Thu 1st
Started the lovely cool day off with some play with Bella going under the curtain, halt under it, backing out of it and then drawing to me in trot 😉
It’s been a while since doing the curtain and she was perfect. We then had a short but effective ride working on getting my body dynamics right so that she could get her body dynamics right 😉
Then in the afternoon Mark rode Stormy and lead Bella back home. Bella has a physio treatment tomorrow afternoon so it’s easier to have them handy at home when Emily comes to see her 😉
< Bella cantering to Storm’s big trot 😉
Fri 2nd
Today Bella had a fabulous physio from Emily. She has been coming once a year at around this time of year for a while now and it really helps Bella get her body back into ‘shape’ and ready to start training again. Emily thinks she either goes a bit ‘squint’ from the rest time over winter or it could be because of all the spring/summer grass coming in. Whatever the reason the physio Emily gives her really works well. Bella, and Stormy, will go back to the big field a few hours after the workout and Bella will have a few days off 😉
Mark with the babies 😉
Bella really enjoyed pruning the beech hedges around the paddocks.
Bella really enjoyed her physio, sleepy eyes, licking of lips and yawning. She pushed into the workout, relaxed
and hopefully feeling ready to start training again soon 😉
Walked S&B home to their big field in the afternoon
Tues 6th
Booming across the glen with a bird/deer scarer and estate gamekeeper and friend
shooting goodness knows what….very unpredictable and annoying to be honest.
I decide not to ride Bella as I didn’t want to upset her or have an accident.
Instead Bella and I go around playing with the obstacles while Mark and Stormy ride them 😉
Storm and Mark had a great time, did the obstacles very well and found fun with the
rope circle where they had to keep the rope off the floor doing circles…..they had to use
forward, leg yields and good rope skills when changing direction 😉
When they did ridden familiarisation with the flag Bella and I walked behind and then next to them to help her get used to the flag being above her and with the noise too 😉
Meanwhile Bella’s new fun thing is to put her face into flags 😉 She gets treat trained with new things so this is a huge and fun thing for her to do…even from a distance AND getting used to the noise and movement of flags all the time, at least in the face (hopefully get her used to this in the saddle area next and then on her bum 😉 )
Wed 7th
No pics today but that’s because I was really just concentrating on working with Bella….straight lines and curves as always. It’s the basic that always need working on and once they’re there it all becomes better. She did some lovely fluid fast walk, balanced trot and one really nice canter 😉 There was two ‘booms’ of the deer scarer while we rode but luckily we’ve both started to get used to it, although it’s unpredictable, the noise itself isn’t so scary now.
Fri 9th
A day to do some trimming. Ms Bella is needing her hooves trimmed around every 2-3 weeks at this time of year…I try to do it as often as possible as then I have less work to do and it keeps her more balanced.
Sat 10th
This morning I managed to have a lovely lesson with Bella before it started to get too hot to move.
Just found, and started using, this fab Equilab app. It really shows where we rode, how far, how long, how many steps, transitions etc etc. I love a bit of statistic-ation and it will help me know how we’re progressing.
Bella did do a skip and a hop of canter but she’s a clever girl and didn’t continue as the ground is just too hard at the moment and it could really affect her feet and legs SO we kept to mostly walk but it was a good walk. The field fig 8’s are quite large and while we did 4 of them we utilized a few of the field agility obstacles along the way 😉 it was a lot of fun 😉
After the ride I put her fly mask on to help her with the problem of large and pesky wee flies. It also helps to reduce UV to her face and I hope it helps her. I lead her off the quad bike in walk to the water trough, she is getting SO good at this now 😉 Stormy followed at liberty and they both had a long drink of fresh stream water.
I left them both near the trough enjoying some grazing together 😉
Sun 11th
Finished trimming Bella’s hooves today, I usually do the fronts one day and then the backs the next day…..just can’t do all 4 in one day any longer, my back needs a break.
I then got Bella ready for a short bareback ride….this helps get my back into shape after being under her trimming
The ride was smooth and sweet. Lovely walk and a bit of trot. Didn’t actually do much or go far, but it’s just my little treat after trimming her feet 😉
Stormy followed us around for a bit too which was really lovely. I love my life and these two beauties so much <3
Tue 13th
SO, today I got up at 6am to get the horses breakfast and to get in a ride before it gets too hot to even think! It was a lovely start to the day, cool and with a hint of a nice breeze.
Bella did really well. We did a different pattern in the field today and from the Equilab stats we did fewer transitions with less time BUT did more trot, more mileage and more strides…fab 😉
Bella ready to rock and roll around 7am this morning 😉
Fab ride, straighter, focused and cool. Also no treats until near the mounting block to get on or off…makes her even sweeter on the mounting block now 😉
I left S&B standing having a snooze together <3
Thurs 15th
SO…up at 5.50am this morning and out to feed S&B their breakfast.
THEN I get Bella ready to ride. Groom, fly spray and tack up.
Decided to ride in my ‘arena’ today. It’s a largish area which I can work ‘dressage’ exercises in, open on one side that goes up the hill (you can see this on the Equilab map, the bit like a long tail is the hill we went up)
This was this hill bit, she did a bit of canter going up but decided it was too much like hard work (or hard ground) but we got a great view at the top and she got a reward of the long grass she adores 😉
We also did a bit of flag work. Not done this for a while so we started with familiarisation at standstill with it all wrapped up. Then I worked on this whilst at walk and then I unfolded it, held the free corner at the handle and worked on that with her at walk and then 6 strides of trot. She remembered to touch the flag often and got a treat for it each time, she stops to do this so it’s installing a stop and touch flag for later on when we work on it flapping about 😉
Finished on a good note and was very happy with the restart of this work.
Final cool down work with me stirrup-less to lengthen my legs and relax and also did this with some passenger lesson for Bella. This is where we stay in walk and I have no ‘control’ over where she goes, I just sit and enjoy her moving about. With horses that are over trained they often just go in circles to the left but because Bella isn’t micro-managed she’s happy to wander about to the left and right and far and wide 😉
Sun 18th
LOVE this riding app I’m using (Equilab), the stats are great and when I clicked on the map it came up with a closer look of the actual field….the small black box near the centre bottom is the horses field shelter which shows the size of field I work in 😉
Today we have again more mileage and more time. I’m putting a timer on my phone to tell me when we’ve done 30 mins which is helping me to relax into it and not wear or check a watch 😉
Lovely and cool this time of morning and it was a joy to ride, think Bella really appreciated it too.
Still working on flags, firstly with the big ones used as a weave and also for her to ‘touch it’ with her nose for a treat …really going well with that 😉
Getting Bella used to sidling up to where I get and place the hold-able flag 😉 She straight away put her nose on it when I lifted it up 😉
We rode around the round pens, in walk, with me holding the flag firstly at her shoulder (the end bits in my hand to make flapping minimum for now), the I put it over my shoulder and rode with hit there……on both sides 😉 Really REALLY happy with the flag riding progress today, all going according to plan.
I then rode Stormy so that he didn’t feel left out, also to keep him fit and happy. I used the P2P (Point 2 Point) exercise and used the long seeding grass as the points to go to around the field so that his motivation was the reward of a wee graze 😉 It worked really well and he started striding out well in walk and then had a small trot. The ground is really so hard I’m not doing too much fast work with either S or B at the moment.
Had some flappy flag fun with him too which was enjoyable.
Tues 20th
Early start again today, grey skies and rain yesterday BUT it looks like it may get ‘clammy’ here later so early ride is best.
Started with familiarisation of the flag, firstly at the nose, but then backing up and sidling towards it with the mid section and rear end 🙂
Bella tacked up and ready to rock and roll.
Field riding exercises again today. 3km ridden with 1.7km of walk and 1.1km of trot.
The ground is still so hard, even after a bit of rain yesterday. I hope we get more rain soon so that the ground softens a bit
and Bella finds it easier to start doing her big trot and canter work again 😉
Thurs 22nd
Another 5.30am start to the day, lovely and cool with a nice slight breeze.
We did more mileage, longer time and a bit more canter (she decided to do some, I’m not asking at moment due to hard ground)
We started off with straight lines (trot) and small-ish circles (walk) and after doing some nice transitions I decide to try out the ‘rope circle’ gadget. It’s a rope attached to an upright post which we hold onto and circle around. It helps us work on precision with circles and we often use leg yields to get us back out onto the circle the rope length gives us.
I then decided to go out into the next field for a change of scene and for some fun.
First pic shows us heading towards the next field gate 😉 Yeehaa…
Into the next field and I take advantage of the long grass by using it in P2P’s (going to a nice spot and allowing 2-3 mouthfuls of grass then continuing). It works really well and motivates her to get to the next spot 😉 This field also has some nice gentle hills so plenty of workout opportunities.
I think Bella really enjoyed the change of scene as she gave me a lovely long striding canter back up to the gate towards the end. She finds cantering up a hill easier than walking it 😉
Grass for a reward at the end and a good groom with some water on the dandy brush to get the girth strap and neck sweat off her. She then went into the shelter for a rest out of the sun which was starting to get a bit warm…Storm joined her in there <3
Sat 24th
Today was Storm’s ride out day. I’m trying to ride him at least once a week to keep him warmed up for Mark to ride when it gets cooler in the afternoons.
He did well but wanted to start off near Bella and the field so I just asked him to circle, fig 8 or serpentine back and forward, towards then away from his comfort zone. After a while he wanted to go further to see what the grass was like so that motivated him nicely.
It was quite disconcerting to be higher than the deer fencing with Storm…weird.
Some reward grazing afterwards too, which he always loves <3
Bella, today, did ground work. I didn’t fancy riding as there are a lot of cleggs (horseflies) biting both her and me, they seem to be attracted to us…but also because we have the TABANUS BOVINUS back. This is the largest horsefly in the world and is annoying, noisy and takes blood to reproduce SO Bella is not keen on it coming close 🙁
SO, after some nice walk, trot and canter ground work we did some nice familiarisation with a flyswatter. She got a treat for touching it (treat/clicker training +R techniques) and I went from asking her to touch it to asking her to allow me to firstly touch her with it, her touching it and treat to then me tapping her with it, her touching it and treat so she got to associate me tapping her with it to having a treat. Building up from this I managed to actually swat a few horseflies on her with the swatter without her panicking or reacting to it. I know that she associates me swatting horseflies with my hand with something good and she often pushes herself towards me where a horsefly is biting so that I can swat it for her, I think the swatter will become the same after a while 😉
Bella touching the swatter even at liberty after our online session. She totally gets that touching this gets her a treat 😉
Pic of TABANUS BOVINUS…nasty big thing and drives us all crazy at this time of year ;( 🙁 🙁
Tues 27th
Grey skies, cool breeze and not a fly in sight…YEEHAA…time for a BAREBACK RIDE on Bella this morning.
No Equilab pics of stats today as my phone was almost out of charge (oops) but we did some nice walk and trot work.
Straight lines in trot with small circles in walk along the arena fence line. It was lovely to really connect with my seat to her back and get together more with our bends/curves and circling. She did really well and got some lovely long grass, thistle and nettle treats along the way.
I think we worked for about 25 mins and managed to stop before it started to rain 😉
Storm and Bella have a nice groom as I leave for home 😉
Wed 28th
Bella ready to ride. For a change I used a thicker pad but I prefer our normal set up….was good to try 😉
Some fab trot fig 8’s and then some nice w/t and canter serpentine bits 😉
Thurs 29th
Today Mark did the horses breakfast and poo picking and then had a nice active ride on Stormy. Hopefully soon the weather will be cooler in the afternoon and we’ll be riding together again 🙂
I went to see B&S this afternoon for some horsey hugs and to trim Bella’s feet. It’s been nearly 3 weeks since last done so nothing on height of hoof needing done so much but her toes grow long so a lot of ‘backing up’ done 😉
We had some sun, heat and some rain too but luckily Bella and I were in the shelter keeping away from the flies while trimming.
Fri 30th….last day of June 😉
Today we did two part of our morning ride, this was because I got off when the farmer brought a huge bleeting herd of sheep into the field next to us. I thought he was bringing cattle which can often canter and buck into the field when pushed by the farmer, dogs and quad bike BUT it was only sheep….rather be safe than sorry and if it happens again I know Bella will be fine with it and I’ll stay on 😉
SO….the stats say we did a good amount of time, nearly 30 mins, did 2.6km and incorporated more canter. I trimmed her hooves yesterday, backed the long toes back and took a bit of length off the hooves and she was much more balanced and steady today so she offered canter and I took it 😉
I LOVE that Bella not only sidles up to the mounting block and stands still for me to get on BUT she also does it for me to dismount too 🙂 🙂 🙂
Great ride with some good forward walk, energetic trot and smooth canter. The weather was lovely for riding too, cool, grey skies and worthy of a good jacket.
This was the point when I got off, took Bella back to Stormy on the field ‘track’ and they both wanted to get onto the pedestal for a treat….it took their minds off the noisy farmer and connected them back to me. S&B looking at the sheep while they ran about bleating…I went back to riding once they’d settled down 😉
- Shelley – HorseSavvy – See you in July 😉