Spring forward weekend plans

[Red-1]

I swam in a cold lake this morning then....

My boyfriend's mother is visiting us here tomorrow. I have met her a few times, she is fab, but it is her first time coming here. I spent all day cleaning! She doesn't have pets and I was afraid my house would smell of dogs, being as I have 2. I have washed all the dog beds, dog coats, rugs from the floor, carpets... I'm talking scrubbing the stair carpet in hands and knees

I've stripped the sofa covers and cushions, washed them and cleaned the sofas within an inch of their life. I'm talking cleaning under the buttons and leather conditioning them.

I don't suppose she will even look, but tomorrow I'm getting the steam cleaner out and doing the windows.

Horses have had a day in the field. Rigs is back in his muzzle. BH was out naked and came in covered in mud. But no matter, the house defo smells clean and fresh!!!

 

[j1ffy]

We had our last training sessions before the Winter Champs. Sammy's feeling good so we did some work on our changes - starting with improving the simple changes, which gave me a really good feel for the straightness and collection needed to get clean flying changes (something that Sammy doesn't offer easily!). No more flying changes now until the champs on 16 April as I don't want him slipping any into our Medium test

 

[kate_grey]

I plan to go on vacation somewhere in the spring

 

[smolmaus]

Got soaked to the skin hacking on Saturday, took me over an hour to get warm once I got home after, it felt like November (but all went well!)

Went for a long in hand walk on Sunday and got quite badly sunburned

??????

 

[Red-1]

Horses did nothing this weekend but the visit from my boyfriend's mother was great. The house wasn't immaculate but was clean and tidy. I didn't get round to cleaning the wardrobe door mirrors or polishing the plant leaves, or hoovering the wall behind the log burner, but then I had to laugh at myself for being concerned about that!

She is happy that I'm making him happy and I too think that is what is important.

I'd thought my days of Mother's Day were done, when both my and my husband's mother died, but here I am, taking his mother out on mother's day.

 

[Titchy Pony]

Did my usual lessons this weekend, but oh my, Enormosaurus was absolutely amazing for jumping on Saturday. We only had one buck in the warm up, which was her clearly telling me I was using too much leg, but for the rest of the lesson I seem to have got the hand to leg ratio right. No messy jumps, managed the bounces like a pro, clean tight turns and our highest jump yet at 1m. One of the girls on the ride turned to me and said I don't want to go after you now, that was perfect. Didn't think I'd hear that one day about me and Enormosaurus!

 

[dorsetladette]

Well my weekend didn't go to plan at all. Had an issue with a little procedure I had on my arm on Thursday and felt terribly unwell friday. Didn't get Robin ready for the show and probably wouldn't have been able to hold him if we had gone. (He finds me a total inconvenience in the ring. If he could drive he'd go on his own I'm sure) So Saturday Reg went for a trip out in the lorry and a graze on some longer grass and then we went out for lunch with OH mum yesterday.

Thankfully feeling OK now but a little deflated that my plans were ruined and I didn't do anything constructive with reggie since freelancers last visit.

I bought a GP saddle for Reggie. The same make as Robins thinking I had all the gullets (thinking I'm clever obviously). Turns out normal (17inch) saddles have a different gullet systems to midget pony saddles (15 inch). Reggies saddle came with a MW which is to wide so I've now had to order 2 more gullets which has made a cheap temporary/starter saddle into a not so cheap one. First world problems but it just feels like everything went t#ts up this weekend.

Sounds like everyone else had a lovely time. The weather was lovely here.

 

[LEC]

I have been eventing twice now and stepped up to 1.05 at the weekend and it’s all been going pretty well. Two more events and then we head to Badminton GR hopefully. Our Vlog is attached.

 

[dorsetladette]

I have been eventing twice now and stepped up to 1.05 at the weekend and it’s all been going pretty well. Two more events and then we head to Badminton GR hopefully. Our Vlog is attached.

Wow - exciting!!

I've booked my tickets for the GR day at Badminton. I'm very excited to go as never been before. I'll watch out for you.

 

[SEL]

I have been eventing twice now and stepped up to 1.05 at the weekend and it’s all been going pretty well. Two more events and then we head to Badminton GR hopefully. Our Vlog is attached.

Must be nice to have the British weather on side for once! Will watch the Vlog later

 

[LEC]

Wow - exciting!!

I've booked my tickets for the GR day at Badminton. I'm very excited to go as never been before. I'll watch out for you.

It’s my favourite day. Mostly socialising, drinking and eating! This year I am planning to stay the whole week as always wanted to and never quite managed it.

 

[LEC]

Must be nice to have the British weather on side for once! Will watch the Vlog later

It’s unbelievable! Last year was a nightmare.

 

[Ambers Echo]

I was at the first camp of the year. It went very well but I'd forgotten how tiring they are to run. But one of our instructors taught for us all day Saturday, went home to ride and plait, then was up pre dawn for the Intermediate at Thoresby on Sunday. Now that was a busy weekend, so I can't really complain!

 

[southerncomfort]

I have been eventing twice now and stepped up to 1.05 at the weekend and it’s all been going pretty well. Two more events and then we head to Badminton GR hopefully. Our Vlog is attached.

Really enjoyed watching that!

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

I have been eventing twice now and stepped up to 1.05 at the weekend and it’s all been going pretty well. Two more events and then we head to Badminton GR hopefully. Our Vlog is attached.

Ooh well done!

I have been enjoying the vlogs, will look forward to sitting down to watch that this evening.

I'm also thinking of going to Badminton GR to watch. I think the main event would be too much for me but there's another rider whose vlogs I enjoy who is riding there at the GR event as well so thought it would be nice to check that out.

I had another fab lesson today on my now official, signed agreement, loan horse We went in the big arena today so that I could get used to riding in a different type of space with him. It felt a bit weird and very open at first because there's no fence, but it was good practice for when I will hopefully get hacking out in actual open spaces. Horse (I need a nickname for him for on here!) was very nosy about everything going on and it was nice to practice 'let's focus' rather than 'oh god is he going to bog off with me?!' The confidence continues to grow. Yay!

We nailed our canter transition on the right this week, it just felt so much easier than last week. I liked the 60m arena long sides - more time and space to relax into the movement before the corners come up

Tomorrow is going to be groundwork for our first 'not a lesson' session. I imagine my instructor will keep an eye on us but she said start with getting to know horse on the ground and remember no pressure to do anything. I did get a bit overexcited and said maybe we can go hacking this weekend but agreed it's a good idea to dial that down to get to know horse better first.

 

[MuddyMonster]

Glad it is going well @SaddlePsych'D I was thinking about you & wondering how you were getting on with LH driving home yesterday.

To give you another option, I've gone to Badminton on one of the main dressage days the last few years. It's pretty quiet and easier to pace yourself with the option of a lot of sitting down to watch the tests and I find it much less tiring than going XC day (thats not why I do it - we just struggle for dog care on the weekend and he's not the type of dog you could A. Bring to Badminton and B. Leave at home with anyone), if you cant make GR day.

Well done @LEC - I didn't know we had a HHO blogger! Will watch it later. Good luck for GR Badminton when it comes


.

 

[LEC]

It’s a joint channel with @TheMule so two long time HHO.

We actually met through HHO and most of our very good horse friends came through HHO. Funny old place that this is!

 

[MuddyMonster]

It’s a joint channel with @TheMule so two long time HHO.

We actually met through HHO and most of our very good horse friends came through HHO. Funny old place that this is!

Two for the price of one for us then!

 

[Pippity]

It's been eighteen months since I had my bad fall and shattered my spine, but I'm still really, reatlly struggling with confidence. It's as much as I can do to potter halfway round my yard's little half-kilometre farm ride (until we get to the spooky bit, where I have to turn round). The idea of trotting brings me out in the collywobbles

So when I saw that e-riders has started doing a walk-only dressage test, that can be done ridden or in-hand, I thought that was a nice, achievable target. Knocked the worst of the mud off the pony and knocked out an in-hand test last weekend, with zero practice. We got 65%+, and lots of compliments on her movement, so pretty pleased. I'm hoping that, next month, I'll be able to do it ridden but my courage wobbles all over the place with no rhyme or reason, so who knows.

I'm genuinely unsure I'll ever be able to get any pleasure out of riding again, so trying to decide on Blue's future.

 

[stangs]

It's been eighteen months since I had my bad fall and shattered my spine, but I'm still really, reatlly struggling with confidence. It's as much as I can do to potter halfway round my yard's little half-kilometre farm ride (until we get to the spooky bit, where I have to turn round). The idea of trotting brings me out in the collywobbles

So when I saw that e-riders has started doing a walk-only dressage test, that can be done ridden or in-hand, I thought that was a nice, achievable target. Knocked the worst of the mud off the pony and knocked out an in-hand test last weekend, with zero practice. We got 65%+, and lots of compliments on her movement, so pretty pleased. I'm hoping that, next month, I'll be able to do it ridden but my courage wobbles all over the place with no rhyme or reason, so who knows.

I'm genuinely unsure I'll ever be able to get any pleasure out of riding again, so trying to decide on Blue's future.

For what it's worth, there's plenty of fun you can have with a horse on the ground. You don't need to make yourself ride if you're not enjoying it, and you may find that your confidence improves once you take the pressure off yourself completely.

Out of curiosity though, as I keep toying with the idea of doing some online in-hand tests with my boy, would you recommend going with e-riders? Were the comments useful and did the scoring seem fair or too generous/harsh?

 

[Pippity]

For what it's worth, there's plenty of fun you can have with a horse on the ground. You don't need to make yourself ride if you're not enjoying it, and you may find that your confidence improves once you take the pressure off yourself completely.

Out of curiosity though, as I keep toying with the idea of doing some online in-hand tests with my boy, would you recommend going with e-riders? Were the comments useful and did the scoring seem fair or too generous/harsh?

Comments were useful; scoring was VERY generous! The tests are very much to encourage new people, so scoring is on that level.

 

[SEL]

Comments were useful; scoring was VERY generous! The tests are very much to encourage new people, so scoring is on that level.

I'm going to try one of those tests on the long reins with my retiree - although our centre line is a wiggle.

Completely understandable to have some form of PTSD after your accident. I'd keep going on the ground for now and try to enjoy that side of things if riding isn't enjoyable.

 

[Pippity]

I'm going to try one of those tests on the long reins with my retiree - although our centre line is a wiggle.

Completely understandable to have some form of PTSD after your accident. I'd keep going on the ground for now and try to enjoy that side of things if riding isn't enjoyable.

Our first halt was a 1m semi-circle, so...