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Hello SEPTEMBER 🙂

 

Thurs 4th

Well it’s been 2 weeks since I last rode either S&B due to bad back and being away teaching.

I played online with Bella on Tuesday which was really good and got our connection back after doing nothing for so long. My bad back has finally recovered (for now) and I was away last weekend teaching in Moray so today, the sun shining, it’s time to be with S&B 🙂

 

 

Stormy ready to rock’n’roll 😉 Nice ride, slow and steady but pure joy of being on big Storm again 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely weaves using little rein, stopping and backing up through a narrow gap and familiarisation with a flapping flag.

He’s such a good boy and really enjoys engaging in fun with his humans.

 

 

 

 

 

Bella ready to ride and a lovely ride out too. Nice steady walk and then a nice steady trot that I could happily sit to around the round pens 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Us and our shadows today 😉

She went into a bit of an ‘alert’ mode, her head went up and it was near enough where I was going to stop anyway SO I got off and put her back into a roundpen to graze a bit but both she and Stormy kept their heads up, not grazing and just staring up the hill towards the house on the hill!! A dog was barking, running around near the top line of trees and continuously barking, deer moving, sheep moving but it wasn’t chasing them!

I collected them both and put them back on the track and proceeded to take the quad bike and trailer-barrow around the track to clean/poo pick as normal. S&B followed me…but not as normally they would asking for a treat now and then, they kept up with the bike, when I stopped, they stopped and it continued all along the length of the field!

I stopped the quad bike and I could hear the dog still barking so I tried calling out to it to bring it to me, maybe, but it was still just barking. I was seriously getting worried at this point.

 

As I went up the hill in our field I could hear it still barking and when I got to the top of the field I heard it go from barking to yelping and whining and I knew that was a sound of a dog in distress and most likely in trouble.

I stopped what I was doing and walked about half a mile up a very steep, rocky hill to where I could hear the barking and yelping noises, (no way for even a quad bike up this hill, it was very steep, a couple of burns running across it and lots of hug bolders all the way to the top). I continuously called out and tried to calm the dog with words it may know like ‘it’s okay’, ‘stay’, ‘wait’ and ‘i’m coming, don’t worry’. When I got near the fence line of the field I saw a black head of a dog. I knew the dog so called the owner and asked if they’d lost it…they’d lost both their dogs so I told them where I was and continued up to the dog, now lying down looking pretty tired, the yelping had stopped.

When I got up near the dog I saw what I thought was a deer caught on the fence (they often jump farm fences and get one back foot stuck in the fence…there they get stuck, no one seeing, no one to help and they slowly die) ;(. As I calmed down and got my breath back (the hill was exhausting and I’d already ridden 2 horses and poo picked half the field), I realised when I got closer it wasn’t a deer caught on the fence, it was the other, younger dog 🙁 My heard sank and I felt a bit sick thinking of the pain this dog must be in. I got closer to think about how to get it off the fence but it doesn’t know me well and I saw it struggle a bit so I backed off and talked to it calmly to let it know help was on it’s way. It was the older dog that was barking that got me to the spot and it looked like when she knew I was on my way she stayed by the younger dog and lay down near to the stuck one. It felt like the older dog made sure someone found them and then stayed by the younger one keeping vigil 😉

I called the owner again telling them what I’d found and waited for them to arrive in their LandRover. I walked a wee way off from the trees so they could see me waving at them and know where I was…they found me (owner and her gardener) and the gardener managed to get the dogs foot out from the two fence wires that had trapped it. Lots of cuts on the leg inside and out and I know it’ll be badly bruised and probably swollen tomorrow.

I managed to climb over the fence and picked up each dog, which were on the large side of medium, and handed them to the gardener who placed them safely on the ground and attached a horsey string I had in my pocket to each of their collars so they wouldn’t run off again. The owner got up to us and, as the hurt dog could still managed to walk on 3 legs,  we slowly walked the dogs back down the hill to the track to get them into the LandRover and home. The owner was nearly in tears, so was I, as if I hadn’t listened to Storm and Bella letting me know something untoward or gone to look to help them them they could have died there as it is so out of the way, off from any farmers field, up near the moor.

If the horses hadn’t have been on alert with the barking, if I hadn’t have taken the time to go and have a look they would never have been found. I’m SO glad I went up, I’m so glad they were found, I’m so glad they are ok. I think this will haunt me a bit for a while wondering about all the ‘what ifs’ but I’m joyous to know they are both home safe and sound 😉

(Spoke to gardener recently and dog with bad paw doing fine, jumping about ready to run no problem so I’m happy they are both okay after their ordeal) 🙂

 

Fri 5th

Lovely to be out again with S&B and today I trimmed Storms hoof feather (making sure it’s not too long) and also his ergots and chestnuts (which are remnants of toes from when it was a ‘dawn horse’ or eohippus, they had four toes on the front feet and three on the back feet!!). He looks smarter now and more comfortable. I also trimmed Bella’s front hooves as they are growing very quickly at the moment with the grass growing (although Mark trimmed them 4.5 weeks ago). I will trim her back hooves tomorrow 😉

After all the maintenance work I decided to ride Bella again, she needs a bit of exercise to keep her fit and get a bit of weight off her. Here’s some pics of our session…

 

Groomed and saddled we start with some half circles on the move with dhq
Then we went to circling in walk and then trot with a bit of impulsive canter.

 

 

She did a lovely calm jump (missed the actual jump in the pic, using phone not a camera is not ideal).

 

 

 

Our ride was calm and happy. We started with riding around the field going down the long lengths and putting in some nice big circles in walk along that,

then coming back along a quarter line in trot and repeating it down the other side walking in opposite direction with trot again down the other quarter line.

 

Always love riding on consecutive days as it really helps our connection, our lightness, our softness and we get to do more trot and later on canter once she’s exercised in walk to help with her fitness and flexibility 😉

Having a nice graze while I put the grooming kit etc away 😉

 

 

 

 

Sat 6th

Yesterday I trimmed Bella’s front hooves, this morning I trimmed her back hooves 😉 All neat and tidy again.

 

Mon 8th

 

Today Bella and I had a lovely wee impromptu bareback session.

 

She was as good as gold and my balance wasn’t too bad either.

 

 

 

 

 

We even managed to get a bit of liberty connection with Stormy for a circle which was fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the session. They both got a couple of extra treats 😉

 

 

 

Fri 11th

 

Another nice impromptu bareback ride on Bella today.

She was soft and calm and again my balance was pretty good.

We worked on Lateral Flexion and then some straight lines and circling 😉

 

 

 

 

 

I also jumped on Stormy for a bareback session.

He was nicely eager and gave me a nice ploddy walk and then a nice brisk trot.

When going back to the mounting block he managed a nice soft canter 😉 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Sun 14th

A lovely Autumnal morning this morning and while Mark trimmed Stormy’s hooves I poo picked the track then had a ride on Bella 😉

 

<<< We started off with a good stand on the pedestal, it’s a lovely back stretch and is fun to do.

 

Then we did all this >>> W/T/C with fig 8’s, weave, some leg yields, a jump and sidepasses over a drainage tube.

 

I wasn’t expecting to do all 3 gaits today but Bella asked to canter so I went with her suggestion and it was a lovely canter, nice and smooth and relaxed 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely smooth jump that went into a lovely smooth canter 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fab to see canter on the correct leads…this is left lead on left circle canter

 

 

 

 

AND correct right lead on the right circle 😉

This is huge and shows we’re more in harmony but also more balanced.

