do i have my mojo back?

not before time if so...

had an excellent session this afternoon...

decided on no walk at all - well, not much - into the arena and straight into trot... circles, serpentine! diagnoals, e - b changes of rein, figures of 8... then walk trot walk transitions, but not  much walking and he kept forward... my rise was right, he was metronomic - someone confirmed he looked very symettrical (that someone is an angler, not a rider!)

when i finally stopped, he knew it and stopped, LOL, but i was so pleased...

before that, had intended to try with the bareback pad as G said she'd had good results with that, but frankly, he didnt' want me bareback and i felt very insecure!

in the meantime, frustrations elsewhere.  getting anew (brand new) car... it's there, it's taxed, it just hasn't been trhough the pre delivery service.  particularly pissed as the end of month is tomorrow, so essentially i lose one months' road tax and can't get the car!  gggrrrhhhh  and the salesman doesn't ring me back when he says he's going to, so not happy with him particularly.  never mind, if i get it on monday that'll do, but it would have been good to be able to take it for a drive tomorrow, since i won't have time trhough the week!

and other bad news - we have no electricity in the house!  AAARRRGGGHHH.  happily, cooking is on gas, so hot water from kettle, neighbour away for weekend and we have keys, they're happy for us to use whatever facilities we need (shower!  charging laptop!).  electrician did come out last night, i was very impressed, and thought he'd sorted it, but he'd no sooner left the street at well gone 10 when it died again... i am not interrupting his weekend as he andhis family have a big event on so will text him tomorrow night and hope he can come monday. we know what's wrong ... he thought the temp fix would hold us, but it didn't....

turn on the forehand

he's getting the hang of that

wasn't what i started out wanting, but we ended up doing it..

we think we might have a new horse after the shoes go on on Tuesday...

Simba came home

the vet agreed she doesn't have too much longer, so we'll keep a close eye and anticipate that she won't make the winter... so long as there's no serious deterioration in the meantime....

In the meantime, Monfils lost his fly mask AGAIN..... :-(  he surely knows he needs it but that doesn't stop him divesting himself of it..

so it's decided

farrier will come next tuesday and he'll be shod all round...

trimmer reckons it's all the wet (i'll agree with that) and could see where i was coming from ...

worked out that the last set of shoes i had on a horse was spring 2006, when I took Molly's off (not counting, of course, the set that Monfils arrived with... which didn't match anyway).

he was quite boingy whilst he was in (wrong time of day doesn't help, LOL!  totally out of routine and only one in at that point) and when i turned him out again he galloped up the field full pelt to get back to his mates.....

tomorrow i take elder cat to vet's after work; not at all sure that she'll come home, she keeps having seizures more and more often...

rain stopped play

very heavy showers and rainstorms with only very short gaps between - during one of which i was able to check him over etc at the field gate.... not worth thinking about doing anything, a drenching would have occurred...

And, at 22,05 pm, i remember the loaf that should have gone in the oven about 20.30......oops  it had over-risen and i think this will be a disaster.... and will now have to stay up until 10.35 to see what the result in fact is!

learning to growl

last night was a good idea (as well as the shorter stirrups)

didn't go straight in the arena, went along the back drive and back first (in default of the arena being available, someone was in it freeschooling, and i did ask a couple if they were going out, but they were going to do more than i wanted to...)

i did intend to go through the ford, which he has been through loads of times with me on (in company) and with gaynor (on his own).  but he wasn't having it.  benefit of the doubt, it may have been the way the light was/wasn't, but whatever ...

we had a nice ride anyway, with some trot back on the bits of the track that aren't covered in stones..

then back in the arena, and last night is paying off, i was able to keep him going despite two attempts by him to stop, and we ended with some nice trot/walk/trot transitions...

i need to now work on my rising - oddly, it was perfect coming up the hill on the track, but no where near on the flat in the arena! ... and keep this going

then turnout was into a different field which had some grass... i was expecting him to go charging up the top to find the others, but no - eat ... roll - roll again and eat before getting up - walk about, eat... all with the lambs watching (they've moved themselves into this field!).  a couple of times he heard a horse whinny from the top of the hill, but didn't go off to find them.  seemed very happy to have lots of grass... we might need to muzzle!

shorten the stirrups

by one hole...

now why didn't i figure that that would put me in better position, more secure?  you tell me.

we started off ok -walked briskly round then up into trot - so i'm half way round a "20 metre circle" (quotes because in fact it isn't, given the size of arena!) when he stops...


gggggrrrrrrhhhhhhh

lots of small turns on forehand, but still no forward movement ....

gggggrrrrrhhhhhh

friend turns up and he won't even move for being chased.

she goes to get her hat, i get off.  saddle has slipped back a shade so i sort that out, she gets on, he trots, canters, both reins, not pleased (you should have seen his face!)

i get back on.... with the shorter stirrup length...

he goes.

we get lots of trot

i come down to walk he thinks about stopping i growl at him he goes

more trot, diagonals both ways...

we come down to walk - he want to stop - we walk back to stable (TBF, i usually do get off in arena anyway as its' a softer landing!)

more secure with shorter stirrup, friend said a better picture and i maintained contact with mouth better....

dope not on a rope

was doing in hand and stopped to talk - he started falling asleep ! so not the best pose but funny nonetheless

but here's two better pics from later:

trotting poles ridden

and he was very good - and then round the 20 acre again with yet another friend...

but what he's not happy about are the midges and the long grass (or maybe just the midges) thinking of a nose net.....

lunging

just to prove that he will (just not for me!)

white line...

despite our best efforts over the last 2 and a bit years, cannot get M's white line tightened and forever, in consequence, getting weeny bits of gravelly bits in ...does my head in, does my back in holding foot up to get them out,  makes him unhappy.....

talking to trimmer next Monday when she comes, but i think i'm going to have to put M in shoes....

awful wind...

but, unusually for me, went out anyway - got ready got on and rode round to the barn to see if anyone there going out, as i anticipated someone was, so went round the 20 acre with her - more sheltered down there as it's down the bottom of a steep bank - then she went right to do Holme Hill (which i don't like...but i should do it one day, but not just yet!) and i turned left for home..

then went to Gaynor's for a cuppa, did i want to go see her OH's band? I've never seen them, and they were the last set at a free festival Sunderland Council had on at Herrington country park... so i went along

excellent! such a shame there weren't many there, we were all being blown away (the stage was the only sheltered place on the field!)

Audiotracer is their name, and if anyone wants a band for a wedding/event/whatever, invest in them....I said if (a big if) i have a "do" for my 60th, i'll book them...

longlining woes

caused EITHER by the mares in the field next the arena being in season, OR by his deciding he dislikes the driving whip as much as the lunge whip - whatever the cause, we were getting nothing done and he insisted on turning in to me, even if i was sure certain he wasn't going to be able to...

so i took him back round, got my saddle, rode instead

much better .....

kept him in trot to prevent any thinking about stopping, did a fair few decent circles maintaining the trot, and when i stopped and dismounted found he'd actually done a square halt (which is practically unheard of).

so pleased by the finish!

sheep stopped play

Gaynor tells me that the sheep were causing so much grief being loaded into trailer in the yard this afternoon that it wasn't worth trying to get M to settle, so nothing done with him...

at least she stayed dry, it had been forecast to start raining this afternoon but held off until later this evening...

the sheep are sheared

and to bring in, we had to get them past large bags and small bags of sheared wool in the field, and then past the men shearing (they hadn't quite finished).  TBH, M was pretty good in the circs.  I'd taken the rope halter with me and he was out at the end of the line between me and the bags going in.....the worst bit of it for him was the small bags, as they were black bin liners, not full, with lots of rustling...

The funniest bit was as i went to get him though - he was chasing the lambs down the field (course, he didn't do that when i turned him out, camera at the ready to take video!)

Decided to lunge, as did colleague..

at least i got brisk walk!

we swopped.  I was, of course, able to lunge hers, who i've never handled before, and she of course got M trotting..

swapped back - and still only  brisk walk for me...

doh!

never mind, still an improvement each time i try, i'll get there with him one day!

I used the Micklem Multi bridle - lunging cavesson being one of its multi functions - perfect for the job...

sheep all over....

sheep in the mares field, sheep in our gelding's field, sheep in the big middle field.... aarrchh... they'll be shearing asap, it seems!

so, to ride..

determined on lots of trot, so that was going really well, lots of him reaching down into the contact in due course and the shadow was showing me a good frame.  then walk trot/trot walk transitions, all also going well until i decided to go across the diagonal to the right - happened to be in walk at that moment - when he decided to stop ...

so he ended up doing a lot of steps back interspersed with turns on the forehand...hah!  on the grounds that if he doesn't want to go forward he will nonetheless work....

jumping!

G's foot had recovered enough for her to ride (she said it was sore after, and i'm not surprised, still has a large lump on it) so she hacked out down the park (i hate the hill going down to the park, very steep!).

it's a stony track going down and he was all over to avoid that

then she took him round in a big semi circle to trot up the hill on the opposite side from the track down.

he planted because - of a 1 inch wide trickle of a stream (we get self generated streams on the land!) in front of him ... and when he did go, he cat leapt over it - then a nice canter up the hill to pop the log at the top... and another log popped later just before the yard...

so they were both happy!

micklem multi bridle

looking good. turned out i needed to tighten a couple of straps but he was fine with it.

then we went out round the 20 acre with a friend in the sun.

lovely weather :-)

lots of trot

in the arena.....

long time since i've trotted as much what with the hip, the other things, de dah... needed to be done, i need to work more on it, we got circles, diagonals, working round the other horse in there,

all good bar one glitch - at one point i'd gone back to walk to cross the arena in walk (b - E) and he stopped dead... for no good reason ...

sorry to say, dear readers, i hit him.  and i was carrying schooling whip not the short one....

TBH i am well fed up with this random stopping, i am sure it is not me but his stubbornness and having been able to get away with it for such a long time, and sitting being polite to try and get him to move again just doesn't do it for me (and doesn't get him moving) so i thought, well, let's really get after him even though it's not something i normally do or want to do...

worked

hope it won't be necessary in the future, not something i want to make a habit of

so we carried on with the trot and i guess i only did 10 - 15 minutes but that was more than enough.

i doubt if much of it was anything to look at, only one circuit felt as though it was, but i'd decided that forward/energy/etc was the order of the day...

boots, schmoots

i don't think he likes them, actually.

he certainly seems to be tripping over his back feet with them on...

if it stays dry....

we should be able to see the back of the thrush... do hope so! sick of it, and so is he...

but i'm not sure we won't have to go back to being shod.... will have to have a long talk with trimmer next time - the white line is never tight enough to prevent weeny little bits of grit getting stuck, and we can't avoid that stuff on yard and tracks.....

whatever, need rid of the thrush, and need the new frogs to all come through before a definite decision is made...

on the plus size, he wasn't falling asleep whilst being tacked up, i didn't have to drag him to the mounting block, and we got some nice trot.....

i need to work on my dratted right hip, which has never really come right after the fall in 2010 plus the fall last september plus the pre existing trochanteric bursitis...

aching, aching, and struggle to get off, i really have to work at that....

so - do i keep my stirrups the length they're at, thus assisting in the process but hurting, or do i put them up one .....which might or might not help?

Belsay Horse Trials

we had an excellent day out (without the horse, of course!)

photos here

and didn't do anything with M at all.

should have been Gaynor's day, but she managed to drop a trailer jockey wheel on her foot - very badly bruise, can't get her boots on.... not a happy bunny! time we got back I was pretty tired (in a happy sort of way!) and no energy for much in the way of excitement.... climbing the hill to catch the boy was the last straw, after the hills on the course!

busy busy

meeee

up very early (too early really but hey)

up to mother's early early (much earlier than usual) walked in and she said "is it saturday?" :-(

hairdressers then for about 2 hours......

then lunch & trip to feed/tack store... where chat with friend and would you believe a 2nd hand real Chanel leather bag?  they sell stuff for people.. but who'd have thought?  we decided even for the price (£30) it wasn't worth buying as it had had a good life... very good quality though .. not my style....

then washing in, out to yard, rode, back home, washing hung out, 2 lawns mowed, another load of washing hung out and another load in the washer....

and the ride?

well, hoof boots in the arena are a no no.  i had a feeling that would be the case, as i have to wear long boots in there as otherwise one gets a boot full of arena.  M found the same so went back and took them off...