Beast from the east 2 Weekend plans!

I'm beginning to think that the powers that be had given away our summer in some bizarre Brexit deal...

Lunged my two this morning in a delightful mix of snow and hail and in response the both decided that transitions to walk were not on the agenda and I must actually be asking for half steps in trot instead. Never mind, we got there in the end. At least Arts was a good student when it came to the trot canter trot transitions. Diablo meanwhile decided that working canter is for losers and since I was only really interested in the transitions then in between transition to and from trot he could just canter on the spot :D

Honestly, my horse is a constant puzzle to me. How can a horse who has a non existent medium canter and a not even 100% consistent working canter manage to have a collected canter with perfect rhythm that is perfectly balanced. He's just backwards... I swear he just got sent down the production line the wrong way in the horse factory.

Weather hasn't really affected the roads yet so I'm keeping the no snow dance going in hope of getting out tomorrow

ETA: Ed is looking classy TB!
 
Not having much luck with riding at the moment, with one thing and another. Have a rotten cold today but going to drag my tired a&& out of bed for a lesson, the the snow holds off, as the only opportunity I have before dressage champs next weekend. Eek.

Reckon RAF Halton will be cancelled tomorrow but had decided not to go anyway given the weather, my stinky cold, and having some work to do, so will have a quiet one, but might pop some poles in the school instead.
 
Certainly feels that way DabDab... I haven't booked my arena hire for tomorrow yet, I'm going to wait and see how the forecast pans out later this afternoon before committing :p

Friend had a fab day at her first BD yesterday, scored a 9 and won the second test so what better way to start?

Back to earth (thankfully without a bump) today with Salty but she did her bit and has got her First Show badge - see separate report thread :p
 
My plans to go hunting have been foiled by the weather again this weekend. I've had more days snowed off this season than i have managed to get out for.

Can't wait for some better weather!
 
SEL said:
My saddler is due out on Saturday so I'm joining in the 'no snow' dance. Something isn't sitting right and I really want to get it sorted so I can rule it out if napping persists. Surely summer must turn up soon??!!
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My saddler was out today too. Alf was VERY hot to ride - I had this slightly uneasy "wish I had a neckstrap" feeling the whole time!
 
Lesson at 10h0 was good, around 4°C and light drizzle at the start, but at least the sand had dried out quite a bit during the week, so it was much better than it's been in a long time. I was on Dunapril, the moody mare, again, who is still in heat.

The rain got heavier and heavier though, and the temperature had dropped to about 2°C by the end of the lesson, and there were a couple of claps of thunder towards the end.

It was a good lesson, though. Much the same path as last weeks, but this time we had a pole on the ground to trot over, and cones laid out in a box in the middle.

Then the instructor raised the poles up a bit, only to about 20cm. So after trotting up to the first pole and jumping over, my horse was at a canter going towards the box, where we were supposed to come back to a walk.

But she could see the second jump, and it was as if she was thinking "what are you doing? There's another jump, there! I've got to at least trot to it!"

After doing that twice on a left hand and twice on a right hand, we did it again, but this time coing around the first cone at a canter then over the jump and coming back to a walk, then trot to the second pole, jump over it and then a stop after the jump, before hitting the corner of the arena.

Pulling up quickly like this is difficult, for me... I don't want to pull too hard on her mouth (in my first few months of lessons, I got a lot of "don't pull so hard" from the instructors), yet she really struggles against me sometimes. It's just something I have to learn, and I hope that the books I recently bought will be of help.
 
Lesson this afternoon, snow flurries and biting wind but very sunny.
Grid jumping working up to 4 jumps at about 75 cm down one long side then adding in 2 jumps on the diagonals and an oxer on the other long side made a little course that we did in both directions.
Started off sleepy and he struggled to teach the distances on the grid at first then by the end was powering around and struggling to contain his stride to fit the grid.

Good exercise Keith, were you told to use your seat to bring her back to a walk? I watched a jumping lesson where the rider was told to sit and lean back to bring horse back to a halt - instructor said “like John Wayne “

Good luck with the run, PF (makes me feel very lazy).

Well done on Salty’s first outing MP.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.
 
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Reacher said:
Good exercise Keith, were you told to use your seat to bring her back to a walk? I watched a jumping lesson where the rider was told to sit and lean back to bring horse back to a halt - instructor said “like John Wayne “
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Ah, that's a detail I missed out: for the whole of the exercise, we were supposed to be "en équilibre", whatever that's called in English (standing in the stirrups with bent knees and heels a low as they'll go). So no John Wayne impressions from me, today.
 
My clinic was cancelled today but had a brill jumping lesson at home in our indoor instead. And dressage at home is cancelled tomorrow so might just go for a hack.
 
Officially scrapping horse plans for tomorrow (hubby can school her)... my run today was very, very tough in that weather and I think tomorrow might be spent lying very still under the dogs until I feel human again. :lol:

Sorry so many plans are getting cancelled! Time for spring I think! Well done to everyone who has battled on today!
 
My jockey is still spotty, so we will probably not go to the show tomorrow 😣 Its a long way to just take one pony for me....

Have gridwork lesson booked for Monday, PC for son on Tuesday, and arena hire on Thursday though.

Fiona
 
My XC schooling buddy (who lives far nearer the venue than I do!) has cancelled tomorrow due to excessive snow. I HATE ENGLISH WEATHER!!!

But I know we are all in the same boat. Now desperately trying to find XC outings before 7th April when I am due to debut in a ODE at 80cm, not my plan for 2018!!!
 
Did a training hack with Ballerina Mare today, working on consistency of pace and straightness (and not spooking at every slightly abnormal twig). Weather was fine, just a bit windy on the far side of the hill. Looking to go out again tomorrow to do some serious off-roading on the hill.
 
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So my weekend plans have changed.... I now have just one plan - look into emigrating
 
Having similar thoughts here DabDab :(
Arena hire snowed off today, booo! This time there's no escaping the housework :mad:
 
Blimey. There are some perks to the wild west after all... no snow here. Remind me of that when I am complaining about the rain!
 
I managed a two hour ride and lead hack yesterday in the freezing wind. All good until the last 20 minutes when we had no shelter at all - my fingers were aching and I got so cold that I felt nauseous!! Must put more layers on next time... Pocholo felt the same as he did a pretend spook and shot forwards so I though ‘b*gger it, let’s get home’ and we galloped up the last hill. Goes to show how slow my two are though as a runner on the road next to us was only about 10 metres behind when we stopped :D

BD cancelled today so Indio missed out again :(. I want to try for the inter-regional team but having missed three competitions now due to weather I’m not sure we’ll have enough results for them to go on!
 
Had an awesome lesson yesterday, once M got over spooking and snorting at the snow covered fence line. Our canter has really come on now and the QI/SI/QI exercise along the long side has really helped connect him, even our trainer said it was clear how hard i'd been working and that she's really pleased with us at the moment.

I usually hack with a friend on Sundays but due to the weather we'd considered hiring a venue for a schooling session instead. Sadly we've woken up to thick (for down south!) snow so I don't think we'll be going anywhere :(
 
Hacked out in a blizzard yesterday. The wind was mental at one point it was lifting my skull cap on my head! Poor horse was unimpressed especially with snow being blown in her face.

We have loads of snow now and it is still coming down so she is staying in as the path to the field is treacherous. I will probably go up and school later.
 
Nici said:
On Sunday I have booked a hack in Richmond Park with two friends.
One of the friends has tried to wriggle her way out of the hack when she found out about the snow, but after a bit of convincing she is now ready to come. :clap:
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That hack I was hoping to go on earlier today did not happen after all. Now I'm very glad about it and am sitting in the warmth with my cat, gleefully looking out of the window. :p
 
We’ve had a good weekend, despite getting some unexpected snow. All of the horses bar T, who’s off with a splint, jumped around a full course and then Beau tried his hand at long reining over poles this afternoon.

New boy Henry has been improving daily since having his ulcers treated - he was rather fresh this morning so I ended up getting off and giving him a quick lunge before getting back on. Pleased to report that we had zero spooks today :D and I’m starting to feel a lot more comfortable with him. I have a lesson booked for next week and if that goes well then I’m hoping to take him to a show a week on Friday.

First day jumping:
[video=youtube_share;DdUBzOb6ZNc]https://youtu.be/DdUBzOb6ZNc[/video]

This morning:
[video=youtube_share;-B1tjdrx6Q0]https://youtu.be/-B1tjdrx6Q0[/video]

Think he’ll make a cracking workers horse once I sort his flat work out. :)
 
No off-roading, but good schooling session instead. Instructor had confirmed last minute for a lesson this afternoon, but then had to cancel last minute, so we schooled on our own and rescheduled lesson. There was a bit of snow on the ground, making off-roading on steep stony tracks inadvisable, I thought.
 
Sorry to hear of the cancellations.
We were lucky here, in that able to get out. However, it did mean competing in horizontal snow showers. Both my tests ended up being in snow!
Really pleased with my mare though, as we got two firsts in what is only our seventh outing. She’s getting more confident and happy each time out.
Today had a fab lesson, starting to work towards novice :-)
 
Well done everyone who got put competing, or is lucky enough to have an indoor to ride in...

We woke to snow this morning, so no showing for us 😣

Out for lunch and the cinema instead, at least the 6yo was happy 😁

We have lessons booked for tomorrow evening, fingers crossed for a thaw.

Fiona
 
It started snowing towards 16h, and got steadily heavier, but small flakes. Early Monday morning, around 06h0 when I got up, there's a nice covering of snow, but no deeper than about 2cm, I think. I'll know better when I go out in it to get the bus into town.
 
We had a very busy, tiring weekend. My lessons went super well, the baby horse tried very hard and is starting to relax in new places. The older man worked well, but I had a wake up call that my right hand needs to stop having a mind of its own.

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Our training day was also a very good day out, dressage saw us having a discussion about how we don't get tense and our jumping was brilliant really keeping the rhythm and cruising after all the practice we have had lately.

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It was quite chilly here for the first time this year, had to break out a jumper!
 
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