Bella – The start of our journey 2019-2022

Sun 5th

 

Just SO lovely to get bum to saddle today. Didn’t do much, nothing strenuous…

 

 

 

as I didn’t want to sweat Bella up, BUT some lovely nice walk and she went into trot off her own initiative a couple of times too…

 

 

Lovely, calm, happy and put the smile back on my face as it always does 😉

 

 

 

Mon 6th

2nd Storm in as many weeks coming…Storm Barra…bring horses home again, Mark walked them half the way, I walked them the rest 😉 It was snowing as we walked and was very very cold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weds 8th

Today I rode Stormy and led Bella back to the big field. Because the fallen trees have taken about half of the home paddock grazing away we will be taking them back to the big field every chance we have this winter to save the home paddocks from becoming poached with mud or the horses getting bored silly with the small space 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fri 10th

 

 

Our two beauties hanging out in the shelter where we put their hay 😉

 

Just lovely to put bum to saddle again. Slow, walk about, just a peaceful plod with my bestie 😉

 

 

 

Gorgeous to look between those cute ears.

Stormy waits patiently for us to finish so he gets a treat for being such a gorgeous boy 🙂 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Mon 13th

 

Managed a lovely wee, calm, ride on Bella with Mark and Stormy today 🙂

 

 

 

We practised some leg yields and loose rein riding too 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Wed 15th

 

Been chopping a lot of wood recently as a lot of trees down in our home paddocks and we need to clear them BUT it’s always lovely to get out and have some horsey time, it clears my head, fills my heart and brings the smile back to my face 😉 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Thurs 16th

 

Well I decided to jump on Bella with the bareback pad on today. I don’t want to ‘train’ her per se but just love having some loose rein plodding about sessions at this time of year 😉 she was a star 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fri 17th

 

Very cold morning but worth waiting for the sunshine…Bella was enjoying it 😉

Later on Mark and I trimmed Storm and Bella….

 

 

And then I had a lovely soft bareback ride 😉

 

 

 

 

Tues 21st

 

Bad weather coming so horses brought home

 

 

 

 

I walked them half of the way and then rode the last half

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was lovely to have them up at the house although the paddocks aren’t back to their nice state yet as still around 25 trees to strip, cut and move BUT they had a little bit more space this time as we’ve cut 4 big trees up already 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mon 27th 

Horses spent a nice few days over Xmas and now that the weather has gone milder, albeit drizzly and a bit rainy, it’s better that they have the big field to roam around with the shelter to hide in if they want to SO hoses back to the big field…they were happy to go and stretched their legs and Stormy got filthy rolling a few times in the mud. lol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thurs 30th

At last we have a dry, nice, not too cold day so my first thought was to put bum to saddle today….nothing big, nothing new, just nice walk/trot/backup transitions for a few mins of Bella time <3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy

 

Tues 2nd

 

Love it…Bella ‘parked’.
She does ‘ground tying’ so well now 😉

 

 

 

 

I’d just put up the agility in a new area, where I can shut off gateways and keep it up without the horses moving or breaking bits SO…today was a good day to test our first Autumnal course 😉

 

 

Stormy did all the tasks very well, sometimes not according to plan BUT definitely according to his plan and that’s okay.

 

 

 

Okay jump for him, and great under the archway

 

 

 

 

Didn’t bother much with the flapping flags and did the first part of the labyrinth well…he just sidepassed off the 2nd half….his party piece 😉 lol

 

 

 

Hulahoops….not bad, could do better 😉 LOL and excellet with the flag

 

 

 

 

Next it was Bella’s turn. We did it online this time, probably again next time too BUT will be trying this more and more at liberty as we go into Autumn.

 

Fig 8’s fab and we did the best weave in trot so far, calm, connected and shoulder to shoulder the whole way…I really focused on visualising us together.

 

 

 

Sidepass over the drainpipe both ways which was great.

 

 

 

 

Nice jump and straight to trotting under the arch.

 

 

 

 

Trusting me and following through very close flags was great and bending through the labyrinth.

 

 

 

Almost managed to get all her feet into the two hulahoops, she really tried hard 😉

 

 

 

AND she did exceptionally well with the flapping noisy flag…I gave her treats for relaxing when it was noisy behind her hip area, this is where she worried before.

 

 

Weds 3rd

 

The horses today are allowed intotheir big Winter paddock, they will graze here until the weather changes and they come to the house for the snowy weather 😉

 

 

Thurs 4th

After doing a great job of online agility on Tues, today we decided to ride it. Bella was fab first time so didn’t repeat it 😉

 

1. trot over tarp
2. trot fig 8’s

 

 

 

3. trot weave

4. sidepass over pipe L&R

 

 

 

5. jump

6. under arch

 

 

 

7. trot to flag square and halt

8. labyrinth

 

 

 

9. feet in 2 hulahoops

 

 

 

 

10. noisy flag flapping 😉

 

 

 

After the agility we went around the round pens with one task….to try to ride them in walk with my hand position as if holding reins but trying not to touch the reins 😉

 

Bella was pretty good and to end we had a lovely big trot 😉

 

 

 

 

Fri 5th

Today’s challenge…..to try the agility at Liberty with Bella! 🙂 got some of the bits done, in the order she wanted to do them but saw that at a distance our connection isn’t as good as I’d like it BUT it does give us a fun thing to work towards. As with our Summer Liberty attempt in the round pen I will go back to doing the course online a couple of times and then work on doing it with just a neck rope so that it’s ‘almost’ Liberty 😉

For today I just took everything she offered 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we had a wee ride in the big field 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun 7th

 

Just a little catch up and connect with the big two today….lovely that they followed me to where we could groom out of the wind

 

and then we had a small play session with the pedestal…4 feet on the ped, 3 of Bella’s, 1 of Storm’s 🙂 lol

 

 

 

Then Bella put all 4 feet on it and afterwards Stormy showed off doing the same too 🙂

 

 

Love these two to bits <3

 

Ended with Stormy’s front feet on the ped and I go under his tummy then under Bella’s tummy too 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tues 9th

 

Been a while and I got cramp in my thighs getting on Bella…ouch! lol

 

I didn’t do too much today, really wanted just to get our riding connection together for a bit.

 

Mark came along riding Stormy so we did a bit of ‘follow the leader’ and ‘leap frog’ which went okay but needs more work again as it’s been a while.

 

I went around the round pens in walk and then slow trot looking for relaxation which we eventually got a bit of.

 

 

 

Was just really lovely being with the horses and Mark in the big field for a while 😉

 

 

 

Thurs 11th

Today I put into plan some more consistency with Bella’s riding SO rode her early in the morning. We did some very nice RtR in walk and trot, getting some nice slow and medium walk and trot now and often loose rein P2P’s to the corner cones 😉

We finished by going down the small hillock and was intending to just walk back up the other side but Bella had a bit of a yeehaa and cantered fast to the waiting P2P cone where she stopped nicely. It was a bit of a big yeehaa and we lost our connection for a few seconds but it was nice to feel it return quite quickly 😉

 

Sat 13th

I managed to get a really nice P2P ride on Bella again early this morning. Then in the afternoon we go out for a short-ish hack with Mark and Stormy 🙂 We didn’t go too far, to the little wooden bridge along the track but we turned for home as soon as they started feeling a bit sweaty. The sweat came from (1) thick wintery coats making them hot up quickly (2) a bit of emotion as not been out this way for quite a while and (3) being slightly unfit as not ridden out for a while also can make them sweat a bit. Not too bad when we get home and we put 100g rugs on them to help wick away the sweat and keep them from getting chilled before the evening comes 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mon 15th

Get out for a wee ‘collection’ ride on Bella this afternoon. Practise what we tried last week which is sidepass, bullseye to leg yields on a circle, partial dhq’s and leg yields in a straight line. I did it all in-hand on the ground first. All went well and she is starting to move more in the leg yields, it takes time to build it up to where it’s smoother. We are starting to get more ‘collection’ through her body and it will be a slow process to help her get that balance between lightness and engagement nicely. I’ll continue doing bits of this before Winter sets in and then pick it up again next Spring when we’ve all had a nice break 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a few short video’s of our session today >>>>

Online sidepass

and taking that to Ridden sidepass:

Online leg yields:

to Ridden bullseye into leg yields:

Online partial dhq:

to Ridden partial dhq:

 

 

Weds 17th

 

Love that they both ground tie so well 😉

 

 

 

Storm trot poles

Through then back under arch

 

 

 

Sweet big boy

Draw under arch 😉

 

 

 

 

Good jump today

Sidepass distanced

 

 

Trot weave

Through then back, gap

 

 

 

Then Bella’s turn…

Trot thru gap

Trot poles

 

 

 

Arch backup

Arch forward trot

 

 

Jump

Sidepass with distance

 

 

 

Fabulous trot weave

 

 

 

 

Backup thru gap close to

 

Backup thru gap distance

 

 

Thu 18th

 

Lovely ride on Bella today, nice and easy, rhythmic trot and relaxation 😉

 

 

 

Fri 19th

 

Another lovely ride today

Walk and trot around RtR using a large fig 8 pattern around field and between roundpens.

 

 

Lovely light and not too cold

 

 

 

Lovely big striding trot today and a wee bit of canter 😉

 

 

 

 

Sun 21st 

Just a quick play at dinner time today 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue 23rd

Had a lovely short ride on Bella today. Still doing the RtR Fig 8’s which really consists of two large squares SO I moved on from just doing one lap walk, one lap trot to where we’re doing one side of a square in walk, the next in trot, next in walk etc SO it breaks it up more, stops her sweating and is a lot of fun to do 😉

 

Lovely and calm, rhythmic trot that I could sit to…I breathed out a lot and asked her to slow which worked well.

 

 

Each trot section was just the width of the field so enough time to enjoy it but not enough time to get faster 😉

 

 

Love this big girlie.

At dinner time they BOTH wanted to stand on the pedestal….we need a 2nd pedestal 🙂 <3 xx

 

 

Wed 25th

Another FABuLOUS ride on Bella today. Same fig 8 pattern in walk and trot with breathing up/down transitions and even some minute adjustments for more finesse in our transitions. Really enjoyable, calm and fun ride 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely day today 😉

 

 

 

 

Fri 26th

Storm ARWEN coming in tomorrow SO we lash down the horse shelter with big straps that attach to long stakes in the ground and then bring the horses back to the house 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back home safe and sound…hope the storm isn’t too bad….

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 27th

Well…..what a ton of destruction last night…I’m SO glad the horses found safety in the lower paddock as a huge amount of trees fell down behind their paddocks…INTO THE PADDOCKS!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shed safe and sound down in the big field 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tues 30th

Today we started chainsawing some of the branches off the trees that have fallen in the horse paddocks, the weather brightened up a bit too SO we took the horses back to the field…I walked them as it was a wee bit icy on the track in places.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy

 

 

Fri 1st

 

Well the start of October is a wet, wet, wet one. Both horses keeping dry in their shelter and today probably a no-go for play/riding but that’s okay. Connecting when feeding and fussing is a good session as far as I’m concerned 😉 <3

 

 

Sun 3rd

 

It’s been raining for a few days here so it was lovely to get out with Bella today. I decided to just groom and connect through ground play and not ride, the ground is still a bit wet and squishy SO…started off with some backing and sidepassing over a pole.

 

Lovely head down with some kisses and then went into some sidepass into a hq move.

 

 

 

And we did this on both sides 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

After some treats, hugs and kisses we did some lovely calm walk circles with a calm, smooth COD between left and right circles.

 

 

 

Then we did some trot circles, she had a bit of energy so just let her blow that off which she did really quickly which was lovely. She’s finding relaxation more and more now.

 

 

🙂

 

 

 

A break, some treats and kisses again then onto some rope around spins. She was so calm with the familiarisation toss of the rope over her head, the best she’s ever done it and she remembered exactly how to turn her hq’s towards with the rope pressure lightly on her quarters 🙂

 

 

Did this on both sides and she was fab on both sides 😉

 

 

 

Then we did some really lovely ‘stand still’ where I went under her belly

And to finish off we did some S2M teaching her our new thing of ‘backups straight into trot’ which she did brilliantly…will see how this goes with riding soon 😉

 

Sun 10th

At last….a nice day to be out and about with the horses. We’ve had a LOT of rain recently but today has an Autumnal crispness to it and nice ‘riding’ weather.

 

We had lovely sitting trot which says she’s able to relax and go slower in her trot, hold her frame and same for me too.

 

 

 

I set her up and then get out of her way so that she can trot the cloverleaf pattern.

My elbow to ‘mouth’ line and also seat to ear lines are much better today.

 

 

Even when I ask for a bit more energy in the trot we can still do sitting trot to it 😉

 

 

 

 

Mark and Stormy having fun together, think the horses have missed us.

 

 

 

 

Big hugs for a big hearted horse 😉

 

Lovey soft, light end to our fun riding 😉

 

 

Mon 11th

 

A nice crisp Autumnal day today and having put up a small agility course this morning we decided to try it out…first of all online 😉

 

Did really well with the water tray and the pole labyrinth and a great trot under the archway and some controlled trotting weave too.

 

 

Then onto some fig 8’s which went very well

 

 

 

 

Then onto sidepass over a pole with a sidepass towards afterwards 😉

 

 

 

Onto some flag familiarisation, with some good flag sounds due to the wind blowing and then 4 feet onto the pedestal. Bella was light, calm and fun.

 

Bella and I take a rest and watch Mark and Stormy do the course at liberty. Bella watches and hopefully this helps cement how liberty work works 😉

Stormy did fab with the water tray and managed a wee jump too.

 

He did the labyrinth his own way which included some really nice sidepassing over some poles and then a fab trot through the arch way.

 

 

Putting feet into/onto hulahoops wasn’t bad and trotting the weave was great.

 

 

 

Connecting with Mark with the weave. Continuing with fig 8’s went very well, not the easiest for him but his draw and drive are great.

 

 

 

His favourite, ‘sidepass’, over the big log.

 

 

 

and no problems at all with the flapping flag…..popping up on the pedestal with all 4 feet easily for a reward treat 🙂

 

 

 

 

Finally Bella and I tried some liberty too. She follows quite well if I walk backwards, here with the water tray and from the hulahoops to the arch 😉

 

When we go from drawing to connecting side-to-side then her energy goes up and she often wants to move faster than me and play.

 

 

So I just wait, still connected to her, until she comes back to me 😉

When she settles back to our close connection I sort of follow her for a bit with some S2M w/t around tyres

 

And then onto the pedestal with the flag.

 

She wants to have a bit of a yeehaa so off she goes kicking up her heels

 

and enjoying herself.

 

 

 

 

Lovely that she comes back to me and because I want to end on a note where we have a closer connection I put her back online for the last bit today 😉

 

And we end on some nice sidepassing over the drainage pipe….some draw/drive with fig 8’s…

 

 

 

She has a bit of a jump over a tyre but settles into the fig 8’s quickly and a nice note to end the session on.

 

 

Nice hug session to end on and then both Storm and Bella hand out with me a bit while I tidy up from the session 😉

 

 

 

Fri 15th

Today we just did a bit of arena training.

 

 

 

A few RtR in walk then trot and then onto some circles and fig 8’s in trot.

Always looking for relaxation and a nice curve in the body which went pretty well today.

 

Ended with some lovely agility tasks, sidepass over things, weave, leg yields,  onto pedestal and most importantly to take me back to the mounting block to dismount 😉

 

 

Sat 16th

 

A chilly start to the day but some sunshine and blue skies SO …… short hack out with Bella, Mark & Stormy 😉

And we’re off….

 

 

Along the track first with Stormy leading then Bella leading 😉

 

 

 

 

Nice to be able to ride side-by-side with Mark and Stormy on parts of the track.

 

 

 

Allowing Stormy to get ahead gave us the chance to catch up with some trot.

Lovely views for us to enjoy 😉

 

 

Mark & Stormy.

Near the middle of the hack…

 

 

 

 

Bella doing really well, this is the big hill behind our house and she did a lovely big trot up the last half of it.

 

 

 

Loving this wee hack, it’s a lovely track and the weather stayed with us all the way.

 

 

 

 

Mark & Stormy with Bella and me taking a rest and the turning point for home on the hack.

 

 

 

Bella was a very cheeky girlie…she saw Mark giving Stormy a treat so she shuffled up next to him and almost put her nose into his pocket to get one too!! LOL

We then got off and walked

them in-hand for a bit to give them a bit of a rest from being ridden.

Always lovely to find a big stone to remount from 🙂

And then we were back to their field 😉

 

 

Thurs 21st

Well I’ve been busy out and about teaching Natural Horsemanship, Agility and Bitless riding but it was just lovely to be back home with Bella today. I think she has missed me as much as I missed her and today was super light, soft and connected to me, connected to each other 😉

Easy feet into hulahoop

Nice long walk stride

 

 

 

Over pole and then nice soft DHQ

 

 

 

Sidepass to the left easy and soft

Leg yields through weave pattern light

 

 

One handed weave was really nice…listening to my seat weight and neck rein

Sidepass to the right wonderful

 

 

Tried sidepass over a pole long ways for the first time, this will later become a sidle over log 😉

One rein weave

 

One foot on small ped and then 4 feet on big ped 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 23rd

 

Just a nice day to have a bit of a play with Bella today.

Nice leading game to start with, she is willing and happy to play 😉

 

Nice circles with a couple of jumps. She is much calmer and attentive today, she is growing in confidence with her training now.

 

 

Lovely sidepass over a low jump, this is a FIRST for her and she’s more confident with bigger things under her.

 

 

We then went on to walk and TROT calmly through a

narrow gateway…very nice to see her so calm. Then backup through gateway, another FIRST for us 😉

 

Continued to half circle by fence into sidepass along the fence….super flexible, soft and calm.

 

 

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Fig 8’s around tyres in walk and trot went well and then she wanted to have a bit of a canter yeehaa which I just watched her do calmly 😉

 

 

 

She had her canter then came back to me and relaxed really nicely 😉

 

 

 

Then we just hung out together, she had a bit of grazing too

 

 

 

 

Love this big girlie so much, she is a fab lady <3

 

 

 

Thurs 28th

I trimmed Bella’s front feet and just had a quick impromptu bareback ride, she was super soft, light and flexible today 😉 lovely 😉

 

Sat 30th

 

Trimmed Bella’s hooves today so all good foot wise 😉

 

 

 

Then I had an short bareback ride on Bella. Lovely to be bareback again for a bit, really feel her back moving nicely.

 

 

 

We worked a bit on asking for more engagement with her hq’s, asking for some partial disengagement to get her back inside leg working hard and under her 😉

 

She did really well with this and we went and played with the pedestals which is one of her favourite things.

 

 

 

She is so clever, balancing herself on the big pedestal with 4 feet and then I asked her to put one front foot over a big log, the start of sidling a log 😉 🙂

 

 

Been an on/off month really, lots of rainy weather but some realy nice riding 😉

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy