March 2010

Monday 29th March

It's turned a little chilly again and the last couple of days I've either been out teaching or it's been raining here SO today was a good opportunity to see what Solly had to offer me today ;-

He came and caught me well and I haltered him and played the driving game from Z3 up to the playfield. Then I groomed him and made sure his tail is okay as he's had a couple of sore spots on his tail, top, underneath, very sensitive. Not sure what it is but treating it with Ekoneem to keep it clean and to help stop it itching if it's itching.

I then put the 45' line on him and we go into the 40x20m arena where we start off with some nice yo-yo's, back to 40' and drawing in at a nice energetic trot ;-) Then we move onto circles and he goes easily into canter today straight away so I ask for 2 laps one way, stop, rest, out the other way for 2 laps, stop, rest and then a lap either way with a COD w/FLC which was fab. He's got some nice impulsion today which feels lovely.

We then went over to do some fig 8's in canter, gave him plenty of room and he tried really hard. Going from R lead to L lead was good but he found the other way harder so instead of keep drilling it I put in some circles to help him re-balance himself to help get the L to R leads and that seemed to work...also doing the circles allowed him more of the 45' line so that helped too ;-)

I then saddled and bridled him (took off reins) and we did cinching at liberty today. He was very full of himself and he needed to run a bit so I let him and then I just stood at 'neutral' to see what he'd do and he actually closed up on me from the 40x20m arena and did 20m circles at TROT at LIBERTY around me first to the left and then after a rest with me he did them to the right too. I was a bit wide eyed as we have only really done close up circles at walk with a bit of trot and I didn't want to blow it by trying bigger circles but he just spotted me in neutral and came and did them....FAB, pretty cool ;-) This session was so much fun, he was actually responding nicely to me and playing big for me too...lots of YEEHAA moments and his draw was lovely, head high, ears forward and attentive...fab ;-)

I then did some liberty Z5 sideways L&R and those went well too. After all this fab liberty I put the reins back on the bridle and mounted Sol.

Our first task was relaxation and we got this with freestyle fig 8's and I hardly used the reins at all which was great. To bring him up to finesse reins I first put in some time with the fluid reins and he did very well on circles going to the right but was a bit sticky with his ribs going to the left so had difficulty relaxing and putting his head down. I helped him out a lot by sitting on the inside rail of the saddle and then asking him to move off my inside leg thereby helping him to arc around my inside leg more and this relaxed him so that he could lower his head and start to blow out.

Next I went from a long loose rein at walk into some walk/trot transitions with concentrated reins. I put in some backups and also let him have loose reins as a release now and then as a reward for being good and to help him no get tense in his neck. All his transitions were very good today, light legs, pretty light hands, using the suspension rein going to the left to help him 'bend' more around my inside leg on that side and using the long side, short side and diagonal to change the direction often.

We rested at X (centre of arena) for a while and then I asked Sol to do some trotting serpentines, only 3 loops each time along the arena and I really got the timing better today....go along short side, look and ask for bend for first turn, change diagonal at centre line, ask Sol to straighten and change bend at X before asking for next loop of serpentine. Slowly getting our co-ordination better together.

After another rest I decided we needed to work on some our canter more now that it's getting better online and at liberty. I try not to do real 'finesse' with it, just try to let it evolve naturally and allow Sol and I to find our balance together. This works really well and he doesn't try to buck me today, he also tries hard to canter part of a 20m circle which is hard for him so I give him plenty of rests. The canter is getting smoother, my seat is getting softer and he's doing more for me so I will continue building that all up with him.

I decide next to get out of the arena and out into the playfield. We head straight for the tyre pedastal and he stands straight up on it which is cool. This is his comfort zone ;-) I then ask him to try to go to the bottom of the field and I can sense he's a little sceptical SO I ask him to fig 8 around moles hills which works out as a good approach/retreat task and focusses us on smaller, closer things rather than the bottom of the field. Before we know it we're at the bottom of the field, we do a couple of fig 8's around the log jumps and then I ask him to trot nicely up to the top of the field again, when I feel him becomming tense I turn him to the L or R and ask for some fig 8's again, wherever we are. This works well.

I rest again near Mark who is poo picking and then we go off to do some of the trotting poles. By this time he feels a bit light underneath me, like he's impulsion is turning more to impulsiveness so I just try the poles once and then have trouble turning him. I circle a water bucket until he's calm again and then ask for some calmness over the trotting poles. He tries really hard but by the end pole he almost jumps the pole, into canter and is high headed trying to fight me. SO, I just shut him down with LF and calmly walk to the arena and enter that again.

I jump off, take his bridle off and put his halter/45' line back on and work him over the multiple jumps asking him to TROT only between them. It takes quite a while as his blood is up and he's lost his focus. Once he's got calm again I then, online still, take him over the trotting poles (using the circling game) and then on the other side of the circle is a tyre jump (3 tyres high) and it takes again a while for him to calm down and focus but I just stay persistent and consistent until he figures it out. He was pretty sweaty but I put his rug on him when I let him loose again to graze back with the other horses.

What I have realised now is that we're working very well Online/Liberty in w/t/c with patterns and being calm, relaxed and willing BUT ridden we're getting to that sticky stage again where we have to sort out the next gait (canter) with him....BUT I know everything's worked fabulously well so far with the other two gaits so I just have to continue progressing in small doses until we both feel safe, calm and relaxed......Just when everything was going well, but then this is the journey. I could always just stay in w/t but canter is a huge thing for us so we'll just take it one step at a time like we've done everything else.

Tuesday 23rd March

Out with Solly and Stormy today so start with asking them to catch me which was cool, then stick 2 me up the road to the playfield, playing with w/t/h/bckups the whole way. These two boys normally PLAY big time in the field together, always trying to get one up on each other so I had to make sure my leadership was working well so that they kept to their side of the road and didn't try to kick each other or do anything stupid. They were pretty well behaved and once in the playfield I groomed them both online and then let Stormy loose so that he could graze and I could play with Solly on his own in the arena ;-)

Solly/Online 45':
Extreme friendly.
30' of line, touch cone with his nose and then move onto another cone, I don't move feet (pretty cool).
Fig 8's from 30' away, at walk...slow but loads of questions and communication going on.
Fig 8's from 25' away at trot....nice ;-)
Bow....again ask with a cue and after a couple of tries he does it!! Yeehaa. Jump on his back.
Friendly game tossing rope over head and dismount.
Circles, trot 6 laps L&R, nice and relaxed.
Circles, canter 2 laps L&R, getting better.
Longreining on the 45' line, walk the rail, then trot.
Longrein fig 8's behind him in walk and then in trot and then in trot with me standing still.
Longrein, w/t/backups and then try some Z3 long rein leg yields (first attempt).
Saddle and cinch.

Solly/Liberty:
Circles at walk L&R, he remembered well ;-)

Solly/Finesse:
Do some RtR, throw in some 20m and 10m circles, mostly finesse but resting him lots in between good moments with a nice loose rein.
Start doing some COD's across the short and long sides and also diagonally.
Transitions w/t/w/backups to keep variety.
Start short sessions of canter, he gives it nicely. I must remember to relax and sit back.
Cool him off with RtR at walk freestyle ;-)

Very nice session and we ended on a good note.

Stormy/Online 22':
Xtreme friendly game, no a problem at all.
Stick 2 Me, w/t/bkups, fab.
Jump tyres, very nice and enthusiastic now that he's more balanced doing it ;-)
Circles, lots of this until he stayed in direction/gait, he plays around a lot with this one so I stayed passively persistent and got nice results.
Stand on pedastal all 4 feet....cool ;-)
Backups with head down, fab.
Fig 8's walk and then trot, very light, ph1 most of the time, he really knows how to move those shoulders over now.
Saddle and cinch.

Stormy/Freestyle:
Mount and do LF and DHQ's. Very light.
Ride the Rail. Getting this better now, stick with it until he makes a change and seems to understand what we're doing more ;-)
RtR with Indirect/Direct rein maneuvers thrown in. He does these very well and enjoys the variety.
RtR with some COD's using all indirect or direct reins. He's a quick learner and but again I do it until he's understanding it but then move on as he can get bored being a LBext.
Then I do some RtR transitions w/t/w/t/w and he does really well. I get tipped off balance with his large movements (forwards) and when I go forward he stops trotting so I MUST remember to really get a good balance point (posting or sitting) so that he's balanced more ;-)

All in all a lovely session, great playing with the two boys and progressing in little chunks is really showing now.

Stormy having a well earned roll in the mud patch after his riding session ;-)

Stormy, the mud monster ;0-))

Friday 19th March

Very very windy up here today but I take out my equipment and saddle and head up to the playfield. Come back to the grazing field and Solly catches me nicely and I take him at liberty to the gate where then I halter him up. We play Stick 2 Me up the road to the playfield, w/t/h/bkup and start getting some nice backup to trot transitions.

I squeeze him into the 20x40 arena and let him loose whilst I sort out the fence and put up some turned over cones. Then I go back in and start looking in a bag for his grooming brushes and he comes over to investigate. I groom him for about 10 mins or so, he was filthy and a dirty brown from rolling in mud last night so it was nice to see him nice and clean again and he stayed nicely at liberty while I did it too ;-)

Liberty:
Stick 2 me w/t/bkup. Very attentive and arcing around me nicely.

Online 45':
Backups and yo-yo's. He is a bit sticky on this so I just try to get a few good steps and build on it as we go. I then try some yo-yo's in walk from Z3 along a fenceline (like asking for a squeeze but putting the CS/SS up in front and asking him not to go all the way through). He did these okay in walk but got a bit impulsive in trot so I slow it down again to walk and leave it on a good note.

I then go to play on the circling game. It was either the 45' line, the wind working for me or maybe that I've not played with Solly properly for about a week but his circling was fab. He was going out and staying out at canter (YEEHAA!) and I brought him in after only two as I didn't want to ruin such enthusiasm. He did 2 laps at canter to the R&L and I was so proud of him.

After a well deserved rest I went to the fig 8 pattern and he did some lovely trot and then he gave me a few canter fig 8's with FAB FLC's.....he just seemed SO enthusiastic and playful it was lovely to watch. It was easier for him going right lead to left (on the left part of the fig 8) but had trouble moving his shoulder over the other way but still managed it and I made sure I helped him get his shoulder over which made the FLC easier for him going left to right ;-)

Next I took the 45' line and made long reins and started out asking for walk, trot, walk, backup transitions with me in Z5. He really remembers this well and so I ask for some fig 8's with me behind him. He does these quite lightly and I'm pleased he's remembered everything from last year. So, I then ask for him to fig 8 with me standing in one spot. He is fab with these at walk so I up the anti again and ask him to try them at trot. He needs the WHOLE 45' to do this without changing gait (harder doing the clockwise circle on the left) and I find myself holding the 45 in the centre with no excess and he manages to do 2 full laps without changing gait!!! YEEHAA. What a fab day, everything going well.

On such a good note I decide to try for another first...canter circles with COD w/FLC's....guess what....he did them! By this time he is very playful and really shows off with his FLC's and it's lovely to see. I love it when he's enthusiastic like this.

So, not wanting to blow such a good day we go and do something nice and quiet, standing on a pedastal with me 30' away. He tries a few times and manages on the 5th attempt to stay up there without walking off. For our final try I ask him to trot up to a jump and continue to a second jump a few steps away (2 full canter strides but more in trot). I try to set him up so that he's focussing on the second jump and although he runs in on the 2nd jump a couple of times and runs out on the 2nd jump a couple of times I know he's just trying to balance the responsibilty of getting himself to the 2nd jump properly. He tries to do it in canter but this is way too fast and he dodges the 2nd jump a couple of times and I ask him down to a walk. I then take him to the first jump in walk, trot to the 2nd jump, keep his Z1 in the best place to focus on jumping the 2nd jump and he does it.

I let him rest for a long while and then try it a few more try's both from the L&R and slowly and he seems to have 'got it'. SO, I end the session on a good note. I had saddled him to ride BUT the wind is SO harsh up here I cannot hear myself think so decide it's probably best not to ride Sol today when he is a little distracted by where the rest of the herd are in the wind.

Great session though and I hope this is a good sign of how well this year is going to go for me and my Solly ;-))

Thursday 18th March

Back home, safe and sound after 4 fab teaching days down in Dumfries & Galloway. I had a lot of fun but did miss my boys and girls here at home ;-)

Yesterday I just hung out with them, touching in with them again and making sure there are no broken bonds with the herd....all's well.

Today I decided to take Solly down to the lower part of the long grazing field and just touch in with the 7 games with him and see how he's feeling/acting after our break. SO, here is what we did:



Online, 12' line:

1) Friendly.
All zones, extreme and tossing rope over head from zones 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

2) Porcupine.
Move FQ's and HQ's with light light phases. Backup from nose, chest and also backup with head down. All very good.

3) Driving.
Move FQ's and HQ's in fluid movements, one to the other. Backups and yo-yo's on just a finger (no wiggle even!)

4) Sideways.
From Z1 in a straight line and also in a circle. Sideways in Z3 away and towards with me staying at the end of the 12' rope. Sideways from Z5 to the L&R...cool ;-)

5) Spins.
Did these close up without me moving much apart from forwards. Z1 to me, move FQ's over with CS whilst throwing rope over head to be on opposite side, then moving FQ's with CS/SS when head further away and bringing Z5 to me. Then porcupine HQ's over and finally DHQ's with CS to bring Z1 back to me. Did 4 in a row to the L&R and was pretty happy with his responses ;-)

6) Solly's Bow.
I decided to try to see if the signal I've been giving him for about a year now when he does his bow/stretch is going to work as a signal!!! SO, I bow infront of him and he looks at me, I back him up a bit. I do it again with a little porcupine on the halter and low and behold he starts doing a bow/stretch.....I keep my bow stance and bring my energy down/back and then down/forward for him to 'get' his energy down forward and then pushing backwards for the low bit of the bow...HE DOES IT!!! I can't believe it really, I do as normal and lay over his withers/back and he stands back up and I sit astride him beaming with a smile from ear to ear ;-)))))))

I just relax with him and then friendly tossing the rope from side to side, ask for LF both sides and then two steps of DHQ both sides...he does them beautifully. I then play friendly with my body over his back and jump down. Very very chuffed at this...not sure if he'll do it again but I will try it every time we go out and see if all that work on getting him to understand a cue for his stretch becomes part of a routine that I can ask for now rather than him just offering it when he wants to.....YEEHAA!!

Friday 12th March

Had about an hour to use up today before driving to D&G at 1pm SO I decide to grab the chance to get Solly and Tara together. They're all down in the long field again as we moved them last night from the top playfield as the wind was whipping up a storm and there is no natural shelter in the playfield.

Solly and Tara caught me nicely and I took them straight out to the car on the track and groomed and saddled Solly up. I then made reins for Tara and when she'd sidled up to a tree trunk nicely I mounted. I was going to ride the 'dog walk' that is a nice half hour circle ride around some forest.

First I rode Tara bareback and 'ponyed' Solly and got him used to being next to us rather than behind us. When he's behind us he try's to bite Tara's butt and she puts in some nifty small bucks SO I didn't particularly want that. He stayed next to us as much as he could, it's a small track and if he got too close I just used my toe as a porcupine game on his side and this worked out very nicely.

At about a quarter of the way around I jumped off Tara and mounted Solly and then ponyed Tara from him for a long way up the hill in walk and trot. I also put in a couple of backups for him to keep him focussed on me. He did the trip very well, no stopping or stubbornness today ;-)

Then at the top of the hill there was about a quarter of the road to do so I swapped horses again, jumping on Tara bareback again and ponyed Solly all the way back down the hill through the forest. We did some nice walk and trots and he really stayed with us more as the track is much wider here and once I'd sorted all the ropes out in my hands I could use the end of his 12' line to drive his forehand away from Tara's hindquarters.

Really enjoyed the ride, it was short, lively and positive and I think they both enjoyed it too ;-)

Thursday 11th March

Going away for four days from tomorrow so decide to play a bit with three horses today so that they don't miss me for too long! lol.


TARA:

She comes and catches me and is quite enthusiastic about it which is lovely. I play some games online: yo-yo (light and willing), circles (impulsion good, transitions w/t/c/t good) friendly game (excellent), porcupine (backup from tail great, all 4 feet from one side great etc), driving game (turning on FQ and HQ's shart, pivoting and light) and sideways (away from the end of the 22' line light and willing, fab)

I take her out of the arena and play some fig 8's (very light with phases) and jumping three jumps in a row (FAB) and then some trotting poles (picking feet up very well and with a lovely attitude) ;-) Great stuff.

I saddle and cinch and then mount and decide to test our communication by gate opening and off on a short trotting hack. The hack was lovely, no braciness, easy to transition and we did it mostly in trot with some walk and quite a bit of canter with a log jump and river crossing included. What a great way to start the day.


STORMY:

Today was the start of our 2010 work schedule for this big boy. I am starting to play with him more regularly and also going to start riding him from L1 upwards again to just get the basic's more in his makeup now. He had most of last year off and now he's matured more he can do with some discipline to keep him obedient as he's quite a fiesty LBext ;0)

Played with some games: Extreme friendly (not a problem), moving FQ and HQ's porcupine and driving (pretty light and willing), back up from Zones 1, 2 & 3 (pretty good), yo-yo's (ph1, light, light, light), driving from Z3 (a bit sticky but quick to learn and did some nice follow the rail with some turns both sides).

Then we went out of the arena and played around with some fig 8's, he's great in walk so I upped the temp to trot today and he was very good with it. He's such a quick learner and all those days of teaching him change of direction on a circle has really paid off for this game ;-)

Fig 8's to the left...

Fig 8's to the right ;-)

Big rest and lots of scratches as he was doing so well with those. He then went on a did some nice weaving too BUT when he went into trot he got a bit full of himself and I had to bring him back to a walk a couple of times to keep him obedient. It was a good start for later on though.

Next I asked him to do some jumps and also two jumps one after the other which I've been trying out on Solly recently. Stormy had no problems at all doing the two jumps together so my conclusion that Solly has trouble with it is that he doesn't pay enough attention to things after the first jump and I will stop squeezing him over just one thing to improve his focus ;-)

The big Storm getting better with his front feet jumping

Yeehaa....getting those front legs up better each time ;-)

Then I saddled him, played for cinching and then got up on the mounting block....dear Stormy sidled straight over for me to get on! what a cool horse, he doesn't forget things which is great. After mounting I started on all the basic's to see how he remembers being ridden. LF (superb), DHQ's (very good), moving the FQ's (not bad at all). Then I start working on RtR in walk. It goes pretty well, only use the rein or CS a few times and really start to work on my focus for him. I know with his horsenality that he can get bored VERY quickly so I put in some corners game to help him use the corners better and then put in some 20m circles, 10m circles for change of direction and also some large serpentines.

We end on up resting at X and I then ask him to learn the fig 8 pattern. I only do one side of the fig 8 first and then rest at X. Then I put in the other circle and stop at X. Next putting the two parts together and resting at X after one fig 8. Finally doing two fig 8's and then stopping at X and dismounting. I do all the fig 8 teaching with shorter reins as he doesn't 'get' the freestyle rein much at the moment and seems much happier with a friendly touch of a hand on the reins/hackamore for reasurance when doing anything other than going forward and that's fine with me, safer too at the moment as he can 'go' if he decides to.

It was a good day and a good ride on Stormy. I will now just build this up until he can walk and then trot the arena without me touching the reins or CS. He can get a bit frisky with the herd outside the arena running around but he stayed with me nicely.

Happy riding the rail freestyle.
I love that he makes me look small ;-)

SOLLY:

Lastly I ask Solly to come into the arena and set Stormy free. I just do a few games with Solly to keep him interested but not bore him, in case the reason for him not going forward last time was because he was bored!

We do some nice yo-yo's (light and willing), fig 8's at trot (ph1 and with nice look on his face) Z3 driving (cool and fun, keeping him interested) and lots of friendly game. Then a friend came over so it was a good time to stop, give him a hug and set him free.

Nice to play with my horses today, lovely to check in with them and let them have some fun with me.

Tuesday 9th March

Well today we went into town for our fortnightly shop and get more hay for the horses and when we got home I decided to go up and spend some time with Solly doing similar stuff to yesterday ie, more riding than groundwork.

Everything at first went fine, play good, saddling good, impulsion okay, focus good so I mount up do my LF, DHQ and then ask Sol to walk on and NOTHING.....he just stands there and doesn't move. I try again using my phases and work up towards ph4 which is a tap on the butt either side with the end of my lead rope but NOTHING. In fact he looks like he's not going to ever move and if I tap him again he's going to buck! DARN IT. What to do now?

I get off and play harder with him, asking for more speed, tighter turns, up into canter and lots of sideways and backup and then relax on the mounting block and ask him to sidle over again. Fine. I mount and ask him to walk on again and NOTHING AGAIN! this is weird and a little annoying. I rack my brains to think what it could be and the only thing I could think of was that he was just being outright stubborn.

I always give him the benefit of the doubt, always go to the side of asking nicely, politely and taking what he gives BUT today after trying with the phases and being polite and being passive in the proper position I decide that maybe this is a time for me to be a strong leader and not take this silliness from him anymore.

SO as he wouldn't go forward I asked him to back up, he was high headed and resistant so I just kept using the phases gently, always going back to ph1 and ended up doing a backwards fig 8 a couple of times until he softened.

Finally to get him to walk on I move his head to the left and then to the right to unbalance him and he moves off, quite slowly and with what I call an 'attitude'. So I just keep it nice and play the corners game working on getting his walk a bit better than a slug could do ;-)

It pays off and soon he's doing some RtR in trot with some 20m circles, fig 8's and changes of direction thrown in. I try to keep it light but he's definitely got a bug up his butt today! lol

After I get a bit of obedience from him and his cooperation is slightly better I just decide to go out of the arena and straight to working on getting him obedient about going down the field and back. He has a few nappy moments, I stop and wait but am insistent that he actually does as he's told today as I know that if I give in to a strop mode then my leadership will be in question. This is such a hard moment and in the past I would have taken most of this as thresholds and gotten off and gone back to basic's BUT he's been doing this sort of thing on/off for 2 years now and he just has to give me the benefit of the doubt now and learn to trust me more.

We got to the bottom of the field and fig 8 the jumps as normal keeping everything with the patterns we know and then we trot nicely back up the field BUT before we get to the top I decide to turn left and then left again and go back down the field early (this was to help change a pattern so that nothing becomes a habit too much with him, for him to learn to expect the unexpected). He has a small nap, I wait and turn him towards Fortune who is grazing at the bottom of the field and he walks nicely on again. Once more fig 8 the jumps a few times asking for as much trot as is safe (ground is a bit slippy here) and then positively back up the top of the field in a wonderful trot.

We go back into the arena and he once more has a bit of a strop, this time he uses the head tossing on me and he gets quite dangerous with it as his head comes way up and back almost hitting me. I quietly put him into a DHQ, first to the left and then to the right to distract him from what he's doing and he stops, he stands there with his head to one side almost looking at me and it was as if he was thinking 'what just happened there?'

In the arena we did some nice RtR in trot, 20m circles with some fig 8's and then 10m circles made to fig 8's too. Turns down the centre line and changing the rein through the long diagonal of the arena. He also did some nice 3 loop serpentines today and the beginnings of some leg yields to the R&L too. Maybe being a bit stronger with him at times helps him feel safe?

I know that sometimes the head tossing can be behaviour brought on by stress but sometimes too he uses it as a dominant thing and today I was having none of it. Everything worked out well and when I set him free he was following me around like a puppy so I gave him a good brush and some treats and told him not to be so silly next time ;-)

Horses? keep you on your toes for sure don't they ;-)

(PS. I did check for pain in his back, made sure there were no unusual lumps or bumps or kicks on his body anywhere before saddling and also did some Equine Touch over his saddle area before and after riding him, I could find nothing untoward anywhere so this is how I came to the conclusion he was just being a stubborn donkey today!)

Monday 8th March

Decided today was a good day to start bringing up Solly's ridden work as much as I've been doing the online and liberty. I usually spend quite some time playing online/liberty before riding and often if the groundwork has been long I don't ride much at all SO this is going to change this year. I will be doing more riding on most days with more groundwork on otherdays....trying to be more specific about what I do with Solly and keeping it progressive ;-)

So, to start today he caught me well and it was earlier than normal so he actually left his hay pile to be with me which was cool. I then took him at liberty (stick 2 me) into the arena where Tara is being kept to keep her from being to enormous this year! lol.

I ask him to go sniff the saddle which is on a block and then spend some time grooming him (friendly game) and making him feel good. I then saddle him and halter him and spend the next 15 mins or so cinching and using this as his playtime today. We did all the usual checks and thew in some driving w/t/bkup with me in Z4, sideways Z1 from a distance, circles and cinched him up as we went.

Then I asked him to sidle to the mounting block (gets better each time on the right side) and mounted. Did my flight checks and then started on our ridden session with some RtR throwing in some corners game to help his focus, then a thousand transitions (especially stop to trot and working on better trot to walk too) to help his impulsion (no canter still as ground either slippery or hard as concrete!).

Once he's concentrating more and his impulsion is better I start working on what I call 'dressage stuff'. This involves firstly doing a good striding walk, working on RtR, 20m and 10m circles and some serpentines and changing the rein either across the arena or down the middle either from short side to short side OR long side to long side. I also work in some 10m fig 8's. Then we start working on some trot with all the same patterns as we did in the walk. I stop at X sometimes but try to keep it moving along so that there aren't so many stops now.

It was hard work to start with and it is difficult working in a very uneven arena that I've made out of their grazing field BUT it does help to teach him to pick his feet up and balance more so it has it's good points. lol

When I feel he's getting a bit more obedient (we did about an hours worth) I take him out of the arena into the grazing field and ask Sol to go around/down the field. Now he grazes in this field so it shouldn't be worrying for him BUT when I ride him he does have spooky thoughs and is high headed. Usually I don't press it and we wander down as much as we can and it's all very light for him...we've been doing this for a while now BUT today I decided it was time he learnt to just trust me more. I always stop for his thresholds and make sure there is nothing really worrying for him but today I gently insisted he try harder for me and he managed to get to the bottom of the field without too much sidepassing or prancing about.

At the bottom I took him around the two wood jumps in a fig 8 until I could feel him soften his neck and then I asked him to trot nicely up to the top of the field, trying to keep to the side near the fence as much as possible. He trotted beautifully, impulsion was fab and he stayed with me without pulling or prancing about SO once up the top I asked him to try to go down the field again. He put in a couple of stops but otherwise it was a good ride down, some fig 8's at the jumps again so that there is a good pattern to this and then trotting back up to the top. It felt much calmer the second time and hopefully now we can build on this and progress to where the whole field becomes my RtR pattern ;-)

It was a good idea to go out early today and I am going to try to make sure that we do as much riding as we can this year. It will probably be finesse riding (concentrated reins) as we both feel much more confident out and about this way and slowly bring the freestyle into the hacks as we go. Freestyle is more something I do in the arena with Solly and out on hacks with Tara, each needs different things in different places BUT mostly I will stay safe and work on some more 'dressage stuff' in and out of the arena such as leg yields, half passes, shoulder and haunches in and then bring on the canter more. It's going to be a fun year ;-)

Sunday 7th March

Today has been positively warm, went out with a fleece and gillet and left my coat at home for a change....it is a nice change too. Re-arranged my large arena in the playfield to a good 20m x 40m arena so that Solly and I can start doing some serious training and dressage moves in there. It's much smaller than the arena I put up before but it will be good to do some 20m and 10m circles that are accurate for a change. lol

So, today Solly caught me very nicely, ears forward and with a smile on his face and we played stick 2 me from the bottom of the playfield to the top at liberty with some nice w/t/backup transitions along the way ;-)

Then I asked him to stand on the pedastal at liberty with all 4 feet which was nice too and then I groomed him whilst he stood quietly on the ped.

I then haltered him and then trotted over to a jump made up of two barrels and asked to see if he would sidepass over this, first going to the right and then to the left.....he made a huge effort and did it very well, this is the first time he's sidepassed over 2 barrels! yeehaa ;-))

After a rest and some scratches I then asked him to circle at trot and put in two sets of barrel jumps which were two canter strides apart...he did them in trot and firstly couldn't seem to face the second jump, did the first one nicely as normal but swept past the other one either on the inside or the outside SO not to make this a habit I asked him to do it again and after the first jump asked him to really slow down and think about the second part, kept his Z1 focussed on the centre of the jump and he managed to do it. We did this5 times well with rests inbetween and then moved away from it. I think at first he did the first jump and then switched off, ready to DHQ and stop like a squeeze or just circle around and it never occured to him that there could be another jump soon after SO this was a huge leap forward for him and it went very well.

