Thurs 1st April
Well today turned out to be a really beautiful day with blue skies and sunshine that had some heat behind it 😉
Out today to trim Bella’s hooves which weren’t too bad but needed backing up and a mustang roll put back on them and then I groomed (a lot of Springtime moulting going on) and rode both horses 😉 🙂 A very good day 😉 🙂
Fri 2nd April
A nice cool day today which is perfect for riding. Mark rides Stormy and the last 3 days of me practising Relaxation, Willingness, Impulsion and Flexibility with B&S paid off too. Stormy had some oomph and showed off his canter, Bella had lovely calmness and showed me her slow trot which I could actually sit to 🙂 fab.
Bella sidles to mounting block either side with relaxation.
Following Stormy is fun
Side-by-side work in walk with some trot is working out well.
Stormy trots/canters up the hills and Bella stays with me in walk 😉
Bella all 4 feet on pedestal….she really had to think but did it well.
A cue for dismounting 😉 LOL
Sat 3rd April
Managed a lovely training session with Bella today. We did walk and trot RtR with a lovely loose rein and a fab canter at the end. Love it when all the preparation and training starts to really pay off 😉
Connection
Lovely jump with canter between while we warm up
Canter and jump
Lovely loose rein walk around round pens and then onto RtR loose rein trotting 😉
Love this pic, she is so balanced, I sit back a bit as we were going slightly downhill and her trot is BIG 🙂
Bringing some canter work into our sessions Will be working more with this w/relaxation.
Lovely sidepass over the log…
…and end of session connection still there 😉 🙂
Sun 4th April
Well we’ve had weather warnings of high winds from the N-NW and SNOW so best option is to bring the horses home as more sheltered here from North wind and we can rug them quickly later on. Best of all is that we get to hack them home together. It was a lovely ride, loose rein, some trotting, past cattle (thankfully not close) and a wee canter up the first hill 🙂
Stormy cantering up hill, we just moseyed up.
On the track to home
Horses seen the cattle but not a problem…Bella does keep an eye on them 😉
Last piece and nearly home
Home……all settled in and ready for the night ahead 😉
Mon 5th April
Well…glad horses home BUT a complete non-event so far. Woke up to 1mm dusting of snow, no winds and sunshine/blue skies!! lol It was about -6 last night so glad horses had rugs on. Rugs off now and enjoying the grassy paddocks 😉
Wed 7th April
We have on/off snow/sun so not able to do much but managed a very small bareback ride which was a lovely way of getting out of the house and connecting with my big girlie <3
Fri 9th April
Undemanding time with B&S today as the ‘hounds & guns’ out today on the estate. Nothing untoward went on and horses on their toes but not spooked or running around. Was really nice that they kept coming up to me for reassurance and a treat now and then for being such good horses 😉
All went quiet in the afternoon so we took them out for a mini-hack up the big hill behind our house and onto a the moor. We didn’t go out for long as it was very windy and freezing cold blowing up on the moor but managed to get a few snippets of video of it :
Sun 11th April
Mark trimmed Stormy’s feet today so I did a bit of filming for some more Mini Challenges with Bella 😉
Mon 12th April
Lovely blue skies and sunshine after a -6 night and we go out for a nice wee hack again. Up the bill hill to the moor (didn’t go onto them today as some heather burning going on) but back down, along the track to the cattle and back then into the field opposite our house where they did small jump over the stream and some grazing with a nice trot and canter back to the house and field 😉
Tues 13th April
A nice day today (although -9 last night) so had some chill out time, grazing and some fun play for Bella with some natural obstacles.
Fig 8’s around stones
Sidle to stone then put a foot on small stone
Jump the stream and then go up a steep bank
Back down the steam bank and jump the stream at the bottom
Up and over a big stone then put a foot on a small stone
Through narrow gap of two trees…then turn and draw …..
and back up through the gap.
Sidle to gate on the right
then dhq to sidle to left
what a good girl 😉
Having a ‘moment’ together and then a big huggle 😉
Thurs 15th April
Great weather today so another fab hack out onto the moor with Bella, Storm and Mark 😉 🙂
Fri 16th April
Managed a short bareback ride on Bella this afternoon 😉
Sat 17th April
At last the weather has broken from being around -4 to -9 at night with high winds to mild so after 2 weeks at home they can go back to the big field and enjoy the space and bit of grazing coming in now 😉 Always LOVE them being at the house as we can pop out to see them, jump on bareback, keep an eye on them and put rugs on when freezing BUT love the big field as it gives them more room to move and more opportunity to play, ride and train 😉
Sun 18th April
Went down to see the horses in the afternoon and set up some new obstacle spaces as want to film Bella’s 12th lesson soon. I also put the Liberty Agility Roundpen set up back up to play with that again…so ready to play and ride when next I go down 😉
Wed 21st April
Spent the afternoon filming some new Mini Challenges which was fun. Bella did so well and we ended up with the last one riding with a big flag 😉 🙂 SO KOOL 🙂 🙂
<3 What a clever girlie <3
Thurs 22nd April
Spend time grooming Bella with Mark doing Stormy. It is quite hot today so no big play/ride but a nice wee bareback potter about 😉
Started off some Cordeo riding, using the neck rope along with normal reins so she can learn signals by association.
Really nice start and some sidepassing too. Went onto riding in the field with reins looking for some flexibility.
Lovely afternoon ride and some really nice moments of connection 😉
Fri 23rd April
Very hot today so just did had some Liberty fun with Bella and then Mark rode Stormy about the field 😉
Start off going around the course with headcollar on for confidence 😉
Used ‘normal’ headcollars today as yesterday there was just too much static electricity between me and Bella and I ‘zapped’ her by mistake a few times.
I then quickly took her halter off and she was so good, confident, calm, playful and fun 😉
Even liberty sidepass over the long pipe 😉
Confident under things so much more now 😉
What a clever girl 😉
Sat 24th April
Did some more trot around the field getting more consistent with the gait and transitions 😉
Sun 25th April
Nice P2P trot to start with, Bella is starting to lengthen her trot stride and really covering the ground now.
Also added a few strides of canter which went well
After a short break we did some bullseye – leg yielding pattern to help with her flexibility as she is still a bit ‘braced’ on her right side
Then another short break which is always good between difficult patterns
Really lovely flexibility through the trot weave today and finished on a wee jump
Weds 28th April
Quick play/ride with Bella in between studying my college course and rain. Lovely ride with Bella picking up our two newest habits…
1. Canter P2P’s
2. Jump with canter depart
She is getting the hang of this training malarky 🙂
Tues 29th April
Rainy on/off today, went down to play/ride with Mark but it started hailing then rain/drizzle SO took wee opportunity to do some ‘mirroring’ with Bella when there was a gap in the weather, connected nicely with her, then went home before we got drenched again 🙂
Fri 30th April
Another day where I get out between studying and today’s wetness falling from the sky…today’s being HAIL!!! Another nice wee ride on Bella putting some time on canter P2Ps and the jump with a canter depart thereby putting canter into our routine more regularly now 😉 Really nice BUT also had a lovely saunter ride with big Stormy too…always a pleasure riding him <3
Ready to rock’n’roll
A FAB way to end APRIL…onto MAY tomorrow….
- Shelley – HorseSavvy