Weekend plans, 3rd weekend in November

Bob notacob

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Bob is having the week off, after his storming dressage performance ||||(third place in the novice) (also incidentally last also (,but the two who beat him weren't far away and their tests were to die for) He is currently surprised by the addition of some yummies to his feed (oats and micronized linseed) .I thought he was going to refuse the feed ,Picky bastard, you give them a treat and they thumb their noses at you .
 

Pippity

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Today we did our rehab 30-45 minutes of walk while HACKING! Oh, the bliss of actually getting out of the school and seeing some daylight. And we're aiming to do the same again tomorrow! It was quite novel to have stirrups, because I've been doing all our school work in my Christ Lammfelle pad so I can really feel how she's moving.

And then she got clipped, because that much walk is enough for her to get sweaty. The plan was for a very low trace, but then my attempts to blend her hog into her winter coat went disastrously wrong, so she's ended up with a kind of low blanket monstrosity with clipped head but half-furry ears because she decided partway through that, no, I wasn't allowed to clip her ears today. I'll be even more obsessive about putting her hi-viz ears on for hacking now...
 

teapot

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Well I can feel my core today. Owww.

Had my fave ex-event horse for my private lesson. Once we'd both loosened off (lesson there, don't start running again :confused:), another load of lateral and no stirrup work, followed by really improving the canter and some counter canter for good measure. Utterly love this coach - love how she thinks, works the horses, and teaches. Took a lot away re feel and seat.

Group lesson had a big, chunky six year old who was a green juggernaut on ice. Thought I was going to die in first canter (we didn't do much) and just worked on his balance and rhythm, did a brilliant pole/raised pole exercise where after first attempt he was such a darling with his feet, could really feel he was trying, aided by some very narrow blocks to get through which I thought were a tad optimistic width wise :oops: Then worked him forwards and he really started to work correctly, he was tired, but my god was he trying. Wish I'd ridden him better to be honest, but what a poppet. He'll be a cracker in a couple of years time.

SO glad I trusted my gut about the issues I had earlier in the year. Ironically getting far more in the way of experience as a riding school client :D
 

Roxylola

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First weekend in weeks I've had plans - a clinic at somerford on the eventing arenas.
I got mixed up and arrived at the end of my group which was the last one of the day...?
Trainer was lovely and squared with the office for me to ride anyway albeit on my own (using owners children as poo pickers) so all was not lost but so frustrated with myself
 

DressageCob

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I had a fantastic lesson today. My lad has been feeling great so it’s nice to have someone who hasn’t seen us for a fortnight have a look. He saw a real difference, particularly in the canter. The canter felt like I could do anything out of it, like ask for a change or have a go at piris. He was really sitting, which is felt amazing. He’s the coolest dressage tank…sorry I mean cob ?
 

Pippity

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First weekend in weeks I've had plans - a clinic at somerford on the eventing arenas.
I got mixed up and arrived at the end of my group which was the last one of the day...?
Trainer was lovely and squared with the office for me to ride anyway albeit on my own (using owners children as poo pickers) so all was not lost but so frustrated with myself

Oh, no! How frustrating!
 

Roxylola

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@Pippity yeah, I'm cross with myself over it! They had a photographer for the clinics as well! I'd mind less but a couple of weeks ago the trainers post came up on my feed with her dates. Someone had commented to ask if there was space - she replied yes on my 90 group at 2pm. I saw it and was like oh we're still not quite there then ?‍♀️ yeah that was the 90 group I should have been in! I've trained a bit with her so I just go where she puts me rather than saying I'm doing this or that.
Had some nice bold strides though, jumped a couple of bits out of my comfort zone. One of my personal dislikes about somerford arenas especially is they don't have a lot of in between options, they've got little stuff - quite a nice track of related hops round the edge of one arena. They've got big stuff, but not loads in between. That and I'd like colour codes. When you do a course hire somewhere you know which fences are suitable, which are challenging and which might be totally out of the question. I'm not totally daft - I can see the 40cm fences and the novice upwards, but with no point of reference- was I jumping logs that belong in an 80, a 90 or a 100 yesterday ?‍♀️. Even going back with a tape measure doesn't tell the full story - width etc.
Meh, he schooled well, I'll stop over thinking now ?‍♀️
 

J_sarahd

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Today was not our day. We entered the 70 and 80 at Vale View. He jumped most of them well in the 70, but refused no. 7. Totally my fault as I just didnt ride it very well.

Then onto the 80. He pinged everything with so much room to spare - honestly launching me into space over some of them. No. 5 was on a dog leg from 4 and I ballsed up the line and stride so he crashed through it. Jumped the rest beautifully until we came round to the last and I gave him quite a big check as he was running on the forehand and he just stopped at it and flung me off.

Disappointed as I am pretty sure all of our issues were my fault. Not our best day at all (but equally not our worst). To be fair to him, he’s not jumped away from home since camp at the end of September and he’s only jumped twice since then. Just properly kicking myself!
 

BronsonNutter

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Sulking this weekend. Came off on Tuesday, put on a spinal board and ambulanced away, only got let out of hospital on Friday afternoon. Fractured both my radius and ulna (the latter of which poked out of my arm...) and dislocated my elbow. No riding for the forseeable. The horses thankfully are on full livery and I think some of my friends/colleagues may ride the little one, but big baby TB can have a holiday for a while. Currently can't drive so visiting opportunities are limited

The positives:
- The horse world can be a lovely place. There were a few others at the arena hire at the time, one of which I know *vaguely* through work as they are a client - they caught my horse, untacked and loaded horse into lorry, they contacted the ambulance, my workplace, and my mum, then once I was safely enclosed in the ambulance one of the ladies drove my horsebox, horse and dogs to my workplace, my colleagues then popped my horse to bed there and took the dogs in until my parents arrived (they live 2-3 hours from me), then said colleagues helped reload said horse and my parents followed them to the yard.
- Its only my left arm, not a leg/spine/skull
- Should be all ok in the future
 
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RachelFerd

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Oh no @BronsonNutter that sounds very painful!

