Sunday 25th August
Tara: bareback/bridleless
Extreme friendly
Solly: jumping
Jumping
Jumping that single barrel...a FIRST today ;))
What makes you think we enjoy jumping!! lol
Connected and balanced ;)
Solly's liberty spin...
Me and my bestest boy ;)
Holly amazing me with her light sideways towards
Holly cantering
Holly trotting beautifully over a low jump
Holly jumping
Helping Holly with her stiffness and balance
Holly and me ;)
Beautiful, light sidways to the left...
...not bad sideways to the right either ;)
Getting more connected
Looking good
Focussed and balanced more
Asking for a stronger trot and for her
to just 'think' about cantering!
Trying things out with a looser rein...
...checking relaxation, balance, connection
Yeehaa...and there is a nice, calm canter to the right ;)
Sol and I working on moving circles...
...they help with relaxation and he shows
this by stretching long and low ;)
Multiple jumping over the zigzag drainage tubes...
..yeehaa ;)
Try out some sideways over the zigzag pipes...
but Solly is a sceptic and did just half of it
before walking forward off it, not a problem..
something new to work on ;)
More jumps ;)
And then circling w/jumps...
...barrel done from canter ;))
After riding a bit I walk/trot/canter Solly
up the big field hill....no problem
Enjoying a lovely calm ride ;)
Taking in his surroundings and being
a good partner for me
Walked Sol half way around new bit of village
that he'd never ever seen before...but rode the other
half back towards the village with a big smile on my face ;)
Sharing a lemon ice lolly with my thirsty boy ;)
One of the bits we walked together
A part of the 'new' track that Solly and I
negotiated on foot together...
...checking out a drainage pipe...
horse agility on the track ;)
Lowering head through low branches ;)
Thank goodness for the Horse Agility 'Scary Corner'
as this whole scenario wasn't scary to us out on
he hack today...thank you HA ;)
..pick up the bowl like we've been training to do...
..and lift it high into the wheelbarrow...
...and then drop it in their for me ;)) Clever boy
A pic of Stormy from this morning
looking out from the top of the big hill
Mark playing at liberty w/Holly...
she would follow him anywhere ;)
Liberty weaving...
...and more weaving
Mark giving Holly a hug...
...before asking her to go through flag gap
Walk on her own at liberty through the scary corner,
she's not done this one before ;)
Such a great partnership
Following Mark through the high narrow gap
Calmly walked over the jump
FIRST TIME EVER: walked calmly through
the tractor tyre, putting first her front
feet into, and out of it...
...and then her back feet, in and out of it ;)
Calmly walked over the tarpaulin
And calmly walk over small jump
A bit more energy and jump the 2nd jump nicely
Saturday 18th August
Mark and his Holly connecting
Stormy touching in with Mark too ;)
STORMY
...and more fig 8's ;)
Storm finds canter easily today
And pops over a jump
aah...a special moment with Storm
First time: sideways zigzag...
...he's such a clever boy...
...and although often clumsy with his feet...
...once he starts thinking more he's
actually very light with his big feet ;)
First time: weave on a circle ;)
Very neatly back over pole
Familiarization with the flag
Yo-yo's between flags ;)
Asked him to 'touch' union jack flag...
he gently took it off the fence and
handed it to me...lol ;)
Trotting through the scary corner
Following me nicely....he LOVES playtime ;)
Backup through narrow gap
A nice, connected moment in the 'draw' ;)
Clever boy: two front feet in the tractor tyre ;)
Onto and turn on the tarp...
...and stop and wait ;)
Trot enthusiasticaly over tarp ;)
Lead through 'S' bend...
...he does very well with the 'S' bend
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOLLY
Liberty: fig 8's around flag poles...
A lovely sunny day today, a bit tired from a day out at our local Highland games yesterday but ended up playing/riding three of our horses despite being a bit tired ;)
First today I spent quite a lot of time moving electric fencing around, making Tara and Sollys paddock larger with access to a bit more water, making Stormy and Hollys field larger now too, taking down the dressage arena and making another large round pen so that I can ride the rail on the outside of both in a fig 8...hoping I can use this regularly with Solly to work towards cantering and SLC's working towards FLC's later on ;)
First today I spent quite a lot of time moving electric fencing around, making Tara and Sollys paddock larger with access to a bit more water, making Stormy and Hollys field larger now too, taking down the dressage arena and making another large round pen so that I can ride the rail on the outside of both in a fig 8...hoping I can use this regularly with Solly to work towards cantering and SLC's working towards FLC's later on ;)
With the horses I first groomed Tara in the roundpen, then got Solly in the pen and groomed him. Mark was down by this time and he groomed Holly & Stormy. I then rode Tara bareback and bridleless and we got some nice connection. She was a bit stiff on trotting circles to the right and I've begun to notice that this happens more when she's been getting out of her pen and eating more grass than she should do ;( Naughty girl. I've hopfully made her and Sol's pen a bit harder to get out of but it's not them that break the fence, it's dear Stormy putting down the posts as he wants his herd to be together! lol ;)
Anyway, after dear Tara I played with Solly and then saddled and cinched him up. He was very connected from the start but once riding him in the pen he was a bit 'lazy' so we worked on his impulsion. Best way to help this was to come out of the pen into the larger field and do lots of different things to keep him focussed and keep it fun for us both. We did tons of transitions, leg yields in trot L&R and jumping. He did a first for me today by jumping the single barrel out in the field as before he could only jump it ridden when riding the rail for security. He's getting so good at trying things for me.
After a good blast with Solly I untacked him and did some liberty spins....he's so good at these now, and then I gave him a treat and put him and his Tara out in the field with Stormy for awhile and went and got Holly.
In the field, on the 22' feather light rope, I played with Holly and she totally astounded me with her super phase 1 sideways towards, I literally thought and put in a draw with my body and she sidepassed towards me without anything else, no stick/string, no big energy...fab lightness ;)
I also had her circling and worked on some relaxation techniques and straightness training to help with her stiffness. Then saddled and cinched and mounted. We worked first on walk, RtR and turns freestyle using light phases and body aids. She connected very quickly with this. Next we worked on trot, a relaxed trot and also on her body shape as being stiff and a bit emotional she tends to arc to the outside of an arena rather than inside so I did quite a lot of asking her to move toward the middle of the round pen and then leg yielding out on the circle in trot to help her learn to arc her body the right way, helping her stiffness and also her relaxation at the same time ;)
We then worked on some fig 8's in trot which she got eventually but it took a while as she kept thinking the mounting block was a good place to stop! lol. Once she got the fig 8's I took her to a cone and stopped her there for a rest. As a last thing I asked her to 'think' about cantering...each time I asked her to 'think' about canter she got tight and then arc'd the wrong way. I asked her to bring her head in on the circle each time and when she relaxed she got to walk a bit as a reward for calmness. I didn't want her just crazily going into canter, probably on the wrong lead and being all unbalanced and emotional...so we did this a few times.
Bringing her head into the inside of the circle helps her and she finds this help good, if I left her to just do her own thing freestyle she would end up very emotional and very unbalanced because of her unbalanced body due to her broken right hip as a youngster. Helping her to realised where to put her body to make herself more balanced is something I have to do to avoid accidents and emotional outbursts (ie. bucking, tossing her head and generally being unfoccused and unbalanced ;)
In the end she managed to do two bursts of nice canter gong to the right (her easier side funnily enough) and we left it all on a very good note. I then spent 15 mins walking her around the pen on a totally loose rein to chill out a bit and dry off from the emotional sweat she does around her neck.
A wonderfully good day out with the horses...hopefully manage to ride Stormy tomorrow before I go off for a few days teaching down in the Borders. Here are some nice pics from todays sessions:
Anyway, after dear Tara I played with Solly and then saddled and cinched him up. He was very connected from the start but once riding him in the pen he was a bit 'lazy' so we worked on his impulsion. Best way to help this was to come out of the pen into the larger field and do lots of different things to keep him focussed and keep it fun for us both. We did tons of transitions, leg yields in trot L&R and jumping. He did a first for me today by jumping the single barrel out in the field as before he could only jump it ridden when riding the rail for security. He's getting so good at trying things for me.
