Sun 3rd

So, this morning there was an incident in our field…a young fallow deer was injured, probably got stuck on a wire fence jumping it and hurt it’s back leg getting off it. It’s really sad when this sort of thing happens to wildlife and it was hard to see it struggling in the field, it lay exhausted while I saw to S&B. We do have good gamekeepers on the estate here so I contacted one of them and they said they’d look and see what needed to be done. I sort of knew it was suffering and needed to be put out of its misery but it didn’t make it any easier. On that note I told them that I’d take S&B out of the field and bring them back to the house paddock so that they weren’t in the way nor upset by anything they had to do and that’s what I did…..

 

Bella and Stormy doing a great job walking past the Highland cows today.

I walked them back rather than riding as they’d just had their breakfast.

 

 

 

 

Stormy following behind Bella, they like to follow each other but also it puts them on the nice bit of grass verge they like to walk on 😉

 

S&B in home paddock 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Tues 5th

 

SO it’s been a few days since the horses came home and I asked the estate gamekeeper to help the injured fallow deer. They went to sort it immediately and I’ve known the field is okay to go back to but I wanted to do a ‘smudging’ before the horses went back.

Smudging is where you burn sage (or other things) to help cleanse an area of negative energy and I’ve done it before in the field when one of our horse has  passed.

I took some time and walked the field where I’d seen the deer and played some lovely Native American music too. It felt good to take the time to do this ceremony and if nothing else I feel better going back into the field after the memory of the young deer in such sad circumstances.

 

 

Thurs 7th

 

A day later than planned but today we took S&B back to their big field this afternoon.

Called S&B with my ‘horsey whistle’ and they both came over to get haltered for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to walk them home rather than ride as I LOVE getting back our relaxed connection through walking step to step together.

Both S&B were so calm and happy to be walking back home. Once back in the field they had a lovely yeehaa run about and Stormy did his usual rolling to get a his normal muddy self 🙂 lol

 

 

 

 

Muddy boy 😉 lol

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 9th

The weather has been wet and windy today with pretty low temperatures ;( But I needed my horsey fix today so went out and had a lovely short fun session 😉

First we did some distance pedestal work. Bella stood on big ped with 2 feet and then all 4 feet while Stormy showed off doing 4 feet at liberty.

Then she did some lovely sidepassing around the pole square, both left and right.

3rd task was some weave on a circle left and right then going straight into doing some fig 8’s using different cones with each turn 😉

The last task on-line was some trot through the narrow gap which was really good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THEN…I took Bella’s halter off and we did a really lovely session at liberty.

We’ve been practising our liberty at breakfast time since last year and it’s paying off now as she used to move off after her halter came off.

First liberty bit was sidepass over the drainpipe (L&R)

Then she did a great job with fig 8’s around cones…..going through the narrow gap and also a fab jump 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tues 12th

I did S&B’s breakfast and field clearing today and as usual I put in some time to do some Liberty play with Bella…Stormy joined in too which was fun and helped Bella 😉

 

 

Asking S&B to draw towards me and then backup together

Then asked them to follow me and place themselves either side of the big pipe

 

 

 

 

 

Bella took a rest and watched Stormy come into the narrow gap, halt for 5 seconds and then draw towards me

 

Bella got close for a good look

 

 

 

 

 

 

Storm then came and played with the tarp, stood on it with a lovely halt and then I asked him to sidepass off the pole he was standing over

 

Bella then decided she wanted to go for the hulahoop challenge and walked to it from a distance…..

 

 

 

….she’s so clever and loves to put her feet into/onto something 😉

 

I went down a hillock to empty the wheelbarrow while S&B walked along the ridge….

 

 

 

 

 

…then sweet Bella came away from Stormy to be with me <3 what a sweetheart she is <3

Finished the morning with Bella showing off her bestest task…standing on the pedestal 🙂

 

 

 

 

Sat 16th

 

Bella trying to catch my attention to play and get treats this morning after I gave her and Storm their breakfast and was cleaning the field 😉

 

She’s just too smart 😉

 

 

 

Went out with Mark in afternoon, weather nice enough to try a wee ride….

It’s been 17 days since last ride, always seems too long when the weather has been so bad.

I moved all the agility obstacles, put them around the round pens to make it more interesting…

 

 

 

….kept it mostly to walk to just stretch their legs and minds and then Bella and I did some trot work over random poles in my ‘arena’ to help get her mind more focused and pick her feet up a bit better.

 

 

 

 

 

Tues 19th

Another nice Spring like day today. Mark and I go to ride S&B and slowly work on our fitness together 😉 I start off by working on checking my body position when riding walk/trot circles/arcs. I sometimes don’t put my inside shoulder back in this move so I work one handed leaving my inside hand loose which helps me really notice what my shoulder is doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also popped a couple of jumps as it’s fun 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Then Bella & I stood while Stormy and Mark had a yeehaa canter along a field track. It’s a good test as over Winter S&B get a very close and it’s hard for them to not just follow each other in direction and gait. I held her from cantering off too and she quieted as soon as I asked 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All clean before riding…..rolled in mud after riding 🙂 LOL

To be fair they were both a tiny bit sweaty so knew they would roll to dry themselves out.

Am SO glad I have a brown horse, the dirt needs cleaning but doesn’t look so bad when she does it 😉 lol

 

 

 

Sat 23rd

So I’ve not managed to get out and do much with S&B recently due to the awful on/off rain, wind and cold temps we’ve been having BUT I did manage to video a couple of things when out recently to poo pick the field and Bella came over to play…here is one of the vid’s for you now 😉

Sun 24th

Managed to get S&B’s hooves trimmed today, not much energy for anything else so here’s the 2nd video of Bella doing something fab.U.lous last week 😉 Enjoy

Taught her to sidle to anything for mounting when I want to ride, we practise this at liberty in the morning’s when I go to give them their breakfast and clean the field 😉 She’s pretty good at it now 😉

 

Tue 26th

At last we have a window of decent weather between all the wind, rain and snow we’ve had recently. So I manage to take full advantage of it and go and ride S&B.

 

 

 

 

First I rode Stormy in a big fig 8 around the field. He was very happy to move his feet and I asked him to stretch his legs by asking for trot on the short sections. He finished by giving me a lovely canter to the finish. We 2 laps which was 12 mins long 😉

 

 

 

I then asked Bella to do the same big fig 8’s, mostly on a loose rein to allow me to correct her when she went off the pattern. This way she learns rather than me micro-managing her.

She did very well and we did 3 laps….about 17 mins of nice exercise 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 30th

 

Today we have our Equine Body worker therapist visiting S&B. She does a nice body work and massage to release any ‘tight’ spots in their bodies after last year and the winter off. It helps them and also gives us a good place to start riding them more during the year.

Bella was more stiff in her lower back and sacral illiac and Stormy was stiffer with his front legs so it was great to be able to get that for them. We usually do it once a year for them and if they needed more we’d do it

 

 

While waiting for our therapist it started raining so we practised playing putting them in our garage in case we needed to do that. Stormy was a star, backing in to it nicely. Bella went in twice but was a bit more sceptical about staying in.

Thank goodness the rain stopped and we had blue skies for the therapy sessions 😉

 

 

 

 

Sun 31st

The end of March already but I’m glad as the signs of Spring are just coming through and April is the beginning of my work year too so exciting times coming up 😉

After S&B’s body work therapy sessions yesterday we didn’t want to ride them back to the field today, good to give them 24hrs to rest up. We decided, instead, to take them for a short walk with grazing benefits near the house. I also did some fun play with Bella too 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy

 

Thurs 1st

 

Well, February is here and like last year we’ve got some dry weather (so far anyway). Taking advantage of this mildness I pop on Bella and have a cheeky wee ride. This time in the ‘arena’ where the tyres are in corners and centre. She was a bit ‘fresh’ but by keeping it to curves/circling around the tyres when she was ‘up’ and doing the straight lines when she was calm worked very nicely 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 3rd

