a small success

rode out on my own....

only to the ford, and back

he was a shade sticky going out, but got over that, i got more forceful ....

on the way back he wasn't spooked by the gamekeeper coming up another track hidden frm view on his quad bike....i was impressed, we could hear it but not see it.  chap switched his engine off and waited until we'd moved on, he's good like that..

again, shows the confidence i've lost, and thus that he has lost in me, since moving on to harbour house and having torrid injury time since...as i was hacking out a shade more on my own then.. but we'll get there...

he wasn't quite as bothered by the flies as last night, as i put fly mask over bridle, but we were both covered in them time we got back, i could have done with a fly mask for me!

and then what did i do? i'd put my keys in the tack box before setting off.  when i came back, the place was unlocked as other people had arrived, and i never gave a passing thought to where my keys were until AFTER i'd locked the tack box inside the metal cupboard secured with solid padlock.

lots of f......k words ensued....

as you can imagine.

sorted though - we undid the left hand door so the doors weren't fixed together, and pulled the bottom of the right hand door open (bending metal, LOL) so gaynor could get her hand in and fiddle about to get teh box open and tipped onto side so locker key could be grasped .. then unlocked and retrieved car/house/rest of life keys...i wouldn't have thought of that ...

progress...

we made it all the way round the 20 acre...
the track was much more visible, think a few more had been round over the weekend and flattened the track down..

flies were a plague, and he hates them - i really should put fly mask on on top of the bridle! 

and TBH i think he's starting an eye thing - I've had to put fly mask on in the field for the first time this summer (and he promptly lost the one he had on last night ... lord knows where i'll find that!)

weekend ending on a good note...

for me, at any rate..

rain stopped play yesterday and i thought it was going to again today, but happily dried up so rode in the arena...

he woke up when i rode him round the outside of charlie's lunge circle!

and after that he was doing some nice walk, coming down to the bit and taking it down (which is one of the things we are working on at the moment...since he never had to do it before in his past life)

and then when i went for my swim, i thought, let's see if the shoulder has recovered enough for backstroke - yes!  excellent. haven't been able to do that since doing the wrist in and the shoulder then going west, but rather think the shoulder problem must have been caused by the wrist and the way i was using it whilst it's plate was in....

result!  as otherwise i was not looking forward to shoulder operation..... i will be so pleased to be able to tell the consultant this when i see him Thursday....

Gaynor, on the other hand, has fried her back, in pain walking let alone anything else, so our lesson booked for Thursday will have to be cancelled :-(

RIP Deirdre

my cousin.

cancer, again!  too many people getting it...

it's her mother i feel for .....

wet legs ...

me, that is...

went out for a hack with the lady with the welshy.  plan - down the back drive, round the 20 acre, up the hill to the yard.

got to 20 acre - narrow track through crop, but visible for the first half of the field...

got to middle, where there's a gap into second half of field.

crop there MUCH taller, and grown over track - both horses spooking at something and not wanting to go forward - whether because they couldnt' see where they were going, or there was something dead in the very long grass, we have no clue, but one of us had to get off and lead..

stupidly we let that person be me, not thinking it would have been much more sensible for the other lass to - she being on much smaller pone, could have hopped back on.. i couldn't - i was soaked from the toes to mid thigh... - and had to walk all the way back as there was no where to get back on (can't do it from the ground).  the crop was pretty high!

apart from that, nice hack, and he came on the bit before this glitch...

Poorly computer

And no time to work out why as yet!
Got on m last night wot a view to a short ride out but he refused to go far and then i dropped stick so could not reinforce leg aid. Well annoyed.
But he had half an excuse - we were both melting!

more in hand

after a weekend off for monf - because saturday, time i'd been to my mother's (she's not well) and then had a prebooked evening at Durham Cathedral, there was no time and on Sunday the wind was truly awful everywhere (except in the stable yard, which is sheltered).  so Gaynor and i hosed off mats and stable walls, and G did her back in...

so tonight, still somewhat windy and very hot, i concluded in hand work was in order....

The horses have what seems to me to be "mud fever" (which isn't, of course, anything to do with mud), a few scabs on M's heels, so put some appropriate cream on them..

late late appointment...

NHS referral but to the local private hospital, very swish - sadly, didn't prevent the consultant running 1 hour and 20 minutes late ... so i didn't leave until 9 pm, having arrived early, as one does...

didn't ride, of course, as i knew i had this appointment.. had stocked up on feed and fly repellent though, and got M in for tea and liberal applications of aforesaid repellent....

touching wood, but it might just have stopped raining for a bit....

more riding!

back to the ford and back again, and then into the arena; flies not QUITE as bad as last night ... and Monfils not that keen to be in front ... when we got back went into the arena for 5 ...

and he's been much better behaved to turn out lately (he can be quite ill mannered and bolshy if he can't see the other horses) so two nights this week he got taken out with the rope halter, which gives me more control if needed.

i didn't need it ... whether that's because he's finally decided it's not worth the hassle, or whether he can't be bothered, or whether he's just behaving, i have no clue, but i'm pleased as it's quite slippy in places getting to the field what with the rain and not very safe if i'm being pushed about!

yay! rode out...

just along to the ford and back, in company, in walk, plagued by flies - he was very good, despite the grief the flies were causing all of us & the rain held off until after i was home...

i had been in two minds whether to ride or not as i'd been in a fairly bad mood leaving the house.. but riding, of course, cheered me up!  reckon he must have sensed that tonight was not a good night for messing me about, didn't do his usual wander from side to side whilst i was grooming...

and stood like a lamb for mounting as well... hopefully that continues!

it was dry!

happily, until about 10 minutes after i got home after being able to ride, mop my fevered brow :-)

went ok

particularly impressed that he stood to be mounted (mind, before i got on gaynor had to point out that the hat i had on was NOT my riding hat...oops!)

couple of sticky moments, largely rider error through trying too hard!  but i can see/feel that he is already getting the point about the contact and he was showing a nice curve in his neck (from what i could see from above, LOL!)

lots of distractions, which we didn't wholly succeed in working through - horses being brought in, taken out, ridden past, involved stopping for the distraction of it, very annoying, and thus resulting in my getting slightly tense and thus him stopping more than he was already inclined to do, if you see what i mean..

but overall happy.

quite why i didn't think to try gaynor's saddle is beyond me, didn't think until after tacked up and ready to go, and too much hassle to start again, so another night...

ggrrhh

all enthusiastic to put the results of the lesson into practice.. and it rains, again....grrhhhhh

dry when I brought him in - but only momentarily having rained all day! - started again as I was grooming..

excellent lesson!

Can't remember the last time I was on Monfils, what with  my op to get plate out and him injuring himself thereafter.....

So i decided the booked leesson today was a good time to get back on, the confidence of having RI there being in need, LOL.

Also, on a new saddle - one of heather moffett's flexEE ones with the leather tree - it was only a 17" so a shade small for me, and needed shimming up, but Monfils didn't object to that, in fact he went very well.  and I found it very comfy despite the size, just wasn't prepared to try trot in it as i would have banged off the pommel and I was sitting right at the back of the cantle, of course....

We just worked on the basics, getting me established again, and reminding me re uses of outside rein /inside rein, good work he did - i hadn't forgotten how to ride the corners, however (it's amazing how many people don't ride corners, and TBF i'd always struggled with it, but RI told me how, and now i usually have them nailed).

and i didn't lose the plot when M was thiking about doing so - some other horse some distance away set him off neighing etc, and i could feel him shaking under me when he was - but i stayed with it and he came back to me, so pleased with that

and we finished with some in hand, as a reminder to me of how to do it...

RI doesn't like lunging as she is of the view that you can't have a conversation with the horse lunging....not sure I wholly agree, and lunging for exercise when you're pressed for time in the winter especially does have its advantages...

Next lesson is going to be long reining... M won't do it for me (just like he won't lunge for me, LOL) so we'll see if we can sort it out...

Reason I was trying saddle is that I've concluded the dressage saddle isn't good for hacking, particularly given the number of hills we have - so the question is, do i just sell the dressage and get a vogue GP, or do I buy the FlexEE GP as an additional saddle?

fingers crossed

tomorrow's lesson doesn't get rained  off......

Monfils and I got a soaking in the arena tonight - was trying to longline, then the heavens opened....doh.

the jet stream

is, apparently, the reason for the cack weather we're having.   Apparently its usually further north than it is this year, and the weather north of it is bad, south of it not so bad.  apparently, also, it normally moves about a bit more which is why we normally have a mixed bag of good and bad weather, whereas this year it's staying pretty much where it is for too long...

So said the BBC

anyway, the result is its teeming down again..

a week in france...

but with practically no internet access - the only free wifi i found was in the "in flanders field" museum in Ypres, and then only for long enough to have coffee and cake whilst waiting for partner...so no holiday blog.  Amazing how weepy one gets at the Menin Gate - even though none of my family were in WWI that i am aware of, and certainly none of them mentioned there ...  

Jean, i will upload my Tour video shortly to facebook .........

We had rain whilst away, but missed nothing for weather at home, the entire country is being flooded in stages it seems .... bits of one county,  bits of another, mad for July...

Whilst i was away, Gaynor rode Monfils once, she says he was keen to be out but not silly about it.

I got back yesterday afternoon but too much to do unpacking etc to do anything with him...

and thinking I'll leave riding until Sunday, we've a lesson booked!  need some confidence back, as it's such a while since I've been on him.

Did some in-hand work with him tonight - anyone know why he gets his fifth leg out when working in hand? 

and anyone know what the significance of what looks like yawning is?