excellent lesson

10 to 15 minutes on the lunge - which was because RI started the lesson with my stirrups out, which was a good plan and therefore a better one was put M on the lunge....

He's a much better lunge horse when ridden at the same time than he is when not ridden, very odd...

then we worked on continuing that wtih stirrups taken back longer, my feeling the steps, and then picked it up to trot, and then into flexing whilst riding...

at the very end, after some discussion as to why i forever lose the reins, we realised that i had for many years somewhat misunderstood about grip/fingers/stuff like that!  hey ho..... better late than never

of course, now i won't be riding until a week monday, due to forthcoming holiday!  which gives him loads of thinking time so hopefully should be ok when i'm back from that!

i'm slacking

on the posting front....

but been slack anyway, but at least it hasn't' rained.

Monday i was sooooo tired, don't know why - went down to ride, got saddle out, put it over pole where it sits whilst i tack up, and all i wanted to do was put my head on the seat and fall asleep.

not the right frame of mind/body for getting on a ton of horseflesh, so i didn't

yesterday, however, had a successful ride in the arena.

Haven't heard how G got on today, but tomorrow, if the rain holds off, a lesson.  hope it does stay dry, given that we cancelled the last one cos of rain that didn't, in the event, happen!  must go to cash machine for money to pay for it !

the ice bucket challenge

why do people think its a good idea to do that whilst sitting on a horse and not wearing a riding hat?

have seen two such videos today, one from someone i used to know personally - when i criticized the idiocy, i was roundly abused and told that "it's for charity FFS" .. (by the girl's mother)

well it would have been different if you horse had spooked and you'd ended up in hospital with brain damage or worse...

In the meantime, it was G's day, and it was dry, and she tells me she had an excellent ride (once M decided to leave the stable, apparently he didn't want to once he was in!)

Rain 1- Claire & Monfils 0

from which you'll gather, we got rained off again.....i sat in the car reading a book and listening to the rain hammer on the car roof and watching the drain overflow into the barn with the mud washing off the yard...

i could, i suppose, have gone back a lot later ... but by that time it was the tail end of a long day which also involved me getting a flat battery (Gaynor's OH had to fetch jump leads to the yard) and a consequential drive down the nearby motorway to get it charged up again...

a positive two days

aprt form the the soaking i got yesterday.

but yesterday i finally got him to go along the back drive with no assistance from anyone else, which he hasn't wanted to do for me since the week we got the new saddle.

and today i managed to get on from the upturned beer keg in the arena - which normally wobbles and is generally unstable and he walks round it when he isn't deciding it's going to eat him.

tonight i got it stable, and he didn't think it would eat him!

a good day

G's day today, and she's got the best of the weeks weather, according t the forecast - and it was perfect riding weather, too cool for flies, just a nice breeze with a little nip in it after the heat, no rain, she said it went well.

i had day off as partner was to hospital for a minor procedure involving sedation and was very productive = a loaf, some ciabatta rolls, some cheese scones, all baked, dinner in oven early (bolognese, i do it for hours to let flavours develop) two lawns mowed, two loads of washing done and dried and some work work done as well ....oh, and i washed the car!

hurray no rain

last night.  was surprised, as it had been spitting on as i left work, but then it cleared up and warmed up nicely.


went in the arena as i hadn't ridden for well over a week, what with everything, and was surprised by a nice almost marching walk which we kept going through a fair few arena patterns

but the arena needs a good going over, there's a hole near one corner so i didn't try and be as crisp on the corner as i normally like to be (too much risk of falling into the hole, even in walk!).

the big black cloud

could be seen looming over the yard as i drove there from work.

was still sorting stuff out and had just finished moving a hay delivery when the heavens opened...

and that was after i'd also managed to run water from the hose down the inside of my boot...

not a successful night, LOL

hey ho...

an increased in the supplement required - the gut balancer.  having missed the dose on Friday, and being full of grass, putting the saddle on was going to be an exercise in not being bitten, so i lunged instead, much safer.

i was surprised to hear that G rode today, considering the wind is so bad i nearly lost a sheet off the line... apparently not nearly so bad down there, and M behaved himself.

so much for this week

monday, i was held back at work

Tuesday, I was in manchester and not home until 9 pm

Wednesday, Gaynor's day, he got ridden and worked well, i hear

even got laterals ridden (i've been trying to get it in hand and had the odd attempt myself, thought he was getting the idea, G did in trot and amazed herself and him!)

Thursday, was meant to ahve lesson but cancelled due to weather....and then, of course, having cancelled, the forecast turned out to be wrong. but as RI said, if she had turned up, we would have got drowned, murphy's law says that...

Today  - they were to move fields at teatime.  everyone knows i don't get there until 5.30.  he'd already been moved when i got there, was hyper in consequence, and no point whatsoever of making any attempt to catch him, you can guarantee he would not have been catchable... (the field hasn't been grazed for a while..)

a quick lunge

before the heavens were to open with yet more rain; that was this morning, and i was just in time as it was spitting on time i led him round to the stable for his feed and we were getting wet time i turned him out after that!

i was quite pleased - still only walk, but more energetic that he's been prepared to be for me on the lunge, to the extent that was a whisker off getting trot, but i couldn't quite keep going with whatever it was that i was doing that was starting to work...

but that's progress as well.

wished i'd gone down an hour sooner, TBH, and ridden, but time i got out of the house i knew i didn't have time for that.

more movement

he was a bit glue like, but kept going for 1/2 hour

lots of arena patterns in walk.

i'd have been happier with a better walk, but given where i was a month ago, i'm actually happy.

and lots of turns off seat as well

we even got a bit of lateral!

and it rained again

but happily i could see it was going to so didn't tack up = 5 minutes in hand work sufficed, and i was right = time he'd been fed afterwards he was soaked....

half ridden and half led

Did really well; he wanted to up the side of the mixed field, did that no bother, did the gate (after several attempts to line myself up to get it, M's feet in a mudbath!).  Then realised i'd opened it too far so had to go back through to pull it to a bit, and then back out to close it, which again took some lining up..

then carried on, by this time we're along the top of the drive at the top of the park, half way along he stopped.  i'd been admiring a pattern where someone has been schooling in a grazing field (they're not supposed to! but it's clear from horseback that someone has!) - so after 5 minutes or so of failing to get forward, i led the rest of the way.

so clearly lead the rest of the way is working in that we got a lot further than last time.

adn this was the first time i've ever gone that route on my own anyway, and previous attempts to do the gate have failed totally,

so overall a succes.

shame there's no where else to get back on further round, but can't be done!

a bit wet

i did know it was going to rain again, but rather thought it would hold off until i had ridden.

it didn't. massive thunderstorm with hail after i'd done one circuit of the arena; we sheltered in the lee of the wall down one side of it, it's usually a good place to shelter!

once it stopped i got someone to help me back on (I find the beer keg very wobbly and unsafe unless someone holds M, and M isn't that keen on it either) as I didn't want to go back to stable without having done more than we had...

so did about three more minutes and then it came down heavily again so rode back round.

he wouldn't go in stable! (probably because bulb has popped and it's a black hole; also because he knew it was going to thunder some more!).

i got wet untacking and putting that away (well, not all of it! some needed to be soaped down)

and wetter still clearing drain out ... had to be done .. i ended up stripping shirt off and putting waterproof on, which at least meant my top half felt better!

fed him and turned him out, but he wouldnt let me put his fly mask back on (probably because it was by now sodden, having been left on stable door, and he'd already had it off in the field before i got there..)

got tack cleaned and away and then it stopped raining...

but it's starting again.