Bella & Stormy – December 2024

Mon 2nd

I’m just doing what I can whilst avoiding any bad weather. Today it was very cold and windy but this afternoon was a bit milder and a bit of blue sky shone through SO I popped down to see S&B and snag a ride or two 😉

First off was a short ride on Stormy. He hasn’t been ridden for a while so didn’t want to do too much, just connect and enjoy moving about together 😉

THEN….a longer ride with Bella, who having been ridden not so long ago, was happy to oblige with some training. Kept in walk again so as not to sweat her up or slip as the ground was hard-ish in places 😉

S&B….I LOVE these two beauties <3

Tues 3rd

Great to have another riding session this morning, bareback and rope reins. Very cold so just walking but asked for motivated walk

Stormy: just wanted to make sure he was sound as yesterday he seemed a bit ‘off’. I think it was just the hard ground on his front feet which was causing some discomfort (he’s had a broken pedal bone as an 18 month old youngster so always making sure he’s comfortable). His weaving was fab, as was his sidepass

Lovely hairy polar bear of a horse….his winter coat is really thick and long 😉

So cosy to have a huggle with 😉

Bella: Neck rope riding has come along in leaps and bounds today…..I hardly used the reins at all, she was focused and listening to my very light cues of body weight and neck rope. Her circles off circles (without any markers) were so good, really pleased with our neck rope progress…and bareback too

Ready with bareback pad on and neck rope and rope halter with clip on reins 😉 I LOVE that Stormy hangs around while we ride.

Neck rope riding really going well 😉

After some exercise they go back to eating their morning hay 😉

Wed 4th

Testing my ‘horsemanship’ on Highland cow #580 😉 Lowering body energy, regulating my breathing and outward ‘energy’. Loved this wee, very quick, touch from 580….I gently walked off straight away, the same as I’d do with a wild-ish horse. Fun test 😉

Fri 6th

Rope rein riding this morning, and as I was wearing big snow boots to keep my feet warm, I rode without stirrups. A good test of balance and co-ordination

Our neck rope riding isn’t great yet but a good work in progress and makes a change for us both 😉

Stirrups over the withers…when I put them back my legs had lengthened and so I lengthened my stirrups too 😉

Thurs 12th

Breakfast with S&B this morning.

To keep me going when down in the field in the morning I take some water and oatcakes…they’re delicious and the horse LOVE them too so we sort of share them 😉

Not doing much with S&B as it’s SO cold here at the moment, from 0* to -10* the other night…..brughhh.

But today the sun is out and think it’s about 0 and the sunrise was getting beautiful and bright SO…..after cleaning the field I decided I’d have a short, but sweet, ride.

I first ride Bella and I lead Stormy around from her in a fig 8 around the roundpens. Just in walk, nothing serious, just wanted to ride her a bit.

I then get off Bella at the mounting block, moved her forward and then brought Stormy up to the mounting block and got on him bareback 😉

I ride around the round pens in fig 8 again riding Stormy while leading Bella and then ask him to take me back to the mounting block, which he did brilliantly 😉

Just a little ride on each but it really put a huge smile on my face while re-connected with both S&B 😉

Sat 14th

Beautiful Bella in the sunrise this morning.

Nice ride on Stormy to start my day off beautifully 😉

Just rode to stretch those long long legs of his and have a bit of fun.

Great weaving and nice and focused and connected.

Bella was a bit distracted this morning and not as connected to me as I’d like SO we started our ride off using my two ‘open’ roundpens made up of two circles with 8 cones and also 8 tyre stacks each. These are great for doing circles in the space, circles around the shape, fig 8’s, weaving circles/fig 8’s and also what we did which was Point 2 Points between different cones/tyres.

I choose different obstacles each time to keep it fun and getting Bella listening to me (hoping to gain her focus/attention) and also kept the turn at the obstacle slightly different, so either a hq turn or a fh turn thereby also keeping her attention. The one thing that stayed the same was the P2P game itself 😉

She then did some lovely circles around the roundpens allowing us to connect more with our body shape (arc) and then into the rounpen to do some lovely bullseye to the centre and leg yields out again where we had the connection to our focus and body shape back where we wanted it 😉

<< You can see my Cone and Tyre Stack 8 obstacles making up these to ‘open roundpens’ >>

Left S&B eating a new batch of hay 🙂

Weds 18th

SO….on my HorseSavvy Horsemanship FB group I have put out that I will go through some stages of learning how to work ‘at liberty’ with a horse. This will comprise of a few, hopefully short, but easy to understand YouTube vid’s. I have put a separate ‘category’ here to help folks find just these vid’s but they are also on my YouTube HorseSavvy Horsemanship channel so hope everyone can find them.

Here are the first couple of vid’s, not in the best of weather, but they are Winter Liberty Lessons so I expect I’ll be doing some in the snow later on 😉

PRE-REQUISITES for LIBERTY:

<< Here are my first thoughts on pre-requisites for doing liberty.

AND…these are the first few questions that some students asked so I will be going through these on some vid’s >>

WINTER LIBERTY LESSON 1: First stage of liberty is working on energy/body/voice cues that can be taken into liberty work 😉

WINTER LIBERTY LESSON 2: A wee vid on how to progress from online 😉

Thurs 19th

Just 5 days shy of 3 months since having his right knee replacement operation, dear Mark was back in the saddle today with his beloved Stormy…just checking he could get into the saddle and ride a wee bit Yup…..no problems He did walk, trot and a wee cheeky canter, circles, fig 8’s around tyres and sidepass L&R over a short tyre stack 🙂 : )

Lovely to see these two together again 😉

Tue 24th (Xmas eve)

Started off by working on me and Stormy’s riding connection. Going to bring them home today but need Storm’s undivided attention so that I know he can be safe coming home.

We did some nice transitions, sidepass, over poles, fig 8’s and back up and all ready to go now 😉

Riding Storm home while leading Bella 😉 🙂 🙂 Great day for it as weather mild and dry, like Spring really 😉

Was a really lovely ride and both S&B were beautifully behaved, even past the new Highland coo’s that are in the middle field 😉

Sat 25th (Xmas day)

A nice mild day again and horses happy at the house so we both go out and clean the field and I did a quick sit on Bella…not a ride per se but a lovely xmas sit on a pony 😉

< Me and beautiful Bella 😉

Mark and the handsome Stormy <

Happy Xmas everyone <3

Thurs 26th

Today Mark and I walk Bella and Stormy out across the field near our house….it’s not much and we weren’t out for long but it helps us all to connect and to get S&B out into a place they’ve not been into for about a year 😉 A lovely walk out with best friends, nothing better than that on Boxing day 🙂

What a lovely day 🙂

Sat 28th

Today I walked S&B up the hill behind the house, another route we’ve not done for a while so walking them first was a good way to connect with them. We did a lot of stopping to let them both look around and then some nice transitions (walk, halt, backups) which helped them relax and look to me for guidance. I jumped on Stormy on the way back and rode him while leading Bella 😉

Eating the heather at the top of the hill…always good to have something for motivation the next time we come up here 😉

Riding Storm, leading Bella 😉 🙂 🙂

And back home ready to untack Storm’s saddle, put them in the field and take their bridles off 😉

It was a nice walk/ride, we did 27 mins 17 secs and 1.1km 😉

Sun 29th

Today we see there is a weather forecast for heavy rain tomorrow and our home paddocks can easily get poached if the horses stay here to run around and muddy it all up SO….I walked S&B to the first gate then mounted Bella and led Stormy home to the big field. I think this is the first time Bella has led Stormy out of the field so a big first for her 🙂

I started out by walking them for a while, to the first gateway.

I wanted to make sure they weren’t too hyper to get back to their big field as if one wanted to trot and the other walk I’d loose the rope of the one being led from horseback.