Bella & Stormy – February 2024

Thurs 1st

Well, February is here and like last year we’ve got some dry weather (so far anyway). Taking advantage of this mildness I pop on Bella and have a cheeky wee ride. This time in the ‘arena’ where the tyres are in corners and centre. She was a bit ‘fresh’ but by keeping it to curves/circling around the tyres when she was ‘up’ and doing the straight lines when she was calm worked very nicely 😉

Sat 3rd

Managed a lovely play session with Bella, Storm and Mark. Just went through some challenges (where I do a task then challenge Mark/Storm to copy or improve what I did) 🙂 It was a lot of fun and it was fabulous to see both Storm and Bella happy to play, calm and motivated 😉

Wed 7th

Really really cold again here. S&B had rugs on overnight but take them off during the day as the sun is shining beautifully for us 😉 Yesterday Mark and I trimmed S&B’s front feet, we could not do the backs as both horses spooked and we didn’t want to risk being under them doing feet if they spooked again. Could not see what they spooked at but it was very very windy and that always affects them SO…I trimmed Bella’s back feet this morning after poo picking the field and Mark did Stormy this afternoon while I groomed and rode Bella 😉

Did some nice ONE HANDED RIDING: in and back out of narrow gap

Again one handed riding: sidepassing around the jump 😉

One Handed Riding: Weave

Back to regular riding where we did some lovely leg yield weaving 😉

Just a very short trot as ground hard…..trot poles on a curve, encouraging more stretching of the outside legs 😉

Sun 11th

Mild weather and some sunshine today so great chance to give both S&B good grooming sessions (Stormy is moulting big time already) and get some time in the saddle too 🙂

First off I rode Stormy. From his session I was aiming for some motivation and straight lines SO I used P2Ps (Point 2 Points) and as soon as he realised he got to stop, and get a treat often, when we got to our destination he started to go faster each time…fab 😉 He did a lot of trot and a few bits of canter which I didn’t ask for, but his motivation was easy to get when I use the right game 🙂

THEN….Bella’s turn for a ride. Today I was looking to help her find her curve on a bend so we did part of circles and circles…around obstacles to help her get more balanced in the bends 😉

Mon 12th

Again we have mild, sunny weather so time for some more saddle time. Bella only today and working on those curves, bends and circles for that all important body flex around my inside leg These shapes will help us become straighter and is important after not doing much during Winter

Had a nice little play session first and Bella knew just how clever she was when she sidled over the log 😉

Nice walking around the field, getting there on the shapes of the circles and a wee bit of trot too. Don’t want to do too much or she’ll become sweaty (thick coat at the moment) so it’s a balance of getting some movement without overdoing it 😉

Stormy did a great job of following us about a bit today…he knew I had treats in my pockets 😉

Fri 16th

Today we have really nice weather so Mark and I get out with Storm and Bella for a nice fun ridden play session.

We started off with ‘follow the leader’ with Bella leading and Storm following. We did weave/circles, sidepass, backup on/over tarp, feet in hulahoop etc….basically a nice ridden agility play.

Doing some fig 8’s around the round pens we start off with her stretching out and down a bit and me stroking her from the withers up her mane crest which helps her relax into the stretch.

Then we go into some trotting around the pens.

Getting some nice bends in our circling

We then went and did some trot fig 8’s in the field with the narrow gap making up the centre….it required focus and accuracy but was a lot of fun and our circle ‘arc’ got much nicer.

Popped a wee jump just for fun…Bella is getting really good at her canter departs from the jump 🙂

Thurs 22nd

I always use Consistency & Variety in my training. Consistency helps horses learn as it gives them a solid understanding of a task while variety helps to keep things progressive and stops them becoming bored.

Today we played with S&B with the same agility obstacles in the area I’d already set them up BUT I changed where the obstacles were to keep it interesting. The jump, narrow gap and hulahoop moved. The cones went into a weave on a circle (instead of a straight line), the tarp had the poles holding it down moved about and the trot poles went from a curve shape to being made into a square

It wasn’t a major move but it definitely kept the course fresh

Through high narrow gap (she did walk/halt/walk/halt through it)

Then sidepassed towards me 😉

Weaving around cones on a circle

Having a yeehaa moment

Tarp and then poles

Bella was a star, she jumped first with pole at a low height, then with pole at medium height and lastly with the pole at the top of the jump wing, this is about 30″ (76com) high…not bad for a heavy horse 😉 I wouldn’t want her to jump higher but it’s lovely to see she can handle a height that might be a log when out on a hack.

Mark and Storm worked at Liberty as they always do…he was making up his own games with the black tube 😉 lol

Fri 23rd

Sunshine and blue skies today…although pretty chilly it’s still a good day to be out and about with S&B.

Didn’t want to do too much or work too fast as ground still a bit hard-ish.

Stormy did a great job working with straight lines and some curves and he decided trotting would be fun so I took his idea and just went with it 😉

Sunshine and Shadows

Bella was a bit distracted after my ride with Stormy due to a telephone engineer van sitting on the road with a flashing light for a while.

But as soon as it went I saddled up and had a lovely ride. Just walk but trying to concentrate on curves, leg yields into bigger curves then changing the curve 😉

She did really well, then the van came back, her head went up and it was a good time to stop, take her tack off and praise her for being such a good girl for me 😉

Mon 26th

It’s gone very chilly up here again although a beautiful blue sky with sunshine always gets us out with S&B 🙂

Mark/Stormy enjoying some riding time.

We started off with some ‘leap frog’ where we walk in line and the back horse/rider then trots past the front horse/rider, gets back in line and transitions back to walk. Then the back horse does the same and so on…it’s a great game for holding each horse in walk whilst the other one trots past and for each horse to listen to it’s rider more.

We then did some individual agility bits which was fun.

Bella sidepassing over big tube and then watching Stormy doing cone weaving.

Storm doing transitions on the tarp and then walking over the ‘trot poles’…..he didn’t want to trot over them 😉

A moment where Bella/Me sidled up to Storm/Mark 😉

Then a few bits of Bella on her own while Mark took pics of us….

Bella in the pole square: first a turn on the forehand to the right and then to the left
(Turn on the forehand = holding the front legs still while the back legs move to the right and/or left making a circle with the back legs). You can also do a turn on the hindquarters which involves keeping back legs still and moving front legs in to right and left….this will be a move we do more of later in the year as it’s harder to do.

Here Bella is circling around the weave cones in trot, she was ok going to the left but when we went to the right she just didn’t ‘feel right’ so we stopped the session as if she’s just a bit sore I don’t want to make anything worse.

Once unsaddled etc I checked her feet, shoulders and leg stretches where she was a bit more reluctant to stretch her front left leg. I’ll give her a few days off and see how she goes after a rest up.

Thurs 29th