Tues 1st
Well it’s been 12 days since I’ve ridden Bella (not counting twice we tried but she was a bit unsound so didn’t continue)
I’ve been looking after things here at home (S&B, dog, stove etc) while Mark recovers from his knee replacement (he’s doing very well so far 😉 ) SO today I just grabbed the chance to ride while the sun was out and there wasn’t any wind 😉
As you can see from the ride chart today she didn’t go far….she started out ok but then was quite ‘antsy’ so we just worked on trying to find softness and some partnership together through circles, fig 8’s and just waiting for those good moments 😉
On a good note I managed to get the agility obstacles in the agility area ready to have some playtime with S&B 🙂
AND…..dinner time, around 5pm. I’ve been calling them up the big hill each night so they get some faster exercise as I’ve not been doing much play or riding at the moment. Yesterday it started to drizzle a bit SO I stood there under an umbrella. Now, both S&B are used to umbrella’s BUT they’re not used to one up the hill, which proves that their environment needs to be expanded with strange things or they only get used to new things in one or two places (agility arena or big field). This was a fun thing to do as I just stood my ground and called them. They both came half way up the hill and then stood still watching and waiting to decide what to do. This is their normal instinct, to be wary of strange things. It’s often called ‘napping’ in the horse world, I call it a ‘threshold’ and if you just wait, allow them to get over their scepticism and find their curiosity and bravery then they can over come most things. They did just that and after about 5 mins they both came up the hill to get their dinners.
While they were eating I played around with the umbrella with no concerns from Storm or Bella.
We even had a bit of fun with the umbrella’s without any concerns at all 🙂
< Bella being very brave and not concerned about it.
Stormy saying nitey nite 😉 >
Weds 2nd
Breakfast with S&B this morning 😉 nice and early to watch the sunrise 😉
I then had to get back home to take delivery of some coal for the stove which Mark can’t do at the moment and then I went back down to the horses for some play, riding and cleaning the field.
Our ride was very similar to yesterday…antsy and not the best. We finished on a good note after I spend a lot of time circling, fig 8’s and asking for her to partner up with me with every little thing such as the curve of our bodies, the line of our walk/trotting, the tip of her nose and where her head was. We managed to end on a good note by not asking too much but asking for good things 😉
After I cleaned the field (and while I’m cleaning) Bella often comes up for some scratches and cuddles. Recently I’ve been just jumping on her back from the quad bike 😉 This is a great form of trust between us and in this ‘arena’ area she was fine, calm and happy to have me up there.
Next time I ride I will do it in the ‘arena’ area and hopefully we’ll have a nice, partnered ride.
I do think that Autumn, like Spring, has her hormones up a lot. In Spring she would have had a foal, in Autumn she would probably have had it taken away from her (around 6 months old….too young IMHO, should be 11-12 months with natural weaning but that’s the horse industry for you 🙁 )
This evening at dinner time neither Storm nor Bella batted an eyelid at the umbrella I was holding at their dinner site…..fabulous 🙂
S&B happily grazing together down the big hill after their dinner time <3
Wed 9th
Well today Mark came with me to see S&B in the afternoon. He is walking mostly without sticks, he’s had his metal clip/stiches out and his knee is healing well. He needs to build up and stretch his muscles and get more versatile movements in his whole leg but that is getting better every day 😉
Storm especially has missed him but Bella too, I think they understood he was missing due to injury and they were so glad to see him…we’re part of their herd too so they noticed his absence.
On another good note, because Mark came with me, I was able to play a bit with them which we’ve all really missed 😉
Liberty play first with Ms Bella….backing up and then weave and fig 8’s
She was happy to play and we had fun although I was tired I managed to keep up with her energy
I then played at liberty with Mr Storm, his energy was fab and he was very willing to play. The wind was pretty strong (we call it a ‘hoolie’) and I had trouble holding the flag. lol
I then had a bit of fun with a wee bareback ride on Stormy….he was so light. We had mostly walk but some trot too 🙂 Hq’s onto the tarp, backing off it, sidepassing over pole etc.
AND THEN…..A lovely, soft, calm, bareback ride on Bella. She was nicely soft and light but I didn’t do too much as the wind was whipping up a bit and I was getting cold (so was Mark)
But we had a lovely connection with walk, halt, backups, sidepass and a fabulous halt when mounting and dismounting 😉
Thurs 10th
Well, well, well….Ms Bella is back on form as today I rode her in the morning. She was light, connected and no antsy-ing at all today. I brushed her, got her tacked up and mounted and she just walked nicely around the whole of the field without any turning back or asking me to dismount by taking me back to the mounting block.
We did large fig 8’s…first in walk and then in trot with a short fab canter to finish.
I am so happy she’s back to her normal lovely self and think her last couple of rides in the big field where she was antsy must defo be hormonal and I’m glad she’s feeling better and that I listened to her and didn’t push her into being ridden when she wasn’t up for it. Always good to listen to your horse <3
thistle munching as a reward 🙂
Sun 13th
SO…this morning the weather is cool but beautiful (after having constant freezing temps, rain and hail yesterday.)
Just felt good to give my time exclusively to Storm and he totally appreciated it. He loves human interaction and the opportunity to be rewarded with grazing 😉 🙂
We started off with walk serpentines and then went to trot weave which he really did well for me.
Waiting for me to mount and ride.
High head at some points but calm and connected to me which was great. He’s allowed to look around and we’ve had cattle and sheep down in the field below at times and I felt he was just looking to see what was there today.
Sidle to the barrel for dismount as always was perfect.
AND some well earned grazing for about 10 mins which he LOVED <3
Thurs 17th
Had a few things to do this morning so only got to S&B and their breakfast around noon today…
they were fine with that, better a late breakfast than none at all 😉
Nice weather meant a ride on Bella too which is always a bonus and a joy.
We managed some lovely walk (stretching muscles, legs and brains) with some fab curvy weaving.
Great trot fig 8’s and around the field.
We also did some nice bullseye into leg yields which then went into leg yielding to trot and then leg yielding into canter 😉
She LOVED the grazing reward. S&B will get the big field grazing Nov 1st so not long to wait…just keeping it until then to make it last into December 😉
MEANWHILE….Stormy decided to roll last night while it was raining and he is absolutely filthy now…..once he’s dry I’ll give him a big groom (not today as while I was riding Bella he rolled again! LOL)
Sat 19th
Started the day with an early ride on Ms Bella. We worked in a smaller ‘arena’ area which helps putting precision on moves. Today it was about circles…..getting a better curve in her body from the tip of her nose to her tail. I was very happy with the short but nice session 😉
THEN…Mark and I went down this afternoon to give them their wormers but before we did that I decided to have some ridden agility fun with both S&B 🙂
STORMY’s session:
Really enjoyed our session, think Stormy did too…he LOVES having fun and having attention 😉
AND BELLA’s SESSION:
We started our session using the ‘neck rope’ (not using the reins attached to the bridle if possible)
I’ve been using the neck rope in the morning’s when I jump on her bareback for just a sit on her and she’s understood backing up easily. We’ve just started doing turns so this session was a good place to try neck rope’ing for a bit longer 😉
Wed 23rd
It’s been raining or drizzling most days since I last rode but today I managed to jump on Bella early in the morning 😉 YEEHAA
And what a lovely wee ride it was too. We did walk, trot AND CANTER fig 8’s after some lovely moseying about. I’m very happy with the circles of the fig 8 a, they were SO round and good sizes, pretty much the same both to the left and right 😉
Dearest Bella has had a fabulous year, progressing in walk, trot and canter, becoming softer and more flexible with more understanding of what I’m asking of her <3
Fri 25th
SO….today was a fun test. I decided to get us all better with our riding and leading as we’ve not done much of it this year and I would lovely to hack out with them this winter and into next year if Mark isn’t able to ride.
1) I started with riding Storm, leading Bella:
No problem leading Bella from Storm, she was easy to direct and she stayed just behind his head or at my knee. We did some lovely fig 8’s and I rode with Bella on both the left and right of Storm.
He was worried about going near or up the big hill and that caused him to stop, turn quickly or try to spin away. Luckily Bella was a super star and just stayed with him so that when I had to let her lead rope go the rope just stayed on Stormys bum and I could take it back easily. Eventually, through waiting patiently, using approach and retreat and +R we rode a bit up the hill nice and calmly
2) THEN I rope Bella and lead Stormy:
She was a calm, lovely ride doing some nice turns, fig 8’s and staying in walk throughout.
Stormy decided it was still a bit scary going near the big hill and completely stopped on a few occasions…again I used waiting, approach and retreat and +R to help him realise there was nothing to worry about (he has become a bit ‘field bound’ from not going out of the field much this year but hopefully this will change if I can continue building up his confidence). When he thought too much about it he tried to get in front of Bella to turn her so we worked on bringing his head more towards my leg
The great thing about all this was that it showed me how well S&B’s foundation is and how good our connections are. It also showed me what we need to work on to make this easier, calmer and lighter…mostly do it more often, build it up gradually and progress to where we can ride up the hill and back down without any hassles or worry
Mon 28th
Another early morning try out with neck rope (bridleless and bareback) to keep seeing how our riding connection is going.
I just asked her to back up and then go from one side of the quad bike to the other.
Our backing up is great….need to work on the turns as she’s so used to the ‘feel’ coming from the bridle, but I’m very happy with our progress 😉
Wed 30th
What’s not to love with a sunny afternoon and a couple of ponies to have fun with. Today I started with riding Bella. We had a fab, easy, calm connection with superbly light transitions.
She decided it was fun to canter today so we did that quite a bit. Her transitions were smooth and happy and she went around the round pens on the left and right leads which was fab.
Popped a wee jump and cantered around the field enjoying the freedom.
Her canter was like sitting on a rocking horse, so easy and comfortable.
THEN….I took Bella into the roundpen and had some LIBERTY fun 🙂
Great session with Bella today…love, love, love this big smoochie of a girl <3
THEN….I had a really nice session with Mr Stormy too. He was connected, smooth and tried hard to stretch is legs out and we had some lovely trot and then a really good stretched canter at the end 🙂
What a good boy he is…still a lovely ride at 21yrs old 😉
Bought a few new rubber mats to put onto the older ones as it’s the part that gets a bit muddy still in Wintertime.