Managed a lovely play session with Bella, Storm and Mark. Just went through some challenges (where I do a task then challenge Mark/Storm to copy or improve what I did) 🙂 It was a lot of fun and it was fabulous to see both Storm and Bella happy to play, calm and motivated 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wed 7th

Really really cold again here. S&B had rugs on overnight but take them off during the day as the sun is shining beautifully for us 😉 Yesterday Mark and I trimmed S&B’s front feet, we could not do the backs as both horses spooked and we didn’t want to risk being under them doing feet if they spooked again. Could not see what they spooked at but it was very very windy and that always affects them SO…I trimmed Bella’s back feet this morning after poo picking the field and Mark did Stormy this afternoon while I groomed and rode Bella 😉

 

Did some nice ONE HANDED RIDING: in and back out of narrow gap

Again one handed riding: sidepassing around the jump 😉

 

 

 

 

One Handed Riding: Weave

Back to regular riding where we did some lovely leg yield weaving 😉

 

 

 

 

Just a very short trot as ground hard…..trot poles on a curve, encouraging more stretching of the outside legs 😉

 

 

 

 

Sun 11th

 

Mild weather and some sunshine today so great chance to give both S&B good grooming sessions (Stormy is moulting big time already) and get some time in the saddle too 🙂

 

 

 

 

First off I rode Stormy. From his session I was aiming for some motivation and straight lines SO I used P2Ps (Point 2 Points) and as soon as he realised he got to stop, and get a treat often, when we got to our destination he started to go faster each time…fab 😉 He did a lot of trot and a few bits of canter which I didn’t ask for, but his motivation was easy to get when I use the right game 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THEN….Bella’s turn for a ride. Today I was looking to help her find her curve on a bend so we did part of circles and circles…around obstacles to help her get more balanced in the bends 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mon 12th

Again we have mild, sunny weather so time for some more saddle time. Bella only today and working on those curves, bends and circles for that all important body flex around my inside leg These shapes will help us become straighter and is important after not doing much during Winter

 

 

 

Had a nice little play session first and Bella knew just how clever she was when she sidled over the log 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice walking around the field, getting there on the shapes of the circles and a wee bit of trot too. Don’t want to do too much or she’ll become sweaty (thick coat at the moment) so it’s a balance of getting some movement without overdoing it 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Doing some fig 8’s around the round pens we start off with her stretching out and down a bit and me stroking her from the withers up her mane crest which helps her relax into the stretch.

 

 

 

We then went and did some trot fig 8’s in the field with the narrow gap making up the centre….it required focus and accuracy but was a lot of fun and our circle ‘arc’ got much nicer.

 

 

 

 

Tarp and then poles

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark and Storm worked at Liberty as they always do…he was making up his own games with the black tube 😉 lol

 

 

 

 

 

Fri 23rd

 

 

Sunshine and blue skies today…although pretty chilly it’s still a good day to be out and about with S&B.

Didn’t want to do too much or work too fast as ground still a bit hard-ish.

Stormy did a great job working with straight lines and some curves and he decided trotting would be fun so I took his idea and just went with it 😉

 

 

 

 

Sunshine and Shadows

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bella was a bit distracted after my ride with Stormy due to a telephone engineer van sitting on the road with a flashing light for a while.

But as soon as it went I saddled up and had a lovely ride. Just walk but trying to concentrate on curves, leg yields into bigger curves then changing the curve 😉

She did really well, then the van came back, her head went up and it was a good time to stop, take her tack off and praise her for being such a good girl for me 😉

 

 

 

 

Mon 26th

 

 

It’s gone very chilly up here again although a beautiful blue sky with sunshine always gets us out with S&B 🙂

 

 

 

 

Mark/Stormy enjoying some riding time.

