Bella & Stormy 2026

Sat 5th

 

Sunshine with a breeze = nice ride on Bella this morning 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been asking S&B to come to the top of the field to get their dinner over the last 2 days….they are good at ‘getting it’ quickly 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Tues 8th

You never know when something interesting crops up and time for a wee bit of ‘training’ 😉 I LOVE when this happens and it’s good to see that our training foundation is good that Mr Stormy learnt a new thing very quickly. What was that thing? Well…S&B are used to the quad bike going around doing things, moving agility bits and daily poo picking with the tipping trailer behind it BUT I had not realised until today that they’re NOT used to me moving it while walking along side it. They’ve always seen me RIDING the bike to move it SO when Stormy baulked when I walked with it he must have thought it was moving on it’s own!!

SO, what did I do? I slowly moved the bike and as he stayed with me I stopped regularly and treated him for his obedience to me asking him to stay. As we went along I didn’t move faster but stopped regulalry again to treat him for RELAXATION and CONFIDENCE in the situation 😉 He smashed it 😉

 

 

What a clever boy he is 😉

 

 

 

Wed 9th

I woke up late this morning (not a problem, we don’t have schedules as such) and I managed to ride Stormy and then Bella just before lunchtime 😉 LOL

Stormy first….

He was a bit sluggish to start with, it’s been a while since riding him so understandable. We start slow and build up to trot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bella 2nd…

She was also a bit sluggish even though I rode him more recently and we had a good play session with her yesterday. Again, like Stormy, we start slowly to get her muscles warmed up and then start doing more trot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk

 

 

 

 

Mon 10th

Golly gosh, it’s been about a month since riding S&B so today, riding both of them, is a complete joy 😍

I hadn’t ridden due to too hot weather with flies then constant rain (which we needed) and also from having tweaked my back a few weeks ago it was too painful and risky to ride. I’ve been resting my back a lot and the last two days haven’t been nearly so bad SO with my back brace on I decided today was a good day to ride Bella and then I just had to ride Stormy too 😊😊😊

They both were lovely to ride, both gave me strong walks, ryhthmic trots and smooth canters…with Bella cantering parts of some circles and Stormy doing canter weave 💕 YEEHAA ❤️😍

❤️ Here’s Bella’s route, we started on some circles as I wanted her to find more symmetry and find her balance turning left and right circles. I continued this pattern as she then did trot better and finally some really nice canter bits of circle too. Not bad for a month off 💖

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Stormy I wanted to keep things interesting SO we started off with some big fig 8’s around the field and then I thought he’d enjoy some weaving…we started in trot but he said ‘hey mom, trots boring,,,,lets canter weave’ SO we did 😉 🙂 What a star ⭐

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stormy checking out the cows and calves in the field below 🐮

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then to save me taking his tack off and going back for the quad bike I lead him from the quad bike back to where I take his tack off 😊

what a good boy he is 🐎

 

 

Thu 14th

Lovely ride on Bella this morning…walk, trot and nice canter too…short but very sweet 😊💖

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 15th

We’ve had Mark’s grand neice (16yrs old) with us for the last two weeks (from New Jersey USA – home on Monday) and it was time for her to get a lesson on big Stormy. He was amazing, he’s a good teacher now and he was very gentle with her…she thoroughly enjoyed herself and hats off to her for taking up the challenge of sitting/riding such a big horsey 🤠🐎❤️

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun 16th

A bit of time this afternoon to move all the agility obstacles into the larger field area and then took a ride on Bella to make sure it was all good 🤠🐎💕

 

 

Getting better with the canter, around the ends in an arc too…one to the left, one to the right 😍

 

 

 

 

 

 

Treats to start off

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bits of the agility course

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some hugs and kisses afterwards 🌟

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wed 26th

Today we finally had some ‘riding’ weather….cool, breezy and no flies 😍 SO…on that note, I rode Stormy, then Bella.

First…STORMY…

Agility bits done for fun with the big boy this morning. I used mostly one hand on the reins and he ‘neck reined’ most all of the course 😉 So proud of him 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…AND BELLA…

Lots of in’s and out’s of the agility course, took it slow to start with, trotted it again to make sure she was suppling up and flexible and then did a bit of canter to finish 😉 What a good girl 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• 🤠 Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk

 

Sat 4th

 

 

It’s been a couple of weeks since riding a horsey so today I managed to get in a wee mosey ride on Bella….

that is, before it started drizzling (the sort of wetness that you don’t really realise is wet until you get home and you feel everything is saturated! LOL).

It was so nice to get bum to saddle again 😉

 

 

 

 

The weather has been dry recently, so dry that our house stream that brings us water is dry ;( We’re taking 8 x 5lt containers to the main river near the estate entrance and filling them up for our washing up and toilet water….if it continues we’ll have to go to the local swimming baths for showers and local laundry services for clothes washing.

It struck me as funny yesterday that in Winter we have all the water we need to do the washing but no sun to dry it with (it takes a while to dry stuff in the house in the lounge while the wood burning stove is going full time) and then in Summer we have all the sun to dry clothing with but not the water to wash it with!!! LOL LOL LOL. Hey ho, ’tis the way of things here, we live with the rhythm of nature.

 

 

 

I also spent some time putting the agility back up in the closed off area so that when we want to play it’s all set up 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun 8th

 

 

 

And today….it was Stormy’s time for a wee wander about the big field 😉 🙂 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not doing a lot (as usual) as the weather goes from too hot to stand to drizzle all day ;(

 

 

 

 

We’re praying for rain up here as our house water well has run dry already this year ;( 🙁

NB….we found out through walking our burn (stream) that 2 large trees had come down above our well altering the course of the water…our landlord went straight out with a digger and put the water back on course and we have thankfully now got water back at home 😉 🙂 🙂

 

Sun 12th

Been a week with very hot weather so nothing much going on apart from us all trying to keep out of it and stay cool 😉 Today was a nice change as it was cool enough to have a wee agiltiy play with S&B 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mon 13th

Managed a 9 minute ride on Bella this morning while it was cool, then the sun came out AND the clegs (horse flies) so had to stop 🙁

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 18th

 

 

 

We, like everyone in the UK I think, have been having very hot weather (no rain still!) 😉 BUT….
this morning we had some cloudy, very breezy weather and I took the opportunity to have some agility fun with Stormy.

 

 

 

 

1. Into narrow L gap, turn left and halt at the end of the L….then back up.
2. Over drainage tunnel and sidepass off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Halt in pole box (bottles not out today as too windy)
4. Through flag and bunting corner.
5. Trot poles (done at walk today)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Onto tarp, halt. Back up to the flag in cone. Pick up flag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Familiarisation with flag (then ride the rest of the course wtih it up) 😉
8. One hand weave.
9. Sign says STOP so STOP 🙂 🙂 🙂
10. Go to mounting block nicely and wait while I dismount and take a pic 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely to get a ride on Big Stormy…think he enjoyed it too 😉

 

Thurs 30th

Managed to get a nice long rope play with Bella in the grassy part of the field this morning. She did some really nice S2M, backups, sidepass’s and circles in walk, trot and canter 😉 🙂

Today is farrier also day, he came at 2.30pm 😉 Both S&B were good, Bella got her feet trimmed first and while the farrier, Grant, did Stormy’s hooves I had a really nice walk/trot bareback ride in the agility arena on Bella <3

She is still ‘odd’ turning and circling to the right….think I may have to get a professional out to see her ;(

Can’t believe it’s August in a couple of days time….where has the year gone?? Almost Autumn time again….

 

• Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk