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Sun 1st

 

Hanging out with Stormy waiting for the rain to pass. Thank goodness for familiarisation with umbrella’s over the years as it kept us both dry today…and my jacket over the saddle helped too 🙂 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely ride with Stormy today…just worked on straight lines and curves through serpentines across the field 😉

 

 

 

Really pleased today that Bella was calm and happy to be in the big field area (where she was spooking over the last 4 days).

After some nice calm horse play she was ready to ride and happy to be ridden today 😉 🙂 phew 😉 😉

 

 

 

Calm, attentive, lovely forward walk. Calm, attentive, lovely bouncy trot and to finish on a lovely, calm, balanced canter 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

In-hand grazing after work is always a welcome reward for S&B 🙂

 

 

 

Tues 3rd

 

SO…..nice autumnal weather of cool breeze and time to get out with Bella for a wee ride 😉

Found my Equilab app working again today (YEEHAA) 😉

As seen on map I did a LOT of circles, fig 8’s and weaves today, working on the important straight lines and curves/turns 😉

 

 

 

 

FIRST TODAY: trying out some shoulder-in (a dressage move) that helps with flexibility and balance.

 

Some FABULOUS one handed sidepassing over the pole….so light and easy today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serpentines through obstacles with a BIG trot which was lovely to ride.

 

 

 

 

 

Leg yields through a weave pattern. Leg yields are a sideways move while still going forward 😉

 

 

AND then some really lovely calm canter 😉 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Big smiles for me and big treat rewards for Bella 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Fri 6th

Not a bad day weather wise and with 2 days of heavy rain forecast for the weekend Mark and I decided that a play day was in order before we’re home bound SO that’s exactly what we did. I’d already wet up an agility course but for today we played ‘challenges’. This is where one of us does a task on one obstacle then challenges the other to use the same obstacle but to do a different challenge. It motivates us and also gets our imaginations working 🙂 Pics are first of me and Bella, then Mark and Stormy 🙂

 

1. sidle over pole, then back up off it
2.  Back up under arch, then draw back

 

 

 

 

3. Jump, change of direction, jump again

4. Fig 8 around tyres

 

 

 

 

5. Front feet in hula hoop and turn hindquarters a full 360*

6. Fig 8 under and around curtain

 

 

 

 

7. Walk into bunting lane, halt and back up out then trot through it

8a. Through narrow lane, turn hq’s, move fh to fence……

 

 

 

 

8b. …sidepass along fence

8c….repeat 8a&b other way 😉

 

 

 

 

8d…also sidepass

9. Touch flag from distance

 

 

 

 

10. Familiarisation all over with flag 😉

 

Doesn’t Bella look quite pleased with herself 🙂

 

 

AND…now Mark and Stormy…

 

 

1. Sidepass around pole

 

2. Fig 8 under and around archway

 

 

 

3. Jump then back up to pole

4. Fig 8 around tyres (the only one we did the same task)

 

 

 

 

5. Backup under curtain then draw towards

6. Walk into bunting lane then back up out of it

 

 

 

 

7. Flag familiarisation while backing up through narrow gap 😉 🙂 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Fri 13th

SO…it’s been a week since getting out and about with S&B because I have had a painful right shoulder. Not sure what I did, probably all the wood splitting and stacking we’ve been doing for our Winter stock. Whatever it was it’s been painful so I gave myself some needed ‘box rest’ and bought a shoulder support brace, which has been helping.

We managed to get out today, before I went completely stir crazy or having too much equine-withdrawal symptoms! LOL. Was going to sit and plod around on Bella or Stormy but the wind was blowing a hoolie and the estate gamekeeper was out again shooting (something) 🙁 so they were a bit on their toes and we thought it safer to not ride but to give them both good grooms and have a wee play. Here are some pics from the play sessions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 14th

 

Fun to get out with S&B today…..although pretty darn cold and WINDY…..brugggghhhh

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark and Stormy just plodded about, at least it kept Mark’s butt warm 🙂 lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following each other gives them the motivation to go faster

 

Bella was in top good form today, she looked after me as I still have my shoulder brace on today 😉

 

 

 

 

Really lovely soft, light turns in the trotting weave 😉 🙂

 

 

 

 

Jumping nicely with a very smooth depart away from it

 

 

 

 

 

Using the agility obstacles for transitions (walk, backup, trot through) and motivation to get to the next one

 

 

 

 

 

Big arena fig 8’s….not as circular as I’d like but she was wiling and light 😉

I got off in the middle of the arena as she did such a good job and after so many days off I’m grateful she comes back into work so nicely for me <3

 

 

 

 

Mark and the handsome Mr Stormy 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Sun 15th

 

SO…..today….going to ride again to get back into the swing of things 😉

Nothing too serious but start off with some ground work to make sure we’re connected
and that she has the transitions I need today.

 

 

 

Mr Stormy doing his thing….he wanted to get Mark’s attention and did so with his liberty pedestal fun…look at that ‘give me a treat dad’ stare 😉

 

 

 

 

 

We rode a lovely warm up and went straight into CANTER FIG 8’s

Here we are going around a round pen to the left with a fabulously correct left lead 😉

 

 

 

 

AND then going around the 2nd round pen to the right….

with the correct right lead 😉 🙂 🙂 yeehaaa 😉 🙂 🙂

 

 

 

 

Doing some fun trotting DHQ (hindquarter turn) fig 8’s…this is where we do a fig 8 pattern
but instead of doing big circles we go to the obstacle, do a quick hindquarter yield
(instead of a forehand, normal turn) which brings us down from trot to walk, the hq’s
swing out making the turn tight and then we go straight into trot and forward to the
next obstacle to do the same again on the other rein.

 

 

To finish we did two beautiful jumps….notice that the jump pole is now ONE slot HIGHER!!

Bella didn’t really jump much higher than she does when it’s one slot lower BUT it looked so much
higher to me so it was a mental challenge for me really 😉

 

 

Did this play session before riding too…

 

Mon 16th

Just bought a new ‘orange’ tarpaulin as old blue one got holes in it SO decided to just test out Storm & Bella with it. They didn’t baulk at the colour at all 😉 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thurs 19th – STORM BABET (day 1)

Storm Babet hits us today, torrential rain (lots of flooding around the country but okay here at home) and very strong winds (no where near Storm Arwen strength though) SO, I walk the dog and Mark does the horses a(s my shoulder is still a bit sore). After a day of this weather Mark puts medium rugs on Storm and Bella and they were very happy to have them on for the night tonight 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 20th – STORM BABET (day 2)

Go down in the afternoon while there’s a bit of a lull in the awful wind and rain to change rugs as yesterdays red ones are sopping wet and heavy (dry underneath for them) and it gives us a chance to give them both a really thorough groom and scratch up 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday 21st – STORM BABET (day 3)

We change their medium rugs again for lighter ones today in prep of rain to come today. It actually never materialised so lighter rugs were a good call so they didn’t sweat 😉

 

You can see the shelter is strapped down with very long, large, lorry straps. We do this every Winter to keep it safe in high winds and it did fabulously well during Storm Arwen. The straps are attached by hooks to metal spiral spikes that go about 3′ into the ground 😉 We put them on before Storm Babet and will now leave them on until Spring next year 😉

 

 

 

 

Sun 22nd

 

yeehaa…. Today we have beautiful blue skies and SUN 😉 After all the bad weather and storm I gave Mark a lie-in this morning and did all the animal stuff and while doing the horses I decided that maybe if Bella’s not tired from the storm I would ride her. She was sleepy for quite a while but then after poo picking the field she woke up and went back to grazing so I decided that ‘yes’, I’d ride 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bella groomed and tacked up waiting for me to bring her to the ‘barrel’ mounting block. Stormy decided to follow us…he’s waiting for treats 😉 lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

Such a lovely, calm, peaceful ride. Bella as always was a star and did some nice walk/trot transitions, leg yields and serpentines across the field 🙂

 

 

 

Bella after our ride, she just knows going onto the pedestal brings nice treats 😉 She’s a very clever girlie. Love her to bits <3

 

 

 

 

END OF OCTOBER….the weather has been rain, rain and more rain with hints of drizzle and plenty of wind SO not much went on play/riding wise 🙂

• Shelley – HorseSavvy

 

 

Fri 1st

Well Mark trimmed big Storm’s feet today and I gave Bella a bath.

She’s been rubbing her tail over the year and I’ve been washing her tail area then trying some creams to help stop the itching she’s obviously having. I’ve tried pure cold pressed Neem oil, then Sudocrem but after this wash today I’m going to try to find what’s causing the itching. It could be midges (this can cause what’s known as ‘Sweet Itch’), it could be dandruff or it could be an allergy maybe SO, today we’re not feeding any pony nuts in her food, or give horse herb treats or mints for a nice ride. All these things have sugar and the treats and nuts have wheat feed so those are out for now. We’re supplementing now and then their feed (speedi-beet and TopSpec Zero) with some hay and they’re enjoying this. SO we’ve gone back to just fibre forage to see if that makes a difference for her 😉

 

 

Nice and clean and her mane and tail are all silky and fresh smelling again 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

B&S chasing Mark and the hay………..nom nom nom, hay is good 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 2nd

 

Yeehaa…weather nice and we’re all up for a wee hack to the house and back.

The weather got rather hot on the hack so we just stuck to walking but it was LOVELY to be out and about.

 

 

 

 

Up the big steep hill to get out of the field

On the track 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Opening/closing 3 gates along the track at the moment…tiresome BUT good chance to check our dismount and mounting skills. Here Mark used the wooden stile to remount Stormy and it was a perfect height 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A really lovely walk out, think S&B enjoyed themselves too…different bits to snack on and change of views for a bit 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun 3rd

Ride Bella early morning again…getting better with her canter work 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue 5th

Rode Bella and then Stormy this morning…really nice rides from both

 

Sun 10th

 

Lovely to get a bit more trot and canter work done today…almost full circles of canter (red bits on map)

Also rode in her fly mask today to see if helps with keeping flies off but TBH it really wasn’t that much different and think she prefers to not have it on ;(

 

 

 

 

 

Nice ride in the sun this morning…lovely to have our shadow following us 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue 12th

 

Up early again to have fun rides first on Bella and then on Stormy.

Bella: Checking standing still to saddle up at liberty, then same at mounting block and after I get on 😉 Riding was pretty good and canter work was fab.
Started trai

ning: passenger lesson (she goes where she wants I have no say in it, only thing I can do is ask her to go back up into walk when she stops for a graze) 😉 Then onto active trot work and finally worked on our fig 8’s…walk then trot and finally canter…almost a full circle…yeehaaa 😉 

Stormy: Just having fun and then full length field trot serpentine work 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love these two so much <3

 

 

 

 

 

Wed 13th

 

Today we have a vet visit to see Bella.

She’s been rubbing her tail constantly for a few weeks now and we suspect Sweet Itch which is an allergy to midge saliva on the skin and has no known full cure. Knowing what it is helps start us on the process of helping her.

SO….we take this opportunity to hack both B&S to the house where we’ll meet the vet 😉

 

 

We have a lovely cool day with a great breeze (so no flies or midges today) 😉

We go past a field of Highland cows with calves and they both have a good look but don’t worry about them 🙂

 

 

 

 

Vet visit over and we hack back to the field 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Back past the cows.

We have to open/close 2 gates on the track and it was a great opportunity for Bella and me to show how well we do this now. She sidles up to the gate for me to get off, gets around the gate opening and then sidles back up to the closed gate for me to re-mount…PERFECT 🙂

 

 

 

Managed to get in front of Storm and Mark for a nice trot up to the 2nd gateway 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Managed a bit of riding almost 2 abreast

Then I got in front again for a last wee trot 😉

 

 

 

Showing Mark and Stormy riding down the big hill in the field…shows how steep it is

 

Bella taking a break looking across the glen 😉

 

 

 

…AND…..so great to ride right back to the mounting block for me to dismount. Bella is SO good at getting spot on with her measurements…I don’t have to halt her at all, she knows EXACTLY what to do for this 😉

Map on the right is from field to house and back….we had a 20 min stop over at the house for vet before riding home 😉

 

 

 

 

Fri 15th

 

Today Bella and I did a shorter training session but there was more canter work. Unfortunately my Equilab GPS wasn’t working properly so I have some of the stats but not the mapping which is a real shame.