We had a good trip out BS today. 4yo Isaac did his first 85 and just rolled a pole - quite possibly caused by a tack malfunction when his martingale girth attachment snapped!

Super Simon was in the money in both his classes, double clear in both, qualified for Blue Chip finals and was generally just a total dude. Nothing huge heights wise but just want him back feeling confident and consistently jumping clear rounds before we move back up. I feel like that won't take long given how fab he was today.
 

Caol Ila

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Today was glorious, so despite the limited daylight and Caso's owner's German views on time (it's not her fault; she is German), we managed a 2+ hour hack with Foinavon. He had to deal with cows, pigs, several other yards full of strange horses (the John Muir Way goes through a riding school, so there are horses everywhere on a short section) and he was so damned good. His only company was OH on foot.

Hermosa worked on her groundwork -- we did some 'classical' (hah!... In the most punterish way imaginable) stuff in the cavesson, and walked over some poles. Caso was loose in the school, but his owner kept him from annoying us too much. I always need another person when I work her, because the baby doesn't like it when he's not the center of attention, and he's in our faces unless someone is entertaining him. Remind me never to have human children.

We had good views from our ride today.

Screenshot 2021-11-21 at 19.40.38.png
 

Sheep

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We had quite a busy weekend!
OH had a lesson yesterday, his first flatwork lesson in a looooong time - he used an instructor I haven’t trained with myself, but have heard v good reports, and to be fair he was excellent. I got an awful lot out of it, and I was just sitting watching!

Dressage for me today. Our first test went really well and we finished on 72.5% for first, our best score at novice yet, I reckon.

Second test was a disaster! Novice 37a - went up the centre line and forgot the halt. It really threw me - I have never forgotten a test before, and I just kind of turned into a passenger and rode like a spoon. Went wrong again in the walk - then had quite a dodgy canter transition and was verrrrrrrry close to retiring. Continued on, the canter work at the end wasn’t great because I was flustered and couldn’t remember where to change the rein etc. Despite that, horse felt lovely in the good bits, rider just let him down - delighted to finish with 62.59%.

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SEL

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Didn't want to press "like" BN but relieved you're put of hospital and recovering. The other riders at arena hire sound like superstars for taking care of everything
 

Chippers1

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My lovely box came back on Friday morning :) but even that had it's problems - they delivered it and drove up the drive, parked it so i could take it further onto the yard then left and it wouldn't start :D i panicked for a bit then checked the battery connection (it can come loose) and it started fine, phew. Parked up properly, went to lock the door and somehow the garage have broken the lock...honestly you couldn't make it up, i've never known anyone be so unlucky with a vehicle :D
So looking forward to contributing to this thread properly again though!
 

southerncomfort

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Hacked solo this morning, something I later realised we haven't done for a couple of weeks.

Bo was great for the first ten minutes or so but thereafter became more and more spooky and silly. Managed to get him to relax a bit until we reached the doggy exercise Park and he temporarily misplaced his brain. He's not normally bothered but their were a group of dogs rooting around just the other side of the wall which upset him. Unfortunately the dog walker then turned and yelled 'WINSTOOOOOON!' as loudly as he possibly could and it all got a bit much for Bo and he decided to leave at a stonking trot. Pulled him up and calmed him down but then we had another 5 minutes of jig jogging.

The ride through the village was uneventful even when we met a big dumper truck and a quad bike with trailer attached.

Unfortunately we then met something that he simply could not cope with. The last house out of the village was having their septic tank drained. A very noisy and smelly business anyway but made worse by the fact that the hose/pipe was lying over a 5ft wall and was twitching and jumping around. All very scary for a 5 year old so I hopped off and led him past . He was pretty frightened bless him.

Got back on and had literally walked 3 steps when the horse in the field behind us took off galloping and bucking across the field. Bless him Bo leapt forward but regained his composure quickly. We then walked home on a loose rein and finally relaxed.

This is the first time we've ever had a spooky ride and I was pleased by how quickly he came back to me after he'd had a fright. I found that having short bursts of trot helped calm him down if I felt him getting tense.

Think I just need to make sure we do at least one solo hack a week so he doesn't get too dependent on his hacking buddy.
 

oldie48

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I've enjoyed reading everyone's posts, I hope you recover quickly BN, it sounds nasty. Chippers, par for the course with lorries IME but I hope everything is now sorted.
More of the same for me 2 lessons on Mr D and a hack on Miss F. Hacking out on Miss F with friend riding Mr D we met the dreaded pony and cart which has caused catastrophes for some of the liveries, however, our horses were perfect, even stopped and had a chat with the driver who told us the pony was 2 and a half! I rode Mr D this morning in a double for the first time. I haven't used a DB for several years (since the late lovely Mr B) so was a bit useless at first. Riding towards the mirror I saw the look on Mr D's face which plainly said "OMG, granny keeps dropping her knitting" but once I got used to them again we had a lovely time although I am still struggling to change the whip over in anything faster than walk! No need to use the curb rein, just the weight is sufficient and I find it easier to stop him leaning and up in front. For some reason it also means I keep my hands still and my aids more refined so he goes better and is more settled in the mouth. Despite it being quite cold, we both got quite hot and sweaty and I am definitely feeling fitter. Off to pilates now.
 

humblepie

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Ouch BN only just seen your post, hope recovery going okay. Lots of well dones to others on eventful hacks, competition success and good lessons.
 
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