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Thurs 1st

Lovely day weather wise and decided I wanted to have a ride….but getting a bit bored going around their field SO…

Saddled both S&B up and walked them home to the paddock for the afternoon 💖

S&B ground tied waiting patiently for me. I saddle both so that (1) I could change who I was riding if I wanted and (2) Mark can ride Stormy back to the field this afternoon while I ride Bella 🤠👍

Walked them up the field hill to get them ready for the ride (saves trying to lead one up if the other decides they don’t want to go) lol

Mounted Stormy on the track (he carried the black bag which holds Marks riding hat…..no excuse for Mark to not ride him back now) 😍

Bella did a great job following Stormy the whole way, with only one stop which we all stopped for.

AND HOME….it was so lovely having a ride out of the field today, especially as the sun is shining and there was a lovely breeze keeping the flies away 💕

AND THEN A FEW HOURS LATER….

Mark/Stormy and me/Bella ride back together to their big field.

It was LOVELY to have Mark riding Stormy with us, and me concentrating on my own riding with Bella 👍😊

Fab way of seeing if Mark wanted to ride today too 😍🤠🏇💖

Mark giving S&B a groom and a peppermint after our ride.

Tue 6th

Another lovely day weather wise for a wee plod about on Stormy (first) 😉

Just enjoying being with the horses at the moment, taking the opportunity to do that when I can.

Just chilling with the big babies is always a lovely thing to do 😍

Bella was good too, it was nice and cool this morning so no sweating and she did some really nice trot to canter to trot transitions 🤠👍

• Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk

Sat 5th

Sunshine with a breeze = nice ride on Bella this morning 😉

I’ve been asking S&B to come to the top of the field to get their dinner over the last 2 days….they are good at ‘getting it’ quickly 😉

Tues 8th

You never know when something interesting crops up and time for a wee bit of ‘training’ 😉 I LOVE when this happens and it’s good to see that our training foundation is good that Mr Stormy learnt a new thing very quickly. What was that thing? Well…S&B are used to the quad bike going around doing things, moving agility bits and daily poo picking with the tipping trailer behind it BUT I had not realised until today that they’re NOT used to me moving it while walking along side it. They’ve always seen me RIDING the bike to move it SO when Stormy baulked when I walked with it he must have thought it was moving on it’s own!!

SO, what did I do? I slowly moved the bike and as he stayed with me I stopped regularly and treated him for his obedience to me asking him to stay. As we went along I didn’t move faster but stopped regulalry again to treat him for RELAXATION and CONFIDENCE in the situation 😉 He smashed it 😉

What a clever boy he is 😉

Wed 9th

I woke up late this morning (not a problem, we don’t have schedules as such) and I managed to ride Stormy and then Bella just before lunchtime 😉 LOL

Stormy first….

He was a bit sluggish to start with, it’s been a while since riding him so understandable. We start slow and build up to trot.

Bella 2nd…

She was also a bit sluggish even though I rode him more recently and we had a good play session with her yesterday. Again, like Stormy, we start slowly to get her muscles warmed up and then start doing more trot.

Fri 18th

SO, it’s been a while since riding S or B and it’s because of the weather, it’s been either too hot with flies or midges or drizzling/raining. It’s quite frustrating when you want to ride and exercise your horse and the weather is just against you BUT just being available to grab the opportunities when they arrive is such a blessing 😍🐎🤠 AND I took that opportunity this morning. It’s definitely feeling like Autumn and for us that’s a bonus as no flies and cool enough to not cause S or B to sweat 👍

I started by riding Stormy and leading Bella from him. We did about 16 1/2 mins in walk and a bit of trot.

I then took the saddle off and put it onto Bella and rode her on her own for a bit 😉

Storm saddled, Bella waiting to be led.

Storm was a great leader and Bella followed like a pro.

AND then Bella on her own for some one-on-one time 😉

And finally I lead both S&B from the quad bike back off the paddock grass and onto their track….amazed how well this went 😉 🙂

Viewing the cattle and sheep nearby 😉

Tue 22nd

It often looks like I’m just wandering around when I ride Storm or Bella and the maps often show this madness BUT is it madness??

What am I looking for when I ride.

1. Relaxation – shows up as soft neck/body and rhythm in a gait.
2. Co-operation – the partnered willingness to go with the flow.
3. Impulsion – seen when there is balance and energy in motion.
4. Flexibility – to be flexible to the left/right which brings about straightness. 😉

   If starting the ride and I check the above 4 things  and one or more of them are out of kilter then THAT is what I work on and often it’s all about checking all 4 and getting them all back into balance, even if only one is out, as they all rely and help each other for a soft, easy ride 🙂

< Waiting for me to mount up

Bella having and after ride graze >

• Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk

Mon 10th

Golly gosh, it’s been about a month since riding S&B so today, riding both of them, is a complete joy 😍

I hadn’t ridden due to too hot weather with flies then constant rain (which we needed) and also from having tweaked my back a few weeks ago it was too painful and risky to ride. I’ve been resting my back a lot and the last two days haven’t been nearly so bad SO with my back brace on I decided today was a good day to ride Bella and then I just had to ride Stormy too 😊😊😊

They both were lovely to ride, both gave me strong walks, ryhthmic trots and smooth canters…with Bella cantering parts of some circles and Stormy doing canter weave 💕 YEEHAA ❤️😍

❤️ Here’s Bella’s route, we started on some circles as I wanted her to find more symmetry and find her balance turning left and right circles. I continued this pattern as she then did trot better and finally some really nice canter bits of circle too. Not bad for a month off 💖

With Stormy I wanted to keep things interesting SO we started off with some big fig 8’s around the field and then I thought he’d enjoy some weaving…we started in trot but he said ‘hey mom, trots boring,,,,lets canter weave’ SO we did 😉 🙂 What a star ⭐

Stormy checking out the cows and calves in the field below 🐮

Then to save me taking his tack off and going back for the quad bike I lead him from the quad bike back to where I take his tack off 😊

what a good boy he is 🐎

Thu 14th

Lovely ride on Bella this morning…walk, trot and nice canter too…short but very sweet 😊💖

Sat 15th

We’ve had Mark’s grand neice (16yrs old) with us for the last two weeks (from New Jersey USA – home on Monday) and it was time for her to get a lesson on big Stormy. He was amazing, he’s a good teacher now and he was very gentle with her…she thoroughly enjoyed herself and hats off to her for taking up the challenge of sitting/riding such a big horsey 🤠🐎❤️

Sun 16th

A bit of time this afternoon to move all the agility obstacles into the larger field area and then took a ride on Bella to make sure it was all good 🤠🐎💕

Getting better with the canter, around the ends in an arc too…one to the left, one to the right 😍

Treats to start off

Bits of the agility course

Some hugs and kisses afterwards 🌟

Wed 26th

Today we finally had some ‘riding’ weather….cool, breezy and no flies 😍 SO…on that note, I rode Stormy, then Bella.

First…STORMY…

Agility bits done for fun with the big boy this morning. I used mostly one hand on the reins and he ‘neck reined’ most all of the course 😉 So proud of him 😉

…AND BELLA…

Lots of in’s and out’s of the agility course, took it slow to start with, trotted it again to make sure she was suppling up and flexible and then did a bit of canter to finish 😉 What a good girl 😉

• 🤠 Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk