Thu 3rd
S&B watching with interest the shepherd moving a big herd of sheep a couple of fields away. They used to be worried by all the commotion, noise etc but now are generally just interested in what’s going on.
Good old cooler weather today…yeehaa…time for a ride 😉
Me, S&B LOVE cooler weather, no flies, midges or heat 😉
SO I had a lovely ride on Bella this morning. Nice walk through the round pens, then circles in trot up and down the field with Bella popping in a couple of canter transitions. Then finished off by walking completely around the field to cool off.
Cleaning the field after my ride and S&B just chilling out and then having a wee nap 😉
Love these two big dollops <3
And that’s a new agility course set up in a bigger area now….ready for some more fun with S&B 😉
Sat 5th
I put Storm and Bella into the round pens this morning (one in each) to allow them to grab a bit of grazing before being ridden. I do this to help them concentrate when riding and not trying to grab for the grass 😉
I rode first so she didn’t have too much grass. Our session was really good with a nice walk warmup then trot the length of the field with some canter across the width of the field after 😉 Her canter is really coming along and she was going from walk on the curves to canter without doing trot at all…this shows me how balanced and fit she is 🙂
THEN I had a lot of fun riding Stormy. He’s no spring chicken anymore so we don’t do fast long work, he prefers to have his brain exercised SO we did some rope around circles.
This is where I have a rope attached to a moving ring on a post that is put into the ground. I take the rope and walk away from it on Stormy and then circle with the rope in my hand. I helps for some great focus on the shape of the circle and also that we can leg yield in and out of the circle to see the rope going slack then taught 😉
After this I picked up the flag and we walked and trotted around the field flapping the flag and he didn’t bat an eyelid 😉 What a star <3
Tues 8th
Today it was warm but there’s a nice breeze blowing around the fields so we decided to go and ride S&B around the new agility layout I put together the other day.
Here’s Mark and Stormy, who went first today.
Front feet in hula hoop then pick up flag and walk around with it back to the hoop
Trot weave then through the bunting corner
Jump then to the trye gap, halt and back up in gap
Then over the tarp and trot over poles
Sidepass the drain tube and turn to go under the curtain
Over the flat plastic bottles and turn right to go under the arch
4 feet in hula hoop (well 3 feet is pretty darned good) and then stop over the pole and backup
THEN IT WAS BELLA AND MY TURN….
Mostly trot work through the agility, then walk up the big hill and do a couple of small fig 8’s and a big fig 8 to finish 😉
Front feet in hula hoop, pick up flag and walk circle while flapping it
Trot through weave, she’s so slick doing this now 😉 and through bunting corner
Jump 🙂 Yeehaa and trot to the tyre gap, halt and backup
Trot over the tarp (not done this much before so very pleased she trotted over it for me)
trotted over the 4 poles, she elevates and looks fab when she does trotting poles
Sidepass over drain tube then under the curtain
First time trotting over the bottle bank (Yeehaa) 🙂 and then under the arch
4 feet in 2 hulahoops…well we didn’t quite manage this as Stormy had put them too far apart but she tried her best.
Then stop over pole, backup and trot on
We went up the hill at the end and did a couple of small fig 8’s around some long grass
And then did a lovely big fig 8 when we got down off the hill again 😉
S&B and me….what superb horses they are 😉
Wed 16th
It’s been 8 days since me riding (due to intense heat, flies and then a day of stormy rain and working) and today looks like a nice day to ride SO I put S&B into round pens first so they can get a bit of grazing before being ridden. This helps to keep their focus on riding rather than the grass as the riding area’s all have long grass now as it’s being kept for Autumn/Winter 😉
Bella was a star and our fun, first time, thing was to CANTER while I held the flapping flag 😉 🙂 Yeehaa 😉 🙂
Stormy did some nice flag work while riding
and then we sidled up to the ‘rope tyre’ which is ready to be pulled along behind us…I hold the rope and just walk/trot about and I make sure we change sides with the tyre dragging behind and Stormy did some nice turns under the rope to change sides 😉 🙂
To finish off our session I let them eat their beloved wee thistles 😉 🙂
Tues 22nd
The weather is one thing or the other, extreme heat with flies and horse flies that bite OR raining cats and dogs!!! Today, luckily it was dry and mild before the sun started to heat things up so it was a good opportunity to snatch a ride on Bella. Nothing too fancy, this time of year it’s about maintaining fitness and not creating a sweaty horse by over doing our speed or the amount of time we’re working 😉
So nice to be back with Bella. She’s a super smooth ride and just sitting on her helps my hips, back and shoulders…not to mention my mood 😉
Both had time in the roundpens for some nice grazing
Always a perfect sidle to the mounting block to start and finish our rides 😉
Start with round pen warm up
Love walking the field to check out the stunning views between her ears and also to check the cattle in the field below, they have young calves and it’s always lovely to watch them.
S&B munch into some of their favourite, delicious, creeping thistles to end the session 😉
Fri 25th
Well I forgot my phone so no pics or data today BUT it wasn’t about the ride today but about how fabulous my wee Bella is 😉
Firstly I put her and Stormy into the agility arena for a wee graze before doing anything. They love a bit of extra grass as motivation to do something (bit like myself 😉 lol).
I caught her easily and we got on with our ride BUT I noticed a bit of a smell by the top side of the arena and when I checked there was a dead lamb by the burn in the next field. This is rented by neighbour farmer and I put it in the back of my head that it would start to smell awful before long in this heat. Now, what was good was that when I mounted Bella and started to ride I noticed said neighbour farmer drive along the track checking his stock. He passes by but often doesn’t go into the field (which has a lot of small hillocks etc in it) and as he passed by I waved to him and gesticulated that there was something in his field. He just waved back so I shouted that there was a dead lamb in the field, a few times and finally he stopped….he was about half a field away so understood he couldn’t really see what I was doing.
I was still sitting on Bella and what was fabulous was that she stood still while I shouted loudly, squished about in the saddle gesticulating and also when the farmer went into the field to retrieve said dead lamb, she didn’t bat an eyelid 😉 SO SO proud of her stalwartness while I was being loud and moving a lot in the saddle.
We then had a lovely agility ridden time going over, through and under the obstacles. A great jump, superb sidepass, up the hill in canter and back down balanced, under the curtain, over the tarp, between the flags and tyres, nice weave, through bunting corner and over, back on poles. Also rode w/t/c with the flag and then cantered the length of the arena twice 🙂 🙂 🙂
I love my bit girl <3
Wed 30th
Well it’s the END OF JULY ALREADY….where is the year going?
So today was nice and cool, bit of a nice breeze and a rideab
le morning SO…
I popped on Stormy bareback for a nice mosey about. Just asking him to stretch those big long legs of his in walk.
This is great exercise for him, gets him picking his feet up nicely and brings some nice energy
Riding Stormy while Bella grazes in a roundpen 😉
Ground tied when we finish up. He’s superb at waiting patiently by the mounting block.
Bella’s ride this morning was a nice walk warm up, good solid trotting a large fig 8 and then some canter on the straight edges of the fig 8 😉
The middle blue line was a fab weave we did with a loose rein with Bella working off my focus, energy, weight in the saddle and legs and only using the reins if we needed to 😉
Ground tied wating for me to mount up 🙂
Riding Bella while Stormy grazed in the round pen 😉
- Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk
