Feels like Autumn Weekend Plans

[Ample Prosecco]

Anyone doing anything exciting? I’m showjumping on Saturday and ferrying various children around the country the rest of the time. They are all leaving again after a few months at home over the summer. Empty nest . But at least the house will be tidier!

 

[Michen]

I am awaiting a vetting! Gah I hate this time period. And getting a skip delivered to clear out the hay storage area to stockpile for winter.

Other than that going to a memorial for my previous barn owners husband Which is so sad, he was such a lovely man and welcomed a very sick Boggle and a very stressed me with open arms last autumn.

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

That sounds full on for both of you @Ambers Echo and @Michen

No horsey plans for me this week. I wasn't able to get my hack that was cancelled last week rescheduled to this week so that is happening next week instead. I think I may only just be recovered from the side saddle ride anyway

 

[Titchy Reindeer]

Taking Enormosaurus to her 3rd away show jumping, at a different venue from the last 2. Wish us luck.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Good luck @Michen for the vetting and @Titchy Pony for the showjumping x

 

[SantaVera]

Garden tidying and hacking for me, deciding whether to clip or wait for a while longer.

 

[dixie]

I’m doing a formation riding clinic with the riding club. As my horse is off strenuous exercise with asthma I’m taking my mothers horse.
Ive done it before and it was quite fun and hopefully we’ll get a team together.

 

[ester]

diddy ODE with the share boy, prob about 15 years since I last did one of those. . .

 

[tda]

Hacking out in the morning, then if that goes well, same again over the weekend

 

[Orangehorse]

I would like to go to Cornbury, but I might be driving tractor and trailer instead.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

I seem to be doing an orienteering comp on Sunday, am on the novice H Fuzzy, apparently I'm escort for a new RC member
Could be entertaining as H hasn't been with me long, neither I nor she has done this before (strewth, I've only boxed her out for 2 arena hires, a hack with a chum and last weekend's breed show!).
Better make sure she hacks sensibly tomorrow and Saturday then!

 

[blodwyn1]

I have fun club again!

 

[Jeni the dragon]

I'm off for a couple of weeks now! Heading to France on Tuesday so should be organising myself for that! But if I spot anything interesting on locally and the weather is OK, I may head along!

 

[Chiffy]

I only join in this thread occasionally as it’s not me riding anymore sadly, far too old! BUT my grandchildren keep me involved in Eventing these days and both have been selected by the British Eventing Youth League to represent Scotland this weekend at the Regional Youth Championships at Chillington Hall.
Snr Chiffet as she is known mostly on the Morning Thread is in the 90 and Jnr Chiffet who turns 12 on Saturday is in the 80 team. It was a huge surprise for her as she only started BE this season .
Ten selected from the 8 regions taking part. I have been sewing on Scottish flags for days! Top four scores in each region make up the team total but everyone is in it as an individual too.
Just hoping they have a great time. The Youth Leagues are to give young riders Championship experience.

 

[dorsetladette]

Loading practice! Ben's always been sticky, but we need to fix the problem now after missing the show last week.

Hopefully I'll have time to do some thing with the babies too - although I really should stop calling Robin a baby now.

 

[Horsegirl25]

Eventing tomorrow! Our last run of the season .
In a bit of a predicament as the weather has been so cold my boy is now pretty hairy, can't decide whether to clip tonight and possibly risk my life () in the dressage tomorrow or just leave as he is lol.
Have a good weekend everyone!

 

[millitiger]

We're off to spectate at BD Nationals tomorrow, prepping lots of yummy food tonight for the picnic.

Then Sunday off to local BD. We haven't been out since April, so knocking some rust off and collecting points to aim at Regionals.

 

[SEL]

I popped Babycob up to Cholsey today. He's been a bit flat recently and I thought it might lead to his usual "is he Welsh?" bad behaviour. Apart from a couple of little broncs he was quiet and puffing a lot more than I'd expect. Good news on the behaviour but now I'm worried he's broken! He's developed a bit of a gut and I seem to remember he needed a bit more protein last year as his winter coat came in so perhaps I need to start that a but earlier.

Debating about the rest of the weekend. There's a big classic and performance car event up the road. They are well behaved if you meet them hacking but the cars are noisy which means not horse friendly. Perhaps arena hire.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Tune up jump tonight. First jump for a couple of weeks and she was WILD. Locking onto anything and everything and surging toward it. Even things that weren’t even jumps. Crazy mare. I guess she’s feeling well!

Wish me luck tomorrow

 

[blood_magik]

BD-ing with Jack - trying to get him qualified for next year before I have my knee op so doing two tests today and two tests next week.

Then have new barn kitties being dropped off tonight. A pair of brothers to add to my brother/sister pair and Shoo-bun.

 

[Titchy Reindeer]

Good luck @Ambers Echo.

It seems my habitual Friday evening dressage lesson has morphed into a Friday night alternative riding / human horse relationship lesson. No complaints from me! Enormosaurus doesn't do dressage anyway, she thinks it makes me too bossy and there's no fun jumps. Last nights attempt at riding in a head collar gave a surprising result of a rather calm and cooperative Enormosaurus. I will be trying her in the head collar again next week (keeping the bridle for showjumping this weekend!) and if it turns out it was not a one off, I might invest in a side-pull for her. I would also really like to play around with different bridles and bits to see if we can figure out what she likes, but she's not mine and of a size that makes borrowing stuff to try complicated. All my own stuff is pony/cob/thorough bred sized.