We did trotting serpentines across the short sides of the field and then copied that with canter work. I wasn’t sure what canter lead she was on (must film it again) but mostly it felt very balanced and when it didn’t I asked her down to trot and restart the canter 😉 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Thurs 21st

 

SO….I’ve been away from home for 4 days and the horses 5 days. Last night I reconnected with S&B with their dinner and it was so lovely to see them again. I always say that they’re the best horses in the glen but often they’re the best horses ever.  I love how well they’re trained, how calm they are, how they connected with me and how I love them so.

1st: Today I gave them their breakfast and then decided to have a nice PLAY session with Ms Bella…..firstly we ‘touched’ a flag and then went around the cone/flag with just a suggestion…nice and light.

 

 

2nd: touch big flag then backup between them

 

 

 

 

 

 

3rd: circles…..one lap each in walk with a lovely light COD (change of direction) both ways. I did all this whilst holding the rope in one hand and the camera in the other so it was done on body language and voice cues 😉

 

 

 

 

Continuing circles we went into trot on a voice cue 😉

 

 

 

 

 

AND also voice cues for canter 😉 🙂 Her canter today was FABULOUS 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

4th: JUMPS….low jump to start and continue the canter. This was lovely, calm and connected

 

 

 

 

 

5th: I put the jump pole up another notch and she rose to the challenge with 2 big jumps from canter 🙂

 

 

 

 

6th: slowed it all down with some sidepassing over cones and then a drink from the rain water on the barrel

 

 

 

 

7th: Backing up over a pole, onto the tarp and back 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

8th: and finally some extreme familiarisation with the flag in the windy weather. The flapping was something she worried about but we’ve been working on it a lot and today, ground tied, she stood or grazed as it flapped all about her 😉 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 23rd

SO… a week since riding Bella and we rode today with lightness, connection and precision that I’ve been waiting for. I’m SO proud how far this beautiful girl has come. From a brood mare with not much handling, food or basic ground work to a lovely light riding horse that is a true pleasure to be around, handle and ride 🙂

Pics from today range from –
Warming up, one handed, loose rein in walk and trot around the round pens.
Cantering around the round pens on the correct canter leads.
Trot weave on a circle with lovely bends.
Sidepassing over a raised pole and next to flapping bunting.
Cantering through flapping bunting lane.
Pics…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tues 26th

 

A fun early morning first with Stormy. There were a lot of noises coming from the farm area, cattle moving and shouting at dogs SO he was a bit distracted but we ended on a really good note 😉 He’s such a star 😉

 

There was then a car driven into the field below ours…a couple of guys out fishing for the day SO that was interesting and I just hung out with S&B while they checked it all out 😉

 

 

 

 

I then rode Bella in the ‘arena’ to check out her walk, trot and canter curves and circles 😉

 

 

Stormy stood in our arena for ages and we just rode around him 😉 lol

 

 

 

 

OH…and I forgot I took this video the other day after I’d done Bella’s feet…..

 

 

Weds 27th

Well, today was a challenge and not sure why!!!

Firstly my Equilab app is not working properly so I’ not getting all the data or the map (map below is another cycling app used as backup to show where we rode)

Secondly Bella was a bit hyper-alert. Not really seen her like this so it was a bit of a challenge. You can see from the map that we literally just stayed in one place, working on small circles around one obstacle, taking it to doing fig 8’s around 2 obstacles and then building to where we can weave around 4 obstacles BUT had to continue going back to where she could be relaxed and attentive (and close to where Stormy was resting on the track). At one point we went a wee bit away from the obstacles and she had a ‘shoosh’. A shoosh to me is not a bolt and not quite a run but a ‘wheeeeee’ back to relaxation. She did a spin, run back to her safety spot and I took her left rein and brought her calmly back down to a walk then halt, big breath out and continued back to the circle and weaves.

 

Not our best ride out but did what we could in the circumstances.

I have a worry that again the farmer was making a LOT of noise, shouting while moving cattle etc AND that we have badgers nesting and roaming the nearby fields. These two things seem to be a bit worrying for S&B so not sure what I can do about either of them.

Today I did work on familiarising her to the shouting noises, building up the volume and big singing noises all while asking her to relax and treat train when she brought her head down in relaxation 😉

 

 

 

Fri 29th

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back after their walk and still a bit alert but also connected to me 😉

Bella under a rainbow >

 

 

 

 

Then again when farmer shouting they both ran away from the noise then stood and stared for ages.

 

 

 

 

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy