Bella & Stormy – November 2023

Thurs 2nd

Well, a dry (albeit cold) morning after so much rain and wind.

It’s been 10 days since being able to play or ride S or B so today I took the opportunity to get out and have some pony time 😉

Bella was very happy to see me too and did some liberty play all on her own…she does this when she’s trying to get my attention and wanting to interact 😉

She was so clever, putting front feet on medium pedestal and all 4 on the large pedestal 😉

While cleaning the field Bella stayed quite close to me, watching what I was doing and just hanging out with me 😉

After horse duties it was time to ride….I saddled Stormy first and then went for a calm, mostly walk ride in the field. After so long it’s always nice to just
re-connect with each horse in the saddle.

He was lovely, first tried to stay close to where Bella was but once we started playing with the field obstacles he got more and more engaged with what we were doing.

I’ve put obstacles all over the field to make a very large ‘Field Agility’ course so we can walk, trot or canter between the obstacles to make it more fun and to ride a larger area.

Here Stormy goes between a fence and a high narrow obstacle making it a narrow gap…he walked into it, backed up out of it then trotted back through it…me working on riding with one hand too 🙂

Then it was Bella’s turn for a wee ride, she was a bit out of practise but like Stormy soon got into things once the obstacles were being utilized. It focus’s both our brains and makes it more fun.

You can see from the map that it was mostly walk, some leg yields, DHQ turns and round pens with trot. She also did some nice work through some obstacles and we ended on a good note even though the game keepers over the hill started shooting ;( I made sure she was calm before I dismounted.

Lovely to have ridden both S&B this morning, smile is back on my face and now off home for brunch and a large cup of tea (too late for b’fast, too early for lunch).

Fri 3rd

SO, today Mark and I were going to ride around the full Field Agility course I’d set up but when I went to feed them this morning they were both a bit spooky. Not sure why but the gamekeeper was across the glen so presume there’d been some shooting nearby. This always upsets them. In Autumn too it’s the time the local farm takes away the baby cows from heir mums so there was some stressed mooing nearby…this upsets Bella a bit too ;(

When we got down to the field they both seemed calm an sleepy so we groomed them and tacked them up BUT I could sense that Bella wasn’t happy about certain area’s of the field, her head was up and she felt tense in her body which I could feel in my seat and my legs on the sides of her body. We did a few ‘bits’ of riding such as bullseye to leg yields on a circle to get her attention and connected to me but her ‘energy’ was not lowering so I decided that I needed to ‘LISTEN TO MY HORSE’ and do what she needs rather than what I wanted so I JUMPED OFF and decided to play online with her instead.

She was much calmer online and playing, her walk, trot and canter were calm and connected and probably if I got on after the play and rode she may have been calm but by this time I was a bit tired so decided to leave it on a good note…..it was lovely to see her calm down with the play that we’ve been doing for the last 4 yrs and knowing that it helped her to connect to me in a good way 😉

Things that I think worry her are NOISES: gun shots, stressed cows mooing, fighting male pheasants in forest behind field, trailers on road rattling big time and once sensitized and ‘spooky’ every noise seems worrying ;(

Riding was going to be fun but she wasn’t connected to me and her high head told me she was concentrating on outside noises and not me

Ground work was easy and calm from the onset 😉

Here she canters through a pole box doing what is basically a ‘bounce jump’ over them, pretty cool to see her do this.

Very connected, calm and engaging her body well.

Then she decided she wanted to canter (ie, I didn’t ask for it but let her do it as she needed/wanted to). Again she was very balanced and calm.

Then calmed it all down and asked her to ‘touch’ a target (the cone) from a distance…perfect.
This shows me how connected and calm she is 😉

Some lovely sidepass along bunting and then sidepass towards me.

Walk through the bunting lane and then calmly canter back through it 😉 🙂

Although I didn’t get what I wanted (a ride) we did have a lovely play and that was what was needed today.

Sun 5th

Well today the horses are calm, peaceful and happy So I went down in the afternoon thinking I’d ride the Field Agility course BUT the weather was SO nice I decided to groom them, tack them up ready to ride and then walk them back to the house from the field. Then I collected Mark and we rode S&B back to the field so it was a walk and half hack out which was good. I decided to walk to the house as they’d both been upset by noises etc and there was also a new lot of Highland cows to go through so thought it best to stay on the ground to make sure everything went calmly.

This was the track of us walking from the field (near the top) to the house (at the bottom).

It was a first time using the ‘horse gate’ along the track, it has a huge spring on it that closes the gate after going through it and it doesn’t stay open on it’s own normally. Today I noticed the grass near it is very long so I opened the gate wide and wedged the grass under it to keep it open whilst I squeezed the horses individually through it. Worked really well 😉

Bella stopped after the first gate to have a good look around….

Stormy took this time to graze some of his favourite ‘soft reed’ plants 😉

AND HOME…..we wait patiently for Mark to get ready as he was taken by surprise with us outside the door. Always a fun to surprise him with a sunny hack out 😉

Once ready we mount up and plod back to the field….

Happy to go through the Highland cow field thank goodness….

Going through 2 gateways along the track I get off to open the gates and then use the gate to remount Bella….

She’s become really good at sidling up to gates for me to climb it to remount 😉 🙂

…and back to their main field again.

A really lovely afternoon hack out, not long, not fast but really lovely to be with Mark, Bella and Stormy with the fabulous scenery and calm, happy horses 🙂

Thurs 9th

Very cold here today but no rain (yeehaa) SO managed to get a wee plod about on Bella. We did a few new things but also did a section of the ‘field agility’ (should call it cross country agility as obstacles across the whole field 😉 ) We’re doing sections of the whole field agility course and will later on do the whole course in one. Just wanting to build confidence in each section and not wanting to do too much too fast with the grass being so wet from all the recent rain. I like to teach agility, even in a small area, this way, like we’d teach a jump course or a dressage test. Learn the little bits and put them together slowly so that confidence for horse and rider is always there and relaxation with attention to detail isn’t lost 😉

First we did some walk and trot circles and fig 8’s, working on good curvature and rhythm of steps.

Then we did some trot leg yields where we got sideways and forwards at the same time…she’s getting slowly better at this and hopefully we’ll feel some lightness off the rein coming once she’s more balanced and happy about the move at speed.

After this we walked up the field hill, I’ve put a cone half way up the hill and have always taught Bella to ‘target’ cones for a treat. She saw the cone and trotted to it with a lovely calm gait and a lovely straight halt before it….she got a nice herbal treat for this 😉 Coming back down the hill she was relaxed and not rushing it so it was much easier for me to sit to.

The next thing we tried was some shoulder-in. This is along a fence line where the front feet come half way off the track of forward motion so you can see 3 legs tracking up rather than 2 when just walking forward. It’s quite a hard move and we’ve only just started playing with it as I know we have a better understanding of flexibility now. She’s happier doing it with the fence to her left, as in the 6th pic below.

We did some lovely trot poles where she really picked up her feet and didn’t touch any poles (perfect) and last, but not least, we did some walk, trot, backups through the bunting lanes. Her last backup was with me not using the reins at all, only energy, flapping legs and saying ‘back, back’ 😉

Fri 10th

Opportunity for a wee ride on Bella today, weather good (darned cold though), no rain and no shooting on the estate 😉 Yeehaa

All groomed and tacked up we’re ready to ride.

Nice bit of sunshine and shadows following us around. Decided to put some of the ‘field agility’ together today….

We did just over half of the obstacles, mostly walk with some trot. Didn’t do the hilly bits as (1) Stormy wasn’t in eyeshot so Bella kept looking around for him and (2) it’s been very wet so didn’t want to her to slip on the hills.

Really nice ride, she did 3 jumps and 17 of the 22 tasks 😉

Hopefully will be able to get a nice video of us doing the whole course before the end of the year.

Sun 12th

Out to ride Bella and then Stormy today. Weather was cold but I had nice rides on both of them.

Bella did some more of the field agility and we also did some leg yielding and shoulders-in again.

Stormy has always been a bit reluctant to go up the main hill, especially without Bella SO we worked on that today.

I took him up a bit then retreated down and repeated this with a bit of extra ‘up’ each time and he got a treat on the ‘up’ bits too. He actually went half way up the hill nicely in canter so I ended on a good note with that. He doesn’t get a lot of riding exercise so we had some differences of opinion but from the middle to end we were much more in harmony 😉

They weren’t overly sweaty but they were warm from their exercise and the air was very cold SO I rugged them in their fleeces so that they didn’t get a chill. Mark will take them off at dinnertime as they won’t need them after that. It’s also supposed to rain early tomorrow for on/off 2 days so I’m glad I got out today to give them, and me, some exercise 😉

Friday 17th

The lazy sun slowly rose in the sky throwing off the blanket of misty fog….just glorious being with S&B watching it open up to a blue sky 😉

This afternoon I managed to get a short ride on Stormy and a longer one on Bella. It’d been 5 days of drizzle and rain and it was so nice to get some saddle time 🙂

They were both so good for me, going around some of the field obstacles and enjoying working their brains and bodies.

Bella working nicely and taking a drink of water from the top of the mounting block barrel.

Stormy enjoying some brain work…he LOVES being clever and having some obstacle fun.

Sun 19th

Both Mark and I rode around the field agility today on Storm and Bella. We did different gaits between obstacles and different tasks at the obstacles. Still not doing the hills as slippery. It was a lot of fun working with M&S around the course, it gives Me and Bella a challenge to try new or different things to impress them 😉

Weds 22nd

Just decided to hack to the house for a change today. SO glad we did, it was a lot of fun. Both horses were up for a change too and they had some zip in their hooves too, they both love the cooler weather, no flies and a nice breeze 😉

Mon 27th

SO today I went out and ready to ride Bella as I’ve changed some of the field agility obstacles BUT unfortunately the estate gamekeeper and friends were out shooting quite close to the horses field. There was annoying shouting now and then and then one off sharp bangs from the guns. Dear Bella was quite upset, pacing and circling around while Stormy was following her. When I got down there I just hung out with them, giving them treats when they came to me and relaxed a bit.

They were a little bit sweaty and Bella especially could not connect to me. A horses instinct from danger is to run, fast and as long as possible. Bella wasn’t frightened into being scattered but she knew she didn’t want to be near the noise or shots. I know they could hear the men shouting and probably could smell the ‘hunting’ energy of the men but they were in the bushes and trees so they couldn’t see them, which made it all worse.

Luckily they’re both what I call cold blooded ‘short’ horses which means they have less running in their feet than a hot blooded ‘long’ horse like a Thoroughbred or Arabian, their flight distance is short but they can still take time to fully relax mentally, emotionally or physically.

I stayed with them until I saw the guys drive their 4×4’s back towards the village (probably for their lunch). S&B started to relax down. Later, at 3.30pm when I was out walking the dog there was more shooting, near the house and this is still quite close to the horses. When feeding their dinner Mark said they were still sceptical about going anywhere near certain parts of the field ;(

Tues 28th

I did breakfast with the horses this morning, I was a bit worried that they’d not eaten their hay last night. I was right, they’d not really been to the shelter where the hay is. Although Bella again was sceptical of things she and Stormy managed to come to the ‘shelter area’ to have their breakfast and I put a small pile of hay outside the shelter and although it took a while they did get over to sample a bit of it 😉

To help Bella connect again I used some liberty play…she LOVES the pedestal so this worked nicely.

She was also connected enough to test out the smaller pedestal and stay there when I moved off for a bit.

Still a bit worried about noises about the ‘glen’ this morning….

BUT after clearing all the poo from the field, as we do daily, I decided that a nice, calm play session with Bella would help her. I know she relaxes more when haltered so I haltered her up and we did a lovely play session. We did S2M halt/walk/trot/backups very well, then some play with the tarp, pipe and narrow gap….

I could tell she wasn’t relaxed or attentive enough for me to have a nice connected ride so it was good to have such a strong play connection that we could enjoy being together without the pressure or stress of riding when she’s not up for it Hopefully if there’s no more shooting we’ll be able to catch up with some riding agility 😉

Weds 29th

Out today for a play and hopefully ride but taking it slowly with some in-hand play to make sure Bella is happy and unstressed first 😉

All okay but she was not totally relaxed and kept looking around with some noises so I just focused and kept riding simple at first.

I then moved things on giving her some moves to do that used her brain thereby hopefully helping her to focus more too 😉

Ending on a very good note it wasn’t a long or busy session but it was a good session to refocus and connect us after the other days stressful shooting around the field 😉

THESE PICS ARE FROM THE MORNING WHEN I FED THEM AND CLEANED THE FIELD…..BRUSH IS TO CLEAN THE SHELTER MESS AND OLD HAY BUT WHILE IT’S NEW AND WHAT BETTER TIME TO FAMILIARISE TO SOMETHING NEW 😉 🙂 🙂

And also a couple of pics of S&B in the beautiful morning light we get here in Scotland 😉

Thu 30th

S&B both lovely and calm today so I get to ride them both. Not for long as very cold and not wanting to get them sweaty but it was so lovely to have my calm, happy horses back after the shoot.