gaynor is recovered!

hurrah.

so she was happy to be fit to ride yesterday - (just as well, as i wasn't, went home after turning out etc, back to bed and didn't wake up until 1.30 in the afternoon... guess i was tired...).

and she was able to do so in the dry!

happy new year all.

2 damp afternoons...

but i didn't let yesterday's mizzle put me off - well, put it this way, i groomed, tacked up, and did 5 minutes before i decided we were getting too wet, in teh way mizzle gets you.. but i was on, and we were moving...

today it was dry as i groomed, tacked up and mounted - but after 5 minutes it started raining, properly, and i'd left the rug in a position where the inside of it would get wet.....

in the meantime, i invested a christmas present - voucher for the local tack shop - on some continental pattern reins, very good, thin enough for me (i hate thick ones) and very grippy as well...

hey ho, this rain will stop one day  but i'd like to know when!

i did ride

yesterday but it mostly consisted of trying to get him to move, as he had decided he'd rather not move but was quite happy to stand and pull faces at me ...gah.

success was eventually had by getting him to turn very tightly ... right... then left... then right... eventually he did move and i called that a success... shame i then had to ask for halt to dismount...

that thing about tapping the boot to reinforce the leg? waste of time....

actually got on!

most amazing.

thought i wasn't going t be able to , as, at the precise moment i left the house to go to the yard this afternoon, it started raining.

but fortunately by the time i'd put haynets up and such, it had stopped..

i was pleased, as the weather has been so bad it's mostly been pointless thinking about anything..

but i still try too hard, which blocks the movement...

and some good news - next door house is empty and for sale, and the news is it is being bought by a lass i know from the estate!  good to know i'll have a good neighbout!

let up in the weather

it had rained heavily since Wednesday, truly awful, happily no flooding up here but the rest of the country not so lucky..

today - dry - but a very good drying gale!  happily, it dropped a bit by the time i got to the yard this afternoon, so got all the mud of himself and did a bit of in hand work with him

i was surprised I was able to, as it had been truly awful earlier... bins blowing over, that sort of thing...someone reported a tree down...

trot!

which, believe it or not, was the first time since October 2011 that i had in fact got out of walk..... mostly for many good health reasons last year, but it does get to the point when you start to wonder...

anyway, Gaynor came and watched (and also to help get the mud off the mud monster!) and we set up RI's exercise involving pole pods set up such that they form a "gate" to direct the horse through...lay them out so you end up doing a circle, if you direct horse correctly....

anyway, i came away pleased, we  both worked, but one oddity - G thought I sit better in trot than in walk? ....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

thawed out and stopped raining

and i actually got back from mother's in time to both have lunch AND see my horse and do something!

half an hour's longlining - AFTER i'd removed the mud (well, most of it - damp mud in the mane and at the top of both back legs, how do they do that with a rug on?) on the grounds that we've hardly been able to do anything and it made more sense to be on the ground after the time he's had off

we were doing reasonably ok, but i must rewatch the video of my lesson ...

and got him in JUST before it started spitting on to rain again (happily, that's all it DID do...)

more frozen ground...

everywhere...

and taps...

:-(

working well

with a hidden audience

Gaynor's Sunday turn, she had planned to go out but was unable to due to the really bad going - what wasn't still frozen, was still a bog...

so the arena, lots of trot/walk/trot circles etc on a long rein, followed by reinback and flexions

apparently he was working well, and she didn't discover until afterwards that she'd had an audience who were also impressed.

this was all after she'd got him in from the field, when some random person said"oh he'll tank off with you" as she was getting him in - wish i knew who that was, clearly has no clue!

tonight - pitch black and kept precipitating that horrid rain that turns to snow but isn't, if you know what i mean....

saturdays in winter.... -:(

don't like them anymore - if only because by the time i get the messages for mother done and back home again, the light is gone (or at least, going)....

never mind, the shortest day is on the 21st, and it'll start getting lighter after that....

frozen and icey...

nothing has thawed out - the arena is still solid and unusuable, the yards are icey - thank goodness for my yaktrax! the weather is very not good and it's barely getting above freezing....

result, no work for M.  pointless even trying.  but at least he's barefoot which means that he has better traction on the ice than shod horses, and doesn't get feet full of snow...

and at least he's staying clean, given that the mud is frozen..

holiday today/tomorrow - but i logged in remotely and did some work, not a lot else to do...

clipped again

but not ridden; even the arena was frozen (unsurprisingly, after the soaking it got at the start of the week...)

we had to clip again as it had all grown back; he's had more taken off this time - i haven't seen it yet, G did it this afternoon...