Catch Up

Can't keep me down thankfully :) At least when I have a bad day, it's a BAD day but then it's straight back up :)

So. Tuesday was a disaster from all perspectives and has been consigned to the bin.

Wed, A put T in for me rather than in the grassy field. I got down and was greeted by a FURIOUS horse, whinneying, stomping round stable and demanding he be let out. He then objected to walking past the grassy field and planted 3 times. So felt lots better!!

S's rubbing has calmed down and he doesn't appear to have rubbed any more. Sweet itch rug has come today so tomorrow he can have that on and hopefully be happier.

Fat club wasn't too much of a disaster. I just dislike the brainwashing part of it and the people who are obsessed with points etc. But. Last time it did work and I DO want to be thinner so I need to do it. On monthly pass so I don't have to go to every meeting but am going to to begin with so that I get into the swing of it.

They made a big deal out of a bloke there who has lost 7 stone, he looks great. Upset me a bit because I lost that much (have put just under 2 stone back on tho) and because I did it on my own, I didn't really get any recognition. Would have loved to have had that recognition. Although SU Slimmer of the Year was pretty good :thumbs:

Need to aim for that *vain*

Walked the dogs yesterday and this morning so that's some exercise, at least.

Tonight, farrier has told me I am a paranoid mother and nothing was the matter with his shoe. However, he took it off, ferreted around for a bruise, couldn't find one, put shoe back on and in my lesson he was spot on so I am 99% convinced the "not-quite-rightedness" was due to that smidgeon of a twist in his shoe with his shoe pressing into his frog.

Anyway, important thing is I know I know my horse and he's back to normal :)

Talking of lesson, he was a lazy shit tonight. Stuffed of grass methinks. He's got a shock! Back to being worked lots now his foot is sorted!!

Worked on the medium canter tonight. Always interesting in a 28mx15m school on a big moving 17h!! Next test is N35 and I need to do medium canter on a circle which was making me a bit "eeek" but instructor pointed out that it's actually EASIER to ride it on a circle because you are having to ride the circle anyway so get a better medium canter. Because I'll be "riding" the circle and because it's not straight line of 60m, he'll sit back and we'll get a better canter.

Not sure why but for some reason I've been too dense to apply the same principles of medium trot to the canter and we've just gone "vrooom" and he's flattened and I've had to haul (or felt like it) to recover the working canter.

Need to remember:

Get him infront of the leg
Sit up tall
Bum in saddle
Keep his neck soft, long and low (for him ... he has a short neck so we have to keep his neck soft in order to create the illusion of a longer neck)

Medium canter will actually feel slower as he will extend. He has a really good canter, very balanced and powerful so he will find medium easy as long as I set him up right.

Don't hold onto reins. Keep outside rein consistent. Bring inside rein away from neck. Don't neck rein him. Inside leg to outside hand. Get him bouncing. Ride the corners. Medium canter, just relax hands a bit and it's all there. Don't fling reins at him, he can't go anywhere and he'll suck back.

I need to sort my lower leg out still too. Need to find out why I get cramps if I have the stirrups on the ball of my feet and not if I have them on my toes because I really need the balls of my feet in the stirrups else it screws my leg position.

Got very confused when being told to "relax my knee". Really couldn't work that one out so stopped and asked her to rephrase it and I tend to grip with my knees which means my lower legs swing back and I tip forward so I need to bring my knee away from the saddle and take the weight through the front of my upper legs, then with stirrups on the ball of my feet, my lower leg will be stronger.

Easy to see but Christ knows how I'm going to work that one out. Lots of work me thinks.

She also wants me to teach T-Jay a new aid that she says is really useful. It's a tiny miniscule aid but apparently really helpful. She wants T-Jay to learn that my legs moving a fraction forwards means extend ie into medium and bringing my legs back means to collect the pace ie canter back up.

Had a little go but I'm struggling with that one. Legs forward means reins go and means I physically move my legs fowards which isn't really what she wants.

Need to brew on that one. I think that I may find that easier when I've sorted out my legs/stirrups issues.

On a very big plus note, I noticed tonight that without realising, I corrected my outside rein and that it's pretty much second nature now to keep that contact - WHOOOO. It's only taken me 7 years to get that one LOL.

Shitty Day

Finished work early in the sun in order to ride before going swimming.

Got stuck in traffic.

Got to yard to find T by the gate looking thoroughly dejected and came in almost-but-not-quite lame. Not sure if he was just being so lethargic about coming in that I thought he was lame.

Whinnied at me and then whickered when I took his tea round.

S is on a mission at the moment to demolish all stables with kicking the door. I hate it with a passion and why is it the only horse I can't "cure" is my own?!

Fed them both and went and sorted their water out whilst pondering what to do with T, who by this time was tucking into his haynet.

Friend who gets S in and puts T in the grassy field for me said he has gone cantering off each day so I am pretty sure now he's just really stuffed by the time I go down at 5pm so tomorrow he's going in his stable to deflate and hopefully he'll be back to normal when I get down there.

Argued with OH in between all that. First time since we've been together 2.5 years. Well. Wasn't really an arguement. Just me getting stroppy and him agreeing with me instead of rising to the bait.

Had a moan with H instead of swimming, went to supermarket and came home to discover the dogs have destroyed mine and mum's beloved stable t shirts due to having been left "on their own" - bro was upstairs having evidently a lazy day and dogs have decided to pull the washing off the radiator and destroy them.

So have done no exercise. Have ranted at bro and OH. Dogs have annoyed me. S has annoyed me (he has also rubbed a hole in his neck. Couldn't wait just 2 more days til his sweet itch rug is here!). T has worried me. So not a good day really!

Fat club tomorrow. :( Really wanted to try and do a lot of exercise tonight in preparation for it but I haven't so it's going to be AWFUL :(

Sunday

All very low key and cheery yesterday. Tootled down to local show, had a bit of a shock how rammed it was. Is always busy there but yesterday really was rammed!

Parked somewhere near the start of the huge parking field due to said field being full!! We had to drop ramp, pray T would turn tightly after coming down and not land on top of a car! Then put ramp up straight away as no one could get past with the ramp down!!!!

Tacked up and got on. Very nice girls in lorry next door said they thought T would look stunning doing dressage and why wasn't I doing dressage? (Had no jacket on so def wasn't competing) Made us all chuckle anyway and they looked a bit sheepish when I explained we do normally do dressage but that we had come to do a clear round as a break and a reward for him getting his first points LOL

Took ages to get off carpark as kept bumping into people we knew then pootled around whilst B and mum got food (they had their priorities right!!) then over to the clear round while we waited for my OH (personal photographer) to come down. As soon as he was there, we were in.

I went round twice one after the other and went clear both times :) Actually enjoyed parts of it too. Having looked at the pics, it's no wonder small jumps are such a big deal to me, T still jumps them huge!!

B also took him in twice but he got lazy by then and just basically didn't both picking back feet up so had one down in each round. In her 2nd round, I'd put a couple of them up. Not massively but changing a X pole to a straight bar shocked him a little LOL

Have nominated him for Horse mag piece on ditches/water and have nominated B to ride him too LOL

He's scared me tonight. Turned him out and he stood with his head on the floor, not moving. Normally he stomps off for a drink then to eat. Asked friend to check on him when she got down there and she's called me to say he looks a bit quiet but that he was grazing, had beaten squirt up and had followed them round the field so hopefully he was just a bit stuffed from being in the grassy field all day, tired as he hadn't come in for his nap like he has been doing and grumpy as he's back in the field without much grass to keep squirt company til the morning.

Will check him in a bit on way to OH's. I do get paranoid about him but after last summer when he was so ill, I don't think I'm being silly.

Very quickly

I went jumpy jumpy wheeee rather than jumpy jumpy splat.

:thumbs:

Will blog tomorrow.

More tootling

More tootling today with A. Was nice just to plod along :) Ponies were very well behaved.

T then spent a few hours helping S&S eat some grass off. Didn't make much impression but he was happy. Explained to him how I needed him to go out with our S on a night as S isn't allowed grass or hilly field or spotty friend to play with and weirdly, he happily plodded past that field and back out to usual field with S. Wonder if he understood me?

Jumpies tomorrow. Strangely looking forward to it.

Need to clean tack in the AM though, it's riffy from fun ride last week :(

Also went foal scritching ... well yearling & 2yr old scritching. Some lovely babies :) Made me a bit broody but I have T and don't need anyone else.

Think I'm joining WW again..... hmmm....

Next stressage is booked :thumbs:

Tootling

Had a lurvely tootle tonight.

Once again, had convinced myself he was lame and I couldn't ride him due to twisted shoe but today I took him round the block and he was pinging :) In a good way.

Stomped down drive, round the estate, took off up the hill (naughty boy but twas funny that he had gone "ooh stand like a good boy, give way to the car, WAHEY! CHARRRRRRRRRRRRGE up the hill" that it took me about 10 strides to pull him up cos I was laughing at him :Lol:

Only out for 25 mins. I love going for a little life-experience hack ie round the roads but am SO glad that we don't really have to do much roadwork if we don't want to. Should have taken him up the fields tonight, he'd have gone round at warp speed :)

Ponies moving into summer fields tomorrow. The one field has, LITERALLY, grass 12" long and thick and green. No idea where it came from cos just a couple of weeks ago we had none!

Pony shopping for friend tomorrow - exciting!

Wasn't expecting that!

Was booked into a "Calm and Confident" workshop tonight through RC. Hadn't really got a clue what to expect but had a really really good night.

I know I keep saying in my blog that I over analyze stuff but that it's how my brain works well... it really really is! And if you're reading this, you're heading into more analysing... so be warned!

I am turning ever more geek like and am ashamed (?) to admit I took loads of notes. I hope my interpretations are right and that I've not got stuff drastically wrong.

Workshop was with Mary Stitson of http://www.calmandconfident.co.uk/.

First off we looked at what confidence actually is and how it (and fear) are something we learn rather than are born with. Then looked at how we learn and how most of it is sub-conscious which is 90% of our brain function.

Then we had to answer a short questionnaire about our personalities and the results of the questionnaire were assigned a colour. So for example, on my questionnaire, my colour was Blue. Imagine a pie chart split into 4 sections - red, yellow, green and blue. We all scored differently according to how we'd answered the questions. Each colour represents a different personality.

1st quarter - Reds - dominant, competitive, can be insensitive
2nd - Yellows - sociable, demonstrative, persuasive
3rd - Greens - supporters, patient, encouraging
4th - Blues - reserved, cautious, precise

There were also people who scored very similarly for two colours (two colours next to one another so a few people were yellow-green but people could have been red-yellow etc etc). You also have people who are polar opposites so red vs green and blue vs yellow.

Regardless of your personality, you can fear, you can feel unconfident etc. Your personality would just show it in different ways so for example, you'd rarely see a Red personality as nervous.

I was Blue. This is what they say about a Blue person:

• • Precise
  • Cautious
  • Conscientious
  • Likes facts
  • Objective thinker
  • Prepares meticulously
  • Likes peace and quiet
  • Likes time to think things through
  • Reticent about expressing true feelings

  How to relate to me:

  1. Give me time to analyse my thoughts and feelings
  2. Speak in a straightforward way, but don't be gushing
  3. Remember that I may appear aloof and distant because I don't like being
     rushed
  4. If I appear irritated, it is with myself, for not expressing myself
     adequately
  5. Realise that I dislike social gatherings, loud people and having my privacy
     invaded

That is the first time I have EVER done a questionnaire like that and thought "that is EXACTLY me". She said blues are analysts - muchos chuckles amongst me and friends. That's exactly what I am. Literally. Tis my job!!!

90% of our brain function is sub-conscious and when our conscious tries to push the sub-conscious aside, the sub-conscious pushes back more so we need to understand how our sub-sconscious works. It cannot tell fact from fiction so we can change the memories that affect our way of thinking. That's not to say we should ignore our sub-sonscious.

Our sub-conscious gives us an awareness of risk that's invaluable but an awareness of risk does not equate to fear. Fear can be crippling, not useful. This is especially true when we're with horses. Horses are prey animals and as such, they have evolved to tune into fear. re usefulness of fear, from fear we get adrenalin and if we can harness that adrenalin, it can be really useful. We can reposition it within the body:

1) See a "scary" fence
2) Get a rush of adrenalin
3) re-route that adrenalin away from fear, channel it to ie your legs to get them to respond
or
4) Use the adrenalin as an anchor (anchors coming soon.... don't panic lol)

We all have strategies/programmes/methods for everything we do. They are all learnt and we all have our own personal strategy for riding which covers what we do and how we feel. They are usually negative ones ie our sub-conscious saying "don't do that, it could lead to X which could ie hurt".

To overcome "confidence battles" we need to reprogramme our sub-consciousness. Our sub-consciousness can't tell the difference between fact or fiction, it doesn't process negative commands and we can re-programme it quickly.

We went through 4 techniques that could help us reprogramme our sub-consciousness.

Fast Phobia Cure - hypnotherapy

• Think of a situation that scares you
• Focus on it, how you feel, what you see, what you hear, what you smell etc
• Scale it on 1-10 as to how much it scares you
• Focus on the emotion involved - the fear and where it is in the body
• For the "guinea pig" it was in her stomach, a churning. For me it was in my chest, almost choking/suffocating feeling and in my hands, tingly and shakey.
• Move the fear out of your body, visualise it out in front of you. For the guinea pig, the churning/spinning got faster here
• Slow it down and change the colour of it
• Once the emotion's movement is calm, bring it back inside your body
• Scale the scenario again on 1-10, should be lower

For Mary, she visualises the spinning out there in front of her whilst riding in situations that worry her - out in front of the horses ears.

Inner Voice - no hypnotherapy. NLP (neuro-linguistic programming)

• Think of a situation that scares you
• Listen to your inner voice - male/female? where is it? supportive? what's it saying?
• What happens to the voice as you progress through your scary situation?

The guinea pig for this had two voices, on either side saying "you can do it" and "you can't do it" (or saying words to that effect). She had to imagine picking up one voice and pushing/throwing it further away, the voice getting quieter so she could hear the positive voice louder.

I spoke up at this point because my inner voice shuts up. My inner voice is actually my mum in my right ear (why my right?!?! - had never THOUGHT about stuff like this but there you go, tis my mum in my right ear LOL) being rational, calm, encouraging, objective and all the rest of it.

So I'll sit there and look at the jump, weigh it up and all the time this voice is telling me "c'mon look at it .. it's 18", T-Jay's nose is 2'6 in circumference, it's nothing, you've done higher jumps, it's fine, it's a doddle" then I'll decide to do it and the voice shuts up. Then I'll either change my mind or spend the few strides towards the jump thinking "argh".

For those of you who know me or have seen me jump, I'm sure you'll all be thinking that you can actually see me going through this. Shall I? Shan't I? Yes! Hmm.. maybe not.

Mary talked it through with me and asked me what happens immediately before my inner voice switches off. I said that I reply and she pointed out that I actually have two inner voices - mum and ME. Never thought of that before! Mum is there being positive (whooo... I actually have a POSITIVE STRATEGY!) and I'm there replying.

She asked me what would happen if I didn't reply to mum. The thought had never crossed my mind and I have no idea what would happen but I'm going to give it a go. I don't really know though how it'll work in practise because there has to be the point at which I say "I am going to jump this jump" and that's the point at which the inner voices shut up so I need to figure out a way of not committing myself to jumping the jump LOL

• I can also see that this would have a HUGE impact on self esteem and weight loss etc. If you're always hearing yourself say "I'm ugly and fat" is it any wonder you believe it? "Weight loss is too hard" blah blah blah. So I really have no excuse now do I? I need to reprogramme myself and maybe that's where things are different from a couple of years ago when I lost loads of weight? I believed it was easy at the time. Now I don't.
  
  Movie Making - fact vs fiction
  
• Imagine a screen
• Picture the incident/scenario that makes you scared - audio, smells etc included
  How does it make you feel?
• Run the whole "movie"
• Turn it to black and white and turn to mute etc
• Rewind it, watch it, rewind it faster
• Play it again, slow it down, stop
• Rewatch it in full colour, noise etc, keep it running

I don't think my note above are quite right for this bit but the principle is simple enough I guess. Lightbulb moment with that that is how I learn my dressage tests, JUST as Mary said "this is especially useful for dressage tests" LOL

With my eyes shut, I "ride" the test, I imagine being on the right diagonal, imagine the correct canter leads etc. Have to admit, since I've learnt my tests this way, have never got lost again!

Anchoring - achievement. Positive strategy rather than a negative one.

An anchor is a trigger for an emotional response. Smell is often one ie a loved one's aftershave/perfume etc.

To develop an anchor, you need to focus on a really strong emotion, replay that situation and really focus on the emotion involved. Do it several times whilst doing an action that will be your trigger ie press finger and thumb together then in time, when you press your finger and thumb together, you'll get that emotion.

Can be inventive here and for example, use holding double reins as the anchor to trigger the feeling of winning the class etc etc.

Inner Voice was the one that really struck a chord with me and then movie making, although I'm curious about the anchors and I liked the double rein idea. Hadn't ever really thought of translating it into something like that.

Need to remember that our sub-conscious doesn't like being told what to do/what to feel/what to see etc and doesn't recognise negative commands. Instead of seeing a jump and thinking "that scares me" we can train our sub-conscious by thinking "that used to scare me but now it's OK"

We also need to be aware of our affective environment, the people around us. At a show, we will be surrounded by people who are a negative influence ie "I'm really nervous" or "I think fence X is really scary". There's not only our immediate environment but the environment of our family/friends etc "I worry about you when you jump" - it will all impact on our sub-conscious.

It takes 30 days for our sub-conscious to form a new strategy.... one down, 29 to go....!!!

I really do have brain ache tonight. I had no idea what tonight was going to be about nor what I would think of it all. I certainly wasn't expecting to be feeling quite so positive about it all.

Definitely tempted to go one to one next time and with T-Jay too!

Shamless Plug

www.carlehaynes.co.uk

has been revamped :)

Nothing Entry

Not a fat lot to say here!

Pony has had a couple of days off 1) cos of me having stuff to do and 2) cos of having twisted shoe.

Pics of me from fun ride are awful. Must must must remember to give with hands. I can do it in lesson so why not on a fun ride?

Clear round'ing on Sun at local show. Not been there for a while and is where T used to live so will hopefully bump into plenty of people :)

S is still lame in trot but much improved and tonight seemed very happy. Have ordered a bug rug off ebay for him and sent his measurements through. Hopefully M2M will mean he'll be comfortable in it.

Swimming tonight was horrid. Water was cold and all cloudy. Apparently they were draining tanks or something. Bluergh. Millions of kids around too.

Calm and confident workshop with RC tomorrow night. Should be interesting?

Just sorted out my "to go to" diary. Eeeeek. Between RC, local shows, BD and BHS there's something I'd like to do EVERY WEEKEND and most Wednesdays too!!!

Won't get to all of it !

Ooooh and bit of sun, bit of rain and BOSHA we have tonnes of grass. It's appeared literally overnight. Fields are really lush and green, all ponies are shiny shiny shiny :) Moving them over into summer fields this weekend else there'll be too much grass to move them. Cows are back too (as are sheep and lambs) so we're all full :) No doubt cows'll be in our winter fields at some point to eat off all the grass that'll grow in there. Love our fields.

Lovely Jubbly Day

Apley Park fun ride today. Definitely one of my faves - must be as it's been the only one I've done the last few years!

All very chilled today. Lorry was loaded efficiently and quickly. I put my stuff in whilst mum fetched T-Jay. Lorry started on first go. Pony loading without even thinking twice. Off we set. Slightly delay at petrol station while tyres were filled but nothing major.

Got there via a slight detour through a farmyard - silly sat nav. Booked in. Tacked up, off we toddled. Last year T bounced and bucked all the way to the start, this year he plodded on a long rein.

Had a really really nice ride.

Photographer came up really early (on our first canter) but I did jump. Just the little one but worst nightmare, he bucked after the jump but I survived and it wasn't as bad as I always think it will be. In fact, wasn't bad at all.

Slight brake failure in the field I hate (due to the fact that every horse seems to have brake failure in that field and the river on the left gives me the heebie jeebies). Sat a "yeeeee haaaaaaa" fly buck without even budging, it really did just get too exciting for him, wasn't a nasty buck. Fabulous gallop up one of the biggest hills ever and abrupt stop at the top as it's just as steep and long on the way down LOL.

Then he got really tense and bouncy no doubt because I was. Knew the mother of all downhills was coming and at the bottom is the ditch that you CAN walk through but is muddy and where I had a very traumatic time last year. Think last year it took about 15 mins to get him over, I had to get off, then he pulled back and got his leg through his reins (up to his elbow as he's too big for his reins, I can't get any bigger ones!) then he launched over it then I had to walk up a huge hill before getting back on.

This year, he planted again. At that point I felt like crying but kept reins really soft and legs quite but on him, turn to friend to say "he's going to leap in a minute" but only got to "he's going to llllllllllll" then we were over. Friend swore profusely at firstly the leap and secondly the fact that I didn't budge. Didn't feel as big as friend said it was but gave me a huge confidence boost.

Maybe all this work with no stirrups is really truly helping.......

In fairness though, it's not ME i'm proud of .. it's him. That's the first time he's gone "I really don't like this" but has trusted me from up top to go over something. That was my 1st thought when we landed. My first thought was mid air and would have turned the air blue had I had time to formulate the words LOL

Am pleased he made his mind up to go over it quickly because had I got that sentence out, I'd have been worrying over him leaping but as it was I didn't have chance AND I know now I can sit them :)

Tried very hard to let him have his head and not restrict him whilst cantering, like I'm doing more in the school but the problem with that is that he's so bloody fast! Getting there though. Silly pony was spooking at things, then flew up one field no problem, pulled up to a trot then spooked, tut. Suppose I shouldn't moan, would rather have him spook in trot than in canter!

Other thing is jumping. None of my other horses have actually cantered away from the jumps and I think it's that that bothers me, or is at the moment. I can stop him within 3 or 4 strides of the jumps easily. But those 5 strides are a hell of a long way away from the jumps. Did do some of the jumps but not as many as I was hoping I'd feel comfortable doing. However, had got myself in a tizz over that ditch so had we done the ditch EARLY in the ride, I'd have probably relaxed.

I know I could be seen as over analyzing EVERYTHING I do or don't like, not just in this blog but in it's predecessor too but I'm just trying to understand things and by writing them in a blog, working through them in my head/on paper/in blog, I can break things down into manageable chunks. It's not the jumping I don't like, I don't think - it's the landing - so now I just need to get my head around that. I need to work out why and how to get over it.

Think next week will go to local show and do clear round but not working hunter. Just a little clear round will be achievement enough for me :)

Oh and ponio loaded without chifney on the way home :) Really looking forward to doing some more rides this year and definitely time for a new one :)

Further excitement

Am having lots of t shirts from this place who are doing our yard ones. Not only am I having the yard one but I also want one of their designs which is the Velocette logo but it says "wench" which is a local word so want that on a black t shirt with gold writing to match Velocettes.

Not only THAT though, I would like one with T's cartoon on but haven't been sure what text to have on.

Now I am.

"Propa dressage oss, ay I?"

:biggrin:

Saddler Report

Saddler today.

My saddle got a thorough inspection and he watched me ride in it (with and without stirrups) and he is happy with it. It didn't budge and it didn't feel lopsided. In hindsight, it's not felt lopsided for a while so perhaps now his top line is coming back so much and because we're working on my position so much more that it's all falling into place?

Who knows. Anyway, he's happy with it and he didn't grumble at me using a sheepskin half pad. Asked him about whether it was sat level or whether it was tilting back but tbh even I could see it wasn't tilting back without the half pad on - again, think his top line has come back more than I realised so he'll go back into his saddle cloth tomorrow - yey for clean saddle!!

Mum and S were fitted for their saddle :) It's going to be a black 17" WH saddle. They look lovely and H and L wouldn't get off the saddle horse with the demo model on :)

Saddler did walk into S's stable and ask if he could walk away LOL There is apparently absolutely not one single redeeming feature about S from a saddle fitting perspective. Our only saving grace is that he's not the WORST he's ever had to make a saddle for. Phew.

S is very short coupled, very wide, has non existant withers, a HUGE shoulder and is slightly croup high so saddler is going to have to work very hard at getting a saddle that fits mum and S and doesn't slip/roll. However, he says he CAN and WILL do it so good-o. We're also having a girth from him too. He designed it for his daughters fell pony who is similar to S in that he has a table top back. It's a humane girth but padded leather and 4.5" wide so about 1.5" wider than a normal girth. That combined with the saddle having been made for S and the girth straps being in the right place for HIM hopefully will mean the saddle will stay put :)

The main problem is his huge shoulder shifting the saddle back but being a little croup high, his hind legs will push the saddle forwards and it'll end up tipping forwards with the rear of the saddle rising off S which is EXACTLY what was happening with the Ideal. Add into that the fact that S can't go any bigger than 17" and you've got a saddlers nightmare LOL

Questioned over how wide the pommel would be because mum has bad hips and S is so wide, I was worried about the pommel being wide and hurting mum's hips but saddler said when a lot of places widen the trees, they flatten the pommel but that he builds the foam up on top of the pommel so that where mum will sit it won't be wide. Apparently, what he says so don't quote me, but most saddles have 1 layer of foam on the pommel/seat. He puts 3. He certainly does SOMETHING to make them really soft and really really comfy.

Mum got a bit lost when he was asking about how deep she wanted the knee rolls, how deep she wanted the thigh rolls, how many D rings she wanted LOL I'd forgotten just how in depth he goes when he makes you a saddle!

T still felt a little odd in the school when i rode him for the saddler although not as bad as last night so I got L to ride him in the field today. He looked fine apart from in one direction (across the straight) when he looked to be coming up short on his off fore but he also wanted to canter and it was slightly downhill so who knows.

Fun ride tomorrow - it'll either kill or cure it!! Either he'll be fine and I'll have been getting paranoid over nothing (again) or he'll go lame and I can get the vet out.

Should look back actually and see when his back was last done ... hmmm....

Executive decision... will clean tack AFTER fun ride tomorrow, not before!!!!

From ridiculous to sublime....

Last time I learnt the test a day or two before riding today. This time, due to arrival of brand spanking new folder, I've looked at N35 already.

Wish I hadn't!!

Medium canter on a circle :(

Ponionio was a good boy today. Mum rode and H did then me. Canter still good. Felt lame though in trot but everyone told me he wasn't, guess will hack after saddler tomorrow and see what I think then.

Next Stressage

Sat 9th May. N35. N38.

Most likely anyway.

So potentially ....

Sun - fun ride
Sun after - show/working hunter/jumpies
Sun after - helping friends at their first show
Sat after - stressage

Busy busy!!

Local BHS area group have loads organised too, as does RC. Am like a kid in a sweetie shop trying to choose!!

Another belated blog

Hmmm where to start.

Sat and Sun we trundled on two mini hacks. All nice and easy and quiet.

Monday we had a lesson. Mum rode him first and he is starting to ask a bit more of her now ie if she doesn't keep a contact, he'll stop trotting etc. My lesson was so-so I felt.

Worked on my position. Have now done sufficient no stirrup work that my stirrups have had to go down a hole LOL. Moved on to canter and I volunteered to take my stirrups away. Am LOVING his canter with no stirrups.

I felt like I could ride! Although that penny didn't drop / smile sneak on my face til after the lesson LOL

Good feedback from my test sheets. Instructor was really pleased with the 8 for the FWLR whoo hoo :)

Tues, friends came over to see us and we went to the pie factory. I had a mixed grill. Yummy.

Last night I rode in the field. Longer stirrups mean my feet were lighter in the stirrups but overall my legs were less effective for some reason and I almost lost him through his outside shoulder a few times. Ended on a high though. On both reins, he gave me what felt like superb walk to canter transitions, two lovely circles where I KNEW I was sat up straight then across the schooling area and really nice counter canter so called it a day on the second rein as I was so pleased with them.

Curry tonight and he's had another day off.

Debates aplenty here. Fun ride Sunday? hmmmm.... Working hunter next week? Hmmmmm.....

Yard t shirts can be picked up on Sat - squeeeeeee!!

Oh and soon our yard will be famous ... but I have been sworn to secrecy LOL

Egg Hunt Report

Egg Hunt, despite the rain, was a resounding success - PHEW! Photos on facebook!

Lots of smiles, lots of cheering, lots of chocolate, lots of rosettes and lots of BBQ food after :fat:

Today, typically was GLORIOUS. Went swimming this morning, then ordered yard t-shirts (cannot wait for those to come!) then off down the yard, poo picked (ugh and now have 2 whopping blisters), then finally got arse in saddle about 3.45pm and went for a tootle with J up the fields.

Lovely jubbly - sun, chilled ponies, fields :) First time I've been on him since last Sat so it was nice to get back in the saddle :)

Hacking tomorrow hopefully and then lesson on Monday to get us back on track again.

S is looking lots better which is great. Mental note made to find out the Flypor tomorrow and will get that on him as *frantically touches wood* he's not itching yet, or not manically.

Fun ride next week - hope the weather is good! and then in two minds about the week after. May wander down to the local show for working hunter, or even just a clear round - hmmm. Maybe. Would involved plaiting and bathing and more importantly JUMPING though!

If it's as nice tomorrow as it has been today - ponies will be bathed. Ha.

Orange plans/plots continue/thicken.

Ooooh also treated myself to a Lazy Jacks top from local saddlers, and have ordered Ariats :wub: and also further treated myself to a new folder of dressage tests (seeing as mine still hasn't surfaced!) I've gone all official with the BD folder and the laminated A5 sheets etc. Hope it comes soon.