 

 

 

Stormy joins us for a wee graze in the big field before they go back onto the track 😉

 

 

 

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk

 

Sat 2nd

 

It’s not very often when out teaching that I get the opportunity to sit/ride a students horse (often because I wouldn’t want to or they’re too small for me) BUT this is Hamish, a 17.2hh Clydesdale, about 10yrs old and he is such a good horse that when his owner said….can you ride him to help me (as he wasn’t moving forward) I jumped at the chance 😉

 

I just LOVE my job, it’s just the BEST <3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun 3rd

Just an impromptu play and bareback ride on S&B today….thoroughly enjoyable 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Curiosity and no fear…all at liberty

 

 

 

 

 

 

My fav pic of the day <3

 

 

 

 

A wee bareback ride on Bella….much more confident bareback on her now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then a wee bareback ride on big Stormy <3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 9th

Today I went out to ride Bella while Mark was trimming Stormy’s hooves (and to poo pick the field to save him doing it after all the hard work of trimming).

Bella did me proud as we hadn’t done a lot of warming up but she cantered through a narrow gap with the flag flapping like crazy. This is only the 3rd time she’s cantered with the flag and she cantered lightly and was calm and controlled 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun 10th

Went to weight tape S&B (have a tape measure that goes around their girth area which averages their weight…we do it regularly to check on weight gain/loss) and decided to do a bit of bareback riding with them both 😉

 

Firstly I rode Stormy with some ‘passenger lesson’. He chooses where he wants to go, I can only sit and accept that and remind him to keep in gait if he happens to change it.

We work firstly in walk and then in trot…you can see on his ‘map’ that he went all over the place. It’s a hard lesson as most horses are used to being ‘directed’ all the time so this is a challenge and a gift to a horse to allow them to mindfully choose a direction and we sit to it.

 

 

 

Then it was Bella’s turn. I’ve not done a lot of bareback riding on her as my balance isn’t what it used to be and her back moves a lot.

But today I realised how good she really is as when I asked her to trot, if my balance was off, she would go back to walk again. She wasn’t being naughty or changing gait to go slower, she was helping me 😉 What a star she is, a real momma of a horse who takes care of her charge 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Wed 20th

 

 

Groomed and ready to ride. Standing perfectly a my barrel mounting block for me to get on easily 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Moseying about in walk, it was just lovely to be back in the saddle. She did a few agility obstacles such as the flags, curtain and rope circling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A nice graze after riding this morning….then taking S&B back to the track from the roundpens with just neck ropes 😉

S&B love each other and are a very bonded pair 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mon 25th

 

 

Well, we’re nearly into September already. The year has been good so far with S&B but the weather has been a problem. A problem I hear you say?? we’ve had lovely weather? Yes, the weather has been nice, we’ve all tanned, we’ve all had lovely times in the sunshine BUT it has brought our 3rd yr of no rain which has meant the horses (and almost our house, which too is fed from a burn/stream) have no running water. We have 8 water containers (the sort you can carry) and we fill these up by dunking them in the main River Ericht that flows about half a mile from our house at a ‘culvert’, it allows us to step into the river and fill the containers. We’ve been doing this around 3 times a week and if no rain comes soon we will be getting more containers so we can bring some into the house for washing up and flushing the toilet. So far I’ve not been able to do a clothes wash as it takes up too much water to do that which is a shame as the weather is fab for drying stuff at the moment. The joys and worries of living off a mains water supply. Luckily our solar panels have been doing their job well and we’ve had free electricity all summer 🙂 🙂

Because of the work load the water is taking up and the weather being so hot I’ve not been able to ride S&B as it’s just too hot for us all unless I get up really REALLY early and I love my kip I’m afraid. I’ve also tweaked a muscle in my right lower back so that’s put me out of action a bit. I’m resting up as I’ve a couple of lessons away in Huntly this weekend so hoping I can manage the drive up and back for that 😉

Here’s to a rainy, pain free September folks. See you soon, much love from both S&B, enjoying their lazy grazy Summer 🙂 <3

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk

 

Thu 3rd

 

S&B watching with interest the shepherd moving a big herd of sheep a couple of fields away. They used to be worried by all the commotion, noise etc but now are generally just interested in what’s going on.

