Saturday 31st July
Last day of July already and I'm off to London tomorrow ;-( Needed a few bits from the shop today so decided to ride Solly to the shop again today (day 2 of our 7 day pattern hacking to the shop)..
Did almost exactly what I did yesterday in the warm up but did all the games quicker and made sure my 4 points of horsemanship were in place (ie. Relaxation/Willing Obedience/Impulsion/Flexibility) before saddling and mounting. He also did day 3 of our 7 day pattern for jumping the upright barrels (which I measured at a good 3' today ;-) All went well, he was light, energetic, flexible and very obedient so I mounted and worked on our ridden stuff quickly...mostly transitions w/t/backup and also some fig 8's which worked on all 4 points....love that pattern.
So, off we went up the hill again, he was more energetic about going up today but I got off just before the top as I could see the cattle in the field opposite (just to be safe!). He was good and we got out of the field and I walked with him just the first part, past the cattle field and mounted exactly where I mounted yesterday. He had a little graze and then I asked him to walk down to the village. He had a couple of thresholds where I just sat and let him think for a while and then re-asked him to move on. He was much much lighter off the leg today and I could see him really trying hard for me the whole way. I was determined to not get off unless I needed to.
I got off coming up to the wooden bridge, this was just too much again for him ridden SO I squeezed him over in walk and trot until he began to relax more. After the bridge I got back on him immediately. He had a bit of a threshold after the bridge where there is a sharp right and then a sharp left with over head electric cables and LOTS of trees and bushes BUT he did very well and with me encouraging him with determination he continued all the way to the outskirts of the village. Here I got off as it was safer for a Sat with traffic, kids etc. I was very proud of him for his huge try for me today.
I tied him up to a tree outside the shop, made sure he was relaxed and then scooted into the shop to get my goodies, including an ice lolly for me and a juicy apple for Solly ;-)
Solly outside the shop waiting patiently for a bit of my ice lolly ;-)Going home was fab, got some lovely calm, relaxed trot and another nice uphill canter where I stood up in the stirrups (seems to be easier for him) and he had a nice relaxed neck, head and was behaving beautifully. Again just before the horses field I got off to avoid any accidents with the cattle field. Lovely ride out and hopefully when I return from London, between teaching I will continue this hacking out with Solly ;-)
Back in the field, Solly released back to the herd I went and asked Holly to catch me which she did nicely. She wanted scratches and got them for being a good girl. I then haltered her and on a 22' line I played all the games to test her for her 4 points of horsemanship were working today....yup, she was fab. SO I saddled and cinched, mounted and walked/trotted her to the house so that Mark could see her again before I go off for the week ;-)
She was very well behaved, she can get excited and has a huge amount of power and speed but she's very very willing and light to control and she was lovely to ride out. On the way back I put her into a short canter uphill to one of the gates along the way...it was fab. I always stand up a bit in the stirrups for her as she has had a broken hip when a baby and her back doesn't move as much as most other horses, tilts the saddle a bit to the right (must work on her ribs more!) and for her comfort mostly standing up in the saddle is much easier. Felt good, she's a very good horse and I love riding her ;-)
Great thing about today is that I got to ride 2 fab horses calmly and my rucksack held some goodies including 6 local eggs, non of which got broken!! yeehaa ;0
Back in the field, Solly released back to the herd I went and asked Holly to catch me which she did nicely. She wanted scratches and got them for being a good girl. I then haltered her and on a 22' line I played all the games to test her for her 4 points of horsemanship were working today....yup, she was fab. SO I saddled and cinched, mounted and walked/trotted her to the house so that Mark could see her again before I go off for the week ;-)
She was very well behaved, she can get excited and has a huge amount of power and speed but she's very very willing and light to control and she was lovely to ride out. On the way back I put her into a short canter uphill to one of the gates along the way...it was fab. I always stand up a bit in the stirrups for her as she has had a broken hip when a baby and her back doesn't move as much as most other horses, tilts the saddle a bit to the right (must work on her ribs more!) and for her comfort mostly standing up in the saddle is much easier. Felt good, she's a very good horse and I love riding her ;-)
Great thing about today is that I got to ride 2 fab horses calmly and my rucksack held some goodies including 6 local eggs, non of which got broken!! yeehaa ;0
Arriving at the house, Holly knows Mark has an apple for her ;-)Friday 30th July
Two days before going to London for a week SO wanted to work on Solly and my relationship outside the field today ;-) I know he's very sceptical about new learning and I know also that I haven't done my 7 days in a row hacking out to the village shop with him BUT that is about to change. Although I know going to London interrupts our hacking out but it may also put one good day under our belt before going and he can lick and chew on that all week until I come home and do it again with him! lol. So, the plan first thing is to play and get him Relaxed, Obedient, Impulsion working and Flexible before saddling and riding to get the same, THEN I am willing to go out and put it into a purpose ;-) This is our play session.
22' Online session:
Friendly game, all zones, tossing rope over head from z5. Nice and relaxed.
Porcupine backup from tail. Did 10 steps, nice phase 1-2.
Sideways from Z3 L&R and also Z1 L&R. Very light and crossing legs very well.
Circling w/multiple jumps, the three upright barrels (yeehaa) and also new 'water' jump.
He had a bit of trouble doing the barrels going to the left but I just stayed on the circles until he did it nicely which he did when he was confident enough to do it ;-) He also had trouble with the new 'water' jump...I had taken the blue tarp out from under the jump and put it infront of the jump so he had to go onto the tarp either going into the jump or out of the jump depending on which way he was circling. I did lots of just walking and trotting over the tarp along the jump before asking him to jump on/off it and eventually with patience he 'got it' nicely ;-)
Going over 'water jump' having to touch the tarp
Made the water of the 'water jump' bigger so had to jump onto/off it each time jumped it ;-)
Ridden:
After this I saddled him w/the XXW gullet saddle. Still worrying about which one is best for him SO decided to try the smaller gullet first. It felt a little tight but it was nice and high off his withers. He was a bit reluctant to go off my leg, I wasn't sure if he was just being obstinate or if the saddle was hurting him SO I asked for more cooperation, went into the large arena and did circles in w/t and then asked for canter. The canter was choppy and short and it felt awful SO I took him back to the saddling area and swapped the XXW for the XXXXW gullet saddle I had there. This is the saddle I've used on him for the last two years and I was worried this one was TOO big BUT it felt better to me, a bit lower over the withers but so much more room around the shoulder area and he seemed to relax more....went into trot and his head came down, blew out and stopped swishing his tail SO this is the one I rode in today ;-)
I asked him out of the arena and into the large field, he seemed worried about being away from the herd but I insisted with some waggling of the rope and slapping it on my shoulders to get him going. I was hoping that he'd give it a try to canter up the hill and then I could see if he was okay with saddle, cantering BUT it felt like he 'couldn't' canter up the hill. Maybe hill too steep? His feet need trimming too so I didn't push the issue and was pleased when he trotted up, as we came to the top his head was quite high and I realised that he was worried by the cattle in the field opposite at the top of the field so I quietly got off him and led him out of the field and along the track for a field and a half so that the cattle were way behind us when I got on again ;-)
He was slow and reluctant to walk forward without me having to urge him on constantly today. We stopped at thresholds almost every other step and it was quite frustrating. When we had waited for quite a while and I asked him to trust me more and move on he actually went into super impulsion backwards so I spent some time putting him into small circles of DHQ L&R to stop him doing that. Once he'd taken two steps forwards I jumped off, he'd given me a try but I could feel that it wasn't productive being on his back so I walked with him to regain his confidence. This is why I need to do this track 7 times in a row to help it become a good pattern rather than something he's sceptical about all the time.
While walking him he got a bit obnoxious so I asked him to play some games with me, stick 2 me, w/t/backups. COD and circling on the small track without running me over, backing up along the track and then we came to the scary wooden bridge. Here I asked him to walk over it both way quite a few times, grazing when it was done with confidence. Then asking him to trot over it again with calmness and confidence, driving game and squeeze game style, grazing done again when it was nice. Then backing up over it and trusting me to do it nicely. Spent about 5-10 mins here and it was good to see him becomming more LB about it all.
Finally we got to the village and I worked on putting his nose on things like: mileage signs, houses for sale signs, garage locks, a road drain (really scary) and a big yellow grit holder ;-)
Once at the shop I asked him to stop and wait whilst I got an orange ice lolly and then some electricity and mobile phone top up too. He wasn't bad but kept coming to the door to see where 'mummy' was. lol. Gave the shop staff something to laugh about. He really enjoyed his red apple and took it in 4 sweet bites. I then went and ate my ice lolly and shared a bit of it with my boy ;-)
I then went back up towards the track route home but went past it to see a friends foal which was nice. We stayed a bit back from it as I didn't want to excite the foals mother and Solly knew there were horses here as he whinneyed on the way up, he was very curious, head right up to see the foal and mother and just stood staring at them.
I then walked him back to the beginning of the track home and mounted off a wall. He started to walk beautifully back home. Impulsion was nice, didn't have to put my leg on at all and kept a nice concentrated rein on the hackamore as I know he likes to know I'm there when he's ridden. I could feel any tension in him through the reins and often put in a small leg yield to get him back to my seat connection which was good. Half way along I asked him very lightly into a trot and he trotted beautifully, he tried to go a bit faster but I gently asked him back to my seat connection again with a small light half-halt and he obliged nicely. Just before home he offered to canter up a short hill and I took his offer, it was light, rocking horse style, calm and with his head rounded nicely, it seemed easy and I lifted my weight off his back and near the top asked for him lightly to come back to an active trot and he did that well too. It was a good time to canter and he didn't try to rush off although I know if I'd let the reins go he would have gone faster as the other horses were really close BUT I knew the cattle field was coming into sight so at a turn to home in the track I quitely brought him down to a stop and backup, jumped off him and walked with him the last part home as I didn't want a good hack out turning into an accident like Stormy's one because of a few silly cattle ;-) I have a feeling the w/t/c were good because Solly WANTED to do it rather than me asking/telling him to do it!! how LB is that? lol ;-)
Got him back to field, untacked, groomed and fed and fed the other horses too. Holly didn't come for hers, wrong time probably but trying to get them off feed whilst I'm down in London SO I had a spare feed bucket. Stormy was shadowing me trying to get the feed and I had my CS/SS and swooshed him away from behind me and guess what???...he started liberty circles at about 15' away from me in TROT and with beautiful flexion in his body around me. I was gobsmacked so asked him to DHQ and gave him a handful of feed from the bucket! I then took the opportunity to ask him to do it again the other way....HE DID IT again!!! YEEHAA..what a clever boy. I think he just watches everything I do with Solly and decides to copy it in the hope of hugs or food!! I think the food helped to keep him close, think he may have just cantered off without the motivation there!! but it felt really good to see him think things through and offer something so cool ;-))
Wednesday 28th July
Today I had a young friend, who've I've known for ages, come on over. She wants to maybe study as a vet so I gave her some insight as to how to have some nice 'horsey manners' for when she hopefully starts doing home visits for horse owners ;-)
First I showed her how to do certain things in a friendly way with Holly, then I helped her do those on things on Stormy and then I asked her to do all those things calmly and on her own as if I was a client on Tara, Solly and Fortune ;-) I also explained about RB/LB horses, EXT/INT horses, the combination of the two sets. Also things like horse heights, what hands were, what whorls were and colour, marking of horses for passports etc. Also explained about laminitis, choke, grass sickness, colic and the workings of the hoof. Showed her horse teeth, where tushes and wolf teeth are and what to expect with teeth rasping, gelding and injuries.
She did very well, very calm, confident girl and I hope I've given her some techniques to help her work with any horse she comes across in her career. The things I asked her to do were:
1) Friendly game all over as a general introduction of human to horse ;-)
2) Needle desensitization
3) Friendly in the mouth/nose/eyes/ears/under tail
4) How to get tail relaxed and up for temperature taking
5) Circling game to check gaits for lameness
6) Porcupine horse away / stop dominant horses barging
7) Standing on something for x-rays, how to place a foot
8) Picking up all 4 feet, positioning of how to put hoof for trimming or finding abcess
9) Friendly game of sheath and teats
10) Leg flexions
11) How to pick up a hoof using a rope
12) How to porcupine head down for relaxation
It was a lot of fun ;-)
After she had gone Solly came and caught me and I played with him at liberty in the 50' roundpen. First we did some stick 2 me w/t/c and then some circling t/c and he gave me 2 laps of canter without me having to 'push' him on..I had to make sure my neutral was neutral but energetic with my energy/arms/body but he did it beautifully ;-)
I then did a bit of circle/fig 8's, I did this as a combo of the two as I find he's happier with the variety, keeps him 'on alert' as to what could happen next rather than get complacent with the pattern and then ignore/dominate it! lol.
He did so well that I decided to saddle him up. Cinching was a LOT of fun, instead of circling or stick 2 me I decided on the spur of the moment to try some LIBERTY Z5 DRIVING!!! it went very well for a first attempt. He moved off on my energy, I kept my energy in control and low to keep him in walk so that he didn't try to trot off 'away' from me and that worked very well. We just did some follow the rail to start with, he was good with me putting the CS/SS by Z1/2 to help direct him back to the rail and then I tried to do some fig 8's. To get him away from the rail I found that instead of moving his head away from the rail if I move my body over to his outside back leg/butt area (so that his inside eye/head has to move more inside to see me) he would turn quite nicely inwards. SO, I positioned myself more on his hind opposite side to get the turns!! how interesting ;-) I started off more as a Z5 passenger but moved him around more and more and was very pleased with our first attempt with this liberty session.
I then bridled him for a change with the PNH 'confidence' snaffle bit as I wanted to try this out again for his relaxation with a bit session today. I asked him to lower his head and he took the bit beautifully and calmly ;-) Stood on a barrel and mounted and did my pre-flight checks, all going well.
I was in the 100' roundpen today and we did RtR w/t and eventually canter. The w/t was going well, relaxing with a fluid rein in trot and he was calm and moving nicely off my leg. When I asked for canter he had trouble going to the left and found it impossible going to the right. Now we were getting a bit better in the hackamore recently so this is about the bit. I made sure I was relaxed and that I didn't have tight reins at all, his head was high-ish like he was worried about being bopped in the mouth by the bit so I just kept asking for canter when he was calm enough to try. He got a bit better and I know that maybe I need to take him out of the arena and let him canter up the long hill in the field so that we can both relax a bit. I'm still very wary of him bucking if I do the wrong thing with him so I probably wasn't as relaxed as I should be for him...I'll just keep trying things until it works for us both.
Anyway, to stretch things a bit we went out of the arena and trotted around the flat part of the grazing field in a very large oval shape both to the L&R and he did very well with that. Slowly getting more confidence together out and about, maybe next time it will be the 'canter up the hill'....yeehaa! lol.
Tuesday 27th July
Had a good friend and HorseSavvy student pop over today for a bit of fun with our horses. Couldn't get to her place this week so this was a good solution. She's very game and played with both Solly and Holly while I played with Stormy and then Solly and Holly too ;-) But here's my session w/Stormy and Solly today.
Stormy 22' line:
Lots of friendly for relaxation with CS/SS all zones, slow and also extreme. Tossing rope over head from all zones. Porcupine FQ's and HQ's, back ups from Z1 and Z5. Then moved onto sideways for obedience and flexibility, over cones, over 3 tier tyre jump with no problems. Sideways towards too was very good.
Next was circles for obedience, flexibility and impulsion. His COD's are very good, quick, responsive BUT often done without me asking! lol. SO worked on obedience again with circling 3 laps L&R, he's getting better with this and much better if I make it more interesting by doing moving circles ;-)
Then some circling and squeeze game over jumps, he was a bit sluggish on first couple but then I put more 'energy' into myself and he did them well, with slide stops on the squeeze games too. I also asked for circles w/jumps so that he doesn't always stop after the jump..he was very lively adn game for fun today which was lovely.
Did some stick 2 me as well, very responsive and trotting with my energy even though I was walking beside him. I let him loose as he'd done such a good job but kept him doing some stick 2 me at liberty and he did w/t/backup, jumped jumps, DHQ, moved FQ's and was very cool. Then I signalled him to go back to the herd and he galloped off, stopped by herd and then beautifully looked back at me and me laughing/smiling at him for being such a lovely boy. He's very cool ;-))
Sideways over the tyre jump....no problem for the long legged Stormy ;-)After Stormy I asked Holly to catch me and she and I played some stick 2 me before I gave her play over to my friend Dot and I took charge of Solly. Dot did a wonderful job of playing with Solly, keeping his confidence (as he often goes introverted with other people) and not letting him get dominant when his confidence was up! he's a complicated boy for sure! lol.
Dot also played beautifully with Holly, asking her for lots of interesting stuff and keeping her from going right brained.
This is some of the things I did with Solly (not too much as Dot did so well before me):
Fig 8's...trot and canter, he had a strop and decided to go a bit right brained and not do the draw and turn going to the right SO I had to put in a DHQ a few times to relax him down again, he just kept ignoring me and rushing faster on a circle but I was very consistent and persistent in asking him to relax, calm down and draw in and back out in a COD...it worked and we stopped on a good note.
We went on to do some nice long reining with the 45' rope too, w/t/backups, fig 8's (me following and me standing still too) and weaves, over jumps too. Haven't done long reining for a while but it's still good.
Multiple jumps...I asked him on the 45' line to do a few multiple jumps on a circle, the three tierd tyre jump and the barrel jump which today was two uprights and a single one down in the middle. I then put the middle barrel UPRIGHT so that there were three upright barrels and continued with the circling of these two jumps, the tyre one first. Now in the past Solly has faced up to the 'wall' of three upright barrels and come to a slide stop!! Today he flew over it, just touched it with his back legs on the way down but a very VERY good clear! I relaxed, fussed him LOTS and then asked him to do it again going the other way...he did it again...YEEHAA. First time for this enormous jump. I'm SO proud of his effort and the trust he is giving me now when I ask for something he's not done before....FAB ;-)
Dot playing with Solly ;-)Sunday 25th July
Today I decided to play/ride Holly. She's not been ridden since the long trek over to our new home but she's been played with regularly by Mark until his operation. I wanted to ride her up to the house so that Mark could see her SO off I went to the field to see how she was feeling about a ride out ;-)
She caught me nicely and I took the opportunity to give her lots of scratching of her itchy spots as there are LOTS of flies and horse flies around at the moment, she appreciated this. Here is how our play session went:
Lots of friendly game, swatting those flies again for her then into some yo-yo's. She has a tendency to veer her hindquarters to her left when backing up...it maybe because of her right hip having been broken as a youngster and I think Mark and I have been lenient with her straightness BUT today I was firmer with what I was asking of her and asked her to try better at being straighter by being specific with every step and regularly disengaging her hindquarters to keep her straight. This worked very well and I hope it helps her as I play more with her.
I then ask her to trot over the tarp, she is okay walking over it but I've upped the anti with Holly today ;-) She had trouble going to the right but this is her harder side. After some tries she managed to trot both ways over the tarp and we stopped on a good note.
I next asked for some circling, this is always fun as she can often be playful and again going to the right is harder for her, her ribs are very stiff and stuck out to the rigt SO going to the right is harder for her. So, off she goes to the left, not too much trouble, up from walk into trot and then canter. She changes gait a couple of time down to trot but I insis that she tries a bit harder for me today and she does. She teaches me to be patient and lighter because if I push her with the CS/SS too close to her Z3/4/5 then she bucks and fizzes about ;-)
Going swiftly onto trying circles to the right and she has trouble staying in gait, I ask her patiently again to try to stay in gait and to move her ribs over at the same time and this helps her keep her gait more. SO, as all is going well I ask her to try canter for me..this is where the fun starts, she really decides to kick up her heels going into canter and instead of just letting her faff about I push her lightly for a stronger canter and she gives it to me...I also move with her as I get the feeling that the 22' line is just too small a circle going to the right for her, walking with her makes it more of a straight line and this works brilliantly ;-)
After a break and some more scratching of itchy spots we play around with the pedastal, she goes up on it straight away and here's a piccie to prove it...
We do a bit of stick 2 me, w/t/backups to where the fig 8 cones are and then I ask her to backup ready for some fig 8's and she does these in trot really well. I used a light ph1 or 2 and she was popping through the X in the centre of the fig 8 nicely and politely, really using her body well and tryng to move her ribs better. I stopped her on a very good note and rubbed her head lots and scratched her ears, she loves this lots ;-)
Before addling her I asked her to do a few jumps, she was a little sticky going to the right again so I set it up for her to just do circling...she has a habit of just doing the squeeze game over jumps but I up the anti again on this game and ask her to keep going on the circle, she stops a few times going to the right but I persevere and finally she 'gets it'. We come to an understanding that I will push her a little more than before as I know she can do it and it's time she needs to progress beyond where she is now as she's ready to learn more now and she understands that.
I saddle her and cinch her with a few cinchings and then I ask her to stick 2 me out of the field to where I can mount her and ride her to the house ;-))
The ride to the house is good, mostly a good paced walk with some trot and Mark is waiting outside the garden waiting for us when we arrive, she sees him and starts trotting faster...they have a fabulous relationship, that true bond and it shows. I'm glad I bought her up to the house, it really chuffed Mark ;0)
Mark and his beloved Holly
Me arriving at the houseHolly knows now that this is where the apples are kept ;-)
The ride back to the field is good, Holly is light, attentive and responsive. I really enjoy riding her and I think she enjoyed being out and about...maybe take her next time to the shop for electricity for a change of scene ;-) When I unsaddle her and set her free back in the grazing field she follows me at liberty for a while, walk and backups and then I ask her to 'go' and she gallops back to the herd and settles with them all clamouring around her waiting for her to tell them where she's been and what adventures she's had :-)
Saturday 24th July
I sort of left going out with the horses a bit late but eventually I went out early with their feed and played with Stormy for an hour or so before feeding them, this is what we got up to:
He came up to me and caught me well whilst I was putting our tarp back in place with some polypoles, he really wanted to play with it so I decided to play friendly game with it and soon had it on his back! I think I'll try that a few days in a row to make him fully confident about it but he was pretty confident about it being a LBext ;-)
Asked him to stand on tarp afterwards ;-)Next as he had caught me I went to halter him and he decided he didn't want to be caught and walked off SO I walked away and dragged the 22' rope on the ground...he couldn't help himself and was so curious he followed me and caught me. I then haltered him and played the friendly game, he still has a tendency to put his head up high and so I quietly worked on his porcupine game on his head, asking him to keep his head straight and to bring it down calmly and keep it there for a while. It took a while as he was quite playful, trying to nibble my fingers, trousers, jacket, rope etc ;-) But by just being persistent and consistent he relented and began to be a bit more obedient about it all.
I worked on his yo-yo game after this, it's pretty good but I asked for it to be a bit snappier and with a bit more willing obedience and that worked nicely, always been his best game as we did this LOTS when he was a colt before feeding him.
I next worked on some driving game, the FQ's and then the HQ's and these are still very good, he's light on ph1-2 and pivoting more which is cool. He then did some nice backup and over maneuvers which involves a couple of steps backup and then moving his FQ's over for a quarter of a circle from Z3 (I call it my Compas game as I use North, South, East and West as my markers on a circle from Z3). He had forgotten backup from Z3 but got it back quickly.
After a short break we then worked on some backup from Z4-5 and me tossing the rope over his head from those zones too. He is fab with this sort of thing and my rope skills were still good on his 18.2hh stature ;-)
Another break for us both and then I went to work on his circling...this is probably his worst game as he gets bored, tries to find other games to play instead of keeping his responsibilities and often Mark and I just do something more fun instead so we've not been consistent with it SO today I was in a good mood of really staying on this game until I had what I wanted. I put it into my mind that I wanted just 3 laps in trot without him changing gait or direction or game for that matter! lol. One of the problems is keeping gait, he often just walks or stops when he's bored SO I used to use the COD to keep him going BUT being a LBext he took this as his own game and put in a wonderful COD on a HQ pivot for fun. This time I decided to just keep him going, if he stopped or slowed down I would be persistent about keeping out in trot in the direction I asked for. It took a LONG time for him to actually 'get it' and I did put in a couple of COD's just to gee him up but then went back to the first tactic so that he didn't start using the COD against me. Eventually when I got 3 pretty nice-ish laps in one direction I put in a DHQ smartish, his DHQ's are sharp and snappy and this was great. We got laps L&R before I changed the game ;-)
So, for a bit of fun we went to the jumps and I asked him to jump squeeze style and then circling with enthusiasm, he really went for it and put in some good jumps from a canter, squeezing with a snappy DHQ or circling to do the jump twice and I was very pleased with that so I friendlied him and set him loose ;-)
Now I wanted to see if Solly wanted to play but made the mistake of whistling to him and they took this as the signal for dinner and galloped from the bottom of the field where we'd been playing right up to the top where they usually get fed...but today I had the feed on me down the bottom so I knew this was going to be fun to get them back down to me.
I tried whistling again, shouting their names and generally anything I could think of they usually come to BUT they've been in a pattern of going up for their dinner. This was an ideal opportunity to change a pattern and for them to figure out that the whistle doesn't mean 'dinner' it means 'come to me wherever I am!'. I got a bit desperate as I didn't want to take the car back up the top and give in SO searching in the back of the 4x4 I found a tub with some horsey treats in it. I went back into the field, did my whistle and rattled the bucket twice....all of a sudden I could hear the pounding of hooves as three of them came back down to see where the treat bucket was...Holly galloped flat out and Stormy and Solly were pretty close behind, it was fab to watch...the very ground shook! lol
Holly, Stormy and Solly galloping for their evening grub ;-)Tara and Fortune being low in the pecking order AND being slower took their time coming down, by the time they made it down the other three had finished theirs ;-( SO I took their feed a bit closer to them w/carrot stick in hand to fend off the big boys and girl from pinching their dinner as it had their Verm-X wormer in it.
Whilst Tara and Fortune ate I held the other three at bay asking them to stop and then back up a step or two to make a point and they did it wonderfully ;-)
Waiting for my command as herd leader,keeping them Tara and Fortune
Thursday 22nd July
Well the sun is shining today and I managed to get out for a couple of hours today to play/ride two horses...it's been a while and I did nothing too strenuous but just had FUN ;-)
First I started by putting up my small and large arena's again as our playful Stormy had destroyed them, I also put back up my 6 jumps as again Stormy had been playing with them a bit too much! lol.
Then I asked Tara to catch me and she was very willing and she came up to me and placed me in a great position to scratch her undercarriage which is very itchy from flies at the moment. She enjoyed this immensely. I then haltered her and brushed her well and put her saddle on. We then played some games: friendly, sideways away/towards, squeeze jumps, circling w/t/c and then I mounted. I rode her up the top of the field and then out onto the track so that we could get to our village shop....electricity time again ;-)
I think Tara is getting to like her 'shop' routine, she managed to make the shop in about 10 mins trotting today and she got her prize of a fresh red apple and some of my ice cream. I really enjoy our time doing this, she loves her routines and it feels good for both of us to have a purpose to our exercises. She even went past a strimmer and a hedge cutter twice without too much worry, this sort of thing used to really panic her in her RBint mode...I just 'held here hand' by taking concentrated reins and she followed my calm lead from the saddle ;-)
She got home pretty quickly too and put in some nice canter along the track today. When we got to the field both Solly and Fortune whinnneyed to her which was nice ;-)
After letting Tara go Solly came up to be caught which was nice. I haltered him and led him down the field to the play area and then played with him, we did friendly, sideways from Z1, Z3, Z5 and some online spins. Then we did some circling with w/t/c transitions and then we did some circling w/multiple jumps (3 in a row). After a short break we then did a double jump (2 x canter strides in between) and he was jumping very very well. Really thinking about going to the jump himself and just doing it ;-)
Then we did some fig 8's w/t/c and then I ran with him in canter to help him really stretch and speed up (he really appreciates the 45' line but I forgot this today!) I then took him to the saddle and saddled him up and played a bit for cinching.
I got onto the side of a barrel and he sidled up to it nicely for mounting and I did my pre-flight checks. Then I just started on getting our walk better, more positive and none of his slow, can't be bothered sort of sloppy walk that he tends to do when I'm not paying attention.
He did well with the walk and so then I added some trot transitions in to get him more alert and obedient. Soon he was going around the outside of my large arena in trot, both directions without too much argument! lol. When we'd got this down nicely I started to follow the v.large outside track, it's about the size of a football pitch (where my track used to be but took it down, the track where the horses and car have been is still there though). He was a little hesitant about going around especially away from the herd but I did it a few times, the last time in trot and he started to feel more confident about it. On the last one near the end I put him into canter and went around the 100' roundpen to keep him confident and safe and his canter was nice and flowing. I did this both to the L&R and then finished our riding session.
I untacked him and let him loose and as usual he stayed with me SO I decided to do a little bit of liberty. First I put him over a jump, then back again. Then I tried a couple of other jumps with stick 2 me in between and he did those too ;-) Then I asked him to backup and move away and he started doing 15m circles in walk, I encourged him into a trot and he did that too, both ways ;-) I'm SO proud of him, he really is understanding more and more and wanting to please SO much ;-))
He did very well considering I've done nothing with him for SO long. It felt good to have been out with my horses today and hopefully I can get out again over the weekend ;-)
Thursday 9th July
It's drizzling outside BUT we desperately need electricity in our meter SO I make sure to bring Tara back to the house after dog walking and feeding the horses their breakfasts. I ride her home bareback and she's nice and light today.
After my breakfast I groom (or more dry her really due to the drizzle) and saddle her up for our trip to the village. She's very keen to get going today but that may be just her thinking she's going back to her grazing field as we have to pass this along the way to the village....oh yes, she starts to slow after the last gate on the track which is where her grazing buddies are! never mind, she is a good girl and stays with me on our quest to get to the village asap.
She doesn't put a hoof wrong, she stays light past some sheep in a field who had youngsters, I always try to go slowly past livestock as I don't like to upset them or get them running around scared. She also trots most of the way and we manage to get to the shop in just about 20 mins...which for Tara is pretty darn good ;-)
I get the electricity (on a computerised 'key') and a big red apple for Tara. After she's been admired by some local people and petted I re-mount her and we make our way back home. The drizzle is slowing and it's not so bad riding out now.
It's a beautiful part of Perthshire we're in and this track is a local access route called 'The Cateran Trail', which is a 60 mile roundtrip from Blairgowrie, up to Enochdhu, over the hill called 'An Larig' and down to the Spittal of Glenshee. From there is goes around towards Glen Isla and into Alyth and slowly winding back to the Bridge of Cally and back to Blairgowrie. It's a wonderful route and we get lots of walkers along it.
I don't see any walkers today BUT just as we're near to the horses grazing field I hear gunshots. We're not overly worried, horses are used to gunshot and Tara always does her best by me but as we go past the field the shots seem to be closer than I thought and Tara is very worried, head very upright, ears and eyes staring straight forward and her whole body is jumpy and tense. I think that it would be worrying to actually go past shooters if they are very close to the track (which is where it seems to be coming from) so I do the best thing for my Tara's confidence and out relationship and turn back to the horses field, dismount, untack and set her free back with the herd who are now very happy to have her back in the fold.
I then proceed to carry the saddle and other tack back to the house which is about a 10 min walk for me past three fields. Through the second field there is someone doing some clay pigeon shooting and I'm SO glad that I got off and walked home as this would have been too hard for Tara to have gone past, it was very very close to the track. Phew...did the right thing ;-)
Got back home a little damp but safe and the electricity went straight into the meter....good ride though, record speed to the village and my whole body felt straighter and more flexible since my osteopath's appointment. Yeehaa ;-))
Monday 5th July
Today I have a horsemanship demo booked for HorseSavvy near Brechin with a local Pony Club group. Really looking forward to it lots SO go out in the morning to play with Solly and Tara whom I will be taking to the demo with me.
They both catch me well and I play w/Tara first.
TARA:
All gamess going really well, her life is up and she's very willing to put effort into everything we do. Her sideways away/towards over a small barrel is lovely. Foot onto a frisbee is cute to watch. She's so enthusiastic she does a great double jump...she's never done doubles before and usually doesn't volunteer it so I was VERY proud of her doing this ;-)
I stop on a good note, not wanting to ask too much so that she's okay for the demo this afternoon.
SOLLY:
He's a bit full of himself this morning so I let him circle to let off some steam and then work on obedience w/yo-yo's and a very nice sideways over the small barrel. He then puts in some great jumps and with me running with him he does 6 jumps in a row like a small circuit, double jumps and turns all done very well and balanced ;-)
He is much much better on the 45' line especially canter which he does very well and also his fig 8's w/FLC's. He also puts his foot on the frisbee well. Again I don't want to peak him SO I leave our play session there.
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I then bring both of them in-hand back to the house, not too far a walk and they enjoy it, snatching at grazing along the way. At home I put them into the small paddock I've made for them by the house and leave them there to chill out for an hour. After a small shower of rain I manage to get out and groom them clean and tidy, especially their manes and tails. At around 2pm Mark takes the trailer down from the house and I walk them to a flat spot where they load beautifully ;-)
We get to the venue in plenty of time for me to put some play obstacles in the arena and then it's time for the demo.
The kids were great, asked lots of good quesstions and I played w/Tara, then Solly and then rode Tara bareback and then bridleless too. I used this opportunity to just take my play session to a new environment. Solly had a little trouble half way through where his RBint side came out and it was interesting to allow the kids see that and how having patience helps this behaviour...making sure they really understood that he wasn't being stubborn or lazy but just unconfident about the environment and the audience as he's never done that sort of thing before. He did a GREAT bridling demo as he shut his mouth and didn't want the bit SO again patience was my key word there.
All in all Solly and Tara were stars, the kids came and fussed them after the demo and I hope I have inspired them to think outside the Pony Club box a bit more when it comes to having fun with safety with their own ponies ;-))
My highlights were:
Bareback and bridleless riding, horsemanship trailer loading (cool), jumping from a standstill squeeze style, sideways away and towards, sidling up to the mounting block (v.cool), explaining about lower bit in mouth of horse, explaining why no noseband, talking about want vs make and how my horses are my best friends and how I work hard to keep them my best friends, stick 2 me transitions w/a very long rope and no pulling or pushing of horse....total connection, Tara accepting the tarp on her back (never done before, showed approach and retreat to kids) bareback/bridleless weaves, bareback/bridleless canter to stop, bridling Solly and having to WAIT for him to take bit rather than putting bit in his mouth (mindboggling for them, but cool), letting horses be petted by lots of kids at once...they totally took it in their stride ;-))
Here are a couple of piccie's from the afternoon:
Taking Solly and Tara to the trailer, nice and chilled out
Tara cantering
Tara, sideways away and towards over a cone
Solly touching the frisbee w/his nose
Solly cantering circles
Sol jumping/squeeze from a standstill
Talking with the audience and answering questions
Bareback halt from canter w/TaraSunday 4th July
Today has been very rainy and windy BUT in the afternoon it all went still and the sun began to shine SO Mark and I get ourselves together and go on out to the horses for some play.
When we get there we put together my jumps as it seems one of our playful horses (Stormy) demolished most of them during the night. lol. He does love to PLAY big time, so at least they kept him amused for a while ;-) As we do this the sky starts to darken a lot but it's still dry. Holly catches Mark and Tara catches me nicely and Mark goes and starts playing near the jumps and I take Tara to the roundpen. Within 2 mins it starts to spit with rain and I just halter Tara up and the heavens open up big time.
Suddenly I jump as a huge clap of thunder sounds around the glen and then a short sharp lightnening strike strikes through the sky. Tara gets about a hand bigger and I can see Holly look like she needs to get back to the herd although she is doing marvellously staying with Mark and doing as he asks, she's an amazing horse.
I shout across to Mark that I think we should let the horses go and that maybe getting into the car and going home would be better rather than being in the middle of a field. He agrees and I let Tara go and she gallops back towards the other three horses of the herd. Mark immediately lets Holly go and she gallops at warp speed back to the herd, controlled but darn fast is all I can say ;-)) We get back in the car, go home and leave them to it. SO, although we tried to play today there was just too much weather around.
Friday 2nd July
Yeehaa...July is upon us and it crept up so quickly and so sneakily that I almost missed it ;-)I've been out and about teaching for a while but back for a few days now and decided to ride Tara to the house this morning to wait to do some logging after 2pm and after breakfast I went down to the horses field and played and rode Solly. Here's what I did with Solly:
Played plenty of friendly and he was very happy to have his human back that gets the clegs (horseflies) off him quickly...at last a use for me! lol. I then went onto working on yo-yo's and putting in some cue's for his 'bow'. I had an apple on me and this really worked as motivation and reward for when he did it well.
Then I went onto circles, small circles w/some sideways for relaxation, larger circles and then 45' foot line circles w/transitions. His trot and canter were very good, light and he kept in gait well. I threw in some fig 8's around some cones and used a lot of circles on the move to keep it interesting.
Whilst circling I started to put myself more and more into Z5 and he did a wonderful Z5 weave throught the cones with one rein which I was very proud of him doing ;-)
At the end we went around the 6 jumps I have up and he jumped them all without me actually looking and pointing at the jump, he just 'looked where he was going' and did it. He also did them all one after the other which was cool...our first online clear round! lol.
I then went and saddled him up and cinched with some more games. We then went into the 100' roundpen and I mounted up, did my flight checks and started to RtR in walk. I used w/t transitions to get more impulsion under saddle and put in some backups too. I really tried to use my body energy rather than my legs for transitions and he was really working nicely from that SO I started putting in some canter strides. He did them okay, still a bit 'un-relaxed' but he went forward each time I asked and after a while he did more and more. After he'd done almost a lap each way of canter inbetween other things we were doing I went to the centre and relaxed with him there.
I thought we should end on a good note in the arena SO I asked Solly to sidle up to the gateway and opened it up from the saddle and then went out into the field for a ride to unwind. He was a bit sweaty from the heat and so I just asked him to walk nicely around the jumps in neat fig 8 patterns. This worked nicely and he was really working off my body energy and position to get around the jumps. I let him stop and rest looking over the side of the barrels jump.
In a spot of inspiration I decided to put my stirrups up and see if Solly could be ridden over my double jump. There is a couple of strides of canter in between each jump but I was going to take it slowly. I was a bit unbalanced the first time over them but I turned and did them again and it was lovely to feel how well he's jumping now. ALSO I had a revelation....out of the second jump he was doing a lovely, calm, head lowered, easy canter out of the jump, straight with a very nice feeling SO maybe I need to stop trying to 'GET' his canter right in a 100' roundpen, maybe he needs a nice long straight hill to blast up and I should just have the trust to go with him!! Maybe the roundpen is too 'curved' for him to be relaxed ridden in it! SO many MAYBE's but it's given me something to think about. I stopped cantering him out and about in large fields after my accident with him and also because he used to buck quite a bit because I wasn't giving light enough cue's for him BUT now that I know all that and my savvy is better than even a couple of years ago maybe it's time to change the old habits, find new interesting safe ways to help both of us to progress now. I just have to learn to trust him more because he's not bucked in ages. Funny how the bad things stay in our minds more than all the good things that go on every day!!
SO, back to the house, cup of tea and a rest and then harnessed up Tara and did 2 hours pulling some logs up a hill to the trailer where we put them all to bring them home for our stove ;-)
Tara was a bit sceptical today as the wind was blowing quite a bit and in a forest everything is noisy with the wind. SO, I played lots of friendly, yo-yo's and sideways with her to get her attention and focus on me before going and logging.
Mark did some chain sawing and we played approach and retreat with that noise too. Tara really shows her RBint side when doing things like this and I always marvel at how we used to cart her around the roads not knowing how sceptical and worried she was by everything...she learned well how to hide her feelings but now lets me know quickly when something is worrying her so our relationship is really special.
She pulled up a lot of logs and worked for her supper tonight, she's a very cool horsey ;-))
Tara and me standing next to the largest log she's pulled to dateand the trailer that's loaded with todays work ;-)
When riding her home to her field she was very eager to 'go' back home so I asked her with my energy to stay with me in trot, she opened/closed gates and went down a steep track into the back end of the field....by this time Mark was at the top of the field giving the other 4 their dinners and Tara let out this almighty whinney to find the other horses that she couldn't see..it was SO cool. I kept her steady until the bottom of the field and then I let her loose and she cantered up most of the hill to be with the others. She's certainly got some 'go' in her when she wants to go and it was great to get such a responsive, eager canter from her. Just goes to show what good motivation can do for a LBint/RBint! lol.