After a good blast with Solly I untacked him and did some liberty spins....he's so good at these now, and then I gave him a treat and put him and his Tara out in the field with Stormy for awhile and went and got Holly.
In the field, on the 22' feather light rope, I played with Holly and she totally astounded me with her super phase 1 sideways towards, I literally thought and put in a draw with my body and she sidepassed towards me without anything else, no stick/string, no big energy...fab lightness ;)
I also had her circling and worked on some relaxation techniques and straightness training to help with her stiffness. Then saddled and cinched and mounted. We worked first on walk, RtR and turns freestyle using light phases and body aids. She connected very quickly with this. Next we worked on trot, a relaxed trot and also on her body shape as being stiff and a bit emotional she tends to arc to the outside of an arena rather than inside so I did quite a lot of asking her to move toward the middle of the round pen and then leg yielding out on the circle in trot to help her learn to arc her body the right way, helping her stiffness and also her relaxation at the same time ;)
We then worked on some fig 8's in trot which she got eventually but it took a while as she kept thinking the mounting block was a good place to stop! lol. Once she got the fig 8's I took her to a cone and stopped her there for a rest. As a last thing I asked her to 'think' about cantering...each time I asked her to 'think' about canter she got tight and then arc'd the wrong way. I asked her to bring her head in on the circle each time and when she relaxed she got to walk a bit as a reward for calmness. I didn't want her just crazily going into canter, probably on the wrong lead and being all unbalanced and emotional...so we did this a few times.
Bringing her head into the inside of the circle helps her and she finds this help good, if I left her to just do her own thing freestyle she would end up very emotional and very unbalanced because of her unbalanced body due to her broken right hip as a youngster. Helping her to realised where to put her body to make herself more balanced is something I have to do to avoid accidents and emotional outbursts (ie. bucking, tossing her head and generally being unfoccused and unbalanced ;)
In the end she managed to do two bursts of nice canter gong to the right (her easier side funnily enough) and we left it all on a very good note. I then spent 15 mins walking her around the pen on a totally loose rein to chill out a bit and dry off from the emotional sweat she does around her neck.
A wonderfully good day out with the horses...hopefully manage to ride Stormy tomorrow before I go off for a few days teaching down in the Borders. Here are some nice pics from todays sessions:
Extreme friendly
...spin
to just 'think' about cantering!
Finshed off with some nice
loose rein walk to cool down ;))
Sunday 19th August
loose rein walk to cool down ;))
Sunday 19th August
Another lovely day and time to play/ride Solly and Holly. I decided that Sol & my partnership is strong enough to be good on a hack with Holly now, I also made the decision to get off whenever I feel the need to, to keep us both safe and confident. Here are some pics from the day:
Sol and I working on moving circles...
this by stretching long and low ;)
but Solly is a sceptic and did just half of it
before walking forward off it, not a problem..
something new to work on ;)
up the big field hill....no problem
a good partner for me
Entrance to this field is a very narrow gap,
a high fence and ducking under a very
low couple of tree branches....thought
it best to dismount and walk Sol through
a high fence and ducking under a very
low couple of tree branches....thought
it best to dismount and walk Sol through
that and let Mark canter on without me...
felt good keeping us safe together ;)
that he'd never ever seen before...but rode the other
half back towards the village with a big smile on my face ;)
negotiated on foot together...
horse agility on the track ;)
Letting Solly check out the dustbins along the lane
as this whole scenario wasn't scary to us out on
he hack today...thank you HA ;)
Again letting Sol check out the banner in
the village, he was fine once he'd checked it out
the village, he was fine once he'd checked it out
A nice slow trot back to the field, decided
not to make a habit of cantering this section
not to make a habit of cantering this section
After feeding decided to give Solly
something good to do...
something good to do...
looking out from the top of the big hill
she would follow him anywhere ;)
she's not done this one before ;)
the tractor tyre, putting first her front
feet into, and out of it...
