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Fri 3rd

Well September seemed to have passed by SO quickly and we’re now into Autumn and some rainy, windy weather. Today, though, is just before Stormy Amy and the weather is calm and nice (although very rainy last night), so a nice opportunity to snatch a ride on Bella. Last time I rode, about 10 days ago, she seemed a bit ‘off’, a bit lame, so I made the decision to leave her for this time as think she may have bruised a hoof when I rode her to and back from the house 2 weeks ago. Always good to rest a horse if unknown lameness happens, it often goes after this time but if it hadn’t I would have called our vet out.

 

SO, today we just had a bit of a plod, started with a loose rein and testing our connection with turns in the weave and then the serpentine and also did the walk/turn/back out through the corner tyre obstacle. We then picked up the rope with a tyre tied to it. I use this as a pulling exercise, I grab the loop at the end of the rope and ask Bella to walk around dragging it behind her, turning under the rope to change directions and to back up. It was a lot of fun and she did really well. Stormy, who was ca

sually grazing along the fence line saw the tyre bobbing in the long grass and put his head up and trotted with the high head of a horse that was, not spooked so much, but made alert with something they didn’t expect 😉 lol. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun 5th

Just a lovely ride on Stormy today….lengthening his walk stride and enjoying some agility obstacles 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thurs 9th

 

 

What an absolutely beautiful day for a wee hack out

Mark/Stormy and Me/Bella rode out for just over an hour this afternoon and it was just bliss 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gorgeous weather, fabulous company and horses were just superstars 😉

 

 

 

 

 

We both had some trot when the track was good and we even had a couple of canters too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying the beautiful Autumnal scenery 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk

 

 

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 😉

 

 

 

 

Wed 17th

Rode Bella while leading Stormy back to the house today 😉 Bella did a stirling job leading the whole way 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thurs 18th

And today I took S&B back to their big field…again riding Bella, leading Stormy (he also had Mark’s riding hat tied to his bareback pad) 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun 20th

Today Mark and I went out together to have a fun ride with S&B. We did a lot of things like weaves, fig 8’s, follow the leader, leap frog and familiarisation with the flag (which was huge as it was really windy today).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark and me in the narrow gap, I went forward and they went back then they went forward and we went back 😉 🙂 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mon 22nd

This afternoon Mark and I went to the field to re-arrange the agility obstacles from the big field to the smaller ‘agility area’ so that we can do some smaller courses and work at liberty if we want to. It didn’t take long between the two of us and it’s been basically set up.

After that we decided to just jump on each of our horses in turn for a little bareback ride…me first with Bella and then Mark and Stormy 😉

 

 

Nice medium walk with then a nice fig 8 hardly using the reins

 

 

 

 

Fig 8 bends went well

Sidepass both ways went well

 

 

 

 

 

End of the sidepass then walking over poles (I’m not balanced enough to trot over them…yet!) lol

 

 

 

 

 

She was striding out and working in trot very nicely, balanced and comfy to sit to

 

 

 

 

Treats for my big girlie

Familiarisation under her belly for a final fun thing to do

 

 

 

 

Stormy was in fine fettle this afternoon, he trotted the poles very nicely

SIdepassed over the drainpipe with ease

 

 

 

 

Sidepass then over poles again

 

 

 

 

 

Walk weave own the hill was balanced and calm

Then towards the ‘narrow gap’

 

 

 

 

 

Narrow gap was easy and then as Mark turned him up the hill again Stormy decided it was a great time to canter 😉 🙂

 

 

 

 

Think both Stormy and Mark enjoyed the canter

Then they did fig 8’s hardly using the reins. Stormy was very flexible and balanced which was fab

 

 

 

 

 

Storm and Mark <3

 

 

 

 

 

 

• 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