We started off with some ‘leap frog’ where we walk in line and the back horse/rider then trots past the front horse/rider, gets back in line and transitions back to walk. Then the back horse does the same and so on…it’s a great game for holding each horse in walk whilst the other one trots past and for each horse to listen to it’s rider more.

 

 

 

We then did some individual agility bits which was fun.

Bella sidepassing over big tube and then watching Stormy doing cone weaving.

 

 

 

 

Storm doing transitions on the tarp and then walking over the ‘trot poles’…..he didn’t want to trot over them 😉

 

 

 

 

 

A moment where Bella/Me sidled up to Storm/Mark 😉

Then a few bits of Bella on her own while Mark took pics of us….

 

 

 

 

Bella in the pole square: first a turn on the forehand to the right and then to the left
(Turn on the forehand = holding the front legs still while the back legs move to the right and/or left making a circle with the back legs). You can also do a turn on the hindquarters which involves keeping back legs still and moving front legs in to right and left….this will be a move we do more of later in the year as it’s harder to do.

 

 

 

Here Bella is circling around the weave cones in trot, she was ok going to the left but when we went to the right she just didn’t ‘feel right’ so we stopped the session as if she’s just a bit sore I don’t want to make anything worse.

Once unsaddled etc I checked her feet, shoulders and leg stretches where she was a bit more reluctant to stretch her front left leg. I’ll give her a few days off and see how she goes after a rest up.

 

 

 

Thurs 29th

 

 

Yeehaa…..rode Bella today and she’s back to her normal happy riding horse self after being a bit ‘off’ last time

So glad she was happy to be ridden and not feeling odd

 

 

 

 

 

Rode Stormy too which was fun…just walk around the round pens and then trotting the straight lines around the big field

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy

 

 

 

HAPPY 2024 EVERYONE

 

Thurs 4th

 

 

Today the weeks forecast looks calm, dry and mild SO…..walking S&B back to their big field 😉

 

 

 

 

 

They were both calm but looking around regularly, they saw a herd of fallow deer and then

they saw the view, down the glen, the same view they get from their big field 😉

 

 

 

Checking out everything as they walk…..the long 22′ ropes got a bit tangled as I walked and they changed sides SO I stopped and sorted them out while they checked out the view 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Uphill a bit here and they both stayed calm for me on this bit, they like to trot/canter this part when ridden.

I decided not to ride Storm and lead Bella as it was quite slippery with wet mud on the track.

 

 

 

 

Nearly home……then Stormy has a good look at ‘his’ field from the top of the hill….excited 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Free at the top of the field they both trot/canter down the big hill

Both had a nice big roll (Stormy is filthy now) and then got down to grazing 😉

 

 

 

 

Sun 8th

Today was a sunny cold day but without rain it’s perfect for trimming Bella’s hooves.

She is such a good girl standing still for me while I do the work. I put this ‘knee sock’ over her feathers to keep them out of the way…works really well too 😉

 

 

Unfortunately there was a lot of other folk doing stuff nearby today too….a farmer working in the field opposite, his trailer banging and shaking while he went up and down the field. Also opposite us was a digger machine making quite a noise, moving logs and rubbish and putting them on a big fire. The fire was creating quite a lot of smoke and also whatever he was putting on it was making a loud noise…spitting and popping.

 

Dear Bella was a little perplexed and put out, her head going high up so she could use the lower part of her eye to see in the distance. I couldn’t get her attention to pick her feet up and knew that if I did get her foot up it wouldn’t be safe as she wasn’t paying attention to me SO I took her to play with the agility obstacles. Doing some small ‘brain games’ really helps to get a horses attention, to re-connect to the handler so this is what we did. Just in walk with some sidepass and backups too but it consisted of moving in walk, watching where she was going, stopping and praising regularly to help her realise I was calm and looking after her 😉 It worked really well and soon I took her back to continue trimming her hooves 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the agility course I set up for S&B. I draw these regularly to give me a clear view of how to set up some obstacles. This course involves 4 trotting poles, 5 cones for a weave and fig 8’s, a hulahoop,  a high narrow gap made up of 4 jump wings with poles on the top to make a lane, a jump and a tarp held down with parallel wooden poles.

I put the obstacles close-ish together, it makes it easier for me to work online with S&B and can be enlarged later on when we start out fitness program for the year.

 

 

 

 

Mon 9th

The last few days have been very very cold and the nights are way below zero. S&B did the first 2 nights on their own okay but yesterday they seemed quite tired. They don’t have to try so hard to stay warm and to make the feed and hay we give them work easier for them we have been rugging them at night (off during the day to enjoy the sunshine). They can survive well but we feel they don’t have to try so hard if we can help them along a bit 😉

 

 

 

 

Thurs 11th

 

Sun was out today…yeehaa. But underfoot the ground is rock hard SO took it easy.

First I played with Bella and Stormy (Bella’s video at below) to get their legs moving slowly and their brains connected.

 

 

 

 

 

While playing with Stormy Bella wanted to join in too, at liberty 😉 She’s so funny

Storm did fabulously with drive and draw between the narrow gap poles and also putting his feet straight into the hulahoop 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

BAREBACK RIDING….well, sitting on and having fun plodding about. We did fig 8 in walk around the big round pens, nothing more, just a lovely connection to his feet while listening to the 1-2-3-4 of his hooves on the ground  😉

Shadow Storm kept us company.

 

 

 

 

Always brings a big smile to my face….Stormy waiting patiently for his treat after that sort plod

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then exactly the same with Bella….yup BAREBACK too, which we’ve not done a lot of but it felt right and it was lovely to really feel her back swinging with her big walk stride 😉

 

 

 

 

Both S&B waiting patiently for their treats after my ride on Bella 😉 they’re so adorable, love them to bits <3

 

 

 

 

 

Fri 12th

 

Sunshine today but -8* this morning!!! v.v.cold.

 

 

 

 

 

S&B have still been having their big rugs on over night and will continue to do so until it starts to warm up a bit. Before doing their yearly worming syringe for encysted worms we had a short play session. I worked with Bella in her halter but the rope was around her neck, Mark played with Stormy at liberty and then I had another BAREBACK short walk fig 8 ride on Bella around the round pens 😉

 

 

 

Brain work for the horses…..draw towards, backing up, sidepass, weave, fig 8’s and over poles

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bella didn’t bat an eyelid at my ‘unicorn’ hat 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Storm looks HUGE in this pic, his head went up when he noticed a LandRover on the track above their field…I didn’t even hear it but the horses notice EVERYTHING 🙂

 

 

 

 

Lovely to plod around again 😉 Enjoying some bareback work too…once we start working for fitness I’ll have the saddle back on 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Mon 15th

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thurs 18th

Not a lot going on with S&B at the moment but we did manage to get their rugs off today and give them a really thorough groom. They loved it and they have spent the day ‘naked’ with rugs going back on tonight 😉

 

 

Managed to get out today and set up 2 agility courses. One, where I placed it before xmas, and one in a round pen for some liberty play.

 

But as it’s been a while since any play and S&B both wanted to play at liberty with the main obstacles so I obliged 😉 Mostly with Bella but then Stormy figured it’s where the treats were being given out. lol

Bella did some liberty weave, front feet in hulahoop, on/off tarp, in and back up through narrow gap and the jump.

 

 

I then did a quick walk ride with Stormy around the round pens. There was no real ‘goal’ as such, just me getting into sync with his footfalls and rhythm. It’s the best way to get rid of any sacral illiac stiffness in me and brings back my smile in a second 😉 Great wee play/ride and stopped me getting a bit stir crazy being inside so much 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grooming brushes at the ready…..Storm loves to get muddy so it’s more for him but a good routine of brushing is essential to keep a horses hair and skin in good order. I don’t like to ‘wash’ horses much as ours are outside 24/7 so need their natural oils to be waterproof but brushing keeps the dust and debris from their skin and makes sure nothing rubs underneath the bridle or saddle when working 😉