Mid August Weekend Plans

[Accidental Eventer]

We were supposed to go show jumping but I scratched due to last weekends incident. I rode Henry Thursday and he felt great, did a more serious schooling session on Friday and he was amazing. We are starting to feel consolidated at elementary and I've been thinking about medium Need to look at the tests. We have been focusing on keeping a soft neck through our work and itis making a big difference. Been doing lots of work off the horse too get get fitter and stronger to help us.

Yesterday we went for a long, hilly hack with Coolie and his rider. We had a blast though Coolie had the most fun. He spent the whole time walking so slow then galloping to catch up (and was allowed to get away with it!). Hen just walked the same pace the whole way. Then we got back and they both galloped around the place while I mowed and set jumps.

Hoping for a jump today but that will depend what time husband gets home from upgrading his SJ judging qualification.

 

[JFTDWS]

I’m spending this weekend idly staring at screens and psyching myself up for a quiet hack on Daemon, after a heavy week of skill at arms, sword fighting, archery and lots of peopling.

I had Fergus out doing skill at arms and a bit of archery last weekend/ start of this week, which was awesome - particularly when we were combining ring pick-ups with lateral work (three rings to be taken on a lance, offset so that you leg yield between rings 1 and 2, and half pass back onto the line for ring 3). That’s a very Fergus friendly job! Other fun games included chasing and throwing javelins at moving targets, and charging a shield wall . I then dropped Fergus home and went back for pony-free sword play for the rest of the week. I am now absolutely cream crackered!

Alas, no photos for IP reasons.

 

[Cloball]

I’m spending this weekend idly staring at screens and psyching myself up for a quiet hack on Daemon, after a heavy week of skill at arms, sword fighting, archery and lots of peopling.

I had Fergus out doing skill at arms and a bit of archery last weekend/ start of this week, which was awesome - particularly when we were combining ring pick-ups with lateral work (three rings to be taken on a lance, offset so that you leg yield between rings 1 and 2, and half pass back onto the line for ring 3). That’s a very Fergus friendly job! Other fun games included chasing and throwing javelins at moving targets, and charging a shield wall . I then dropped Fergus home and went back for pony-free sword play for the rest of the week. I am now absolutely cream crackered!

Alas, no photos for IP reasons.

I miss swords!! I've only recently discovered there's a group up the road from me! Trying to be good and study though

 

[Ample Prosecco]

I’m spending this weekend idly staring at screens and psyching myself up for a quiet hack on Daemon, after a heavy week of skill at arms, sword fighting, archery and lots of peopling.

I had Fergus out doing skill at arms and a bit of archery last weekend/ start of this week, which was awesome - particularly when we were combining ring pick-ups with lateral work (three rings to be taken on a lance, offset so that you leg yield between rings 1 and 2, and half pass back onto the line for ring 3). That’s a very Fergus friendly job! Other fun games included chasing and throwing javelins at moving targets, and charging a shield wall . I then dropped Fergus home and went back for pony-free sword play for the rest of the week. I am now absolutely cream crackered!

Alas, no photos for IP reasons.

I love what you get up to!!

 

[Ample Prosecco]

@iknowmyvalue that is fantastic!!! Very very well done. Awesome achievement,

 

[JFTDWS]

I miss swords!! I've only recently discovered there's a group up the road from me! Trying to be good and study though

The swords miss you. Come back to the dark side!

 

[Kunoichi73]

I’m spending this weekend idly staring at screens and psyching myself up for a quiet hack on Daemon, after a heavy week of skill at arms, sword fighting, archery and lots of peopling.

I had Fergus out doing skill at arms and a bit of archery last weekend/ start of this week, which was awesome - particularly when we were combining ring pick-ups with lateral work (three rings to be taken on a lance, offset so that you leg yield between rings 1 and 2, and half pass back onto the line for ring 3). That’s a very Fergus friendly job! Other fun games included chasing and throwing javelins at moving targets, and charging a shield wall . I then dropped Fergus home and went back for pony-free sword play for the rest of the week. I am now absolutely cream crackered!

Alas, no photos for IP reasons.

I'm so jealous! That's the sort of stuff I'd love to do. It's so much fun!

Today's lesson was interesting. RS pony decided that she'd rather be back in bed than in the school. We started with planting, then reversing. This escalated to throwing shapes. Once she realised she wasn't getting away with it, she behaved perfectly. Instructor said she was impressed I sat all of it. Other instructor said her heart was in her mouth watching! To be fair, the rearing wasn't very high and was a bit slow motiony and the bucks weren't massive. At least that's how it felt, I don't know what it looked like from the floor - probably for the best!

 

[blood_magik]

Leggy baby pony didn’t disgrace himself, although we did have a slight moment in the warmup thanks to an unruly pigeon.

Lots of positives, though, and lots of lovely comments despite NV doing his best camel impression and shouting to everyone in sight

Not quite sure what else I need to be doing to help with the relaxation, or is it just a case of rinse and repeat until he twigs? Any suggestions welcome…

 

[Roxylola]

@blood_magik with tension, keep at it, try 2 tests in one comp, clinics etc just keep chipping away really

 

[Roxylola]

I'll let the pics tell their own story

 

[Chippers1]

Buzz got reserve working hunter champion pony in the show yesterday only a small local charity show but he was great! Also got a 4th in the Mountain and Moorland ridden showing in a fairly big class. A very long day that reminded me why I don't do showing it was a nice day out though!

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Brilliant!

 

[blood_magik]

@blood_magik with tension, keep at it, try 2 tests in one comp, clinics etc just keep chipping away really

Thanks. That’s what I’ve been doing so hopefully just a matter of time until it all clicks

 

[stangs]

Leggy baby pony didn’t disgrace himself, although we did have a slight moment in the warmup thanks to an unruly pigeon.

Lots of positives, though, and lots of lovely comments despite NV doing his best camel impression and shouting to everyone in sight

Not quite sure what else I need to be doing to help with the relaxation, or is it just a case of rinse and repeat until he twigs? Any suggestions welcome…

What do you normally do in your warm-ups? Shoulder-ins encourage relaxation [x]; presumably other lateral exercises, if he knows them well, have a similar effect. Or you could look at starting the warm-up on the ground where it’s easier to do exercises that target the head coming down, and the legs crossing.

 

[RachelFerd]

My Frickley was much less good. Did a nice enough dressage. Went into the showjumping - jumped the first 2 very politely, came round the corner to 3 and had a total meltdown about a rustic brush filler being in the SJ. Managed to convince him to touch it, then jump it, and then just about patched it up to complete a round - but a total cricket score of faults and time penalties. So no xc and just a slightly shameful journey home. Really don't understand how all of his SJ homework in the last 6 weeks has been really solid - nice rounds at discovery BS etc, then falls apart in an eventing ring. Anyway, he's consigned to a winter of SJ and no more eventing attempts this year.

And on the plus side, with his eventing plans postponed for this year it means that I've been able to have an exciting new plan for the older horse to end the season, which is pretty ambitious but hopefully feasible...!

 

[Alibear]

3 days of Oakridge Summer camp for Amber and me. There were 3 instructors, and we were in Sean Colman's group. He's another trainer I've been following online and was interested in, so I was pleased to get the opportunity here. It was awesome; he sussed Amber out on the first day and, by day two, was helping truly fix things we've been having issues with for 18+ months. Watching the other groups, he seemed to be able to get the best out of all combinations, and everyone improved a lot over the 3 days. You know it's a good camp when you're just as excited at the start of the last session as you were at the first. Lots of challenging work with many shouts of No, the other left! But we all got it worked out, Ambers's happy face appeared more and more over the course of the camp so I believe she appreciated the changes. It was nice to feel her waking up and being keen to learn again rather than just tuning me out, which is how it's felt for a while. I met many lovely new people, and many gorgeous horses were at camp. It was heaven. I'm truly sorry it's over, but also completely shattered. Thankfully I managed to write up most sessions to read back over. We did our first counter canters, and now I know it can feel really comfortable and correct; I never managed that in my dressage days. I know it will take us a couple of years to get to where I want to be, but I can see a path ahead now which makes all the difference. Ambers cone addiction is back I've just got to be laser-focused on persuading Amber to keep her shoulders up, so that's or new mantra.

 

[Caol Ila]

Hermosa had a pretty boring weekend doing our usual hacks, but Fin had an adventure. We wanted to do some work with the lorry to see if he will tolerate going on outings, and the only way to do it is to do it. In tiny steps. We took him and his trail buddy in my friend's 3.5t to the Beech Tree Inn, a pub on the West Highland Way about a 15 minute drive from the yard. Then we rode the 11k home on the WHW.

The last time he was in a lorry was when he moved to my yard. He travelled quietly enough, but was obviously very stressed when we arrived. He has not been back in a truck for the last two years (the joys of not having your own). I was not sure how he'd take it. If he's very stressed, he's a spooky maniac to ride, and it's not much fun. I thought it was entirely possible that we'd get to the Beech Tree and then I would have the world's most miserable two-and-half hour ride home. And never do it again. But we wanted a baseline.

He loaded without too much bother, then seemed to travel okay alongside his pal, who's an old hat at this. He goes to lots competitions with his owner. We unloaded at the pub, and Fin was anxious and confused and had sweated up, but he wasn't losing his mind. That's a start. We tacked up and set off. Once we were underway, he realised he was on a trail ride with his mate, like every day, and he settled and rode normally.

Travel must be so stressful for them, especially if they don't do it that often and they only do it when moving homes/owners. He must associate being in the scary metal box with having to deal with new people, new places, new horses, etc. etc.

With a bit more experience doing fun things, he might become an okay traveller. It would be nice to get out and about a bit.

 

[j1ffy]

Well done to everyone who's had a successful weekend! Sorry to read about Frickley RF but looking forward to hearing about the potential end of season fun! Great that Finn had a positive travel experience CI, I do think these little 'fun' outings make a huge difference to how horses feel about being shuttled around in a noisy metal box...

On which note, I was delighted with how Chilli managed his first outing since May. Loaded and travelled beautifully both ways, despite being parked up in knee-high grass at the venue (Indio would have had a few second thoughts about leaving!). Very polite to tack up, mount etc. The actual work wasn't very consistent - he got tense with the right canter transitions, still hated the rope gate and is now nervous of the vara as I accidentally whacked him on the bum with it last time but given how little he's done this year he was a ️



It was so good to get off the yard again (I love my yard but you know what I mean!). We've signed up for a pole work clinic on Saturday which will be fun!

 

[ihatework]

Good luck! It’s a lovely course!

It was beyond anything I could have hoped for! One of only two sub-30 dressage scores, and only added 0.8 speeding penalties to finish 2nd out of a section of 37, so we are off to Bramham next year!

At least I know the time is easy to make when I actually take the handbrake off! Didn’t even feel like we were going that fast, and he was barely sweating.

Massive congratulations

 

[Surbie]

This is very, very small beans, but Archie and I did our first dressage competition in 5 years on Saturday. I just wanted to have a positive experience with loading, travelling on his own, being ridden in an open field with lots of strange horses and loading nicely at the end.

We were late arriving thanks to my being slow and some roadworks, and had very little by way of warm up so I had zero expectations. But he was just EPIC. No screaming for friends, no only going sideways, no spooking at the car, just my lovely forwards cobbus. By half-way through the test I was grinning like a fool, and I am glad the second canter was away from the judges so they couldn't hear me go 'wheeeeeeee!'. To top it all off, we came second out of thirteen. I am crying in this pic, it was such a huge confidence boost.

 

[SEL]

This is very, very small beans, but Archie and I did our first dressage competition in 5 years on Saturday. I just wanted to have a positive experience with loading, travelling on his own, being ridden in an open field with lots of strange horses and loading nicely at the end.

We were late arriving thanks to my being slow and some roadworks, and had very little by way of warm up so I had zero expectations. But he was just EPIC. No screaming for friends, no only going sideways, no spooking at the car, just my lovely forwards cobbus. By half-way through the test I was grinning like a fool, and I am glad the second canter was away from the judges so they couldn't hear me go 'wheeeeeeee!'. To top it all off, we came second out of thirteen. I am crying in this pic, it was such a huge confidence boost.


View attachment 121081

Well done!! Sometimes the lack of warm up means you don't have time to get nervous and just get on and ride.

Polos all round

 

[SpotsandBays]

Am I too late to update?!
We went to the BApS National Show at Hartpury. Nug was an absolute dream as always and we came away with a 5th, 4th, 2nd and 1st, and took reserve in one of the rings - bagging our first sash!! He then had his first stab at ridden showing in the Ultra Novice and was just the best. I was a wreck beforehand yet he held my hand the whole way around! Dead proud of him

 

[Cloball]

Lesson today very good pony practised cancer transitions feeling much less frantic flying feathers and a bit more balanced. Plus I'm finding it all much less terrifying and am remembering how to actually ride

 

[Surbie]

Am I too late to update?!
We went to the BApS National Show at Hartpury. Nug was an absolute dream as always and we came away with a 5th, 4th, 2nd and 1st, and took reserve in one of the rings - bagging our first sash!! He then had his first stab at ridden showing in the Ultra Novice and was just the best. I was a wreck beforehand yet he held my hand the whole way around! Dead proud of him
View attachment 121113View attachment 121114

What a stunning horse!

 

[Kunoichi73]

Am I too late to update?!
We went to the BApS National Show at Hartpury. Nug was an absolute dream as always and we came away with a 5th, 4th, 2nd and 1st, and took reserve in one of the rings - bagging our first sash!! He then had his first stab at ridden showing in the Ultra Novice and was just the best. I was a wreck beforehand yet he held my hand the whole way around! Dead proud of him
View attachment 121113View attachment 121114

Ooh, I love spotty types and that's a great pattern!

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

This is very, very small beans, but Archie and I did our first dressage competition in 5 years on Saturday. I just wanted to have a positive experience with loading, travelling on his own, being ridden in an open field with lots of strange horses and loading nicely at the end.

We were late arriving thanks to my being slow and some roadworks, and had very little by way of warm up so I had zero expectations. But he was just EPIC. No screaming for friends, no only going sideways, no spooking at the car, just my lovely forwards cobbus. By half-way through the test I was grinning like a fool, and I am glad the second canter was away from the judges so they couldn't hear me go 'wheeeeeeee!'. To top it all off, we came second out of thirteen. I am crying in this pic, it was such a huge confidence boost.


View attachment 121081

This is such a fabulous report and wonderful pic, thanks for sharing! Well done to you both

 

[tda]

Hermosa had a pretty boring weekend doing our usual hacks, but Fin had an adventure. We wanted to do some work with the lorry to see if he will tolerate going on outings, and the only way to do it is to do it. In tiny steps. We took him and his trail buddy in my friend's 3.5t to the Beech Tree Inn, a pub on the West Highland Way about a 15 minute drive from the yard. Then we rode the 11k home on the WHW.

The last time he was in a lorry was when he moved to my yard. He travelled quietly enough, but was obviously very stressed when we arrived. He has not been back in a truck for the last two years (the joys of not having your own). I was not sure how he'd take it. If he's very stressed, he's a spooky maniac to ride, and it's not much fun. I thought it was entirely possible that we'd get to the Beech Tree and then I would have the world's most miserable two-and-half hour ride home. And never do it again. But we wanted a baseline.

He loaded without too much bother, then seemed to travel okay alongside his pal, who's an old hat at this. He goes to lots competitions with his owner. We unloaded at the pub, and Fin was anxious and confused and had sweated up, but he wasn't losing his mind. That's a start. We tacked up and set off. Once we were underway, he realised he was on a trail ride with his mate, like every day, and he settled and rode normally.

Travel must be so stressful for them, especially if they don't do it that often and they only do it when moving homes/owners. He must associate being in the scary metal box with having to deal with new people, new places, new horses, etc. etc.

With a bit more experience doing fun things, he might become an okay traveller. It would be nice to get out and about a bit.

View attachment 121036

That's a fab report, he's come on so much, same again next week?

 

[HufflyPuffly]

Birthday weekend, packed a ridiculous amount in but Aber Falls and hacking are some highlights!

 

[TPO]

This is very, very small beans, but Archie and I did our first dressage competition in 5 years on Saturday. I just wanted to have a positive experience with loading, travelling on his own, being ridden in an open field with lots of strange horses and loading nicely at the end.

We were late arriving thanks to my being slow and some roadworks, and had very little by way of warm up so I had zero expectations. But he was just EPIC. No screaming for friends, no only going sideways, no spooking at the car, just my lovely forwards cobbus. By half-way through the test I was grinning like a fool, and I am glad the second canter was away from the judges so they couldn't hear me go 'wheeeeeeee!'. To top it all off, we came second out of thirteen. I am crying in this pic, it was such a huge confidence boost.


View attachment 121081

Not small beans at all. Congratulations

Your smile says it all, and Archie is so cute

 

[SEL]

Am I too late to update?!
We went to the BApS National Show at Hartpury. Nug was an absolute dream as always and we came away with a 5th, 4th, 2nd and 1st, and took reserve in one of the rings - bagging our first sash!! He then had his first stab at ridden showing in the Ultra Novice and was just the best. I was a wreck beforehand yet he held my hand the whole way around! Dead proud of him
View attachment 121113View attachment 121114

He really does turn his hoof to everything for you - what a superstar! He looks amazing