Snowy weekend plans

The best lameness spotter on the yard commented a couple of days ago that Chilli is looking “very sound” in the field, so I decided to pop him on the lunge and see how he looks. The answer is - absolutely fabulous! Moving really well, stepping out confidently in front on both reins, and keen to go on the right rein whereas he tried to avoid that when I first spotted his lameness a couple of months ago. Over the moon is an understatement.

The vet did say I could ride in walk in the school but it felt sensible to stay off his back while the oedemas heal. We’ve got an in-hand clinic with Diane Thurman-Baker in a couple of weeks so I’ll see how that goes then maybe hop on for walk work in April. Fingers crossed…

Great news 🤞 all goes to plan!

My weekend was nice, very chilled. Both good bots in dressage lessons on Saturday, both went out on decent hacks in the sunshine today, and Isaac on arrival home from his hack went straight into the yard dressage competition and picked up another 70.something% in Elementary 50 - so that was pretty good! Back out doing more fun jumpy stuff next weekend 😀
 
Two rides done with share horse. Not really exciting and I do need to get another lesson in asap because although we're moving forwards more (still work to do!) somehow our circles/turns have gone a bit awry aftee having thought we'd cracked it. I really want to get this down in walk and trot before starting some canter work.

Really enjoyed my rides though, not worrying too much about things not being quite right, and the biggest achievements have been overcoming some of the mental blocks/habits that have held me back. It was windy and cold and there was loud distracting noise drifting over from another property, I felt my mind go 'ooooh' and then put into practice the things I've been reading to help with building confidence. And they worked!
 
Had a good hack out yesterday and did some field work to help with fitness but more some getting confident out in open fields as practice for xc. Friend was fab and made us go away from her and work on keeping him focussed and on the aids in trot and canter a few times. Tried a bit of jumping today but canned that idea as I was just practising the wrong stuff (firing him at fences again 🙄) so instead worked on getting us both more relaxed over ground poles and establishing the paces again.
 
Successful day for all 3 boys - jack and beau managed 2nd and 4th respectively in their class and then Cas and I redeemed ourselves with 3rd in the advanced medium on 67.56%.

We’re still lacking that little bit of oomph so if anyone could recommend something for a bit more sparkle without the silliness I’d be very grateful as my usual go-to (topspec turbo plus enerG) just isn’t doing it for him.
 
We’re still lacking that little bit of oomph so if anyone could recommend something for a bit more sparkle without the silliness I’d be very grateful as my usual go-to (topspec turbo plus enerG) just isn’t doing it for him.











Propell works well for Charlie. I've got to be a bit careful as he can't have high sugar, and being a cob calories convert to fat easily. But he just feels _good_ on propell
 
Nova has come back into work so happily. She really enjoyed hacking this weekend - a little too much in parts. She spent some of it piaffing down the roaf with her tail up because of a horse in a field! She is feeling really good and so far no ulcery symptoms or anything resembling what she did before the break.
 
Propell works well for Charlie. I've got to be a bit careful as he can't have high sugar, and being a cob calories convert to fat easily. But he just feels _good_ on propell

I agree, Propell is good. I also used Cavalor Kick Up and Cavalor Pow-Red Performance which both worked well.
 
Propell works well for Charlie. I've got to be a bit careful as he can't have high sugar, and being a cob calories convert to fat easily. But he just feels _good_ on propell


I agree, Propell is good. I also used Cavalor Kick Up and Cavalor Pow-Red Performance which both worked well.

Funnily enough I’ve just had some of this delivered so I’ll get him started on this tomorrow and see if it makes any difference. Thanks guys…
 
Late updating as usual, but Sunday was a bit mixed, I'm trying very hard to focus on the positives.
Mr Metronome did a creditable dressage test bringing us joint second with 68.3% (I think, someone had some serious maths problems when adding up the points on the score sheets!). There were four participants, the winner in the lead by a fair margin and the three remaining with exactly the same score. I'm happy with Mr Metronome, he's a riding school horse, starting to get on in years and rarely works to this level in dressage any more. He's a little stiff and can't bring his quarters in on the half circle for example, so we just fudge it a bit and do a half circle without bothering about the quarters. I don't really care, I'm there to have a bit of fun and not planning on taking the old boy to Paris 2024. He does enjoy getting to extend his canter though!
Jumping with Little Madam was the mixed part. She was excellent in the warm up absolutely flew every jump (I was a little worried as I think she was in season - visibly flirting with her boyfriend for most of the day tied up to the lorry). The course started well, but something went wrong on number 3 where we stopped/crashed into it. I asked my instructor afterwards and he said I wasn't properly lined up (I was definitely too far to the right of the jump) and because the course was very twisty with the jumps very close together, Little Madam probably wasn't sure which jump she was aiming at. He said I may also have been pushing a bit with my shoulders (an old bad habit of mine). Anyway, they rebuilt the jump and we finished the course. Little Madam was understandably wary for jumps 3, 4 and 5 but after that was back to her usual self and flew the rest of the course. I'm trying to focus on the positives: we finished the course and Little Madam got her confidence back, so hopefully no lasting "damage" to her enthusiasm. Last year, after such a mistake, I would have fallen apart and not been able to finish the course. But some days its just hard to be positive and I feel like I'm running out of time to do "something" good with Little Madam (She's 14 and I'm thinking of putting her in foal next year).
 
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