Holy cow it's December weekend plans :o

Hay delivery tomorrow morning. Hopefully get the roof on the field shelter Sunday. The shelter is last years xmas present from the other half - apparently you can't rush perfection. :p

Hopefully in between I'll get a bit of ground work done with the wimp and ride D's cob.
 
A warning to all - don't tell your trainer that you are feeling a bit tight and unsupple!! Lots of one handed riding with my inside arm hanging long and a heavy shoulder. We also did an exercise with a looped rope round my wrists which I had to hold taut - a very strange feeling to start with, but a really good way to use my legs and seat more to steer. It’s good to move the focus away from tests and on to pure training, although I think I might ache tomorrow!! Gratuitous picture of the sassy one in the Autumn sun. So lovely to have a rain free day. :) x

 
Haven't posted on here for ages, but we are starting our Area Festival campaign on day 1 of the new season. Nickel has been retired from BD for nearly two years, but has rallied despite his increasing age and health problems so we are going all out to qualify hopefully at Novice, Elementary and Music. The season starts on Sunday so we are going out to do a Novice and an Ele. Fingers crossed for a few points towards are qualification.
 
Well she tripled in size yesterday and roared out of the national park out of control. Luckily our awesome firies stopped the head fire from going through a bigger rural town. Picture (not mine) is from last night. Luckily from what I read, the majority of residents in the path planned ahead and got their animals out in time 👍

The smoke has cleared where I am as the wind changed luckily, so hopefully I can go for a ride today without choking 🤢
 

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Jeez that looks pretty apocalyptic Northern. I hope everyone is OK, though doubtless things will be pretty awful for a while for some poor people.
 
Northern said:
Well she tripled in size yesterday and roared out of the national park out of control. Luckily our awesome firies stopped the head fire from going through a bigger rural town. Picture (not mine) is from last night. Luckily from what I read, the majority of residents in the path planned ahead and got their animals out in time 👍

The smoke has cleared where I am as the wind changed luckily, so hopefully I can go for a ride today without choking 🤢
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My God, that photo is dreadful.
I have friends who had to emergency evacuate immediately 3 weeks ago, I know they are ok but they haven't updated on the property, up nr Nimbin
 
Northern that looks awful! Really hope they get it under control!
I've worked all day today, but a gallops trip tomorrow, plus a spin out on Winnie.
Have fun everybody out competing!
 
Well, briefly somerford was lovely, the surface was a little frozen where it had been in the shade but thawed quickly. Super cob came off the trailer like a snorting dragon but he soon got too tired for that nonsense. Had a fab time, tired super cob and tired jockey now though
 
Keeping fingers crossed for you Northern, I can't imagine how scary it must be!

I hacked for the first time in 2 weeks, original plan was to just walk round the block but she was an utter tit so we went and did circles on the beach instead until she calmed down. I'm struggling to tell if this is just genuine winter nuttiness or if there's something more going on :(.
 
Looks good NM :)

We are just back from our third show... didn't actually venture into the arena today :rolleyes: I could really have done with a helper this time, I'm always on my own and normally can juggle it all OK but today everything was giving off The Bad Vibes... lorry park got very busy, no one to help with gates into warm up or test arena, horse was generally very lit up so I had to throw tack at him on the move as tying up was off the agenda as was standing on the box :p

I realised I wasn't going to be able to actually get from warm up to test without assistance, and so decided I wasn't setting him up to succeed and it was better to try again another day. Couldn't find anyone to tell that I was withdrawing so I had to phone the show office from the cab!

One of those days! :oops::oops:

On the drive over I had been thinking that if it went well, he wouldn't need to do any more acclimatisation shows and we could park them to concentrate on training, but I think we need to keep on a bit longer ;) ]

Anyway, arrived home in sunshine so took K for walkies and then stopped off at the garden centre for consolation prize winter bedding. Off to cheer up the garden in a min ;)
 
milliepops said:
Looks good NM :)

We are just back from our third show... didn't actually venture into the arena today :rolleyes: I could really have done with a helper this time, I'm always on my own and normally can juggle it all OK but today everything was giving off The Bad Vibes... lorry park got very busy, no one to help with gates into warm up or test arena, horse was generally very lit up so I had to throw tack at him on the move as tying up was off the agenda as was standing on the box :p

I realised I wasn't going to be able to actually get from warm up to test without assistance, and so decided I wasn't setting him up to succeed and it was better to try again another day. Couldn't find anyone to tell that I was withdrawing so I had to phone the show office from the cab!

One of those days! :oops::oops:

On the drive over I had been thinking that if it went well, he wouldn't need to do any more acclimatisation shows and we could park them to concentrate on training, but I think we need to keep on a bit longer ;) ]

Anyway, arrived home in sunshine so took K for walkies and then stopped off at the garden centre for consolation prize winter bedding. Off to cheer up the garden in a min ;)
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If you want to head my direction (Hunters/Burrows/Summerhouse), I can assist if you need
 
Thanks IHW :) this was a bit of a perfect storm I think, combination of buzzy atmosphere and awkward layout just scuppered us. One or the other would have been manageable ;) onwards and upwards.
 
@Bernster please say you were out with the Sandhurst today and saw what happened to Boggle and I (if you were there we wouldn’t have seen you as on Boggle’s insistence we remained with the master the entire afternoon- very very very drenched!

If you did.. I’m praying you got a video....
 
Michen said:
@Bernster please say you were out with the Sandhurst today and saw what happened to Boggle and I (if you were there we wouldn’t have seen you as on Boggle’s insistence we remained with the master the entire afternoon- very very very drenched!

If you did.. I’m praying you got a video....
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Sounds eventful Michen!

I got back on Millie this weekend. Had a pootle in the school yesterday, because it was absolutely freezing, she’s freshly clipped and had 4 weeks off... if I was coming off, I wanted someone to find me haha.
Anyway, it was like putting on a comfy pair of slippers and she was a gem so today we tootled out for a short 15 minute ride around our farmland. Met some trespassers with a dog. Why is it trespassers will never apologise for being in the wrong place?? No matter how nicely you approach them, they get their back up. Apparently they’ve been walking these fields for ‘40 years’ so they don’t see the problem. I’ve never seen them in the last 5 years (and I see a lot of trespassers and I know all the local dog walkers as we have a public footpath running through the yard). They had even cut across a crop field and when this was pointed out they said that the edge of the field was ‘too muddy’ to walk their dog through. Fortunately, despite Millie being on high alert on spotting them in the distance, she kept a level head.
It’s so good to be back on board.
 
I hope you're both OK Michen?

We hacked in company today, she was much less tittish which is a relief! I think she was a bit cold yesterday as I gave her an hour in a thick stable rug before riding today and all was well with the world. We did have a bit of drama on the way home - coming to the end of a circular route, bits of it quite isolated, and rapidly fading light we found a tree half-down across the path. There wasn't enough time to turn and go back the way we came so my hacking buddy had to untack her horse to try and lead him under one side of the tree. I dismounted and covered the saddle with Ms exercise sheet as I'd never have managed to tack her up again. We *just* made it.
 
Thanks MP!

Could you travel yours tacked up? I travel Rooni with his saddle and boots on. Not only does it save me time it saves me scrapping to get his tack on. Fig is a LAMB to get ready, even at the start of his second career. Rooni... Bit of a dense thug with no spatial awareness!!!
 
It's a good suggestion and he travels in his boots but when he's antsy he chucks himself against the sides of the lorry so I'd prefer not to even though he only has a tatty old saddle 🤣
On a normal behaviour day I can now get saddle on while he's still on the box (not bridle yet but he's very earshy so we have a special routine for that ;) )
Hopefully it's just a speed bump but will review if it isn't better next time!
 
Oh no Michen, what happened?! Sounds eventful!

I was at arena xc lesson today at keysoe. Decided we should have an outing that didn’t involve hunting. Finnegan didn’t agree as he seemed to be looking for the hounds and was pretty lit up the whole time. But in a fab way as he’s usually a bit too laid back so he was lovely and forward, taking everything on, apart from launching over the coffin a few times. He was still feeling fresh at the end so ended up cantering around the arena a few times before walking him off.

Kept it small and confidence building but actually it felt a bit easy. Did I just write that?!
 
Thanks guys, looks like they’ve got it somewhat contained now 😀 lost one property which is amazing considering it’s now a 20k+ hectare fire.

Did manage to go for my ride on Saturday, it was super windy, dusty, smokey and even rained 6 drops (see picture!). L was a good girl, I’m proud of her sensible attitude even though hacking isn’t her favourite thing at the minute! And what do you know, today is a forecast top of 14C, it has rained (!) and it's bucketing snow in the mountains behind us. Welcome summer!

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Good day yesterday at arena hire, weirdly felt quite confident considering I had a serious loss of confidence over summer and I don't jump much anymore! Friend's OH got some pics but I haven't seen them yet.
Will definitely be hiring with friends again, it's such a big arena that we could all have a bit of a run around without crashing into each other :D
 
We ended up quite literally under water!!! Had to jump off poor Boggle so he could scramble out. By the time I’d seen what happened to the master it was too late, Bog was in hot pursuit. What he didn’t appreciate is that he’s 3 hands smaller..

The lesson here is that if there’s a bridge there’s likely a very good reason for it.


Absolutely drenched both of us from head to toe but was highly amusing and amazingly my ciggies in my pocket stayed in tact so all was not lost.
 
Very long day yesterday driving to Devon and back and came home with the car full of rosettes and trophies! So lovely to meet all the dartmoor breeders/owners and have a good dartie natter. Young jockey very very pleased with her £500 prize money (wow)! Apart from hospital stays, that is the longest I have left my herd for and came back to lots of snuggles and kisses. An amazing day though and the weather was kind for travelling. Would post a pic but I have absolutely no idea!!!!!!
 
Took Mindy to the gallops as the ground is rubbish and her wing man is very sharp anywhere else! She was a bit quiet, her back is due a tweak, so I will leave her now until after she is done Tuesday. Ran out of daylight for Winnie, but will hopefully have time Tuesday for her. That's the problem with living so far away from the horses!
 
@Northern - that photo is terrifying enough to stop me moaning about waterlooged fields with ice on top. Hit minus 6 last night, arena frozen solid and apparently the hunt is in the area today so no doubt the ponies will be hightailing around their bog churning it up even more.

@Michen - well so long as Boggle and the ciggies were OK!! Ditch full of water???
 
SEL said:
@Northern - that photo is terrifying enough to stop me moaning about waterlooged fields with ice on top. Hit minus 6 last night, arena frozen solid and apparently the hunt is in the area today so no doubt the ponies will be hightailing around their bog churning it up even more.

@Michen - well so long as Boggle and the ciggies were OK!! Ditch full of water???
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More like a river.. it looked like a shallow stream!
 
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