 

 

 

Good old cooler weather today…yeehaa…time for a ride 😉

Me, S&B LOVE cooler weather, no flies, midges or heat 😉

SO I had a lovely ride on Bella this morning. Nice walk through the round pens, then circles in trot up and down the field with Bella popping in a couple of canter transitions. Then finished off by walking completely around the field to cool off.

 

 

 

 

Cleaning the field after my ride and S&B just chilling out and then having a wee nap 😉

 

Love these two big dollops <3

 

 

 

 

And that’s a new agility course set up in a bigger area now….ready for some more fun with S&B 😉

 

 

Sat 5th

I put Storm and Bella into the round pens this morning (one in each) to allow them to grab a bit of grazing before being ridden. I do this to help them concentrate when riding and not trying to grab for the grass 😉

I rode first so she didn’t have too much grass. Our session was really good with a nice walk warmup then trot the length of the field with some canter across the width of the field after 😉 Her canter is really coming along and she was going from walk on the curves to canter without doing trot at all…this shows me how balanced and fit she is 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THEN I had a lot of fun riding Stormy. He’s no spring chicken anymore so we don’t do fast long work, he prefers to have his brain exercised SO we did some rope around circles.

 

 

 

 

 

This is where I have a rope attached to a moving ring on a post that is put into the ground. I take the rope and walk away from it on Stormy and then circle with the rope in my hand. I helps for some great focus on the shape of the circle and also that we can leg yield in and out of the circle to see the rope going slack then taught 😉

 

 

 

 

 

After this I picked up the flag and we walked and trotted around the field flapping the flag and he didn’t bat an eyelid 😉 What a star <3

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tues 8th

Today it was warm but there’s a nice breeze blowing around the fields so we decided to go and ride S&B around the new agility layout I put together the other day.

Here’s Mark and Stormy, who went first today.

 

Front feet in hula hoop then pick up flag and walk around with it back to the hoop

 

 

 

 

Trot weave then through the bunting corner

 

 

 

 

Jump then to the trye gap, halt and back up in gap

 

 

 

 

Then over the tarp and trot over poles

 

 

 

 

Sidepass the drain tube and turn to go under the curtain

 

 

 

 

Over the flat plastic bottles and turn right to go under the arch

 

 

 

4 feet in hula hoop (well 3 feet is pretty darned good) and then stop over the pole and backup

 

 

 

 

THEN IT WAS BELLA AND MY TURN….

 

Mostly trot work through the agility, then walk up the big hill and do a couple of small fig 8’s and a big fig 8 to finish 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Front feet in hula hoop, pick up flag and walk circle while flapping it

 

 

 

 

Trot through weave, she’s so slick doing this now 😉 and through bunting corner

 

 

 

 

Jump 🙂 Yeehaa and trot to the tyre gap, halt and backup

 

 

 

 

Trot over the tarp (not done this much before so very pleased she trotted over it for me)
trotted over the 4 poles, she elevates and looks fab when she does trotting poles

 

 

 

 

Sidepass over drain tube then under the curtain

 

 

 

 

First time trotting over the bottle bank (Yeehaa) 🙂 and then under the arch

 

 

 

 

4 feet in 2 hulahoops…well we didn’t quite manage this as Stormy had put them too far apart but she tried her best.
Then stop over pole, backup and trot on

 

 

 

We went up the hill at the end and did a couple of small fig 8’s around some long grass
And then did a lovely big fig 8 when we got down off the hill again 😉

 

 

 

S&B and me….what superb horses they are 😉

 

 

 

 

Wed  16th

 

It’s been 8 days since me riding (due to intense heat, flies and then a day of stormy rain and working) and today looks like a nice day to ride SO I put S&B into round pens first so they can get a bit of grazing before being ridden. This helps to keep their focus on riding rather than the grass as the riding area’s all have long grass now as it’s being kept for Autumn/Winter 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bella was a star and our fun, first time, thing was to CANTER while I held the flapping flag 😉 🙂 Yeehaa 😉 🙂

