Summer Solstice: December 2012

Tuesday 25th December

Tuesday 18th December

FUN TODAY with Solly to celebrate EPONA DAY :)

2 front feet on the big stone

Jump the burn

Backup through tight trees...

....phew, made it...

...and back to mum again ;)

Up a steep bank

Down a steep bank...

....across the burn...

...back into the burn, have a drink too

...back up another steep bank ;)

Up a stone step and wait...

...then all 4 feet on stone step

Jump the burn again ;)

Also before we went out we had a short, nice session of 'put your foot into a bucket' again....
it's going well ;)

Sunday 15th December

Not much going on with horses/training at moment. We had 2 days of soft snow and yesterday we had the most dismal day of grey skies, thrashing rain and howling winds. All we've been doing is walking dogs, feeding horses and poo picking paddocks. Not needed any hay yet as they have spent the last two weeks munching down their 'standing hay' from the winter paddocks, and they look pretty good on that too. We have one last winter paddock left that will be opened up to them tomorrow afternoon and then by xmas they'll be on the hay ;) Worked out pretty nicely this year having those fields ungrazed all year waiting for now ;))

Today, after all that wind/rain yesterday, is a lovely day. Not so much winter clothing needed and the two 'Olly's that were rugged up last night were able to get some sunshine on their backs this morning, Stormy was filthy dirty from rolling in some mud and Tara was sleeping standing on a small hill...her favorite look out point ;)

Holly and Solly enjoying the mild day and sunshine

My lovely Tara watching me as I poo pick the hill

This afternoon I managed to put in another few minutes of training Solly to put his foot in a bucket. It might seem a strange thing to do, a trick maybe, but recently I went to a student who had to wash her horses foot to find out what was making it lame, she had to do this a couple of times the day I was there and it seemed so much easier to be able to put the horses foot in a bucket of water to wash it (or even to salt/water it for healing) so gave her the bucket challenge for winter. I decided that maybe I should do that challenge too as Solly is a silly billy when it comes to his feet, so that's why I'm doing it, just in case one day I need to put his foot in a bucket to clean, to heal or to place his foot squarely on an x-ray unit without moving ;)

He faffed about to start with but I asked him to SLOW everything

down a bit and he managed this twice ;)

Not happy with it fully yet though so will continue

training. Love that he does this at liberty...he can

run off any time he likes if he's unhappy ;))

After that bit of fun Mark comes out and we take the herd out for some grazing time in the meadow. I ride Tara bareback and Mark has a short session bareback on Holly. He had to come across a small stream in the middle of the meadow, Holly did a bit of a leap over it (Mark stayed on ;) and then Stormy had to have a good look at it and then remembered he could jump! lol

Mark with his Alpha and Beta...getting better at ponying ;)

Stormy's amazing jump....what a boy ;)

Tonight the horses are happy bunnies, only Holly with a rug on, the weather is mild, the snow and most of the ice has gone....for now. Had a lovely, busy day ;)

Thursday 13th December

Well it's that time of year...the herd have had just 2 weeks in the home paddocks, play at a standstill because of snow/ice and me getting cabin fever from not being out and about BUT too cold to venture out for too long!! SO, what to do???

Well, it's time to find Solly something to do that'll train him for something fun and good but won't need me out for too long each day ;)

Last year it was picking up his feed bowl and bringing it to me ;)
The year before it was bridling with his head down and relaxed ;)

This year!! It's 'Put a Foot into a Bucket' and hopefully fingers crossed it could be 'Put all 4 feet into Buckets'!!! Have to see how it goes. He is pretty sceptic about putting his feet into things, he's done well with hula hoops SO my challenge for this winter is just to see if one front foot can stay in a bucket without him freaking out ;))

Today's start was promising...

He went through his 'trick' repetoire from

picking up the bucket with his teeth, bowing, kicking bucket....

note how I use a different colour and size bucket

for this trick so as not to confuse it to other tricks he does ;)

He started bringing his foot up to the bucket (good start)
and then picked up foot and kicked bucket backwards (getting better)
Finally by mistake he tried to kick bucket off but got foot stuck
in it for a few seconds and managed to put weight down on it
and I clicked and treated for this and he waited for me to ask
him backwards to get his foot out before moving SO this
was a very good beginning today...see what tomorrow brings! ;)

Sunday 9th December

The sun came out, it was a little windy but the temperature was up a few notches and we had a nice time out grazing the horses in-hand again today for an hour. I saddled up Solly from the start and walked him out for the first quarter of an hour doing up his girth along the way ;)

Whilst tying my two up today I used my new 'Easy Glide Tie Up' rings which worked very well. They allow my long ropes to slide if the horse needs to drift a bit backwards or has a start and pulls back, by allowing the drift of the rope the horses don't damage their polls when something makes them react instinctively ;)

Tara tied up to gateway with her new 'Easy Glide Tie Up'

A close up of my new 'Easy Glide Tie Up' tool

easily fits to a normal tie up ring too ;)

In-hand grazing, riding Solly is a bonus

Mark with Holly & Stormy

When they got back to the field we opened up home paddock number 2 for them and they spent time moving each other around getting the herd order in place in their new environment. It didn't take long and they soon started enjoying the standing hay that has been waiting for them all year ;)

Stormy, Solly & Holly checking the field out ;)

Alpha mare with Beta gelding,

making sure boundaries are sussed out and that

all horses know their places ;)) lol

The herd in a line, checking the field one last time,

pecking order in place, from front to back:

Holly, Stormy, Solly, Tara ;)

Saturday 8th December

The horses have had almost a week in the first 'home paddock' so as the standing hay that's in that paddock is diminishing and before we open up the 2nd paddock we thought for the weekend we'd take the horses out for an hour or more in-hand grazing, or in my case riding/leading in-hand grazing ;) So here's the pics from that:

Tara, Me and Solly getting ready to get out of the paddock

Sitting on Tara is not only warmer but it's easier to graze my two,

they follow each other nicely now that they've got used

to it the last few years ;)

Stormy, Mary and Holly enjoying their undemanding time together

Pic from Tara's back of my two grazing nicely together

Me sitting on Tara showing how they all grazed in line for a while ;)

Stormy and Solly standing looking at the

meadow, full bellies and happy to snooze

in the late afternoon sunshine ;)

Monday 3rd December

Well we knew it was coming soon so this morning when we awoke to about 3" of snow we weren't surprised really. It looks beautiful up here but it's chilly and so after Mark walked the dogs up the hill behind our house it was 'Mission Dinner at Home' and our task was to bring all 4 horses home, settle them into one of our small winter home paddocks next to the house and then return to the field with the car to retrieve all their food etc and get it all set up again at home here in the garage. Mission completed nicely, all settled in now and they're enjoying the new view and eating the 'standing hay' (grass left all year in the field that died growing). Here's a couple of pics from today:

Mark bringing Holly and Stormy home,
I was behind them with Solly and Tara ;)

Stormy enjoying a fun roll in the snow in his new paddock. lol

The herd nicely settled and waiting for their
dinner and a rug for Holly ;)

Sunday 2nd December

Yesterdays blog went on the end of November as I forgot it was Dec and pics went on before I realised! hey ho...anyway, it's now the 2nd and the ground is v.very hard so really not much trotting, no canter and very few jumps (if at all!). Winter is upon us and the horses are all really fluffy and Solly looks like a snowball ;)

Mark and I had our Weekend Challenges again, me with Solly (at liberty) and Mark with Stormy, first online and then at liberty too. Then Mark went and played at liberty with Stormy in the big field....and no running off ;)) I played more with Solly and saddled up and then Mark played at liberty with Holly and I then rode Solly in the arena with the Dr Cooks bitless bridle again...think it's a keeper and sure we'll be doing more 'contact' stuff next year when I can work more on him getting his HQ's engaged and underneath him ;)

For today, here's some pics:

1) Stormy sideways away then sideways towards

1) Solly liberty going around the jump,

sideways away first then sideways toward

2) Liberty touch it from a distance and
kisses when he draws back to me too ;))

2) Stormy touches it too, then flips it over to find the
grass underneath it and then puts his nose into the barrel! lol

3) S2M circle over poles at liberty

3) Solly does his circling at trot at liberty

4) Backing up from the tail / behind horse

4) Backing from tail. Stormy's not done this much
at liberty but they managed two steps...
something to work on ;)

5) Jump from standstill....Stormy has not figured this one out

just yet but put in a brave effort by walking over the jump.

He understood what to do at least, but didn't know

how to jump from nothing ;)

5) Jump from standstill. Solly is very good at this now..
just need to find that hq engagement with ridden work now too ;)

Then Mark took Stormy out for some liberty in the field: