Today is very windy and around -4* but as it’s dry and bits of blue sky I decide to go out and keep my horses riding connection going until we can do more when better weather comes.
Note my fleece cover for my riding hat, warm and with a fab neck piece that keeps my neck and ears warm, great investment bought last year.
First I rode Stormy. He did some great patterns and decided to do some trot too which was lovely.
It was darn cold but it was great being with S&B this afternoon 😉
Bella was a bit ‘antsy’ to start with while saddling up as the snow clouds came overhead with a bit of a flurry coming down but I’m glad I didn’t stop as it stopped quickly and while we worked on some very consistent patterns going into some variety she settled down to the job quickly and it was a nice ride.
I created today’s patterns as I have 8 cones put out in the field, 4 down one side then a big gap and 4 more to make up a rectangle
Sat 4th
Breakfast in the big field, bringing them home today so might as well do it after breakfast
We have a weather warning for rain/snow over Sun/Mon so better be here at home.
I kept their rugs on as it was very cold and they will need them on the journey but also they will be nicely warm when they reach their destination rather than take them off and they and rugs get cold then put them back on ;(
They walked beautifully in tandem…when Bella was younger she used to follow, now Stormy is older it’s him that follows 😉
Went through Highland cow field no bother, both S&B and the cows are used to us moving about over the years as think they are the same cows that are put in this field every winter 😉
I hung onto their rugs as it helped me to keep up with them while walking up the hillock.
S&B back at the home paddocks.
It was a lovely walk with these big two beautiful beasties <3
Mon 13th
-9.5* yesterday and rainy overnight, it’s now around 7* today and the snow has all gone.
I walk S&B back to their big field around noon and they were very up for going back. I had to ask them to be ‘calm’ at the start of the walk as both had some springs in their toes.
Glad they’re now back in the big field where they can stretch their legs and enjoy moving about more (maybe even get to have a play and ride soon too) 🙂
Thu 16th
Wow…it’s been 2 weeks since riding.
Sunshine and a wee bit of warmth finds me outside with Ms Bella 😉
Start off with some play to make sure she’s connected, calm and happy to be ridden.
Then onto some nice riding.
Starting in walk first we do some straight lines and then curves, making sure we have both.
She was on good form with some nice walk and trot Point 2 Points (P2P’s)
And offered some really nice trot P2P’s too 🙂
In these 4 pics you can see she was exercising well, using her hindquarters for power which in turn pushes her back up to support me which then also brings her neck up and her head in….we call this natural collection.
When she does this she is working very efficiently, muscles supporting her as an athlete and shows she is fit and healthy. I’m hoping this she has figured out this is a good way to be ridden so will do it more and more as we work on fitness this year 😉
She’s just gorgeous, inside and out 😉
Fri 17th
Today Mark trimmed Bella’s hooves in the morning so I went down at the same time to do the poo picking of the field and to take advantage of a nice day and give Stormy some exercise.
He did really well and it was lovely to reconnect with him riding.
Sat 18th
Gave Mark a lie in this morning so walked Beau first thing and fed him his breakfast and then went and fed S&B their breakfast, quick groom and then cleaned the field 😉
Was lovely being with them while the sun rose in the sky.
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 which will also be on my YouTube HorseSavvy Horsemanship channel so hope everyone can find them.
Here are the first couple of bits and 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: The first stage of liberty work on is starting online learning your energy/body/voice cues that will be the language you use to communicate at liberty 😉
WINTER LIBERTY LESSON 2:A wee vid on how to progress from online 😉
WINTER LIBERTY LESSON 3: Practise playing at liberty when your horse is ready to interact, this can often be while you’re poo picking the field. Just try it and see how well you’re liberty language is working. Make sure you’re using the same body, hand, voice cues you have established with your online play.
WINTER LIBERTY 4: This was a question from a student….’how to ask a horse to the mounting block?’. This is my first video with S&B doing it (Bella just learning it). I will put up the Liberty sidle to mount later on 😉
WINTER LIBETY 5: This was another question from a student….’how to stop my horse, at liberty, from running off and grazing?’. I use this ‘grazing game’ online first to teach a cue for grazing, on my terms. It doesn’t happen overnight but once the cues are in place and the horse understands they WILL get grazing, or a treat, or a scratch (whatever you choose to treat with) they know they don’t have to grab at grass as you go around. This then helps when going to Liberty as without a halter and rope they know they can just go off.
WINTER LIBERTY 6: This next video is one I always put out when people ask about how I synchronise or connect to a horse. Undemanding time and then mirroring is essential and teaches us that sometimes we need to follow the horse, other times we can ask the horse to follow us but if done often enough you, and others, won’t be able to tell if you are following or leading as the connection is there and synchronised changes of gait, direction and game is something you and your horse just do together 😉
WINTER LIBERTY 7: Liberty Mounting Block. This is continuing mounting block training.
I do this every week at liberty, sometimes more, after breakfast time when most horses are happy to interact and play. The progression has been slow and steady and I often just hang out with Bella (or Stormy) when they’re in the right place teaching them it’s the best place to be calm and to hang out with their feet still. The more I practise calmness at the mounting block the better they will be to mount and wait until I’m ready to move off for a ride 😉
WINTER LIBERTY 8 – Toys in a Bag
The question from one of my students on my FB group (HorseSavvy Horsemanship) was:
“My horse in on a livery yard. How can I take obstacles in a bag into the arena and put them out and take them down quickly so that I don’t waste my booked hour and not move the jumps or dressage stuff other people use”. Here is my answer….
Cone Pattern idea’s from the above video: (shapes from left to right….Straight line, circle, second circle, rectangle)
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.
Synchronised nicely and mounted off the gate we were ready to ride 😉
I think today is the first day I’ve led Storm off Bella out of the field and it went really well.
Still nicely together, it was lovely to give Stormy a break from being ridden and leading,
as Bella is younger it’s her turn to do the riding/leading bit 😉
Nearly there……and then freedom 🙂 They love this space and stretched their legs and had a nice canter 😉
(maybe even get to have a play and ride soon too) 🙂 
He did walk, trot and a wee cheeky canter, circles, fig 8’s around tyres and sidepass L&R over a short tyre stack 🙂 : )
