redmone
Well-Known Member
Hi everyone! **waves**
Well I'm sat here browsing the net, licking my financial wounds after winning nowt on the national (daughter won £12 on rare bob!) and thought I was long overdue posting an update!
Speaking of the grand national, daughter advises me that she is relieved, as SHE intends to be the first female jockey to win the race, so surprisingly wasn't cheering on Katie today! So much for girl power lol!
Anyway, back to our D + D update! All is good! (I seem to have said that for the past few updates, haven't I! Are you lot not getting bored of me yet???)
Life has consisted of a lot of jumping recently. My last update was all about how absolutely chuffed to bits we were with daughter's first jumping rossie, and it was a red one too! Shortly after that daughter had a jumping lesson which resulted in her landing hard on her head.
Dolly put one of her dirty stops in at a spread with a filler inbetween the jumps. Daughter knew she was going to do it, and sadly I think, had one of those moments where she just hoped Dolly was going to jump it for her. Daughter went flying over Dolly's head and landed really badly on the top of her head. She didn't get up straight away, which had us a bit worried, but did get up and was rather upset. She jumped straight back on Dolly and jumped the scary jump. And then continued to finish her lesson and jump for another 20 minutes. After that, she announced to me that she was "seeing stars, feeling sick etc..." WHY did she carry on jumping????!!! (because she knew I'd stop her if she told me!)
Anyway, a day or so later she was better, no damage done. HOWEVER I think she learnt a valuable lesson that day.
Dolly does have a dirty stop in her, particularly where fillers are concerned. Daughter has learnt that she does actually have to ride her over fences like this - she can't just be a passenger.
So I ask daughter, whether she wants to just avoid competitions with fillers (there are plenty of beginners cross pole only classes for 12 year old kids!) or whether she wants to "fix" Dolly's problem with fillers. Yeah, we all knew what she was going to decide.
The next few weeks feature me dragging all manner of strange things out for Dolly to jump! To daughter's credit she has been like a rider possessed! She's not taking no for an answer!!!
I wondered if their next jumping lesson, the instructor would go easier on them due to the scare she gave us last time. No chance! The fences were bigger and nastier, and Daughter kicked Dolly over ALL of them! Couldn't believe it. Instructor was REALLY pleased with them, and said "whatever you're doing, keep doing it!!!"
Since then, they've been back to Bold Heath twice, and have won the beginners class each time!
As much as I hated the fall she had, it was the kick up the butt they both needed. Today we went to a working hunter clear round and Dolly quite obviously tried to stop x3 times - and each time Daughter really rode her past it. Three clear round rossies today, at a course which Dolly would have definately chucked her toys out of the pram at a few weeks ago.
So as always, I'm an extremely proud mum. My girls have come so far in just over two and a half years together!
Dolly is still on part working livery at the moment (she is ridden by the riding school for 4 hours per week) but during the school holidays I put her on full livery as Daughter rides every day. Well daughter doesn't know yet (don't tell her!) but I'm putting her on full livery permanently in the next week or so.
I figure that with all the shows we go to, Dolly needs more downtime. She is seriously AWESOME to compete - a dream to travel with and I think it must be hard for her to switch from being essentially a competition pony now to a riding school pony (no disrespect to riding school ponies, because lets face it, these sort of ponies are the true stars!!!) and also, in all honestly, daughter now wants her all to herself.
She's cut right down on her lessons - she more or less has a couple of private flatwork lessons and a monthly (amazing!) private jumping lesson. The rest of the time she schools herself, hacks out or competes. So it would be nice for Dolly to just have more turn out as a full livery rather than more exercise. I hope I'm making the right decision, as working livery has really helped keep her fit and keep the edge off in the past, but daughter doesn't really need that now!
That's pretty much out update! The next step I have planned is to get a life height certificate as daughter wants to register with bsps and possibly other memberships! I NEVER thought we'd get to this point with this pony.
Here's some recent photos:
Winning at Bold Heath
Planks which are not so scary anymore!
Almost had a pole down there.....
Recent dressage.....they got a good score 62.5%, but weren't placed.
And finally......just after we'd bought Dolly....
Much of a difference???
Thanks for reading as always everyone. I have toffee apple crumble, mini eggs (about 10 bags after post Easter reductions!!!) and really cheap and nasty headache wine (which I LOVE!!!)