Last week the neck rope was NOT a success. As a young man in my lesson said: "she unlocked a new level", but not in a good way. Finding out what works for her is very trial and error. At least she's got the veterinary osteopath coming out beginning of next month. He's a qualified vet who now only does osteopathy and dentistry so I'm hopping we can get a bit of an MOT. This mare has me questioning myself a lot. I spoke to my instructor who agrees there's a lot to untangle: her genetics (her sire is reputed for producing complicated offspring), her upbringing as the home bred to a non horsy owner (they clearly adore each other, but I think there were few boundaries), something seems to have gone badly wrong at backing (there is a video of the horse lying on the floor and the trainer pulling on the long line), and in a subsequent full livery she was left in her stable for 10 days with no exercise and not enough forage, leaving her with a windsucking like habit and a hatred of stables (her owner removed her from that livery the minute he found out). She has so many good points though, and I hope we can somehow turn her into a "normal", happy, useful horse that most competent riders could ride. As I said, her owner adores her and she's not going anywhere as long as he has a say in it, but I've seen tragedy before where a complicated home bred got passed around as dangerous after her owner had a road accident. I would like to give Enormosaurus the best chance at a good future, whatever happens.

 

[catembi]

Schooling today, hacking with a friend on her horses today, boxing to hack with a different friend tomorrow. I have been trying to hack my 4yo alone but she gets very anxious, and as mine are at home, I have no-one to hack with. On Friday I boxed a couple of villages away to hack with someone & OMG I was nervous in case company made her worse, but she was super chilled right from the word go & on the buckle. So I am going to keep doing that! It's actually FUN to hack when not on a fire breathing monster! Who knew!

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Super happy with Lottie. Did an 85 and a 90. First 90 since her back issues and she was feeling awesome. Made very easy work of the fences. I don’t have my eye in though, and rider errors meant no clears. But I’m just happy to be back out with her feeling great.

 

[nikkimariet]

We made it to the nationals! Had the worst run up - 4 weeks ago Rooni spooked/slipped out hacking and I came out the side door. He galloped back home and I didn’t think anything of it. He felt 100% and did two shows and was fine, my gut convinced me that I could feel ‘something’, a slight heaviness down the right shoulder in left canter and a microscopic loss of power. Next morning a small hard and cold splint popped out. Outwardly he was fine but I could definitely feel ‘it’ (in left canter only). I know the drill as he’s popped a huge one on that leg years ago, same feeling although that was soft and hot for some time.

Time is always a good healer so he’s lived in ice boots and had 12 days off. I sat on him weds for 10 mins felt 100%, tested again on Thurs and he felt good again.

So I went to the nationals having stretched him twice in nearly 2 weeks lol. Not ideal.

He was fantastic - he was so chilled and gave me a fantastic warm up, the best he’s ever gone. I made 3 big mistakes (and 1 judge is insistent I made a mistake in my tempis, I didn’t and the other 4 judges agree) so dented our score.





I’m delighted, it was such a lovely day. The weather was perfect. I learnt loads and it was a real novelty to have my trainer warming me up.

He worked hard so he’s having a quiet couple of weeks. Onto the next!

 

[Pippity]

Blue and I did a poles clinic today. We only walked, and did a fair chunk of it in hand. Partly because she's very unfit, but mostly because it was in the school where I had my bad fall and I was scared spitless!

But I managed to get on, and I didn't get off even when she startled at a horse clonking a pole.

Tragically, the weather was so bad we were both swathed in waterproofs, so our lovely matchy-matchy was wasted.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

Well, we survived the orienteering which had a treasure hunt included (things to collect or ID along the way.
V warm and sunny here today, tho cool in the shade. After tramping up and down through ancient woodland, following bridleways across fields and woods, past horses in fields, mini goats and alpacas happily grazing, a little light roadwork too, we eventually returned to the start, hot sweaty and in my case - knackered!
H v good indeed, not so quick to canter tho but trotting out well in between.
I had to get back to relieve DH of D dog, but found out an hour after I'd left that we had won!

 

[Cloball]

Nothing exciting, messed up a gate (I'm such an idiot) on Friday after a very sweet school in the sunshine so spent Saturday with a bag of apple practising all the gates on the yard. She seems not to be holding a grudge. I'm off this week for wedding prep so going to sneak some early morning rides

 

[little_critter]

We’ve had a busy day. Hack 1 the longer of our 2 routes including a nice canter in the woods.
Back for a coffee and some hay for T then hack number 2 nannying YOs horse who needs reintroducing to hacking.
YOs horse is walking rather slowly so hack 2 was actually quite a tricky schooling hack for T. Walking so slowly makes him need to engage properly. I joke it’s like tai chi for horses.

 

[Flame_]

Yet another "Best Day Ever" thanks to my awesome horse and to the organisers, scenery and terrain of Flint and Denbigh Fun Rides.

A ride I've done before, but it's still so epic that I'm going along thinking to myself, "I can't believe how brilliant this is" and beaming away. Truly living the dream for a few hours again and I'm so grateful for it.

 

[blodwyn1]

Managed fun club but discovered Bramble does not see the point of practising and then having to do it again! Her little temper tantrums were quite funny but did mean we didn't get a great result!