OH is doing a stand at the EMW weekend thingy in June in Brecon Beacon so need to find a nearby B&B for a night or two. Cannot do camping lol.

Mousehunt on facebook, am rapidly getting addicted. Not good.

Am also getting obsessed with teetshirts.com - desperately want one of their "Wench" ones in the velocette logo style. But need to preserve funds for Badminton and for more yard t shirts. I want a t shirt/hoody with T's cartoon on too - ooooooooh decisions decisions

Belated Blog

Well has been a few days since I've blogged, mainly because I have nothing to report!

Friend rode T for me on Sunday, just a little tootle round the block while I led S. Then on Monday T decided he needed a few days off and twisted his shoe. Didn't get it put back on til yesterday but I think he's deserved a few days off anyhow.

S is lame again :( Really quite badly. He's back on bute and seems tonnes happier. He's also back in with T in the small section to force him to rest and I foresee them staying in there for quite a while :(

Curiously, his sweet itch is staying at bay whereas other sweet itch pony on the yard has started scratching so I'm secretly quite pleased.

Egg hunt at the yard today. Keeps tipping down then clearing and being nice. Please please be nice at 5pm!

Might be in Horse mag, watch this space :)

Whooooo 4 points

Not a fat lot to report today. All went scaringly well despite not having cleaned tack or anything this morning.

Got up, cleaned tack, rescued spotty pony from fence, did fence repairs, got ponies in, did stables, plaited pony, lorry started first time, pony loaded first time, got diesel on the slip road to the motorway, got there without getting lost and in plenty of time.

Parked right next to the main road but hey no problem for my pony who totally ignored quarry lorries and God knows what. Note to self: he actually IS good in traffic nowadays.

Warmed up in little 10 min bursts when there were only a max of 4 people in there, came out when it got a little too busy and he started to back off when people came past him.

In to N22 and all went well although first medium trot didn't really happen. HUGE spook in canter though :( but recovered OK I think. Ended in 10th place I think and with 65.52% so I was really pleased.

Virtually straight in to N37 and have definitely laid a few demons to rest with that test! He went really well. Let him go a little too strung out perhaps in the trot so our 10m circles weren't quite so good. Mediums were a lot better. Counter canter went fine. Muppet here totally forgot the G&R the reins over the centre line on both reins so only got 4s for those movements :( Ended on 60% which again, am pleased with. Oh and we got an 8 for our FWLR whooo. Let the reins out and his head sunk to the floor then for the first time, really, the turbo kicked in in walk so no comments "needs to travel more" or the like.

No breaking in canter (apart from the spook when he also got disunited and in a right muddle), no bucks, no ears back, shiny happy pony today!!

So very pleased with him.

My position is a lot better too. I'm still tipping forwards but there just wasn't enough room in my head to think "close back of armpits" - my next Big Thing I want to work on is my hands I think. They are way too low and too close to my body in the pictures. I'll get there I'm sure. Can't be doing too badly to get 7s for my riding in afflicted dressage so just for today, I'm going to allow myself a little smile to myself.

Pics on facebook :)

Panic

Still not located wayward dressage test folder :(

However, friend to the rescue :hail: Cate lots and I have N22 :phew:

N37 I have from last score sheet so should be able to at least get through Sat! Times are WONDERFUL! 1.22 and 1.45 or very similar!

Had plans to ride tonight, glorious weather but while farrier was doing his tootsies, I saw what I thought was mud then realised it was one of those "scabs" like lots of layers of skin with a bit of manky stuff. Pulled it off and left an area about a 50p size just behind his girth of fresh pink skin so figured rather than risk affecting that and jeopardising Sat, he can have another night off so the new skin doesn't look quite so new tomorrow.

S had his tootsies done too so all good :)

Have been scrutinising them both today and T really does look fab. His topline is coming back loads and he's shiny, his withers (which are rather large) aren't so noticeable any more due to topline coming back so much. All in all, I'm really pleased with him.

S is looking rather TOOOOOO well and it'll be a good job when he's measured for his saddle and it's made (decision re saddler has been made whooo) and he can come back into work. His coat is really long and blunt and coarse. Debating whether to clip him to be honest and let him regrow another coat?

Ohhhhhh and I'm happy, I got in Ariat Grasmere's. Go me :) Need to save some pennies then buy some :)