hold onto reins or saddle, or anything but the CS and now I've started this I need to just practise, make adjustments and get better so that we can progress more.

Next up I take Sol out of the grazing field altogether, online, and we do walking circles at a trot to the furthest gate out of the next field. This gate is a good one, opens and closes nicely and I thought it would be good to practise gate opening. So, online still I start Sol off getting used to being close to the gate, friendly game. I ask him to put Z1 next to and onto the gate. Then I ask for Z3 to be next to the gate, working with sideways from Z1. Then I ask for him to squeeze and circle next to the gate. He has a bit of trouble standing still when Z3 is next to the gate but I use approach and retreat to help him get more confident and that works very quickly.

Once he's happy with the gate online I decide to sit on the gate and play around with moving his HQ's to the left and right for sideling for mounting. He has a harder time with me on the right so I keep doing lots of this until he's happy. I then do it a couple more times and mount and dismount from both sides too so that it's not just about mounting once and going off! This again takes a few sessions but he is slowly learning to stand still and relax about it all.

Once mounted and sitting still I then work on the ingredients to open the gate from the saddle. These include, walking to the gate, DHQ's to the gate, backup along the gate, sideways to the gate. He does have trouble standing still quite a lot so I take things really slowly and stop after every little good move he does. Eventually I can open the gate and he learns that he can push it open with his nose...now that LBext side of him comes in useful ;-) On the other side I don't allow him to graze just yet, he's got a job to do. I ask him to push the gate back to where I can latch it and he uses his nose and chest for this. He does a bit of walking backwards but I just take my time and be persistant in what I ask him to do. Once the gate is ready to latch I ask him to move his HQ's over so that we're parallel with the gate. Again this takes quite some time but patience is very rewarding. I think we opened and closed the gate gently and slowly 4 times. Each time he did the full job of opening, going through and closing the gate and waiting, then he got to graze. I was very happy with what we did today and I will continue to make a program of this until it's second nature to us both.

Coming back riding from the far gate to the grazing gate I asked Sol to do some w/t transitions. I think the dominant side of him came up and he decided he was going to take me for a canter and just as I was stopping him he put in a few bucks and a bit of a slip (could have been worried by river noise, pheasants hiding, or generally being dominant and wanting to be back with the herd quickly!). I nearly came off as his head and front end was very squiggly and low BUT managed to stay on, stop him in that silliness and walk back to the grazing field. I thought this was a good opportunity to do some more transitions along the outside fence of the horses grazing field so that I didn't worry about his silly bucking.

So, I took him along the fence putting in some small circles in trot down the fence line and back. I kept using the fence line and put in some w/t circles, bowtie and serpentines along it. THEN when he was more relaxed, head lowered and blowing I went straight down the fence line and asked for some w/c/w transitions. I counted 6 canter strides each time and we did a LOT of these until he started counting more with me. He didn't actually get a true w/c/w transition but he was trying hard for me. I will do these again in our finesse progression but will use the confidence snaffle or french link next time for better communication. By the time we stopped he was very relaxed and doing some nice manoeuvers.

It was a good session and it was nice to do something different today. Tomorrow we're moving our whole playfield back to the top field by the road again, sheep have been in there grazing it down and now we can use it without worrying about pheasants hiding in the very long grass up there.

Wednesday 7th October

Felt a bit better today so went out between rain showers to see what me and Solly could get up to.

We start off with some flag desensitization again. This is going well and I can flap it around over him and play friendly in all zones, under his belly and around his legs okay. I then ask him to walk and then trot with the flag and pole resting on his back. He settles into trot well with this weird thing on his back and the flag flapping and I'm happy with the progress he's making with this.

Next I do some long reining. Start off with the clover leaf pattern at walk and then trot, to the L&R and it goes pretty well. He's starting to trot off my energy more which is good. Then we go and do some weave pattern in walk and trot too and this goes well too. Figure 8's are coming along well too and this time I do the long reining with the outside rein over his back and flip them when changing directions at X. He remembers to keep trotting when I'm flipping the ropes so I'm very pleased with this. Lastly with long reining we go over a small obstacle course, a jump, trotting poles, over the tarp which is rolled up into a jump w/tyres on it then onto the pedastal. He takes two attempts at the pedastal and I tried not to go into Z4 unless he really needed me there. He did it well on the 2nd attempt and he rested up there for a long while before I asked him down.

After that good session and a rest I closed off the large arena and set him free for some liberty fun. We did some really nice stick 2 me at w/t, over jumps, trotting poles and onto the pedastal! I then ask for some close range circling as this is a big thing for him. He did the close range and I worked on the principle of 'don't make me pick up the stick' to help him out and he did a couple of circuits L&R. I then upped the anti and asked for a larger circle but he cantered off around the large arena...so I helped him, I stood in the centre and let him canter, changed his direction and canter the other way. It was good to see him letting off some steam. When he stopped and thought about coming in to me he stood right by one of the trotting poles. I asked him to come to me but he thought I meant something else...and he neatly put his front hoof on the pole. lol. Very cute try and he kept it there long enough for me to take a picture of it!



Finally I decided to do some bareback riding. I haltered him up and got him sideling up to the pedastal, which I was standing on. I did it a few times to the L&R to get him more confident and listening to me as he wanted to try to keep standing on the pedastal ;-) I worked on getting him still and relaxed ready to mount and then jumping up and down and putting my bellybutton on his withers in preparation for mounting. I did this a few times to help him relax too.

Next I mounted and sat for ages just doing nothing. Then I did LOTS of preflight checks, LF, move the FQ, DHQ's and backups. Just small steps but getting more specific about where his feet go.

I had the halter and reins on but only used the neck string and CS for this session. We managed some nice weaves in walk and figure 8's in trot, really making sure my inside shoulder was back so help with the turns, this is really helping my balance too. I then dismounted and he followed me out of the arena back to his grazing field with the rest of the herd.

It wasn't a long session but it was a very nice session. His confidence in his surroundings and in me is getting so nice now and it feels good to be progressing more with him with the long reining. I will try to set up a roundpen, more than 50', to practise his liberty circles!

Sunday 4th October

Yesterday it rained all day so didn't get to be with Solly and today I wasn't feeling on top form but wanted to get out SO instead of Solly who needs my undivided attention I took Tara out. I dont' take her out nearly as much as I used to since getting Solly so it's a nice change to ride such a calm non-spooky horse and just have some FUN ;-) I know Solly is getting much much better but today I wanted that easy to do ride out.

I played with her in the arena, getting her confidence and impulsion up. As I haven't done much with her since the Instructor dvd she was very willing and happy to play today and did everything I asked whether it was small like put one foot over a pole from 22' away, or big, like stand on the pedastal with all four feet from 22' away. She also did quite a bit of canter on line (something she NEVER usually does) and cantering in her draw to me...giving this girl time off really helps her attitude ;-)

The hack we did was the one me, Solly, Mark and Holly did last week. Down the lane to the big pretty field, to the river and then back via the forest hill, road and river crossing to the back of the grazing field. We had a blast and I could really just sit there and let Tara do the rest, long reins all the way around, slow and calm, bit of canter when she wanted to do it and nothing bothering us the whole way around. Lovely. Here are a couple of pics of the day.

Tara having fun splashing in the River Shee ;-)


Tara and I having fun cantering around the pretty field ;-)

Friday 2nd October

Today started off drizzly and has been on/off wet all day. I didn't want to play or ride in this as it's very slippery and the horses are all wet. I went out and did some poo picking and went up to all the horses for cuddles and rubs and I did a nice neck massage on Solly and he just yawned and yawned and yawned the whole time which was very interesting.

A couple of fishermen walked by on their way out from the River Shee too and Solly was very high headed about their long fishing rods SO after another few days of flag desensitization I will do the same thing with my extendable fishing rod that I've used on Tara as a Carrot Stick at a long distance. Will be interesting to see how he takes to that! lol ;-)

Thursday 1st October

A bright but cool day today and perfect for playing with Solly. Had a lovely session with him today, here is what we did together:

1) Friendly game

2) Z5 driving.
We started with the weave pattern and it didn't take long for him to understand today so I then went onto playing with the clover leaf pattern with Z5 driving. This is a good idea for us as it holds all the same principles of freestyle riding (apart from me being in Z5 rather than Z3) so if he can understand the CS driving him around turns with this then it will help our freestyle riding ;-)

I also made sure I was using my whole body and focus on where we were going and made the turns towards the circle by moving his hindquarters over if I needed to, he was very responsive and he went into walk and down to stop with my body energy only. Good exercise.

3) Desensitization with the flag.
This was the 2nd day of friendly game with the flag. Again he was a bit sceptical to start with but overcame his sceptisism well and quickly.

4) Long Reining:
I do this today with 2x22' lines. We start with the weave pattern in walk and this goes very well. After a short rest we do the clover leaf pattern in walk and then trot (gosh I need to get fitter! lol). He does the CL very well and I find myself working much better with my focus and energy too.

Next is the fig 8 pattern around two barrels with me running behind him and then with me standing still and him going around cones on his own. He does both of them very well and things are going according to plan.

Finally for the long reins I take Sol into the large arena where we do some obstacles. First is a jump, then over trotting poles and onto the tarp. Backup off the tarp then back onto the tarp and turn right off the tarp to over a pole, then backup over the pole. After this I drive him to the pedastal where he puts his front feet straight onto it. Clever boy ;-) I porcupine his butt a few times and his back legs get closer and closer to the pedastal and then he just gets onto it (all with me still in Z5) and puts all 4 feet onto the ped. YEEHAA...first time for this and I'm well chuffed with his effort.






After this he goes forward off the pedastal and I ask him to stop, do a small sideways manoeuver to the right and backup and then another sideways to the right and this puts him right infront of the tyre jump. I ask him to jump it, then relax my energy, stop him a few steps from the jump and ask him to back up to the jump. It was a bit difficult at first for him, I'd never asked him to do this before from Z5 but he did it okay. Something to work on as the days go by ;-)

5) Next I saddle and do some fig 8's in t/c for my cinching session. He does some great fig 8's and blows nicely to show he's relaxing so I use this opportunity to bridle and it doesn't take long today. He's getting much better about me putting my fingers around his teeth and on his tongue and generally in his mouth which is good.

6) Ride:
I start with some freestlye riding with the clover leaf pattern in walk and trot to the L&R. It went very well and I know the Z5 driving session earlier helped with this.

7) Fluid Rein:
We went around the rail on the outside of the large arena doing this today and he 'got it' very quickly, every now and then I put in a smaller circle and back onto the rail.

I think after this week I will probably stop using the Confidence bit and go back to the loose ring, sweet iron french link so that he can learn to 'go into' that bit and he won't learn to lean too much on this bit. Because it's so rounded and easy to 'go into' LBints often lean on it so when I was at Stoneleigh a couple of instructors told me to get into the Cradle bridle asap with him. Unfortunately I cannot afford a CB just yet (maybe xmas!) so my french link works for now.

I had a very happy session, Solly was good as gold and seemed to enjoy himself as much as I did.