Weekend plans - clocks go back 😳

[blood_magik]

Ooh I like ‘Mauve-is’
She’s lovely to drive - so smooth - but you sit quite low in the cab compared to the 12T we had so that took a bit of getting used to 😳 Felt like I needed a booster seat 🙈😂

 

[quiteniceforacob]

How frustrating! How much longer have you got in isolation?

I can leave the house on Friday. I’ll be at the yard at 8 I think! It’s my first horse as well so there’s been so much excitement around him!

 

[oldie48]

Ooh I like ‘Mauve-is’
She’s lovely to drive - so smooth - but you sit quite low in the cab compared to the 12T we had so that took a bit of getting used to 😳 Felt like I needed a booster seat 🙈😂

Wow that is some lorry! My little one is the same colour but that is where the similarity ends! Be warned though, I can't go anywhere without being noticed!

 

[blood_magik]

It’s so I can easily find it in the lorry park 😁

 

[oldie48]

It’s so I can easily find it in the lorry park 😁

Even painted black it would be hard to miss on a dark night. It is gorgeous!

 

[ownedbyaconnie]

Some clips from our lesson. Super happy. It wasn’t long ago I was terrified of jumping at all. Let alone technical lines and skinnies!

http://instagr.am/p/CGu5LqnHTC9/

 

[ycbm]

To be honest, I’ll probably just ride outside anyways... I can always nip up to the house to change into dry clothes if I do get wet, and I suppose the horses need to learn that they have to get on with it 🤷‍♀️

Its taken flipping ages to get the arena works sorted so I won’t complain about not being able to ride if it’s means I won’t have to avoid the top third of my arena.

As an aside, and because I’m totally in love, here’s a pic of the new addition, who was so worth the 4am alarm call 😍😍😍 I’ve decided to call her Maevis 🚛💜

View attachment 57590

Wow, that is serious posh! Love the name.

 

[Roxylola]

We survived our snorkelling session this afternoon - 72% in the novice and 68% in our first elementary despite me having a total sat nav failure towards the end. I literally came to a halt (should have been cantering) before remembering picking back up canter and continuing. We got a 4 for that bit 🙈.
I may have to write off all the whites though,and I'm currently waiting somewhat on edge to see how my 20 year old wool jacket survives my washing machine - I've got 2 others so it's not the end of the world but I had to try something with it. Plan is to pop it on a hanger and hope for the best while it dries

 

[McFluff]

I have total lorry envy. Wow.

I’ve also confirmed today that I don’t do riding in the rain. My poor (used to be) white breeches are on a second wash in the vain attempt to get them useable again.

Hoping it’s nicer tomorrow for my clinic as I’ve stupidly aimed for novice. After today, should be doing intro I think...

 

[little_critter]

I had nothing planned, until on a whim this afternoon I decided to enter our first SJ comp tomorrow.
So wish us luck in the 50cm minimus! The aim is just to have a sensible warm up and a calm, rideable round. I’m just hoping I can remember the course, I’ve done very little SJ.

 

[Sheep]

Dressage for me tomorrow, prelim & novice as usual.
Got the big lad clipped yesterday - rode this morn and he was his usual chilled self which was great.

 

[Accidental Eventer]

We had a fab day yesterday. I was very unenthusiastic before we went in the morning, I nearly didn't go, just one of those days. Anyway I got my self together and off we went. Had plenty of time to relax when we got there, walked our first course and it was very twisty and turny. Not ideal but we would be fine. Henry was a little tense warming up and in the ring, and I didn't have a half halt so our round was a little too fast and we had a pole down.

We had ages between our rounds and Henry relaxed totally so when I warmed him up he was his usual lovely self. He went into the ring and put in an amazing clear round. He was so cool, responsive and right there with me, 100% where we needed to be. He ended up being 1 of three to jump clear in a huge class and go through to the jump off.

The jumps went up and I squished down my nerves. We jumped in draw order so I was last to go. The first rider had a pole down and the second got eliminated so all I had to do was keep my head and go clear. We went in and once again he was amazing, soared over jump one, then 2, 3, 4... I knew it was going well but I focused and we finished clear. He was absolutely amazing, and to win the class was a brilliant feeling. Plus it was the biggest we have jumped at a comp, and it was clearly no stress!

 

[j1ffy]

BM - that lorry looks amazing!! And having seen Oldie’s in the flesh I can confirm that the colour really stands out (I like it!).

RL - great scores, well done!

We had a good lesson with Justine yesterday (and it was great to be indoors). I’ve got my next homework - to keep him supple in the neck while adding engagement, using counter flexion and bend, which also helps the straightness. And get him off the contact more!

A huge thank you to MP for filming too, it’s great seeing the footage (once I’ve got over all the bad bits 😂).

 

[j1ffy]

We had a fab day yesterday. I was very unenthusiastic before we went in the morning, I nearly didn't go, just one of those days. Anyway I got my self together and off we went. Had plenty of time to relax when we got there, walked our first course and it was very twisty and turny. Not ideal but we would be fine. Henry was a little tense warming up and in the ring, and I didn't have a half halt so our round was a little too fast and we had a pole down.

We had ages between our rounds and Henry relaxed totally so when I warmed him up he was his usual lovely self. He went into the ring and put in an amazing clear round. He was so cool, responsive and right there with me, 100% where we needed to be. He ended up being 1 of three to jump clear in a huge class and go through to the jump off.
View attachment 57654
The jumps went up and I squished down my nerves. We jumped in draw order so I was last to go. The first rider had a pole down and the second got eliminated so all I had to do was keep my head and go clear. We went in and once again he was amazing, soared over jump one, then 2, 3, 4... I knew it was going well but I focused and we finished clear. He was absolutely amazing, and to win the class was a brilliant feeling. Plus it was the biggest we have jumped at a comp, and it was clearly no stress!
View attachment 57655

He has plenty of scope! Well done!!

 

[ownedbyaconnie]

Hunter trial today has been cancelled due to rain 😔 but we are off to a local hack/xc course style thing for a bit of fun instead!

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Hunter trial today has been cancelled due to rain 😔 but we are off to a local hack/xc course style thing for a bit of fun instead!

Was that Pachesham?
I did wonder after all the rain last night.

 

[ownedbyaconnie]

Was that Pachesham?
I did wonder after all the rain last night.

Yes! To be fair think it’s worked for the best as I was doing pairs with a friend from an old yard and we are going woolgars instead so can spend much longer chatting and do more jumps! Although would be much nicer without the rain but box hire has been paid for so need to make the most of it!

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Yes! To be fair think it’s worked for the best as I was doing pairs with a friend from an old yard and we are going woolgars instead so can spend much longer chatting and do more jumps! Although would be much nicer without the rain but box hire has been paid for so need to make the most of it!

Have fun, tho I imagine you'll need to take care in places even there x

 

[ownedbyaconnie]

Have fun, tho I imagine you'll need to take care in places even there x

It was ok Tbf! Bit boggy at the start but had a few good gallops and a couple of jumps

 

[TheHairyOne]

Where did this weekend go?! Looks like some good ones had already. I really do love this thread every week.

To be fair yesterday was basically a write off! Dressage, long arena for the 1st time in years...but getting there was a total drama. Tow car had no coolant, so called my lovely friend for a lift, but by this point time was stupidly tight.

When your entire day of competing is less than 10 mins on your horse its never going to be good. That 10 mins included the ride from the lorry park, the warm the test and the ride back to the lorry park. Funnily enough the score reflected this! Ahh well, in the grand scheme of things could have been worse. Sometimes that 10 mins might have involved an unintentional dismount.

 

[milliepops]

Urghhh it's dark at 5 now stupid winter!
Had a reasonable weekend though, just training at home. Kira is super sassy at the moment but seems to have come through the autumn hormones and is back on side so we've been picking up some Hard Things

Picked up the 1 tempis again, it breaks other things because she then won't stop doing 1s all over the place so previously I had been trying to repair stuff as we went along. But I think I've decided not to bother about it, but to get the 1s really secure and then do one lot of tidying up afterwards. We have 15 in one go under our belt but it needs to be easier to get started, sometimes she goes before me and sometimes she starts croup high. there's really no time to improve anything while you are doing them, so I've got to get the first one from the best canter and balance that we can muster and then just try to maintain it.

We did play with our passage homework which is to develop the cadence & push from little leg yields on and off the track. I think it's going to help her see the fun in it - everything K does has to be her idea otherwise she just refuses point blank to try. once she knows what it's about she usually gets a bit cocky about things and then it's just a case of managing the sass! fingers crossed we might get the breakthrough soon.

we also went back to the GP zigzag this weekend, there's been a bit of a submission problem with this up to now but I think she's done a bit of personal growth, and I have learnt to sit in the middle of the saddle thanks to Andy Thomas so we're now able to work on it. We did sets of 6 strides each way somewhere near centre line. not asking for very athletic half passes, but trying to really nail the changeovers. it's a lot to think about but I'm starting to get a bit of muscle memory which helps! (so do the mirrors )

Pretty girl, she's trying Darcy's turtle top as a bridoon and I think it's a success. will give it another week and then look for one with small rings.

 

[nikkimariet]

Monday I had a quick Figgy session. He feels great. Super pleased with his recovery!



Tuesday saw Rooni Bear at the beach! He was just amazing. Really happy and content with not a hair out of place.





Lesson sat. Rooni was a superstar. He’s been a rocket on fire recently - he’s super fit and I’d thought to myself perhaps he needs to work harder. Nice that Sonnar agreed!






Rewarding chill out time for him today with a 10 mile hack




Fig has done nothing but relax!!!

 

[little_critter]

Our 50cm minimus went well. The aims were simple: keep our cool in the warmup, remember the course, minimum number of refusals possible.

We were well behaved in the warmup, I think our acoustic ears are really helping him.
I remembered the course (this was the bit I was most uncertain about)
We jumped everything first time, even the slightly more ’looky’ jumps. No refusals, no giving them an extra foot of clearance.
We did have one jump down but I don’t mind about that, I’m very pleased that he didn’t look at any of the jumps and remained listening to me.
We were slow; lots of trotting but he did everything I wanted today 😍

 

[shortstuff99]

The fatty potato Spanish was very good, so super pleased! Walked straight onto the lorry there and back and behaved impeccably so can't ask for more . Unfortunately no foreign breed classes so had to take my chances against Welshies!

Here is a quick clip.

 

[Abi90]

Well we went clear on the 80, and clear in the 90 despite my intention being just to get round! Then we held first place for over and hour then were bumped down to 5th by the last 4 horses to go who were using the 90 as a warm up for the 1 metre. But not bad at all for our first ever attempt at a 90!

Super chuffed and a fab way to end before Rosie goes on maternity leave to have her foal next summer

 

[Pippity]

It’s so I can easily find it in the lorry park 😁

That's why I had my van painted bright orange, but now it seems to be the 'in' colour! Last time I took it out, I ended up parked next to one exactly the same colour, from the same builder.

Our hacking buddy is on holiday so, seeing as I'm too tired to cope with the meltdowns if I try to hack Blue on her own, I've been schooling instead.

It turns out that, if you school your horse, your horse tends to improve. Who knew, right?

We've gone from all trot being turbo trot, complete with motorbiking round corners, to a nice, steady, forward trot that involves actually going into the corner without falling into walk. The next target is to do this while Blue looks cheerful, rather than her current, "I hate schooling and I hate you and I hate my life," expression.

We've got another lesson on Wednesday. Seeing as one lesson with this instructor has led to really noticeable improvements, I'm definitely looking forward to it!

 

[Sheep]

Dressage today went well!

Prelim first - horse was good in the warm up, a wee bit uppity because it was v windy and he is freshly clipped - full clip for the first time ever, I think. Still, once we had found a bit of shelter behind the hedges, he found his brain again and relaxed a bit.

Came out of the prelim feeling a bit disappointed - the canter transitions weren’t sharp enough and in one of them he went on the wrong leg. Came out and proclaimed to OH that it was s**t 🤣

Got my test sheet back, really pleasantly surprised with 66.something% and 6th (14 in my class) and on reflection the video looks a lot better than it felt!

Onto the novice - only 20 mins between classes so just went back to the warmup and rattled through some trot canter transitions to sharpen him up and get him a bit more in front of my leg.

Novice test went well and finally got a decent medium trot 🙌 we can do it fairly reliably at home but it is very hit and (mostly) miss when we are out.

Delighted with 67.something% and 3rd out of 11 😄

Also, I seem to have developed better control of that flippin’ swings lower leg - new boots are holding my leg in place cos I can barely bend my knees 🤣

 

[Roxylola]

Jump lesson went well today, I really like the instructor shes nice and relaxed and seems to really get how to improve us as we are rather than really wanting to change us loads. We found a nice balance today between me micro managing him and being a bit gung ho and just kicking on. The canter needs work is just an ongoing theme for us, it is improving, and has improved massively. The more adjustable the canter is the better the jump is. The canter is getting more rideable and much less brittle and/or needing to use me as a fifth leg. Jumped a reasonable track. Had a couple down but by improving the canter we got a more reliable clear round.
It was very nice to be able to say oh it's fine as it is when she said she'd put an oxer down for us though, I wouldn't have done that 6 months ago, these days as long as I dont get too close to them on foot I'm pretty comfortable with an 80 track without needing to work up to it

 

[DressageCob]

Monday I had a quick Figgy session. He feels great. Super pleased with his recovery!

View attachment 57681

Fig is looking phenomenal. Look at that muscle! And the extension. You must be chuffed with how he's doing.

 

[Roxylola]

So many fantastic pics this weekend, and sounds like largely successful and good weekends were had. Gratuitous snorkelling picture from us