Enjoy!
Well I'm sat here browsing the net, licking my financial wounds after winning nowt on the national (daughter won £12 on rare bob!) and thought I was long overdue posting an update!
Speaking of the grand national, daughter advises me that she is relieved, as SHE intends to be the first female jockey to win the race, so surprisingly wasn't cheering on Katie today! So much for girl power lol!
Anyway, back to our D + D update! All is good! (I seem to have said that for the past few updates, haven't I! Are you lot not getting bored of me yet???)
Life has consisted of a lot of jumping recently. My last update was all about how absolutely chuffed to bits we were with daughter's first jumping rossie, and it was a red one too! Shortly after that daughter had a jumping lesson which resulted in her landing hard on her head.
Dolly put one of her dirty stops in at a spread with a filler inbetween the jumps. Daughter knew she was going to do it, and sadly I think, had one of those moments where she just hoped Dolly was going to jump it for her. Daughter went flying over Dolly's head and landed really badly on the top of her head. She didn't get up straight away, which had us a bit worried, but did get up and was rather upset. She jumped straight back on Dolly and jumped the scary jump. And then continued to finish her lesson and jump for another 20 minutes. After that, she announced to me that she was "seeing stars, feeling sick etc..."
WHY did she carry on jumping????!!! (because she knew I'd stop her if she told me!)Anyway, a day or so later she was better, no damage done. HOWEVER I think she learnt a valuable lesson that day.
Dolly does have a dirty stop in her, particularly where fillers are concerned. Daughter has learnt that she does actually have to ride her over fences like this - she can't just be a passenger.
So I ask daughter, whether she wants to just avoid competitions with fillers (there are plenty of beginners cross pole only classes for 12 year old kids!) or whether she wants to "fix" Dolly's problem with fillers. Yeah, we all knew what she was going to decide.
The next few weeks feature me dragging all manner of strange things out for Dolly to jump! To daughter's credit she has been like a rider possessed! She's not taking no for an answer!!!
I wondered if their next jumping lesson, the instructor would go easier on them due to the scare she gave us last time. No chance! The fences were bigger and nastier, and Daughter kicked Dolly over ALL of them! Couldn't believe it. Instructor was REALLY pleased with them, and said "whatever you're doing, keep doing it!!!"
Since then, they've been back to Bold Heath twice, and have won the beginners class each time!
As much as I hated the fall she had, it was the kick up the butt they both needed. Today we went to a working hunter clear round and Dolly quite obviously tried to stop x3 times - and each time Daughter really rode her past it. Three clear round rossies today, at a course which Dolly would have definately chucked her toys out of the pram at a few weeks ago.
So as always, I'm an extremely proud mum. My girls have come so far in just over two and a half years together!
Dolly is still on part working livery at the moment (she is ridden by the riding school for 4 hours per week) but during the school holidays I put her on full livery as Daughter rides every day. Well daughter doesn't know yet (don't tell her!) but I'm putting her on full livery permanently in the next week or so.
I figure that with all the shows we go to, Dolly needs more downtime. She is seriously AWESOME to compete - a dream to travel with and I think it must be hard for her to switch from being essentially a competition pony now to a riding school pony (no disrespect to riding school ponies, because lets face it, these sort of ponies are the true stars!!!) and also, in all honestly, daughter now wants her all to herself.
She's cut right down on her lessons - she more or less has a couple of private flatwork lessons and a monthly (amazing!) private jumping lesson. The rest of the time she schools herself, hacks out or competes. So it would be nice for Dolly to just have more turn out as a full livery rather than more exercise. I hope I'm making the right decision, as working livery has really helped keep her fit and keep the edge off in the past, but daughter doesn't really need that now!
That's pretty much out update! The next step I have planned is to get a life height certificate as daughter wants to register with bsps and possibly other memberships! I NEVER thought we'd get to this point with this pony.
Here's some recent photos:
Winning at Bold Heath
Planks which are not so scary anymore!
Almost had a pole down there.....
Recent dressage.....they got a good score 62.5%, but weren't placed.
And finally......just after we'd bought Dolly....
Much of a difference???
Thanks for reading as always everyone. I have toffee apple crumble, mini eggs (about 10 bags after post Easter reductions!!!) and really cheap and nasty headache wine (which I LOVE!!!)
Enjoy!
