Wed 1st
WELL….today we have cold but sunny weather and I decided today was a good day to get out with the horses. The last week or so we’ve had noisy disruptions from pheasant shooting to chain sawing near the horses so understandably S&B have been a wee bit spooky and not wanting to go in their shelter for rest and food ;( I thought maybe get down there and do some ‘relaxation’ work while there was some noise going on BUT when I got there it was calm, peaceful and the chain sawing has now finished so I missed that but they were still not happy with half the field! SO….I groomed them both and got Stormy ready to ride but then played with him whilst walking down the field from ‘safe’ area to ‘scary’ area. Working on S2M, backing up and then reapproaching the scary area.
Bella came for a bit then stopped and waited. When we got the some hay I let Stormy eat and relax and Bella found her way to us to eat too. I then took Stormy onwards to play with the pedestal and then the ‘scary’ shelter. We played going in and out of the shelter, forward into it then backing into it. He got over his initial worry and started listening more to me and I used +R (treats) to help make it all more positive for him. Bella didn’t come any closer to the shelter and when I got on Stormy she cantered fast back to the ‘safe’ area and I connected to Stormy through Lateral Flexion of his head and then sidepassing into leg yielding to keep his mind and feet on me and where I wanted to go and at my speed. It worked really well.
We got back to the ‘safe’ area and did some ridden play with poles: backing up between poles, backing up then over single pole with 2 feet then all 4 feet. Sidepassing over a pole then sidepassing over the whole pole longways. Putting foot into hula hoop and then some small, precision fig 8’s around jump wings, transitions through a narrow bunting lane, trot poles and finished on a lovely trot weave around the jump wings 😉 He’s such a good boy, think he enjoyed himself 😉
Next I got Bella ready with her bitless bridle and bareback pad. I went to the mounting block and got on, she was fine but was then distracted by a nearby tractor and wasn’t paying attention to me, she was twitching in her shoulders as I asked her to walk on and she jumped a bit SO I got off and went to playing around the obstacles to reconnect to her mind and feet. Once I felt she was paying attention more and we were more connected I sidled her over to a jump wing and practised jumping up and down on it, laying over her back and flapping my arms about ready to remount. I then managed to jump on and just sit still with her for a while allowing her to focus on relaxing her body so that her mind could relax 😉
When we did our bit of riding I just kept asking her to do small curves to make up a fig 8. Once the small 4 curves go well start doing two small circles with rests between to make up the fig 8’s. Finally when I feel we’re really connected and working together we do some single full fig 8’s, rest and treats in centre for reward 😉 It was lovely to be on her back again, bareback too…it’d been 10.5 weeks since I last rode her (since 8th Dec last year) but the weather was just against us. I know now I will have to go through all the basic’s again, restart with slow stuff but she’ll be back being ridden out again this year quicker than last year and am looking forward to having a lot of riding/hacking fun with her and Stormy this year <3
Fri 3rd
Finally some decent weather, not too cold and no drizzle.
Managed to have a nice ride on Stormy, with a saddle for a change.
Felt really nice to ride him and then also ride Bella.
It wasn’t a big ride but a nice ‘start to the year’ for them both.
Stormy just goes into the year with a nice plod and a bit of fun.
With Bella I start her out doing all the basic’s again to reaffirm our connection.
Our start consisted of:
1. groom at liberty
2. tack up at liberty
3. play some games to connect us. We did S2M transitions to connect our breathing and
energy
4. stand still at the mounting block
5. stand still once mounted
6. check lateral flexion L&R
7. check disengagement L&R
8. check back up
9. forward and stop on breath in/out
Then we just poodled about for a bit working on our left and right turns from my seat/weight/leg aids, we stayed in walk but did some halt/backup transitions.
She was really good and it was nice to start our year going back over the basic’s. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue building on this when the weather allows 😉
Sat 4th
No pics today but managed to get out and have fun with Bella and then Stormy around the first Agility course I put together. The course has developed over the last few days on paper and I use this chance to test it out so that I can use the course for students in March 😉
The course consists of:
1. Bunting lane
2. 4 x trot poles
3. Single pole to halt over
4. Curtain
5. 2 x parallel poles on ground to halt and back up in
6. 4 x pole box with crushed bottles in
7. small jump
8. tarp to walk/halt/walk over
9. 6 x cone weave
10. hulahoop…front feet in 😉
Tues 7th
Between showers I managed to get out but only ride Stormy as showers stopped the fun.
But Bella was fab and stayed by the mounting block and quad bike the whole time I rode Stormy which was great as there the estate were chain sawing and moving logs with a big tractor which last week had her running around high headed in the field.
Hopefully I’ll get a ride on Bella this week 😉
Thurs 9th
Nice weather (although a bit windy) means only ONE thing…..FUN WITH HORSES and MARK 🙂
We had a nice potter around the field together, checking basic’s of walk/halt/backup/walk/trot’s and our left/right turns with forehand and hindquarters. Also did a bit of trot work (Mark and Stormy did canter too). What a lovely way to start the year with Mark and the horses 😉 Onwards & Upwards 🙂
Bella & I did some ridden agility too 😉
Weave, sidepass, halt in x box….
walk/halt/backup in bunting land
Trot poles 😉
Trot through bunting lane
Into and back up in parallel poles
Slow plod back with Mark and Stormy to the mounting block 😉
Fri 10th
A lovely day for a quick ride on Bella. Getting some basic hours of riding in to start the year off nicely.
Started with Liberty grooming, putting bridle and saddle on. I like doing these things at liberty as it shows a trust between us but also if she needs/wants to move away she can and I’ll listen to her and try to figure out what she’s trying to tell me…can mean sometimes I don’t get her tacked up or ridden but that’s what the partnership is all about…listening to each other 🙂
She did so well and so I mounted and we had a nice short ride.
Today I was just checking we had some nice soft transitions (walk/halt/backup/walk and then trot too), that we had nice flexibility in our turns and curves and that we were able to find straightness together with loose reins and connected reins 😉
Stormy followed us around a bit too which was fun 😉
Sat 11th
Loving this dry weather at the moment, managing to get some nice riding on Bella for the start of the year. I always try to start her off slowly with the things she already knows well, some nice walk/halt/backups to begin with, then get more into trot and leg yields/sidepassing.
It didn’t take long this Springtime to get her into a bit more trot, finding her balance and flexibility along the way.
We also did our first jump this year as this helps me fathom out how her trot/jump/canter depart is going which helps me know when to do more canter.
This year is going to be about relaxation in canter for us. We’ve done relaxation in walk/halt/backup/trot transitions and she learns pretty quickly SO finding that relaxation in canter is the next step. Horses, like all prey animals, use running as an escape from predators SO teaching her to relax, think and be calm with me when in canter is against what she understands for running in the wild part of her brain but I need to show her how to run calmly so her brain is still connected to me and her feet and that running becomes a calm conscious decision rather than a flee from danger process 😉
We did finish on a really nice walk up a steep hill but then she decided to GALLOP to the top with me having to really turn her to the right before she ran into Stormy…..she was a bit in fleeing mode but also a bit in YEEHAA mode…she came down nicely and we did some cooling down exercises to make sure we were re-connected well before stopping. I think it really just took me by surprise the amount of sheer energy and power she had in what I thought was going to be a nice calm canter but turned out to be a full on run….wow wee is all I can say…the girl has some power in her hindquarters to bring on that kind of speed up a steep hill 🙂
Sun 1th
Trimmed Bella’s feet today and then continued our Springtime start to the year. Started inside the round pens working on walk circles into bullseye then into leg yields out…this helps us both work on our flexibility, and being ‘straight on a curve’ 😉
We then went to the cone and tyre circles to work on some weaving and again the arc in Bella’s body whilst working on them.
We then circled the round pens and cone/tyre circles in trot, again asking for that nice curve in our bodies to keep working on arc of the circle. When she was calmly doing circles with a nice arc I then asked her to canter between the round pens and continue the canter to the left first and the right the 2nd time…all went well and it was lovely to have a nice calm canter today 😉
We finished with nice soft walk fig 8’s to cool her down after her exercise as she had just a wee bit of sweat on her. Lovely day, lovely ride 🙂
Mon 13th
Trimmed her feet then did another session of Springtime basic’s. It’s all going along really well, here’s what we did today:
She was FAB to the left and right and it was a proud mum moment that she is now SO balanced, flexible and ready to canter she just did it 😉 <3
We got down easily and calmly too 😉 Stormy did this ‘flehmen’ move with his nose…this is where a horse takes in new smells over it’s top palette and nose. It’s quite fascinating and he did it a couple of times which told me he was smelling something new or something he needed to take in again to figure out what it was.
Main flat field called ‘the haugh’ just below their own field and they took opportunities to grab at some grazing the whole way and I was quite happy with that as it helped them be calm,
Lovely walk so far, really enjoying just being with them and in the peace that is usually around this area 😉
We then negotiated a wooden bridge with a gateway where we went over and then had to turn and face the gate to be able to do it back up. They did superbly…..all the training I do comes into it’s own when doing this sort of thing 🙂
Finally we get to the last hill toward their field. When ridden they usually trot or canter up this hill, it’s a lot of fun but today I asked them to walk so that they didn’t run away from me and they did a great job 😉
Last pic of them back in the field <3
Sun 26th