Mark walking Holly up the hill to begin our ride out,
Stormy following faithfully and I took picture whilst
Stormy following faithfully and I took picture whilst
sitting on Solly up the top of the hill (the pic Mark took of me)
Mark & Holly ready for our hack ;)
A lovely day out, was great to take Holly & Solly out together, both behaved beautifully and it was a great success...looking forward to more hacking out on Solly ;)
Saturday 18th August
Been a week since play/riding horses mainly due to bad rainy, windy weather we've been having but the horses are all still ready and willing connect quickly with us so that's good. Today it starts off dark and drizzly but soon turns into a very sunny hot day and we go out to be with the herd ;0)
I played with Stormy first, then Solly and then we trimmed both the boys feet which was a good start. Then we saddled the boys and we rode for a while in the dressage arena and then for a big finish we rode/cantered the boys up the hill with the girls at liberty with us to the top of the field ready for the dinner ;)
Here are a few pics of the days fun:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
STORMY
Storm having fun with fig 8's...
actually very light with his big feet ;)
he gently took it off the fence and
handed it to me...lol ;)
Jump small jump
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOLLY
...fig 8's...
...continue fig 8's...
...and last turn for fig 8's ;)
Jump tractor tyre...he looks like a statue ;)
Walk over tarp
Jump drainage tube
His fabulous look when he's drawing to me ;))
What a handsome horsey ;)
A special, connected moment with the draw to me ;))
Liberty circles: over tarp...
...then jump...
...,keep circling other way, jump...
...and tarp...oops,okay then jump it if you want ;)
Another very special moment...me and my boy ;)
Backup through scary corner
S2M into narrow gap...halt...
...and back out of narrow gap together ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
STORM & MARK
Standing still at the flags
Trotting through the flags
Walk over pole and halt...
...and then back off the pole
Walk through the narrow gap
Low jump
Trot into narrow gap...
...halt and back out of gap
Walk and then trot through scary corner
Walk and halt on tarpaulin...
...trot over tarpaulin
2nd small jump
Walk through 'S' bend...
...2nd part of 'S' bend ;)
Saturday 11th August
Jump ;)
LOVE his draw to me...great look ;))
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Storm looks so short coupled when his head is down ;)
Storm and Mark looking good...
riding is getting better together ;)
riding is getting better together ;)
New bridle still working well...easier for Storm and Mark ;)
Looking good ;)
Sunday 12th August
Had a super day, great weather, great company, great horses and trimmed 8 feet too....excellent.
Sunday 12th August
A nice windy day today....which means no flies...yeehaa. Mark and I are both a bit tired but we get down to the herd around 3pm. Mark brings his camera and I bring some ideas for some fun ;)
First I bring Sol & Tara out of their paddock to have some time grazing with Holly and Storm. So, after some time I ask Solly to join me for some play....which he does nicely.
We walk together at liberty, popping some jumps along the way to the HA arena. In the arena we play with all the obstacles at liberty and all went great, between, sideways and backup through the flags, trot through scary corner, trot through and then walk and back up with the narrow gap, jumps well, sidepass off jumps, weave trot and trotting over the tarp. It went so well, that was a lot of fun.
I then decide that, as Sol was going so well, that I would saddle him and see how he rode today, once saddled I had the inspiring thought to ty to ride the HA course this week and treat it like a Trec course. It was huge fun and Sol did superbly well with all the flapping flags, bunting and wwet tarp. Here are some pics of our fun...
First I bring Sol & Tara out of their paddock to have some time grazing with Holly and Storm. So, after some time I ask Solly to join me for some play....which he does nicely.
We walk together at liberty, popping some jumps along the way to the HA arena. In the arena we play with all the obstacles at liberty and all went great, between, sideways and backup through the flags, trot through scary corner, trot through and then walk and back up with the narrow gap, jumps well, sidepass off jumps, weave trot and trotting over the tarp. It went so well, that was a lot of fun.
I then decide that, as Sol was going so well, that I would saddle him and see how he rode today, once saddled I had the inspiring thought to ty to ride the HA course this week and treat it like a Trec course. It was huge fun and Sol did superbly well with all the flapping flags, bunting and wwet tarp. Here are some pics of our fun...
Walk through the narrow gap
A lovely ridden HA course and afterwards I take Solly out into the main field for some trot/canter with multiple jumps which we had great fun doing. Here's the jumping pics ;)
Lining up for first jump
No problems with drainage pipes now ;)
Yeehaa
He's very focussed on each jump
Another yeehaa lol
Pipes again, away this time ;)
I was a bit forward this time but he's very focussed
Better, letting him take me over the jump
Riding around a lot of the field now to the jumps
Nice one Solly ;)
And again...this is pure FUN
Cantering between jumps often now...
...more canter....he's much better balanced and confident with it now ;)
Bringing him back to trot to make sure he's balanced for the next jump
A lovely trot here, confident, focussed and balanced ;)
2nd to last jump....we have jumped them all twice I think
Very focussed for the last, biggest jump...
...no problem, barrels jumped with ease
What a great few hours....this is my idea of heaven ;)
Saturday 11th August
Nice breeze out today and good riding weather so Mark and I went down to the herd early, I took Sol and Tara out of their paddock and we made our way to the bottom of the field together. When the herd got together at the bottom of the field they all had a 'Yeehaa' few minutes together which was fun to watch....Solly showed off his leaping and athletasism so I was glad that I wasn't riding him today! lol
We got T&H haltered and we groomed, played a bit and saddled them and then walked back up the hill to the track for a ride to the village. The ride was good, lots of field riding and some canters, not too far today as both Mark, me and Tara were all a bit tired ;)
A nice ride out and the boys were happy to see T&H back. Once back we trimmed the hooves of T&H and then fed them and then it was time to go home and walk dogs and get out own dinner. Here are some pic's from todays fun ....
Solly showing off and stretching whilst
YEEHAAing around the field and showing off ;)
YEEHAAing around the field and showing off ;)
Holly and Stormy stepping out
fresh and having fun with the herd
fresh and having fun with the herd
Solly charging about beautifully ;) lol
Where did this 'arabian' horses come from today!*?
Enjoying some energy riding with Tara up the big field hill
Me and my beauty ;)
flowers along the track ;)
Mark and Holly back in the field
Such beautiful boys
Thursday 9th August
A fun pic taken today:
Looks like Solly is standing on our dog
Frodo's head! lol ;)
Looks like Solly is standing on our dog
Frodo's head! lol ;)
What a great day today...weather stunningly hot, blue skies and fluffly clouds and Solly was a true star. Went in as normal, horses together in grazing area and put Tara into a small pen to allow her to graze but not too much ;)
Solly came to me and I groomed him extensively as he was pretty muddy but luckily all dry and came off nicely. We then walked into the round pen at liberty together and we played quickly in the pen with some S2M and circles. Then walked at liberty from round pen to HA arena and we then had a wonderful liberty session around the HA obstacles. Backing between flags, trotting through the scary corner and the narrow gap. Walking without touching the poles on the 'S' bend and trotting wonderfully over the tarp. Then a jump/halt/sidepass off and a jump squeeze and return to me. He also did the new task of trotting over trotting poles laid onto the large tractor tyre...I stood in the tyre and he walked it first and then he managed to trot two poles both ways and we stop and rest ;) Such a nice session and Solly looked like he really enjoyed it.
We then went back to the round pen on the 22' line and at the pen I lifted a side of the electric pen and he went calmly under it for me and into the pen ;) I let him graze for bit whilst I saddled him up and then cinched him after a short play and mounted with the rope halter and clip on reins.
Just did a bit of freestyle (hardly touched reins at all) made sure our LF, DHQ's, move FQ's and forward/halt/walk/trot/canter/backup/left and right all in place with body weight and a bit of leg and then got off and put on his bridle and bit with proper reins.
It's been MONTHS since we did any 'proper' bridle work but today it seemed like the right thing to do, to have a change and see how it goes and it went very very well. Solly accepted the bit nicely and we did some lovely lateral work in the dressage arena. Some shoulder-in in walk L&R, some leg yielding across whole arena in walk and trot L&R and lots of lovely circles, fig8's and serpentines. We then went out of the DA into the main field and did multiple jumps and started working on walk to canter transitions which Solly really tried hard at....we got them with just a stride of trot inbetween L&R and I ended on a good note and will put that into more practice sessions next time either with the hackamore or bridle ;)
Fabulous day, Solly very willing, calm and happy to go anywhere in the field. Riding him is so much fun now and I'm just loving that connection and harmonious partnership we've got ;)
Wednesday 8th August
Bit tired this morning but got to horses for a few hours this afternoon. Was going to just spend undemanding time with them in the grazing arena but ended up grooming all 4 of them as they were muddy, greasy and their manes and tails were very scruffy and tangled. They all came and stood at liberty to be groomed and I'm glad I had some brushes on me to do it for them.
I then had a very short session with Tara and Solly in the round pen together. We worked a bit on S2M with one on left and one on right of me, w/t/bkups and then S2M fig 8's where horse on outside of me has to trot, one inside walks...always good fun to see if both horses listening and my requests working well.
Then I asked them both to try to backup together with me from their tails, they had a bit of difficulty with this so I isolated, seperated my commands and then recombined them and we got one good try which we stopped on.
I then had fun standing with my back to Tara's belly and asking Solly to liberty circle us both...he did great going anti-clockwise but for some reason had a bit of trouble going clockwise but we sorted it out and again left that on a good note ;)
After all that fun it was time to get back to the top of the hill for their dinner so I got the herd out of the grazing area, jumped on Tara bareback and rode to the top of the hill with her...she was a very good ride today, light to my requests and offered canter too ;) Nice day out and me not too tired tonight.
Tuesday 7th August
Down early to the herd, let my two out into main grazing and then all 4 into arena grazing together. After a while I put Tara into a smaller paddock and ask Solly to come and play with me. It took a couple of attempts as the grass is just too tempting but in the end he wanted to be with me and I put him in the round pen and we did some liberty play..
Started with S2M w/t/h/bkups L&R and then worked on some sideways away and towards L&R. Then we had some fun with liberty circles w/t and some great t/c draws ;)
We then went on a 22' feather light rope and out of the pen into the main field and worked on impulsion with circles, w/t/c/ L&R, COD's inside and outwith the circle including some jumps along the way too. These moving circles are great as we do our workout and end up at the HA arena...perfect.
In the HA arena we go over some of the obstacles but put a twist on some of them so we figured there were quite a few different tasks we could do on each obstacle which is great ;)
Here are some pics from the HA session...
straddled the other side...fab ;)
backed up between big flag and smaller flags on fence ;)
How good is he ;)
Monday 6th August
Got to horses at 3pm and let Solly and Tara out to be with the herd, brought them into flat arena bit for more grazing. I then spent some time putting out as many interesting Horse Agility obstacles as I could in the HA arena. I decided this month we would work on our own HA course and hopefully build that up to a ridden Trec course too.
So with that done I asked Solly to catch me and we played on the 22' line with circles being the main part of that all the way back to the HA arena from where he was grazing. We did L&R circles, walk and trot circles. COD's at walk and at trot in on the circle and outwith on the circle. We used jumps and multiple jumps too. Then we walked into the HA arena and we said hello to the obstacles and played with a few of them in walk.
Here are some pic's from todays fun:
I then asked Solly to trust me enough for him to walk under the 'off' electric fencing instead of squeezing around it and he did it in walk beautifully 4 times ;)
bringing up the rear of the herd and driving them all
back up the hill ;)) fun
Sunday 5th August
Been away teaching in Aberdeenshire for a few days so it was good to be back and to have nice enough weather to ride out in. Mark and I grabbed saddles and took Tara and Holly out for a leisurely ride to the village and back. Not much to report really but had a nice short liberty play with Solly when got back too so all is connected herd wise now. Here are some pics from the hack out:
Tara tucking away at the border picnic...perfect head height too
Mark remounting after sorting out a rucked up saddle cloth
Looking at that lovely long grass in the hay field by the track...yum ;)
Mark waiting by a lovely entrance to the old main house of the area...
a car was going by so good to wait and wave
a car was going by so good to wait and wave
Me and Tara having a 'Dances with Wolves' canter moment together...lol
Mark ahead of us...exercising our Scottish Access rights ;)
Me and Tara having a good time out and about
Mark doing his 'Dances with Wolves' bit at a walk along the track....
those two white blobs in distance to the left are Solly and Stormy ;)
those two white blobs in distance to the left are Solly and Stormy ;)
Tara GALLOPING!!!! YEEHAA ;))
And coming to a nice, easy trot to halt at the top too...we enjoyed that run ;)
