Weekend plans (sunny here!)

[SEL]

After the deluge on Friday I managed to hack both ponies - no need for water treadmills! Microcob was very, very naughty and bogged off. I was not impressed.

Recorded my e-riders tests on Saturday. Both were ok but I realised later that day that the niggle in the back of my head about something being not quite right in one test was correct. Pilot error Now to persuade my OH to film me again. Not going to be popular.

Babycob went to a clear round today. Only his second round and it was better than his first so he celebrated by showing his best bronc after the final fence. Did not get a clear round rosette but felt I deserved a well sat one.

 

[Boulty]

Our original plans got cancelled due to arena still drying from flooding the other day so boxed up to explore a new (opened last year) bridleway with a friend. Introduced the pony to horse crossings (possibly a useless skill as these are the only ones I know of in the area that aren’t redundant) and decided that going into the shopping centre at one end of the route to grab a coffee/ lunch was an excellent idea. Perhaps not one of my better ones (fuzzball wasn’t arsed and just had a nice nap, his friend behaved bit more like a horse loitering on the edge of a carpark next to a coffee shop might be expected to!). Sadly the roughly a year old surface has already started to be eroded by the recent storm which doesn’t bode well for the future going off councils track record with literally every other bridleway in the area!

 

[Tiddlypom]

Lovely pics of your ride, Boulty. I hope that the bridleway surface holds up long term. What part of the country is that?

 

[scats]

Had a tidy up weekend at the farm and did a couple of tip runs yesterday, then hacked out at 6pm. The birket is high!

 

[ihatework]

Well Bicton on Sunday turned out to be a sunny microclimate and I got a bit of colour

He continues to be the biggest tit in the village in the dressage arena which is starting to get a little infuriating…. He will grow up next year at 8 maybe?????

But, SJ showing real progress and jumped a convincing clear.

XC the plan was to run him against the clock with hopefully his new expensive braking system fully functional….. this would have had him top 6, unfortunately braking system was not so successful and plan B was activated so time penalties dropped him down a bit.

But super confident in all the jumping so great end to season!

 

[Bernster]

Great to see lots of people making the most of the nice day yesterday. It felt like we’d maybe caught the last good autumn day (hopefully not the last ofc!). Had a glorious hack round cholsey with Finn and the OH. Booked it on Saturday having checked the weather forecast and V pleased I did. It was one of those perfect horsey days, the ground was good, we had a few trot and canter sections, and the trees were just in that early autumn phase, with gorgeous colours.

Finn is def fitter as he wasn’t puffing too much up the big hills and recovered quickly. This time last year he was having all manner of awful complications during some melanoma treatment and surgery, so to be back out doing what he does best, was such a lovely feeling.

 

[j1ffy]

Slightly unexpected emotional moment to start the weekend as I went to get on Indio and he was clearly very unhappy so I decided there and then to fully retire him. He's very happy in his field with his buddies and occasional pamper sessions but it feels like the end of an era - he took me to my first Medium BD, we did Regionals / Areas / inter-regionals, hacked miles, jumped and he even appeared in H&H magazine as a model!

Other than that, Chilli got a jump saddle so we can start doing some more trip-hazard height jumping. Then on Sunday we went to a working equitation clinic where he got over his fear of the vara (pole) and we made progress with the gate. Also some nice walk-canter and canter-walk transitions which we've not worked on yet, I think the WE really helps to make these transitions happen as it feels like there's more of a point to them!

 

[Boulty]

Lovely pics of your ride, Boulty. I hope that the bridleway surface holds up long term. What part of the country is that?

Leeds, West Yorks

 

[CanteringCarrot]

Slightly unexpected emotional moment to start the weekend as I went to get on Indio and he was clearly very unhappy so I decided there and then to fully retire him. He's very happy in his field with his buddies and occasional pamper sessions but it feels like the end of an era - he took me to my first Medium BD, we did Regionals / Areas / inter-regionals, hacked miles, jumped and he even appeared in H&H magazine as a model!

Other than that, Chilli got a jump saddle so we can start doing some more trip-hazard height jumping. Then on Sunday we went to a working equitation clinic where he got over his fear of the vara (pole) and we made progress with the gate. Also some nice walk-canter and canter-walk transitions which we've not worked on yet, I think the WE really helps to make these transitions happen as it feels like there's more of a point to them!

That's exactly how it was with my last PRE. It also made things fall into place with our flying changes. He saw more of a functional purpose to it all, and it actually seemed to ease his over thinking and his anticipation. Probably helped me too in some ways. Would love to get my young one involved in WE someday.

 

[MagicMelon]

Yet another weekend of weather warnings (rain and wind again) so my SJ tomorrow has been cancelled. Was cancelled last weekend too. Probably for the best as its been so horrible here that Ive only sat on the horse once in the last 2 weeks as my field is totally water logged (and yet again I wish I had an arena!) so she'd have been a raging dragon in the warm up ring. Fed up of autumn already.