We then went and played inside the arena. We did some fig 8, weave and circles all mixed up to keep him thinking and then I saddled up and cinched in three stages.

He sidled up to the mounting block nicely today and I checked his LF, DHQ and go button from the start. Well the first two were fine BUT his go button was more of a buck button ;-( So I started riding the rail and did a thousand transitions, evey couple of steps I'd ask for walk, then trot, then walk, then trot, then halt/backup and continued doing that around the arena to the L&R for a few laps until he was being very positive about going from a backup to a trot from just a ph1 from my leg ;-)

Then we did some circles, serpentines and fig 8's using as little rein as possible. By this time Mark was ready with Holly and we decided to go out for a short hack.

This is the first hack out of 2010 for Mark/Holly and me w/Solly. I'd been wanting to start Solly riding out again for a while but today was the best day re: weather so it was good. Solly was forward going and he was listening to me nicely. We went along down a road and turned right along the track towards the River Shee. Along this way Mark speeded up and Solly got a little RB about being left behind BUT I just kept asking him for leg yields along the track to keep his mind on me.

Then we caught up and we walked nicely down towards the river more, at this point there is a small track that leads to a couple of houses on the right, the road goes upwards and the track where we were goes downwards and just at this point a 4x4 vehicle came up and loomed over our heads on the road at the house, this spooked Solly a bit and it must have seemed weird to have a car above his head like that although it was quite a bit over to the right...he started shuffling his feet and I LF'd him but he couldn't keep his feet still SO I quickly jumped off and put him into backup mode down the track towards where Mark and Holly were waiting. This got him more focussed and once he lowered his head and blew out I turned him around and we walked together along the track until I found a small bank where I could re-mount him.

He was fine after this and did some nice w/t transitions down to the River and then he went into the river around the fence so beautifully, without a flinch or a thought..just bam, into the river when I asked! fab. This has been the most positively he's done this ever and I was very proud of him.

We then walked sedately along the river, through into their Summer grazing field, out the other side, up a small hill, past our house and back up the road to the playfield where the other three horses were waiting for them. It was a lovely ride out and hopefully as the weather stays nice we can do lots more so that hacking out for Solly is no longer a worry about spooking, just another experience and another fun time had in our journey together ;-)

Saturday 6th March

Nice sunny day, warmer than the last week and the snow is certainly going quite quickly. My snowhorse has defrosted and there is only a blob of snow in it's place so it must be getting warmer ;-)

Today we moved all 5 horses up to the top playfield again as there is better ground, less ice and it's easier for me to get to them to play when I want. If it starts snowy or windy again then we'll move them back but for now the top more open field is nicer for them.

After moving them Mark did some poo-picking and I took Solly into the large arena for a quick play around. I only had the halter and 12' line, no CS/SS and it was interesting to play around like that for a while. We did some stick 2 me, some fig 8's in w/t and a little bit of slow circling.

I then took his halter off and we did some liberty stuff, again stick 2 me, fig 8's in walk and a try of circling but today wasn't the right day for this so didn't push my luck ;-)

For fun I decided to see if he would sidle up to the mounting block and he did this very nicely at liberty SO I jumped on. I then did a bit of a passenger lesson (bareback, bridleless and without a CS/SS) just trying to get him into walk and then doing nothing for a while and then I went to guiding him a bit with some left and right circles, halts and backup. It was fun and it got us connected again after our break. Here are some piccie's of the riding bit ;-)

Circle to the right

Backup

Xtreme friendly

Monday 1st March

Well I've been getting a little cabin fever recently not being able to do much with the horses SO I decided after making a snowman that maybe I'd give it a try for a snowhorse.....it was a LOT of fun doing this....

Foal sized snowhorse....

I'm calling him Orion
after the constallation I see every night outside our backdoor ;-)