LiffWee93
Well-Known Member
This is no doubt going to get a little long, as i, for some reason, like to waffle. 
Going back to the weekend before, bit of a mad panic rush as a last minute decision to go to a local hunt meet that we could hack to - que clipping one very hairy new forest pony and cleaning much tack! we had a lovely day out, starting with a friends daughter on my pony rufus and me on tiger - rufus is the older and more sensible of the two, or so we thought! he ended up very strong (has hunted previously many times and is fine) for his little rider, so we ended up swapping! Tigers first ever meet and he behaved impeccably for her and she had a whale of a time
he was in his little snaffle and barely put a foot out of line, so really pleased! not many photos unfortunately, but heres one at the end of the day before our hack home
we have another meet draghunting next weekend! woo!
last weekend - had an absolutely CRACKING lesson with my amazing instructor, ive been telling her how much ive been struggling with getting a better medium trot, so we are going at it by building the collection/sit, then building the medium from the bouncy-ball energy we have created!
warmed up with some spirals and circles and some transitions on a long rein thinking forward, then picked up a contact in walk onto a small circle collecting him with my seat then tickling with the whip behind my leg to get him to step a bit quicker behind and bounce a bit, we didnt get a huge reaction at first, so my instructor took my whip and gave him a tickle on the hocks, to which she was presented a grunt and a glare from the T! oops! but it did the trick and he was busy bouncing around in walk, then proceeded to bounce on up to a lovely bouncy collected (not entirely test correct) trot - which he wasnt too grumpy about- worked on building the energy in it, then doing literally a million transitions- started with 4 small strides- 2 big - and repeat on a 20m circle, aiming to get that first "big" stride a good stompy one, before bringing back, creating the energy etc - then progressed to 4 big 2 small etc, really seemed to get him stomping his back feet!
we then progressed to doing little collected circle at the top of a long side, build the energy, then down the long side, aiming for the first stompy stride then back before he falls on his face- he motored along with his hinds really well, but doesnt seem to follow through with his shoulder, but that will come with confidence in the exercise apparantly- we were aiming to get him sitting and using his hind end more effectively and thats what we achieved then used the technique of balling the energy to do some transitions - lo and behold he gave me some STUNNING trot-canter transitions and practically floated around the school <3 he felt sooo grown up! in the canter i wanted to work on a movement in N28 that requires a 15m half circle then rejoining the track in a teardrop shape in canter, so a few strides of counter canter- which i kept messing up by myself! apparantly i was getting near to the track then changing my aid and asking for a flying change, hence why he kept trying to do a change on me --- opps..! when i remembered to keep my inside leg back, it went really well! super pleased!! he is so much more grown up now 
unfortunately, no pictures as was too dim and noone watching 
i then practiced all the above at home by myself, and he had taken on a lot of it and it seems to be making a huge difference making sure i ride everything correctly and dont bobble my hands, and dont do all of the annoying habits i like to get into! but we popped a couple of fences after, and my word, he was amazing, hit the fence on the absolute perfect stride with our lovely new "balled-up energy" canter, and it felt AMAZING, honestly like we were flying <3 it was only about 80cm, but in sooo chuffed, we then popped it up and jumped it a few times, got it to 1.10 and again, hit the perfect stride 3..2..1.. and wow! he just flew, made it feel so effortless! really brought home how much the canter really does affect the jump (so its good ive been working on the canter!) and also riding the horse evenly both sides to a fence - i usually like to ride the inside then lose the outside shoulder! but seem to be cracking that now
aaannndd on to this weekend - we booked in to do n28 at our local venue with a time 0f 3.59pm! - hes not really established at novice at competitions yet, hes really unconfident in the ring and normally drops me once hes warmed up and i struggle to keep him in front of my leg :/ my hopes werent high as i exited the car in a deluge of rain and wind and thought i should be at home!! but i hopped on and strolled down to the warm up to proceed in plan "get the pony's bum moving!" made sure he stayed 100% with me, even though a little spooky, he was great, really chuffed, a little bit resistant to the contact, but he was in a horrid mood (very grumpy pony doesnt like to be the last pony to be ridden!) but was fab even when a horse coming back past the warm up from the ring decided to canter alongside the fence and cause a little mayhem! but it whizzed tiger up lovely! haha
into the test, and i rode a shocking centre line - wobbly as anything!, so i laughed out loud, and carried on much in the same manner, had my reins far too long and decided to go rising half way through for some reason and my riding went to pot for it, im far more disciplined when im sat! but we got through it without him dropping me once!! im sooooo chuffed with him, this time last year, we did a prelim and had a shocking resistant test that was almost backward, and we had bucking at my attempts to get him forward! for him to go out at novice, do a sweet test despite a useless jockey, and not be fazed by wind/rain/lights etc.
absolutely chuffed to end up with 65.18- i made a lot of little mistakes that could be rectified by actually RIDING my pony rather than just sitting there! comments that made my day were "lovely consistent test with pleasing activity" and for our second canter transition "eager!"- which make me chuckle!
i know i need to work on getting a better medium, the counter canter wasnt great, but hes not done a huge amount so wasnt expecting it to be (though they both got 6.5's...) and he was fussy in the medium walk - but apart from that - the test was great from the general point of view and im soo pleased! great way to finish 2013! we finished 8th in a class of 17 with the winner on 70 , and a lot of good company, some really smart horses!!
pictures on their way! thanks for reading terrys choc orange for anyone that made it through that!!
Going back to the weekend before, bit of a mad panic rush as a last minute decision to go to a local hunt meet that we could hack to - que clipping one very hairy new forest pony and cleaning much tack! we had a lovely day out, starting with a friends daughter on my pony rufus and me on tiger - rufus is the older and more sensible of the two, or so we thought! he ended up very strong (has hunted previously many times and is fine) for his little rider, so we ended up swapping! Tigers first ever meet and he behaved impeccably for her and she had a whale of a time
he was in his little snaffle and barely put a foot out of line, so really pleased! not many photos unfortunately, but heres one at the end of the day before our hack home
we have another meet draghunting next weekend! woo!
last weekend - had an absolutely CRACKING lesson with my amazing instructor, ive been telling her how much ive been struggling with getting a better medium trot, so we are going at it by building the collection/sit, then building the medium from the bouncy-ball energy we have created!
warmed up with some spirals and circles and some transitions on a long rein thinking forward, then picked up a contact in walk onto a small circle collecting him with my seat then tickling with the whip behind my leg to get him to step a bit quicker behind and bounce a bit, we didnt get a huge reaction at first, so my instructor took my whip and gave him a tickle on the hocks, to which she was presented a grunt and a glare from the T! oops! but it did the trick and he was busy bouncing around in walk, then proceeded to bounce on up to a lovely bouncy collected (not entirely test correct) trot - which he wasnt too grumpy about- worked on building the energy in it, then doing literally a million transitions- started with 4 small strides- 2 big - and repeat on a 20m circle, aiming to get that first "big" stride a good stompy one, before bringing back, creating the energy etc - then progressed to 4 big 2 small etc, really seemed to get him stomping his back feet!
we then progressed to doing little collected circle at the top of a long side, build the energy, then down the long side, aiming for the first stompy stride then back before he falls on his face- he motored along with his hinds really well, but doesnt seem to follow through with his shoulder, but that will come with confidence in the exercise apparantly- we were aiming to get him sitting and using his hind end more effectively and thats what we achieved
then used the technique of balling the energy to do some transitions - lo and behold he gave me some STUNNING trot-canter transitions and practically floated around the school <3 he felt sooo grown up! in the canter i wanted to work on a movement in N28 that requires a 15m half circle then rejoining the track in a teardrop shape in canter, so a few strides of counter canter- which i kept messing up by myself! apparantly i was getting near to the track then changing my aid and asking for a flying change, hence why he kept trying to do a change on me --- opps..! when i remembered to keep my inside leg back, it went really well! super pleased!! he is so much more grown up now unfortunately, no pictures as was too dim and noone watching i then practiced all the above at home by myself, and he had taken on a lot of it and it seems to be making a huge difference
making sure i ride everything correctly and dont bobble my hands, and dont do all of the annoying habits i like to get into! but we popped a couple of fences after, and my word, he was amazing, hit the fence on the absolute perfect stride with our lovely new "balled-up energy" canter, and it felt AMAZING, honestly like we were flying <3 it was only about 80cm, but in sooo chuffed, we then popped it up and jumped it a few times, got it to 1.10 and again, hit the perfect stride 3..2..1.. and wow! he just flew, made it feel so effortless! really brought home how much the canter really does affect the jump (so its good ive been working on the canter!) and also riding the horse evenly both sides to a fence - i usually like to ride the inside then lose the outside shoulder! but seem to be cracking that now aaannndd on to this weekend - we booked in to do n28 at our local venue with a time 0f 3.59pm! - hes not really established at novice at competitions yet, hes really unconfident in the ring and normally drops me once hes warmed up and i struggle to keep him in front of my leg :/ my hopes werent high as i exited the car in a deluge of rain and wind and thought i should be at home!! but i hopped on and strolled down to the warm up to proceed in plan "get the pony's bum moving!" made sure he stayed 100% with me, even though a little spooky, he was great, really chuffed, a little bit resistant to the contact, but he was in a horrid mood (very grumpy pony doesnt like to be the last pony to be ridden!) but was fab even when a horse coming back past the warm up from the ring decided to canter alongside the fence and cause a little mayhem! but it whizzed tiger up lovely! haha
into the test, and i rode a shocking centre line - wobbly as anything!, so i laughed out loud, and carried on much in the same manner, had my reins far too long and decided to go rising half way through for some reason and my riding went to pot for it, im far more disciplined when im sat! but we got through it without him dropping me once!! im sooooo chuffed with him, this time last year, we did a prelim and had a shocking resistant test that was almost backward, and we had bucking at my attempts to get him forward! for him to go out at novice, do a sweet test despite a useless jockey, and not be fazed by wind/rain/lights etc.
absolutely chuffed to end up with 65.18- i made a lot of little mistakes that could be rectified by actually RIDING my pony rather than just sitting there! comments that made my day were "lovely consistent test with pleasing activity" and for our second canter transition "eager!"- which make me chuckle!
i know i need to work on getting a better medium, the counter canter wasnt great, but hes not done a huge amount so wasnt expecting it to be (though they both got 6.5's...) and he was fussy in the medium walk - but apart from that - the test was great from the general point of view and im soo pleased!
great way to finish 2013! we finished 8th in a class of 17 with the winner on 70 , and a lot of good company, some really smart horses!! pictures on their way! thanks for reading
terrys choc orange for anyone that made it through that!!