Backing 3/4yr olds

Brilliant lesson today! All very low key but some good glimpses into what the future might be like..!
Anyone else been riding/working their babies today?
 

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Little Bella met my farrier for the first time today. I purposely waited a month or so to call him so I could work on picking up her feet, didn't want her to hurt the farrier. She did really well, it was freezing and blowing a gale of course, but she was quite polite about it all. My poking around with her legs must be paying off :) He was pleased with her feet the way they are which makes me happy :cool: I like my farrier because he takes the time with the new ones, gives them hugs and talks to them rather than just getting on with it.

Next step is to have her wolf tooth removed and start bitting her.

Obligatory photo of her concentration face from last week :)

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I realise this is not quite on topic but as my girls on a break at the moment I have no topical news however I took pictures when I visited today , the 1st picture is 1 year ago when I bought her the other 2 today look how much she has grown.
 

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TheMule said:
Poor little mare, must be so traumatizing to have that happen, especially so young.
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I am not sure she really understands what has happened, but she's bonded to me so quickly! She's got an amazing personality and I am so happy to have found her.

Will be going slowly with her as it's more important she learns to trust humans than getting her 'ready to ride'.
 
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Little Bella went out to the riding paddock for the first time yesterday. Meet some jumps, and listened carefully while I explained that she had to go over them in future :p

Trotted her over some trot poles for the first time, non event. I’m particularly pleased how well she listened to me when a horse cantered up to and followed us along the fenceline. She’s also learnt quite quickly to line herself up to me on a mounting block. She got lots of praise for being very clever.

Mare ears picture! Sideways apparently ?
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Lovely to see all the young'uns doing so well and they look FABULOUS! I have entered the youthful spiral of doom with mine :eek::rolleyes::D We had a brief hiatus whilst I found another saddle to fit her elephant like shoulders; we now have a nice enough 'interim' saddle which should work well for her for a few months whilst I save up for something that will last longer. We had fun with a bareback pad - w/t/c very happily and the new saddle certainly helps her to move better thankfully. However, she now says that we need to attend to her teeth; she is all lumpy and not especially happy in her mouth so dentist is booked for next week. Not unexpected at all. Today she decided that whilst she is happy to do poles on the ground in the shape of 'corners' and skinnies (baby practice for actual jumps one day...) actually going AROUND a corner is more tricky, that she is in fact made of 2 square boardso_O and that carting me up the field is a better idea....sigh. I always like to be fair BUT today I didn't appreciate being told how things were going to work so a very strong outside leg was applied, we did a few circuits of square corners and had mild huffiness on both parts. Finally we managed a very nice tiddly jump with no carting/motorbiking/yanking and I left it at that. I was in the saddle all of 20 minutes. Cor blimey, someone remind me why we have these youngsters?!! :rolleyes::rolleyes::oops::D
 
daffy44 said:
Palo, its so when they grow up to be superstars, we can look back and laugh at all the times that we wanted to get off and cry when they were younger!!
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Thank you :) - just feel slightly despairing at the moment! Alw is so, so different from the horses we usually have and whilst I very much admire her good looks and love her sweet character I am not sure I was prepared for the sheer tanking unbendingness of a young Welsh cob!! Bless her, she is going to be such a lovely horse for me and already she has done herself proud but we are clearly in the 'despair' phase of training. She was literally so awful today that the thought of taking her anywhere where someone might actually see us is just too awful to contemplate. I await the dentist and hope that may help...otherwise the 'despair' phase may last longer. I am just off to look down the back of the sofa for that lovely leg yield I had last week....
 
palo do you remember the footage of fihunt/Miss_C's welshie mare trashing the dressage boards at one of her first shows, she turned out ok ;) :D
 
No I don't recall this but I might have a furtle around to see if I can find it! I think tbh trashing the boards at dressage would be aspirational at this point:D:D I do remember my older horse being a bit hopeless as a four year old too - one low point was hacking him out as a just started 4 year old (having bought him as a very sporty Endurance/Eventing possibility) only to be lapped by 2 rather frail looking pensioners. I thought for several weeks that canter was beyond both of our capabilities and that he would be quite a sweet horse ridden only in walk and trot. Very slowly and carefully. He has become one of the fastest and boldest horses I have had the privelege to ride so there is some hope. Just not much today!" :rolleyes:;);)
 
palo1 - I'm not sure the 'forgetting something that was easy last week' ever completely disappears. My 7yo (though green) warmblood and I forgot how to do a trot-left canter transition yesterday! We are working on engagement and the beginnings of collection, and apparently getting from a slightly collected trot to left canter is simply impossible as his legs just get tied in knots. I remember going through similar phases with my Medium dressage horse so maybe it's me...
 
Introducing 4 year old Podrick. He's been making a nuisance of himself in the paddock since we bought him as a yearling, and we've been battling hives, the highest proclivity to injury I've ever known in a horse and more allergies than I can shake a stick at that all caused a sore hind gut. I have wondered why I didn't just go and buy a four year old without any of these issues along the way.

But he's such a lovely person and has such a smooshable nose that all is forgiven pretty quickly. We've taken him slowly and he's mostly just hacking about a bit. But he went to his first competition this weekend, the main aim was to potter politely around a warm up, secondly to learn stand politely on the lorry and thirdly to wobble around in between some white boards without pulling all sorts of shapes. He ticked all three off, and I think he really quite enjoyed himself. I think he's going to be a lot of fun. He's earned himself a bit of a holiday again :) 109624939_3466987389980371_2134534660188664410_n.jpg
 
GinaGeo - that is a lovely looking chap!! :) All sounds very good. Thankfully a more normal service was resumed here today. We remembered how to leg yield from one side of the road to the other (on both reins don't you know!!) and actually had a few strides of super more springing and open trot (we have been struggling to find a decent trot at all) Today we also found a second canter - slightly faster than the one we have had so far; we managed both canter gears on one stretch - yippeee!! I am so delighted with Alw today that I may have a glass of wine with my dinner :D:D:D. Onward and upwards again I hope.
 
Great to see some lovely newbies and to read of the ups and downs!
Nova and Muley have come home from lawnmower duties today so tomorrow we resume 'work' with the aim of sitting on again in a couple of weeks to do a few more hacks over Summer.

Nova finished his Futurity filming today-
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No exciting news from mine! He is pootling about and being a very good boy, new rider is giving him A* report cards. Hopefully will be doing something more interesting to report next month.
 
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j1ffy said:
palo1 - I'm not sure the 'forgetting something that was easy last week' ever completely disappears. My 7yo (though green) warmblood and I forgot how to do a trot-left canter transition yesterday! We are working on engagement and the beginnings of collection, and apparently getting from a slightly collected trot to left canter is simply impossible as his legs just get tied in knots. I remember going through similar phases with my Medium dressage horse so maybe it's me...
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I'm just returning to normal from about a 4 week stint with a 15yo advanced horse that forgot how to trot. she's remembered now! but it's been a bit of a frustrating time :oops:
it definitely doesn't go away!
 
ihatework said:
No exciting news from mine! He is pootling about and being a very good boy, new rider is giving him A* report cards. Hopefully will be doing something more interesting to report next month.
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Ooh, be careful what you wish for! Boring is good at four ?
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