Its Thursday, first weekend in march and still no plans!

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palo1

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All sounds good :) :) Very envious of long beach walks DF!! I am so delighted with my mare today; we got a really fabulous, proper, swinging, long striding walk. First time ever she has produced a walk under saddle that makes me beam with happiness. Trot has come on enormously and canter will be a work in progress but really no issues there at all. Lately it has all been about the walk!! When I bought her at 2 I was actually really impressed by her walk and that was certainly part of the decision making for me. Last year it vanished - to be replaced by several versions of walk but none I particularly liked lol. Now today for a couple of hundred yards - across a nice field I got an amazing walk. So it is there!! Yay. I rode with my OH today which was lovely and we had some lovely cantering and even popped over a log. So happy with my little Welshie today; I wouldn't swap her for any other horse :) :)
 
Roxylola

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We hacked with a buddy for a couple of hours yesterday, and solo today - luckily I was out early enough for a canter on our local tracks. I don't know if its because I decided to swap to my jump saddle for the first time since Xmas, the smell of the spring grass, or if supercob having had company for 2 days has decided he no longer goes out alone but we rode the first mile all spooky and shouting for help. I admit I was not exactly willing to try light seat but we managed to get our head on straight and settle down to work.
Our long and low as per Tom Beech went out the window today for sure
 
milliepops

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Mostly just pony patting, here. And poo picking ?
OH is making me a new souped up muck trailer so still no fencing action ?

Kira got stung or bitten on her side on Thursday and it's still quite sore. I did ride her today for the first time since but it was tricky as she's a bit protective over the sore bit ? so we just did simple leg stretching fitness stuff rather than anything particularly challenging. Hope it settles down soon.

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Ample Prosecco

Ample Prosecco

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Good jumping lessons. Toby was working on turns and straightness. This was a skinny off a fairly tight turn so I'm pleased he was adjustible enough for this!

The folk at the water treadmill said he was weak and unevenly muscled - which is how he rides. Constantly going out through the right shoulder and not bending that way. So this was hard for him but the treadmill and other strength and fitness work I am doing with him should help a lot I hope.


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Dolly is definitely ready for the season! She was flying in her lesson. Working on lines, turns and related distances. Very pleased with how accurately Katie is riding. She is landing on the curvng line to the next fence and setting up Dolly really well. Helps that Dolly is such a star and so clever. She looks for the next jump herself.

 
j1ffy

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AE - Toby and Dolly look fab!

We had a good schooling session on Saturday. The simple changes are starting to click and we finished up with walk-canter and walk-counter canter around the arena. Danny still finds the transition to counter-canter on a straight line quite confusing so I think his head hurt by the end ;) He's a bit low on stamina at the moment, which I think is a feed challenge (he's a very good doer) but I'm loathe to change anything as the grass will come through soon and the problem will be his excess energy and belly again! We had a pleasant, chilled hack yesterday. He's so good to hack - didn't even bat an eyelid at a group of Harley Davidsons that went past us or at a Muntjac that went flying past behind a hedge, he just stuck his head up and watched.

Chilli had a groom and a play in-hand in the small school for his fourth birthday. He's the easiest of my horses to handle in many ways - loves a groom, doesn't mind being sprayed, loves having his ears scratched. I'd not done anything in-hand with him but he clearly knows his stuff from his backing in Spain and wasn't at all bothered about going between and over planks. We also did some parking-at-the-mounting-block practice, which needs work as he prefers to turn and have a chat! If anyone has some training video recommendations they would be very welcome.

Here are a couple of pics of him, he's looking well after his winter out. Time to book the saddler so I can get on him once the clocks change!

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Please can I stay with you..?
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Other than that, the weekend was mostly helping OH to build a new shed!
 
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FourLeafClover

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Ambers Echo said:
Dolly is definitely ready for the season! She was flying in her lesson. Working on lines, turns and related distances. Very pleased with how accurately Katie is riding. She is landing on the curvng line to the next fence and setting up Dolly really well. Helps that Dolly is such a star and so clever. She looks for the next jump herself.

Click to expand...

AE, do you know what app Katie is using to be able to slow down portions of video and add music, etc? I’m not ‘down with the kids’ these days ?
 
milliepops

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sounds like some good weekends were had :)

Ambers Echo said:
Good jumping lessons. Toby was working on turns and straightness. This was a skinny off a fairly tight turn so I'm pleased he was adjustible enough for this!

The folk at the water treadmill said he was weak and unevenly muscled - which is how he rides. Constantly going out through the right shoulder and not bending that way. So this was hard for him but the treadmill and other strength and fitness work I am doing with him should help a lot I hope.


159040720_3831461336933919_2685704414271138894_o.jpg



Dolly is definitely ready for the season! She was flying in her lesson. Working on lines, turns and related distances. Very pleased with how accurately Katie is riding. She is landing on the curvng line to the next fence and setting up Dolly really well. Helps that Dolly is such a star and so clever. She looks for the next jump herself.

Click to expand...

Katie is a very neat little rider :)

Have you got exercises from them to help straighten Toby up? just so you don't end up strengthening the crookedness in with the treadmill work? just thinking how horses tend to stick with the most efficient patterns of movement when left to their own devices, which might not be the correct patterns for improving their bodies. I've never used a water treadmill so not sure what kind of support or input you get?
 
Ample Prosecco

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I'm no expert but what they said was that to start with as he was weaker on the right that leg wasn't stepping under as far. As the treadmill is narrow, to stay in the middle he had to even up. His stride was uneven/choppy at the beginning and he was sort of drifting sideways. By the end of the first session he was noticeably more rhythmic and straight and stepping more evenly. And they said he should improve again each time. My RI took her daughter's pony who was also crooked and she was much straighter in her flatwork after 4 sessions so she recommended it.

You could see how much the shoulders were moving and the back was swinging to overcome the water resistance so it looked like it was doing some good anyway.

In terms of exercises I'm doing a lot of riding squares between 4 parallel pairs of poles - one on each side of the square - in trot and canter. But open to any other suggestions. The dressage
exercises thread seems to have stopped unless I'm missing them?
 
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I had a mixed weekend but on the whole, positive. I had my first jump on Viva on Friday. She’s lovely (if hot) up until she’s got the jump in her sights, and at that point she launches at it with enough energy to take her halfway to the moon. An example -
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She jumps beautifully! And carefully! Like so:
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But I think jumping her in a snaffle was a little optimistic to begin with, all things considered. So a nice, hopefully comfortable Sprenger universal is on its way.
Then on Saturday we hacked, Sunday she got kicked in the field near her stifle. Luckily it only landed very lightly so she’s just had the skin off a little patch and it hasn’t heated or bruised. I’d like to think this is a sign of her hardiness but I know better than to tempt fate.
Anyway. Yesterday off, which meant today I had to ride her after an off day, and due to timings, in the morning from her stable. Fresh, fresh, fresh pony and a tired, half asleep rider is a bad combination. Some things I’m just not prepared to deal with until I’m fully awake. Among those is leaping, bucking and cantering when all I want is trot travers. But my other option was to fall off, so I got on with it. We actually ended on a nice bit of trot half pass - goal being to actually aim her and not just sit there as a passenger whilst she takes me across - and left it there.
I’ll ride properly tomorrow, and do a longer schooling session. She is a breathtaking horse to ride, and had been foot-perfect for a week prior so I was due a bit of silliness!
 
Northern

Northern

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Dressage pencilling was fun! Was a really nice day for it too.
Unfortunately I have to say I (and the judge!) was disappointed at the standard of riding, I had expected more from a 2* class.
Two horses were quite obviously not sound but the TD allowed them to continue the competition, ho hum :/
I've been out of the eventing scene for a few years, perhaps I set my standards too high!

There were some really great tests though, horses just floating over the ground and a pleasure to watch.
I went and rode through the same (new 2* test 2021) test at home and it definitely rode better than it reads on paper!

On the Sunday I went to a regional Royal Show to help a friend with her jump classes. Was a super day but got very sunburnt...
Autumn is on its way, its cool enough to wear extra layers in the mornings now. Sad to watch the light disappearing faster too.
 
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