round the 20 acre!

riding out....

gaynor came with me on foot, very kind of her..

the worst bit was going down the hill (there was a reason i wanted a suede seat, sticky bums insufficiently sticky, and i don't have a suede seated saddle!)

he was good, of course, and i thought i was tense but G said i hadn't been particularly....

:-)

back to winter

wind's turned northerly, gales, rain .... showers, but very heavy and cold - and snow in places...

however, did some longlining this morning, he was very good again, we're getting better!

Don't think G did anything yesterday, due to weather!

wot no girth?

gaynor had forgot we only have one 26" girth between us, and had taken it home - it normally lives in the tack room cupboard to which we both have access...

i didn't realise this until after i'd groomed and was trying to put saddle on - rummaging producing nothing, i rang ....

no point putting him away, going their, collecting girth and cvoming back, as i'd have had to start the whole process of cleaning all over again (he loves to roll!) plus he would have been unhappy coming out again... once he's in, it's teatime, he says!

so tried a spot of lunging. he is getting better, at least he doesn't turn in at the twitch of an eyelid any more!

better on the lines

hadn't done this for what, a week?  much better. only tried to turn in once, and was easy to send on again, and particularly impressive as 3 mares were having a "whose most in season" competition in the field next to us, refusing to be caught and someone went in with a feed bucket - he didn't lose his cool and didn't mess about particularly save for one moment of head up...

lots of stretching down in to the contact and lots of going where i asked...

very pleased!

a weekend wedding

my nephew Paul married Kate at Symondsbury Church in Dorset.  this is with their daughter Ruby listening to the readings

Pic

New bridle. Will have to try for better front view.

No wonder he's been messing about when ridden teeth at back had sharp bits!

That was this morning

this evening Gaynor's took him out for a hack and all good
:-)

progress and bridles

Sunday, G lunged him in the wind - it wasn't that bad at the yard, but as I said, he hadn't been lunged for a while..

she said, my in hand work with him is helping a lot.  i grinned, and agreed, LOL

monday, i rode, arena a bit sheltered from the gale it was actually quite nice. he wound me up on teh standing still front for a while - I was NOT assisted by girl on horse standing at arena gate talking to someone for 15 minutes!  when the other horse moved, i got movement and after that the occasional halt was met with much growling at him...

RI says "he's a sensitive soul" he may be, but keeping going will reduce both our upset!

G & I have been thinking about bridles for a bit, separately, and agree that the full size is really too large for him .. so today bought him a nice new cob size, which should be a lot better... oiled it tonight and it may get used tomorrow, but the vets coming for jabs, to look at his eye, and possibly check his teeth as well...

i rang a friend :-)

otherwise we'd have spent another 40 minutes standing still...

result?

he'd been winding me up, i think.

make him back up was the cure, and after that we got a reasonable amount of nice walk and decent trot and were then rained off after 10 minutes

but i finished with a grin on my face!

and it had been a nice day (most of it, until about an hour after i got to the yard - typical, finish mucking out etc and the wind gets up and i just KNEW it would rain...but at least i got something done) he had his rug off for a while...and it's forecast to be a good bit warmer than it has been, thank goodness!

longline out?

well that was my plan, a walk round the 20 acre on the lines.  it wasn't M's.  this MIGHT have been because new logs have been placed across the track to the 20 acre, i suppose

so into the arena, and he was in fact quite good!  still no signs of wanting to move on into trot, but only one turn in and he kept going and changed direction when i wanted, and looked rather good at the same time.

lining, of course, because it helps build muscle up which is what we want, of course...

Bareback pad

Gaynor's night tonight and she rang me to come down and watch. This the best shot i got but she tells me he'd been working nicely

cold again

and more snow yesterday!

but nontheless braced myself

yesterday i just put the lunge line on to see - and he actually carried on walking round me rather than forever turning in or standing still, so that's progress of a sort on that front.

tonight, more serious work, longlines preceded by a short in hand

it was soo cold.  think i did no more than about 15 minutes - stopped when my fingers protested as i was losing feeling in the tips - but we're starting to get there again and it's all to the good...

nekkid horse...

it was actually warm enough to take the rug off!  i'd left it on when i turned out, but time i got back from mothers and collecting haylage, off it came it was so warm.

the hoof boots - easyboot gloves - arrived, impressed by the delivery time!  however, the fit kit used by trimmer to decide what sizes to get?  don't know what went wrong, but the 1.5 that was meant for his larger dark hind wasn't going anywhere near it and ended up on teh smaller, white, hind, the size 1 meant for the smaller hoof will have to go back and be replaced by a size 2 for the larger hind.

drat

however, the sun was out, the saddle came out, i got on - he stood well for that! - and into the arena at least...then he decided he didn't want to play... i was in there for 40 minutes and spent most of it trying to get him to move.  nudge with leg, no movement, reinforce with whip on boot, hopeless, just ignored.... i don't know whether i need to adjust something about the saddle or whether he was just being a b*, but very frustrating as you can imagine!

boots

we've decided he needs boots on the back

trimmer was out today, pleased with the progress in getting rid of the thrush, but it's compromised the frogs...

thinking, we'll put boots behind when riding, especially when out and about, and gives it all a chance to sort itself out wihtout the risk of further damage from random stones and the like...

longlining

but neither of us could work out whether we were hot or cold - if the sun was out,  very nice, but it never lasted long and still very cold with no sun... and a nice nippy breeze..

but, did about 10 /15 minutes longlining, remembering where we were last time i did it which was before winter kicked in (when was that?  months ago, I think!

some moments of good, some moments of bad, and i'm not sure whether that was my body language or him being contrary....

anyway, if this weather keeps up will see about lessons again....