 

 

 

Stormy did some nice flag work while riding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and then we sidled up to the ‘rope tyre’ which is ready to be pulled along behind us…I hold the rope and just walk/trot about and I make sure we change sides with the tyre dragging behind and Stormy did some nice turns under the rope to change sides 😉 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

To finish off our session I let them eat their beloved wee thistles 😉 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tues 22nd

The weather is one thing or the other, extreme heat with flies and horse flies that bite OR raining cats and dogs!!! Today, luckily it was dry and mild before the sun started to heat things up so it was a good opportunity to snatch a ride on Bella. Nothing too fancy, this time of year it’s about maintaining fitness and not creating a sweaty horse by over doing our speed or the amount of time we’re working 😉

 

So nice to be back with Bella. She’s a super smooth ride and just sitting on her helps my hips, back and shoulders…not to mention my mood 😉

 

 

Both had time in the roundpens for some nice grazing

 

 

 

 

Always a perfect sidle to the mounting block to start and finish our rides 😉

 

 

 

Start with round pen warm up

 

Love walking the field to check out the stunning views between her ears and also to check the cattle in the field below, they have young calves and it’s always lovely to watch them.

 

 

 

 

S&B munch into some of their favourite, delicious, creeping thistles to end the session 😉

 

 

 

Fri 25th

Well I forgot my phone so no pics or data today BUT it wasn’t about the ride today but about how fabulous my wee Bella is 😉

Firstly I put her and Stormy into the agility arena for a wee graze before doing anything. They love a bit of extra grass as motivation to do something (bit like myself 😉 lol).

I caught her easily and we got on with our ride BUT I noticed a bit of a smell by the top side of the arena and when I checked there was a dead lamb by the burn in the next field. This is rented by neighbour farmer and I put it in the back of my head that it would start to smell awful before long in this heat. Now, what was good was that when I mounted Bella and started to ride I noticed said neighbour farmer drive along the track checking his stock. He passes by but often doesn’t go into the field (which has a lot of small hillocks etc in it) and as he passed by I waved to him and gesticulated that there was something in his field. He just waved back so I shouted that there was a dead lamb in the field, a few times and finally he stopped….he was about half a field away so understood he couldn’t really see what I was doing.

I was still sitting on Bella and what was fabulous was that she stood still while I shouted loudly, squished about in the saddle gesticulating and also when the farmer went into the field to retrieve said dead lamb, she didn’t bat an eyelid 😉 SO SO proud of her stalwartness while I was being loud and moving a lot in the saddle.

We then had a lovely agility ridden time going over, through and under the obstacles. A great jump, superb sidepass, up the hill in canter and back down balanced, under the curtain, over the tarp, between the flags and tyres, nice weave, through bunting corner and over, back on poles. Also rode w/t/c with the flag and then cantered the length of the arena twice 🙂 🙂 🙂

I love my bit girl <3

 

 

Wed 30th

Well it’s the END OF JULY ALREADY….where is the year going?

 

So today was nice and cool, bit of a nice breeze and a rideable morning SO…

I popped on Stormy bareback for a nice mosey about. Just asking him to stretch those big long legs of his in walk.

This is great exercise for him, gets him picking his feet up nicely and brings some nice energy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riding Stormy while Bella grazes in a roundpen 😉

Ground tied when we finish up. He’s superb at waiting patiently by the mounting block.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bella’s ride this morning was a nice walk warm up, good solid trotting a large fig 8 and then some canter on the straight edges of the fig 8 😉

The middle blue line was a fab weave we did with a loose rein with Bella working off my focus, energy, weight in the saddle and legs and only using the reins if we needed to 😉

 

 

Ground tied wating for me to mount up 🙂

 

 

 

 

Riding Bella while Stormy grazed in the round pen 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk